1. Introduction:
The purpose of this report is to discuss the impact that crises have upon tourism destination areas. This report analyses the influence that the exposure of the crisis can have on the area and describes methods in which management can implement to overcome the situation. The report provides an overview of crises, effective management methods, impact of exposure and illustrates how crises can stimulate innovation. To exemplify these areas examples of crises well also be incorporated.
2. Overview of Crises:
A destination crisis incorporates a number of different aspects and as yet no specific definition has been established. Beirman (2003) developed a definition through integrating a number of different definitions. Beirman (2003 p.4) defined destination crisis as,
¡¥A crisis is a situation requiring radical management action in response to events beyond the internal control of the organisation, necessitating urgent adoption of marketing and operational practices to restore the confidence of employees, associated enterprises and consumers in the viability of the destination.¡¦
From this definition it can be seen that manages of tourism organisations need to be able to cope and adapt to changes beyond their control quickly and efficiently. The external factors that can not be controlled and are highly unpredicted, these can either be man-made or natural disasters, can have enormous affects upon the tourism industry (Page 2003, p.353). Therefore, for organisations to overcome these crises they need to be highly adoptable to change.
Destination crises can occur in a variety of ways, for example: (Beirman 2003, p.6)
?æ International war or conflict
?æ Terrorism
?æ &nb ...