Effect of Missing Malaysian Aircraft on Tourism - Essay Example

EFFECT OF MISSING MALYSIAN AIRCRAFT ON TOURISM + Effect of Missing Malaysian Aircraft on Tourism Introduction On 8th march 2014, a Malaysian plane flight MH370 bound for China disappeared off the radar with 12 crew members and 227 passengers. The place departed from Kuala Lumpur and en route to Beijing vanished never to be found again. The sudden disappearance of the plane prompted a frantic search and rescue operation spearheaded by Malaysian, Chinese, and Australian and New Zealand government agencies. The search however yielded no results since the plane was not located. The cause of the plane missing without a single trace remains a mystery, and it was not confirmed whether it was an intentional act of sabotage, a mechanical failure or a well-orchestrated terrorist act. Even with the use of sophisticated equipment, no wreckage has been found, nor any trace picked by the various state of the art sonar and satellite and military technologies. Impact on Malaysian Tourism The effects of this single loss of aircraft lead to the substantial impact on several sectors that are hugely dependent on air transport. One of the sectors that received a huge impact was the tourism industry. Malaysia’s major source of income is from tourism. In the year 2013, the country derived an estimated 25 million tourists who enabled the tourism sector make $20 billion. However, after the incident of the missing plane, the number of tourist bookings in Malaysian hotels recorded a reduction. It is attributed to fear that the incident instilled in potential tourists. . Following the disappearance of the plane, analysts projected that Malaysia would record a drop of between 20% and 40% in the number of Chinese tourists into the country. This would translate to between 400,000 to 800,000 tourists. The drop would lead to a loss of billions of up to (RM4.2 billion). China happens to be the third largest source of tourists to Malaysia with a reported 1.79milliion Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia in the year 2013. The occurrence of this incident, however, painted the picture of Malaysia as an attractive holiday destination in Asia with travelers planning to visit the country becoming more cautious over their airline security. The Malaysian government had projected 28 million tourists into the country and RM76 billion in revenue accruing from the industry. The incident led to the cancelling of a tourism marketing campaign dubbed ‘Visit Malaysia year 2014’ which was expected to further market Malaysia as a suitable tourist hub. Malaysian Airlines was affected by the incident where travelers opted to use other international airline carriers. Impact on Other Nations While the effect of the plane missing was largely felt in Malaysia, tourism in other countries was also negatively impacted. There has been an increasing level of interdependence among countries. This, coupled with the globalization of tourism has led to the impact of an incident happening in a single country being felt worldwide. There has been a growing level of interdependence in the tourism industry as evidenced by the effects of the missing Malaysian aircraft. According to (Haddow & Bullock 2006) the tourism industry is fragile since it is highly sensitive to different shocks such as economic recessions, acts of terrorism, energy crises, and instability of currencies among others. Whether the causes of the crisis and disasters are natural or man-made, they affect tourism on a significant scale. When it comes to the tourism industry, crises have no geographical borders and similarly are not confined to one sector. The ripple effect is felt across other related sectors of the economy too. The attack of New York’s World Trade Centre on 11th September 2001 is a clear example of how a single disaster in a single part of the world affects other places. According to (Haddow & Bullock 2006), the worldwide impact the incident had worldwide on the tourism industry further supports the idea that tourism is now highly globalized and interdependent. Following the Malaysian plane disappearance, China also recorded a drop in the number of tourists into the country with travel agencies China International Travel Service, China Youth Travel Service, and BTG International Travel and Tours reporting decreasing numbers of tourists. The most of the tourists to Malaysia come from India and china. After the disappearance of the plane there were calls from various quarters for tourists to shun travelling to Malaysia. Celebrities in china led in the calling of a tourism boycott of Malaysia that further led to a deteriorating number of tourists. Two weeks after the disappearance of the plane, Dun Jidong, a senior marketing manager at China’s largest travel booking website Ctrip.com reported a 50% drop in the number of travellers from China to Malaysia. Such a drastic drop in the number of travellers is a clear example of the magnitude of the impact of the craft disappearance. There was also a significant drop in the number of American tourists making bookings in European hotels. Implication of the Effects According to (Faulkner 2001), there is inadequate research on the crisis that affects the tourism industry as well as the impact and response undertaken by the various stakeholders to those incidents. One thing that comes clear after the incident involving the disappearance of the Malaysian aircraft is that whether natural or man-made, crisis can occur anywhere (Haddow & Bullock 2006). Some of them are also very unpredictable and therefore the government should always be on the lookout and vigilant as well as put in place measures to deal with the crisis as they occur. According to (Malhotra & Venkatesh 2009), random and unprecedented events that in this case would perfectly fit the missing Malaysian plane scenario cause insecurity and uncertainty into the future of the industry. (Mendoza, Brida, & Garrido 2012), argue that these events directly impact the number of tourists visiting the country. The cancellation of hotel bookings in Malaysia following the incidents confirms this thought. Tourists are always on the lookout for any incident that might jeopardize their travel and stay and avoid travelling to such places. Over the years, governments have also issued travel advisories to their citizens against travelling to countries that they deem to be insecure. The result of this is massive cancellation of tourist plans with those who were already in the country seeking ways to leave as soon as they can. Way Forward For tourists, safety and security are by far the most important factors that they consider while travelling. It’s important to understand that the tourism industry is highly vulnerable to crisis and disasters. Being an international mobile industry, measures should be put in place to ensure that the safety of the tourists is upheld. The stakeholders in the industry should implement various disaster management measures. Business retention strategies should be adopted so as to minimize the negative impacts of the crisis by minimizing the losses. Tourism and the related industries cannot thrive in areas that have hazards (Reisinger & Mavondo, 2005). Stringent and diverse measures should therefore be employed to ensure the hazards are mitigated to as to boost the tourist’s confidence to travelling to their destinations. According to (Mansfeld, 2006), where the crisis has already happened, the relevant government agencies together with the media should coordinate proper communication to the public so as to alleviate any fears that would undermine the tourism industry of the country. Such a move would be strategic since it would ensure that ambiguous and unnecessary information is not transmitted to the public thus safeguarding the fragile tourism industry. Conclusion Some disasters are unavoidable. There are those which can be avoided by putting in place safety measures. After the disappearance of the Malaysia aircraft, there were calls for installation of cameras in the cockpits of planes. Although the implementation of such a measure would be expensive; with the ever increasing threat of terrorism, the airline industry should consider installing the cameras. Airline officials are hesitant to allow implementation of such measures citing that such actions would adversely the performance of the pilots due to the loss of privacy. The release of scanty information to the public also accelerated the drastic drop in the tourist numbers to Malaysia. Should the Malaysian have released more information to reassure the public, the impact of the incident would have had a soft landing with no major impact on the Malaysian economy through the tourism industry. Reference List Haddow G., Bullock J. 2006. Introduction to emergency management. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann. Malhotra R., Venkatesh U. 2009. Pre-crisis period planning: Lessons for hospitality and tourism. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 1, 66-74 Mansfield Y. 2006. The role of security information in tourism crisis management: The missing link. In Mansfield Y., Pizam A. (Eds.), Tourism, security & safety: From theory to practice (pp. 271-290). Oxford, UK: Butterworth-Heinemann Mendoza C. A., Brida J. G., Garrido N. 2012. The impact of earthquakes on Chile’s international tourism demand. Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, 4, 48-60. Reisinger Y., Mavondo F. 2005. Travel anxiety and intentions to travel internationally: Implications of travel risk perception. Journal of Travel Research, 43, 212-225 http://www.gurufocus.com/news/252530/the-impact-of-flight-370-on-malaysian-airlines-stock- http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/malaysia-to-face-losses-of-up-to-rm4-billion-in-tourism-revenue-due-to-mh37 http://qz.com/192630/the-missing-malaysia-airlines-flight-threatens-a-crucial-engine-of-the-countrys-economy/ Read More