Tourism in Post-Crisis is Tourism in Pre-Crisis: A Review of the Literature on Crisis Management in Tourism

Abstract

In the light of the 2006 terrorist bombings in Egypt and Mumbai or in London in July and on Bali in October of the previous year, 'crisis in tourism' appears again to be a timely topic. So, is it then just the frequency of these negative events, which has brought 'crisis' to the front pages and also to the forefront of our minds? As it is not a new phenomenon, has only our perception changed? Tourism seems to be particularly susceptible to negative events and, since there is always a crisis somewhere in the world, the industry appears to be under an almost permanent threat with the certainty of yet another crisis already looming somewhere.A more systematic and conceptional approach to questions such as how tourism businesses react to crisis, which measures are taken and what impact they have, if and how businesses can prepare for such crisis situations and which strategies can be employed to overcome them, has therefore been long overdue. In this context, the paper aims to explore the literature on crisis management in tourism and to identify foci of the current academic discourse.