National and Regional Tourism Planning - Coursework Example

National and Regional Tourism Planning Introduction Tourism for many nations not only provides an entry into the global economy, but also helpsto alleviate poverty, and can assist other economic sectors (Fayall 2005). It contributes to foreign exchange earnings, employment, and Gross Domestic although the economic significance of tourism varies greatly from country to country (Dilys 2005). For tourism, ccountries have to offer a wide array of attractive destinations and a wide diversity of societies and cultures, and safe vacation spots for incoming guests. Tourism involves travel or movement and many people. As such, many things can happen along the way including disaster. What happens therein is impossibly in the hands of just one person, the Minister of Tourism for example, or only one group, the Ministry of Tourism for example. Implied is the need for cooperation from as many quarters as possible because disasters, by nature or by man, can strike anytime. This may be what people mean when they say tourism can never be planned. As a complex multi-faceted industry really, any effort at control, direction and guidance is beyond the efforts of any one individual or team of individuals. What is tourism Cooke (2005) defines tourism as a movement or philosophy, not an industry. The correct use of the term 'tourism' is to describe the phenomenon of mass travel, he said, therefore, tourism identifies a social movement and it is not a logical name for an industry. For example, he said Impressionist artists do not say that they work in Impressionism, nor do Conservative politicians say that they once worked in Thatcherism. He explains that Impressionism, Thatcherism and other 'ism's such as vegetarianism and chauvinism are names of movements or philosophies, not industries. Another input from Cooke (2005) it that tourism is still evolving and is not yet fully developed. Some people therefore lump it with the Leisure department as service to be provided. Others place it under Economic development or planning development as a strategic planning issue. Meanwhile, others place it with Industry as a human economic activity. Can Tourism be planned Discussion boards from Neowin (2005) view tourism as having so many external factors that can never be predicted yet hugely affect tourism. For example, the London bombings. Obviously that had an effect on tourism as did the Bali Bombings, the Tsunami, the Twin Towers bombings more known as 9/11, the New Orleans hurricane, bombings in Dubai. According to Mason (2003), it is the tourism impacts that are multi-faceted and therefore are difficult to plan for and manage. Many unplanned events, e.g. terrorism and natural disaster, go with tourism. Also, no matter what plan you have as tourism minister if your capital gets bombed, you'll see a decline in visitors until people forget or get over with it (Neowin 2005). Tourism is based on people wanting to go somewhere. You can market and promote until you drop dead, but if people don't like what you are trying to sell, they aren't going to come. That goes double if people are afraid to come to your place because people keep blowing it up, or because its geographical location is 'unstable'. Because of these events that come from behind, some strategies are needed. Coping Strategies Hindle (2005) warns that anyone working in tourism will have to face a crisis that can attack anytime or any day, respecting no holidays or sleeping hours. Therefore, she says, one has to plan ahead. Hindle (2005) gives four areas of crisis management: 1) Partnership before a crisis, 2) Partnership during a crisis, 3) Recovering from a crisis, and 4) How the lessons from these three stages of a crisis can be applied (See Appendix A). A crisis, Hindle (2005) says, is something that hits us unexpectedly, that requires instant attention, huge investment in time, people and resources, and yet requires management. But a crisis is not "owned;" meaning no one entity holds the responsibility for the problem that arises, therefore some talking and linking up is needed before a crisis strikes or else the whole country, as in negative report to the whole world, will feel the negative impact (Ibid). Suddenly people will not consider the country worth traveling to anymore. Saying one should link with other agencies, Hindle (2005) explained that a crisis can spiral into a disaster, and a disaster can spiral into a catastrophe for tourism. Hindle (2005) gave the SARS experience which was thought to be "owned by Southern China" and spread to many countries. Hong Kong's Sandra Lee, the Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour said the first real lesson her government learned in this crisis was that "By not having access to accurate information we were not as prepared as we should have been." They faced what she described as "an unknown disease, from an unknown source, with unknown methods of transmission and no known treatment." It is essential, therefore, to educate and reassure people about the facts. For response to be more effective, and the recovery more sustained, there has to be cooperation among all parties, she said. Successful recovery campaigns are said to start during the crisis itself. But after the crisis, there have yet to be things in place. Hindle (2005) says - While one part of your organisation is managing the day-to-day response to chaos, you must direct another to plan the recovery. There needs to be a central recovery strategy and clear strong leadership from at least one major organisation - an organisation that can bring as many partners together as possible to reassure travelers and change perceptions if necessary. Finally, for recovery, Hindle (2005) said one should show strong leadership, and to exploit a clear strategy and communication platform that can be shared by public and private sector partners. This would need establishing dedicated teams to plan for recovery while others are managing the crisis. Lastly, one should take control of the situation before it gets to control oneself. Since the Avian Influenza or Bird Flu reported last year, what facts do you have about the cases How many are fatal Do you have a summary of WHO guidelines on it Have you invested in retroviral drugs, plan procedures in the event of global pandemic Have you considered the effect on your organization or business Do you have a database of contacts, communication and PR contacts, normal commercial contacts Plannning for the crisis, these are some questions to consider (Hindle 2005). Crisis Management Model Eugenio-Martin et al. (2004) says effective crisis management involves knowing how tourists of different nationalities respond to different types of crisis. Saying crisis are of two types (internal to a country and one the other, stemming from an external incident), a model they provide to quantify tourists' responses to crisis as well as to other economic changes, will be applied to the cases of foot and mouth disease and September 11. The results then will be compared with different types of crisis, as well as for changes in arrivals and receipts in Scotland from three main international origin markets. Crises can be categorised into many types according to source, intensity, extent of threat, and the like (Eugenio-Martin et al. 2004), but what underlies all these is the importance of communication where top management is expected to play top role in the organisation and dissemination of information. All agencies in both public and private sector with capabilities should be concerned. Management must show leadership in alert procedures and warnings, as should components involved in evacuation, search and rescue; communications; transportation; engineering; shelter; emergency food programmes; and the care of vulnerable and secure groups. One of the key problems confronting the implementation of crisis management frameworks by public or private sector organisations is a lack of accurate information. (Ritchie et al., 2004). Information is required not only for fact finding and analysis of the crisis, but should also be a key part of information dissemination and communications strategies designed to mitigate and control the crisis, as well as to assist a process of recovery (Mitroff and Pearson, 1993). As Barton (1993) said, shortage of such information precludes effective decision-making and a related communications strategy, resulting in loss of control of the situation. This, in turn, generates uncertainty among consumers, whose travel demand does not increase until confidence in tourism organisations is re-established (Eugenio-Martin et al. 2004). International conference Darcy (2005) raises humanitarian dimensions from the Indian Ocean tsunami crisis where the earthquake occurred off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, on 26 December 2004. The scale of these events is said to be vast, killing more than 275,000 people in so many different countries and populations and devastating hundreds of miles of coastline (Indian Ocean, Wikipedia 2005) As a result, thousands of people across the region faced acute risks to their health and had lost breadwinners and family members, homes and livelihoods. Events like this are sudden and have impact for tourism (Ibid). Severe hot and severe cold temperatures are known to have killed many people in several countries. The same with draught and floods and hurricanes. The world climate has become the interest of the First International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism on 9-11 April 2003. This took place under the sponsorship of the World Tourism Organization (WTO 2005), in Djerba, Tunisia, bringing together over 140 delegates from some 45 countries, drawn from representatives of the scientific community, various United Nations agencies, the tourism industry, NGOs, national tourism offices, national and local governments. Proceedings from the conference said - "From a purely ecological viewpoint, predicted changes to the world's climate give substantial cause for concern. Sea level rises threaten the viability of many coastal zones and small islands. Temperature rises are predicted to change precipitation patterns - both seasonal and absolute - which seem likely to exacerbate water supply problems. A greater risk of both flooding and drought conditions in many parts of the world stem from this. Climate change also seems likely to increase the magnitude, frequency and risk of extreme climatic events, such as storms and sea surges." Conclusion Tourism is not planned in the sense that it is not just an industry but a movement which involves many unseen things. Events manage to attach themselves to tourism like disease outbreak, natural catastrophes, terrorism, and the like that are not "owned" by one entity alone. What this implies is the importance of realizing that we are not islands by our own selves but are connected in so many ways. One man's plight is now another man's plight as exemplified in the past by tsunamis, bird flu virus, SARS, terrorism. Anything can happen at any time, at unprecedented scales causing lose of millions of lives and property. Hence, the need to join hands in cooperation. True, tourism is a movement in itself, with mechanisms at a deeper level than just an industry. It involves therefore understanding all the forces that make it successful from the tourist who intends to enjoy, to those who profit from it, and the forces that come between. References '1st International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism.' World Tourism Organization (WTO). Djerba, Tunisia, 9-11 April 2003. Available from http://www.world-tourism.org/sustainable/climate/brochure.htm [Accessed 27 Oct 2005]. '2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Wikipedia. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_Earthquake. [Accessed 27 Oct 2005]. 'Strategic Plan for tourism Development 2003-2010.' Available fromhttp://www.visitcyprus.org.cy/ctoweb/ctowebsite.nsf/0/180d6054ab6e1bb3c2256a6f004c0c31/$FILE/cto%20strategic%20plan%202003-2010%20final.pdf [Accessed 27 Oct 2005]. 'Tourism- Can it be planned or can't it be planned' Salmoni_overnight. Blog. 18 Oct 2005. Available from http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t386778.html [Accessed 26 Oct 2005]. Alexander, D. 2002. 'Principles of emergency planning and management.' Available from: http://www.rjpc.demon.co.uk/pepm.htm [Accessed 27 Oct 2005]. Barton, L. 1993. Crisis in Organizations: Managing and Communicating in the Heat of Chaos. Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western. Cooke, P. "Whither Tourism" LOCUM Destination Review 57. Comment. Available from http://www.locum-destination.com/pdf/LDR4Whither_tourism.pdf. [Accessed 27 Oct 2005]. Darcy, J. 2005. 'The Indian Ocean tsunami crisis: humanitarian dimensions.' Available from http://www.odi.org.uk/hpg/Tsunami.html [accessed 27 Oct 2005]. Eugenio-Martin, J L; M. T Sinclair and I Yeoman. 2004. "Quantifying the effects of tourism crises: An application to Scotland." Available from http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/ttri/pdf/2004_11.pdf [Accessed 27 Oct 2005]. Fyall, Al. 2005. 'Policy Brief for the Commonwealth Tourism Ministers.' Meeting, 26-29 April, 2005, Abuja, Nigeria. Commonwealth Policy Studies Unit, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, Available from http://www.cpsu.org.uk/downloads/policy_brief_16.pdf {Accessed 27 Oct 2005]. Hindle, D. 2005. 'Co-operation and Partnerships for Crisis Tourism Management.' Bgb communications. Available at http://www.world-tourism.org/regional/europe/PDF/2005/moscow/Debbie%20Hindle%20_Presentation_%20_Text_.pdf [Accessed 27 Oct 2005]. Mason, P. 2003. 'Tourism Impacts, Planning, and Management.' Elsevier.com. Available from http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/678068/description#description. [Accessed 27 Oct 2005]. Mitroff, I.I. and Pearson, C.M. 1993. Crisis Management: A Diagnostic Guide for Improving your Organization's Crisis-Preparedness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Ritchie, B.W., H. Dorrell, D. Miller, and G.A. Miller. 2004. 'Crisis communication and recovery for the tourism industry: Lessons from the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in the United Kingdom.' Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 15(4), 199-216. Roe, D. 'Pro-Poor Tourism: Harnessing the World's Largest Industry for the World's Poor' Available from http://www.propoortourism.org.uk/Dilys%20IIED%20paper.pdf [Accessed 27 Oct 2005] Appendix A CO-OPERATION AND PARTNERSHIPS FOR CRISIS TOURISM MANAGEMENT Presented by Debbie Hindle, Managing Director bgb communications Good afternoon. If you work in tourism you will face a crisis. Your crisis WILL attack you at the most inconvenient time -in the middle of the night, or on a public holiday. It may be a clich but if you fail to plan, you will be planning to fail. I'm going to look at four areas today; 1. How public and private sector co-operation can help prepare you for a crisis 2. Partnership during a crisis 3. Recovering from a crisis 4. And finally how the lessons from these three stages of a crisis can be applied to you 1. PARTNERSHIPS BEFORE A CRISIS So let's look first at how you manage a crisis BEFORE it happens. Now, you may think you've misheard me. That does sound ridiculous. How can you manage something that hasn't happened yet Before you know what the problem is A crisis is something that hits us unexpectedly. Something that requires instant attention, huge investment in time, people and resources. How can you manage the unexpected The first thing to understand is that you cannot own a crisis. I'm constantly amazed by how many companies or people plan for a crisis in isolation. They think they can control a problem when it happens; that they can - in effect - "own" a crisis. They can't. I'll tell you a story about a small, apparently easily-contained crisis. A coach crashed in Europe with British tourists on board. The tour operator provided the basic facts, but the British press wanted to know more. And they didn't stop after questioning the tour operator. They wanted to know who was responsible and began to investigate government, health and road safety standards. There were suggestions that the emergency services hadn't handled the aftermath of the crisis as well as they should have done - that the medical treatment that casualties had received was poor. There were no official spokespeople or clear statements to counter these suggestions. Without fast communication between the organisations involved in the crisis the press began to speculate. Suddenly a whole country and its ability to support tourism was being attacked on the basis of one coach crash. People who might have considered holidays there became worried about their safety, and decide to travel elsewhere. That's just one small crisis - a single motor vehicle crashed. But lack of cooperation and partnership meant communication spiraled out of control and had a measurable effect on an entire country's tourism industry. If such an apparently minor event can have such wide-ranging repercussions, think how much worse the implications of a larger issue could be. If we go from a coach crash to SARS, or terrorism, or natural disasters, how many more organisations might you need to work with to handle a crisis effectively No ONE organisation can ever hope to "own "a crisis. A crisis is beyond ownership. It requires cooperation. So I'm going to tell you how you can plan, in order to prevent a crisis spiraling into a disaster, to prevent a disaster spiral into a catastrophe for tourism. In an introduction to a report on Tourism Risk Management, Sir Frank Moore, the Chairman of the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre said: "Adequate planning for what has been seen as the "unexpected" can be the difference between a well-managed problem and a human and economic disaster." So my first golden rule for everyone today is to establish cooperative links with every organisation that you may need to work alongside, during a crisis. So consider all the crises that you may encounter. Who do you think you'll need to cooperate with for each one Then be zealous in talking to each organisation that you may need to work alongside. Understand their roles and remits. What will they do in a crisis How can you be kept informed and keep them best informed of your actions Let me give you one example of co-operation and partnership before a crisis. One of my company's clients is the Passenger Shipping Association in the UK - the industry body for cruise and ferry companies. If a ship encounters problems within UK waters we know the Maritime and Coastguard agency in the UK will become involved. If there is an oil spillage we know the Environment Department will become involved. If there is a problem with shipping standards we need to talk to the International Maritime Organisation. If the ship is in international waters, other countries' governments and the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office will get drawn in. If British travelers are affected we know the Association of British Travel Agents has spokespeople who are asked to comment on travel industry issues by the media. To prepare for a shipping crisis we have - created guidelines on the rules and regulations governing shipping which can be adapted and used by any company, or the PSA. - prepared out-of-hours contact details for all the maritime protection bodies that may get involved in a crisis. - defined whom to keep informed if there is a problem. The PSA acts as a hub for all the private sector companies to collect practical information, statements, and contacts. If the crisis is an industry issue, then many private sector companies may not want to comment on it - preferring not to be associated with the problem. This is where a public sector or industry body can take a lead role in acting as an independent authoritative spokesperson on behalf of the whole industry. Two years ago there was an outbreak of Norovirus on a cruise ship. The PSA took a lead role by producing a series of information fact sheets and training for travel agents, which all the private sector companies could use, but which overcome concern and misunderstandings. 2. COOPERATION DURING A CRISIS So if that's how you can cooperate before a crisis. Let's now turn to the second part of my presentation. How can you cooperate and build partnerships once you're in the middle of a crisis Let's look at another example. SARS resonated around the world in 2003 and required cooperation on a global scale. You may be aware that the disease emerged initially in Southern China at the end of 2002. The number of SARS cases increased from then until February 2003. But there was no official confirmation of a major problem. Sandra Lee, the Permanent Secretary for Economic Development and Labour in Hong Kong said the first real lesson her government learnt in this crisis was that: "by not having access to accurate information we were not as prepared as we should have been and the situation quickly deteriorated." They faced what she described as: "an unknown disease, from an unknown source, with unknown methods of transmission and no known treatment." In April 2003 Hong Kong received just half a million visitors compared to 1.4 million in the same month a year earlier. Occupancy rates plunged to 22% compared to 85% in April 2002. Do you remember your initial views of SARS as the news first emerged Initially the Industry and media perception was that this was a crisis that was "owned" by Asia. If you were an hotelier in Canada during the early days of SARS, why would you think it would affect you Why would the World Health Organisation have anything to say that could affect how many travelers arrived in your hotel It was only as the disease spread quickly to North America, Vietnam, Singapore and Europe that countries and travel companies really recognised that this was a global crisis. So let's return to Hong Kong; what steps did its government take to cooperate with the private sector in the crisis The first part of a crisis is CHAOS. This is the time when the facts are unclear. Yet there is an urgent need to communicate known details as clearly and effectively as possible. It's essential to educate and reassure people about the facts. In Hong Kong there was intensive communication both through the travel trade and direct to the public. - An urgent travel trade briefing was held to explain those facts of the disease that were known at the time. - There were specific briefings for hotel operators. - The tourism department cooperated with the Department of Health to produce specific health guidelines for hotels, the travel trade, airlines and transport companies, covering everything from how to handle suspected cases through to hygiene for kitchen staff. - The Hong Kong tourism authorities asked the WTO to circulate information to member countries and asked PATA to communicate details of the crisis through their overseas offices. - Regular bulletins were issued based on information drawn up by the Department of Health. Public action and communication included; - Screening procedures at all ports - Schools were closed and anyone who had been in close contact with SARS patients were asked to stay at home. - There were regular updates to the media and, direct to the public. These were clear unambiguous and reliable. It was particularly interesting to hear that the government used SMS messages to reassure people there wasn't a food shortage to stop rumours and panic buying. Let me quote Sandra Lee again: "The second critical lesson we learnt is that the response to a crisis will be more effective, and the recovery more sustained, if there is cooperation among all parties. In the case of SARS this meant cooperation within the tourism industry in Hong Kong, cooperation between Hong Kong and China and cooperation between Hong Kong and international bodies such as the World Tourism Organisation." 3. AFTER A CRISIS/RECOVERY So - you need to cooperate BEFORE a crisis, so that your communication network and relationships are already in place when the crisis hits you. And you can see the importance of cooperation DURING a crisis. So what about partnerships after the crisis, how can you cooperate to aid a recovery from a crisis Successful recovery campaigns start during the crisis itself. While one part of your organisation is managing the day-to-day response to chaos, you must direct another to plan the recovery. There needs to be a central recovery strategy and clear strong leadership from at least one major organisation - an organisation that can bring as many partners together as possible to reassure travelers and change perceptions if necessary. Let's look at another example of public and private sector cooperation - this time to build a recovery programme. After the events of 9/11 the American Travel Industry Association (TIA) formed a Travel Industry Recovery Coalition with representatives of 26 sectors of the travel and tourism industry. One week after the crisis hit, TIA had a recovery plan with two major goals - to ensure safe secure travel and to restore travelers' confidence. It acted as a strong voice of leadership for the industry to provide one voice, one message and the instant tools to deliver that message. It gathered 50 top PR and communications professionals together on a conference call to give them the common message and strategy. It announced the strategy to the world and created a TIA recovery microsite with all messages, facts and statistics for industry and media. Two weeks after the attack, TIA surveyed public opinion, and learned that people wanted to know the things that were being done to make it safe to travel. The public also made it clear that they expected offers to encourage them to travel again. TIA launched an advertising campaign that directly addressed these issues. They also created an advertising template that members could download and wrap around their own advertising. The media donated free advertising space to run recovery campaigns. A national See America day was created with offers from organisations throughout the public sector to get people traveling. A promotional email was sent to TIA's 2,000 member organisations who sent it to their customers, vendors and employees. The TIA also worked with the Post Office to issue a series of celebratory commemorative stamps to encourage domestic tourism and get people to See America. It's not just tourism organisations that can be useful partners in a crisis. SIMILAR cooperative action was taken in Hong Kong to rebuild tourism after SARS. A Tourism Coalition was formed in early April as the crisis was still in its CHAOS phase The Hong Kong Tourist authorities announced a three-stage process for recovery to be put into action as soon as the WHO lifted the SARS advisory on Hong Kong. They had two major goals - communicate the fact that Hong Kong was SARS free and restore travelers' confidence. A multi-million dollar marketing campaign was planned and the private sector cooperated by offering extensive promotional deals. In the early stages of recovery, Hong Kong focused on the domestic and intra-regional market. Discussions with the mainland Chinese government resulted in a new permit being introduced to allow travelers from eight cities in China to visit Hong Kong. You will remember the territory had fewer than half a million visitors in the April. By July the number had jumped to nearly 1.7 million. 4. HOW CAN THESE EXAMPLES APPLY TO YOU So that brings me to the fourth part of my presentation today. How can we use these examples of partnerships before, during and after a crisis to draw lessons that can apply to you What conclusions can we draw from these What works There are four key areas to remember: First - Speak with one voice You may not own the crisis, but you can cooperate to present one voice during a crisis. Consider setting up a co-operative CRISIS EMERGENCY RESPONSE GROUP that can be drafted in immediately a crisis occurs to act as the central hub during a crisis and provide strong leadership. For any tourist board in the room may I strongly recommend a book published a few months ago called "Weathering The Storm" by Mary Lynch, the former chief executive of the English Tourism Council. It's the only crisis book I've seen written from the perspective of tourist boards to cope with major disasters. (You can buy it through www.lynchassociates.co.uk). Mary headed the English Tourism Council during the Foot and Mouth Disease crisis which closed large parts of the country to visitors in 2001. This book is a wise record of the lessons learnt from that experience and lessons that are presented for others to learn from. This book makes it clear that during the crisis the agricultural community spoke with one voice through the National Farmers' Union. But tourism struggled to get its message across, partly because there were four national tourism organisations representing England, Scotland, Wales and Britain and several large industry associations. As a result of the lessons learnt, a response group has been established called TIER - Tourism Industry Emergency Group which will respond to any emergencies. There are also other tourism action groups which we can learn from. After SARS, Toronto established a Tourism Industry Community Coalition that brings together the Board of Trade, city authorities, government, accommodation providers and marketing bodies, chaired by Tourism Toronto. In Fiji, Tourism Action Group includes the visitors' bureau, hotels association, national airline and ministry for tourism. Secondly - Tell it like it is. So, if we can assume you are cooperating in a crisis and speaking with one voice the next step is to "Tell it like it is" Be a central source for clear information in clear crisis statements Sympathy/Facts/Reassurance 1. Express sympathy for everyone affected 2. Provide clear facts about the case. Facts that put this crisis in context. How many hotel rooms are affected out of your national portfolio What is the distance from the affected area to other major cities 3. Reassurance -what does this mean for other travelers/travel industry The third action point is to prepare to Update and Share. 1. Update information regularly. 2. Share it with your contacts and crisis communications network. 3. Hold an urgent meeting between public sector and private sector interests. 4. Use the network to keep in touch with smaller tourism providers who will be struggling to understand what is happening. 5. Share it with overseas governments, third parties, everyone who could be affected. 6. Ensure you draw people in and secure every available partner you can. Finally - Common Strategy 1. Demonstrate public sector leadership, clear action and ask for private sector support. 2. Create a clear recovery strategy and campaign message that all parties can work with. 3. Plan for recovery while the crisis is underway. 4. Research public opinion so campaigns and action can address their concerns. 5. Consider support for smaller tourism enterprises that are most vulnerable when a major crisis starts. During the English foot and mouth crisis for example the government realised it needed to create simpler, faster grant application process to help the cash flow of small businesses desperately affected by the sudden loss of visitors. Mr. Francesco FRANGIALLI of the World Tourism Organisation has said: "the strategies for reacting in a crisis and recovering from it are remarkably similar from one tourism destination to another and from one crisis to the next." So I'd like to concentrate your minds, before I finish, and ask you to think about a crisis that might affect your business or organisation. I'd like to ask you to consider how you could prepare now for a potential crisis. Let's consider Avian Influenza, or Bird Flu; the World Health Organisation has warned of the dangers of a global pandemic. Since Bird Flu was reported in humans more than a year ago, 69 cases have been reported worldwide, of which 46 have been fatal. This month alone, an additional ten cases of humans infected with Bird Flu have been reported. What have you done to prepare for Bird Flu Do you have a summary of World Health Organisation guidelines about the disease Has your national government been able to invest in retroviral drugs, or to plan crisis procedures in the event of a global pandemic How do these government plans affect your organisation or business What organisations might you need to cooperate with on a domestic, national and international scale if this became a crisis in your country If you're a tourist board, do you have a spokesperson who can speak on your behalf Do you have a regional body like PATA that could act as an information hub and spokesperson for an entire region Do you have a database of contacts that needs updating in a crisis Does it include communications and PR contacts, as well as your normal commercial contacts But before you answer these questions I'd like to ask you to remember the key stages of partnership and co-operation during a crisis 1. Co-operate BEFORE a crisis. Put plans in place now to establish communication links and to set up the structure for a task force for crisis management. 2. DURING a crisis use those networks to communicate your messages as fast as possible. Be creative about how you communicate. 3. For recovery, make sure you're ready to show strong leadership, and to exploit a clear strategy and communication platform that can be shared by public and private sector partners. Establish dedicated teams that can plan for recovery while others are managing the crisis. Finally "Move quickly and take control of the situation. You can't afford to wait and let it control you." Source: http://www.world-tourism.org/regional/europe/PDF/2005/moscow/Debbie%20Hindle%20_Presentation_%20_Text_.pdf Read More