On the dismissive behavior of the Tourism industry toward preventive crisis management: won’t they ever learn?

Abstract

There is a large volume of available research literature discussing risk perception and decision-making in the face of the uncertainty ensuing from disasters that have affected tourism destinations. But not so much attention has been focused on if and how companies involved in the tourism business effectively take past crises as opportunities for learning and gaining expertise on the prevention of the undesired consequences of future crises. In the present contribution we discuss the results of a study addressing this issue. It has been conducted by the authors through a series of interviews with managers of top hotels in Galicia (Northwestern Spain) after a number of fires and oil spills affected their locations. The results of our study support the thesis that a high-risk perception on the basis of past crises is not enough on its own to motivate the hotel managers to implement preventive measures and protocols. Such a dismissive behavior on the part of hotel managers burdens the public authorities of tourism in the destinations with effecting the adoption of these measures, for which they must deploy effective communication channels with the private sector and transfer the knowledge gained from their experience of past crises.