Dealing with Tourism Crises
March 2007
Because the tourism industry sells not only a perishable product but also one that is open to trends, fears, scares, and the fashion of the day, it is highly susceptible to crises. Many crises can be avoided with good risk management techniques. Other crises however simply cannot be avoided and must be faced and dealt with. In many ways a tourism crisis is a potential death. That is to say that if handled poorly it can result in the death of a local tourism industry or business. Many of the lessons that can be learned from successful crisis managing parallel those of dealing with death and dying. One of the most eminent scholars in the death and dying field of study is Kubler-Ross. This month’s Tourism Tidbits adapts some of her ideas to tourism crises as a model on what to do and what to avoid.
- Determine if your crisis is really a crisis. All too often tourism entities jump to the crisis-solving mode without first sizing up the crisis. Try to determine what the psychological fears are that are driving the crisis. Do the crisis’ psychological roots come from fear, anger, frustration, or refuse to accept reality? The try to determine how much of a downturn has occurred and is likely to occur, finally how long may the crisis last? Is there a possibility that this is a passing phase or something that can do permanent damage? Can the crisis be solved with low cost measures, by private enterprise, by attitudinal changes or does it need a major infusion of government capital? Often people deal with crises simply by spending money especially on equipment. Good equipment has its role, but equipment without the human touch will only lead to another crisis. Never forget that people solve crises and not machines.
- Accept the fact that you are vulnerable to a crisis. Just as in issues of death and dying, many tourism entities simply do not recognize that they have a crisis. Early detection of a potential crisis is key. This is especially true in tourism industries such as transportation. Often tourism entities are so worried about the details that they forget the big picture. Ask yourself what business you are really in? What makes you passionate about the business? Are you receiving correct information? Do you trust your data? Never forget that a wrong framework may provide correct data giving you wrong conclusions
- Think about crises before they happen. Perhaps the most important part of a crisis management plan is to have a plan in place prior to a crisis. While we can never predict the exact nature of a crisis before it occurs, flexible plans allow for a recovery starting point. The worst scenario is to realize that one is in the midst of a crisis and that there are no plans to deal with it. In a like manner, maintain a list of crisis-management people. Whom can you call in the middle of the night? Do you know how to find key people when they are on vacation? What do you do when a crisis occurs on the day that your crisis manager becomes ill?
- Remember that the further one is from the crisis the worse it appears. Tourism is a voluntary action and no one ever has to visit your community or use your product. Once the media begin to report that there is a crisis, your visitors and clients may quickly panic and begin to cancel trips to your locale. Often it is the media that define a crisis as a crisis. Have a plan in place so that correct information can be given to the media as quickly as possible. The recent food scares at various US restaurants are a perfect example of the need to have a plan in place just in case. Never forget that during crisis geographic confusion often occurs. For example, if the media report that there are forest fires in a particular part of a state or province, the public may assume that the whole state (province) is on fire. Visitors are notoriously bad at realizing the geographic limits of a crisis. Instead panic and geographic confusion often expand crises and make them worse than their reality.
- In as recovery program, make sure that you exhibit the highest levels of integrity, honesty and business ethics. Crises often develop when the public loses confidence. Nothing hurts your creditability worse than the discovery that the business/community has not be truthful. While it is your right and duty to tell your side of the story, never lie about a fact. Instead admit it, and then explain what your community or business is doing to solve the problem.
- Get over anger. Yes it may not be fair that your community was struck by a weather related issue or that someone brought a disease into the community, but no matter what the crises may be, complaining about it will not help you to solve it. Too often tourism employees take out their crisis frustrations on the traveling public. Remember the public is not your enemy; it is the reason that you are in business.
- Instead of “bargaining with a crisis,” take the time to develop multi-faceted recovery programs. Never depend on only one remedy to bring you toward recovery. Instead coordinate your advertising and marketing campaign with your incentive program and with an improvement in service. The best recovery programs take into account a series of coordinated steps all working together that means that in a community crisis every aspect of the community needs to work together. Make sure to involve your marketers and also your first responders, local citizen groups, hoteliers and restaurateurs. In a tourism enterprise every part of the business needs to be working.
- Accept the fact that others see your crisis as worse than you do. It will do you no good to keep to argue about the extent of the crisis, the more you deny a problem the more the public may come to suspect that there is a deeper problem than you are admitting. Instead make sure that you let visitors know that you community or business is open and functioning. After a crisis it is essential that the message be sent that your community is alive and well. Encourage people to come by creative advertising, good service and incentives. The key here is not to worry about the size of the details but rather to get the flow of people back to your community. Do this by emphasizing good service, by inviting the media to visit and by first gaining the trust of the local population.
- Be creative in developing programs that encourage the local population to enjoy its community. Immediately after a crisis, it is essential to shore up the economic foundation of the local tourism industry. For example, restaurants that had depended on tourism income may find themselves in a desperate situation. To help these people over the crisis’ hump, develop creative programs that will encourage the local population to enjoy its hometown. For example, in the case of local restaurants, develop a dine-around program or a “be a tourist in one’s own backyard” program.
