Elsevier

Tourism Management

Volume 22, Issue 2, April 2001, Pages 135-147
Tourism Management

Towards a framework for tourism disaster management

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5177(00)00048-0Get rights and content

Abstract

Tourism destinations in every corner of the globe face the virtual certainty of experiencing a disaster of one form or another at some point in their history. Despite this, few destinations have properly developed disaster management plans in place to help them cope with such eventualities. Among the reasons for this is the limited amount of systematic research that has been carried out in the field. This paper addresses this problem by drawing on insights from the broader disaster management literature to produce a generic model for analysing and developing tourism disaster management strategies. A set of prerequisites and principles of effective tourism disaster management planning is also provided.

Introduction

To the casual observer exposed to the plethora of media that currently inform our daily lives, it appears that we live in an increasingly disaster prone world. This perception has some foundations, at least to the extent that the number of disasters (defined in terms of declarations of disaster areas, economic value of losses and the number of victims) has, in fact, increased in recent decades (Blaikie, Cannon, Davis & Wisner, 1994). However, the same authors point out that the incidence of natural hazard events (earthquakes, eruptions, floods or cyclones) has not increased, while others have suggested that the definition of disasters has become too fluid for statistical time series purposes (Horlick-Jones, Fortune & Peters, 1991). Notwithstanding statistical uncertainties, there is a body of opinion which has attributed the apparent increase in the human toll of disasters to a combination of population growth, increased urbanisation and global economic pressures. (Blaikie et al., 1994; Berke, 1998; Brammer, 1990; Burton, Kates & White, 1978; Donohue, 1982; Hartmann & Standing, 1989) In particular, it is suggested that these factors have either resulted in human settlement and activity being extended into areas which have increased exposure to hazards, or these activities have actually been instrumental in inducing hazards.

In observing that our environment appears to have become increasingly `turbulent and crisis prone', Richardson (1994) has suggested this might be so not only because we have become a more crowded world, but also because we now have more powerful technology that has the capacity to generate disasters. As the spectre of the Millenium Bug illustrates, for instance, computer failures can bring major computer-driven systems to a standstill instantaneously. The complexity of technology-based systems means that they are more prone to the `butterfly effect’ described by Edward Lorenz (1993) and presented as one of a centrepieces of chaos theory (Gleick, 1987). Small changes or failures in the system can precipitate major displacement through mutually reinforcing positive feed back processes. Mitroff (1988) has alluded to this in his reference to the role of the interaction between information technology and economic systems in creating wild swings in the financial system. The role of technology in exposing humankind to `natural’ disasters is succinctly described in the following remarks by Burton et al. (1978, pp. 1–2):

`In a time of extraordinary human effort to control the natural world, the global toll from extreme events of nature is increasing… It may well be that the ways in which mankind deploys its resources and technology in attempts to cope with extreme events of nature are inducing greater rather than less damage and that the process of rapid social change work in their own way to place more people at risk and make them more vulnerable. `…’ To sum up, the global toll of natural disaster rises at least as fast as the increase in population and material wealth, and probably faster.'


Whether the incidence of disasters is increasing, or it is simply a matter of each disaster having more devastating effects, as the above summary suggests, it is apparent we live in an increasingly complex world and this has contributed to making us more crisis or disaster prone (Richardson, 1994). Complexity, in this context, refers to an intricacy and coherence of natural and human systems, which complicates the process of isolating cause and effect relationships in the manner so often assumed as being possible in traditional research. For this reason, the boundaries between natural disasters and those induced by human action are becoming increasingly blurred, and this element of disaster situations needs to be taken into account in any analysis of such phenomena (Capra, 1996; Waldrop, 1992). As an area of human activity, tourism is no less prone to disasters than any other. Indeed, it has been suggested that the increased volume of global tourism activity has combined with the attractiveness of high-risk exotic destinations to expose tourists to greater levels of risk (Drabek, 1995; Murphy & Bayley, 1989). Despite this, relatively little systematic research has been carried out on disaster phenomena in tourism, the impacts of such events on the tourism industry and the responses of industry and relevant government agencies to cope with these impacts. Such research is an essential foundation for assisting the tourism industry and relevant government agencies to learn from past experiences, and develop strategies for avoiding and coping with similar events in the future.

One of the reasons so little progress has been made in the advancing of our understanding of tourism disasters is the limited development of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks required to underpin the analysis of this phenomena. The purpose of the current study is to fill this gap, by using the broader literature relating to crises and disaster management as a foundation for such a framework. The first step in this process involves the establishment of a distinction between crises and disasters, which goes some way towards clarifying the complexity issue alluded to above. Community (and organisational) responses to disaster situations are then examined with a view to providing some insights into the essential ingredients of disaster management strategies. Finally, aspects of tourism disasters are examined as a step towards providing a model for developing tourism-specific disaster management strategies.

Section snippets

The nature of disasters and crises

Much early management theory assumed relative stability in both internal and external environments of organisations and, therefore, did not provide a firm foundation for coping with change and crises (Booth, 1993). If the implications of change were considered at all, this was viewed in terms of the challenge of coping with gradual (relatively predictable) change, rather than sudden changes which might test the organisation's ability to cope. Such situations might be described as crises or

Community responses and the ingredients of disaster recovery strategies

The reference to both crises and disasters, and the subtleties of the distinction between them, has been useful for the purpose of highlighting how disasters, or at least the severity of their impacts, are to varying degrees influenced by the actions of the individuals, organisations or communities that are affected by them. This section focuses on disasters specifically. That is, those situations where the event which disrupts the routine of the community concerned, and in response to which

Tourism disasters

Several authors have emphasised the vulnerability of tourist destinations, and thus tourists, to disasters and some have suggested that, in these situations, tourists might be more exposed to danger than anyone else (Drabek, 1995). Murphy and Bayley (1989) suggest that the exposure of tourism to natural disasters is linked with the attractiveness of many high-risk exotic locations, where events such as hurricanes, avalanches and volcanic activity are common. They are also at risk from hijacking

Conclusion

Natural and human induced disasters alike are neither absolutely predictable nor avoidable. Furthermore, while disasters are, fortunately, relatively rare occurrences and they are to some extent random, it is also true that no destination is immune from such events. In response to the near certainty of experiencing a disaster of some type eventually, tourism organisations can devise means for minimising the damage of, and accelerating the recovering from, such events through the development of

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