Answer
Hospitality Management
Case study
Challenges for tourism destinations from natural disaster and terrorism
Introduction
The presented case scenario is focused on the impacts of natural disaster and terrorism on tourism destinations. Global travel and tourism has been considered as one of the biggest and significant contributors in the economic growth and development of a region with the global growth in international tourists arrivals outpacing national income growth one out of every two years over the past three decades (Bac, Bugnar & Mester, 2015). According to the given scenario the case study focuses on the impacts or the challenges faced by the tourism destinations from natural disasters and terrorism. After analyzing a detailed research it has been noted that an increasing number of disasters and crisis which are adversely impacting the tourism industry.
In the recent times the international tourism destinations has gone through many crises and disastrous situations which includes natural disasters, terrorists attacks economic recession and bio security threats. For increasing and expanding the profitability and market share of tourism businesses on global level globalization has become the major reason of rapid expansion. The major elements of the presented case study are terrorism and natural disaster and impacts of these elements on the tourism destinations.
Natural disasters
The vulnerability of the tourist destinations is emphasized by various authors and on the basis of the suggestions it is observed that in these situations the tourists will be exposed to danger. It is also described that the experience of natural disasters to the tourism is directly inter-connected through the appeal and attractiveness of the highly risky and exotic tourism destinations, where the occurrence of the natural events such as volcanic eruptions, landslides, hurricanes and avalanches are very common (Williams & Baláž, 2015). From the past few years the frequency of natural disasters has increased. The insinuations are thoughtful, particularly since many pretentious areas are heavily dependent on tourism for economic vivacity. There are various representative examples of natural disasters which include earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, flooding, wild fires, hurricanes that has occurred during the past decades and the extent that a natural calamity can be proven harmful to the tourism industry. The below presented are some of the problems that are caused by the natural disasters and which will affect a considerable area and presented as follows:
- Increasing concerns regarding the tourists safety and security
- Devastation and destruction of the facilities and infrastructures
Terrorism
The present era and new millennium has been determined by various disasters since the terrorist
Attacks, for instance the attacks in New York City and Washington D.C. on Sept. 11, 2001 are some of the examples of terrorist activities (Maditinos & Vassiliadis 2016). These terrorist acts stunned the world and marked the opening of a depressed sentiment in the tourism sector. These terrorist activities have clear negative effects on tourism industry. The terrorist’s organizations target specifically the tourists (Baker, 2014). Tourism is viewed to represent entrepreneurship and obvious consumption and an attack on tourists indicates philosophical antagonism to these western values.
References
Bac, D. P., Bugnar, N. G., & Mester, L. E. (2015) Terrorism and its impacts on the tourism industry. Revista Român? de Geografie Politic?, 17(1), 5-11.
Baker, D. M. A. (2014) The effects of terrorism on the travel and tourism industry. International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage, 2(1), 9.
Maditinos, Z. & Vassiliadis. (2016) Local crises and natural disasters: Effects and consequences on the global tourism industry, [Online]. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/27381143_Local_Crises_and_Natural_Disasters_Effects_and_Consequences_on_the_Global_Tourism_Industry.
Williams, A. M., & Baláž, V. (2015) Tourism risk and uncertainty: Theoretical reflections. Journal of Travel Research, 54(3), 271-287.
