Crisis and Risk Management Planning
Crisis and risk management recognises the need to prepare for such events and lays down the response plan. Impact of crises can be severe and include loss of life and property damage but also negative media coverage or changes to travel rules and regulations. The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) defines a crisis as, ‘any situation that has the potential to affect long-term confidence in an organisation or a product, or which may interfere with the ability to continue operating normally’ (PATA, 2003, p.2). It is the task of the risk management plan to prepare for and manage a crisis so the potential impacts are reduced.
Crisis and Risk Management plans are now part of the tourism sector and in place for many destinations and organisations. UNWTO, UNCTAD and PATA and other international agencies have published guidelines on the development of plans for the sector. The UNWTO Risk and Crisis Management programme aims to ‘assist members to assess and mitigate risks, where travel and tourism is concerned, through development, planning, and implementation of crisis management systems that will reduce the impact of, and assist in the recovery from crises.’
There is a template for a crisis management plan, the ‘four R’s of crisis management’:
Reduction – This element of the plan involves the initial identification of potential risks and crises and also strengths and weaknesses of organisation or destination. The understanding of these elements is the first step to reducing the impact of potential crises.
Readiness – The second step involves the development of a plan of responses and tactics. To be the most effective, this plan must be reassessed continually.
Response – This step occurs if a crisis takes place and involves the operational response of an organisation or destination. This response is based on damage limitation as well as a communications response that focuses on reassurance. Strong leadership is needed within an organisation if a crisis management plan is put into action. A crisis management team is often formed as part of the plan to ensure the plan is implemented effectively.
Recovery – after an event or crisis, an indication of how effective a risk management plan has been is the speed with which normal operations resume and pre-crisis level business is reached.
In the period post 9/11, the tourist sector has had a shorter recovery time after each successive crisis. The response in the first two years after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington involved agencies and destinations negotiating the new operating environment. The development of information systems followed and then speed responsiveness. The next few years saw a much more structured and sophisticated responses as web based portals were utilised including government resources, outreach tools and media packs.