Tourism Crisis Management Research

With the development of globalization, crisis has become a normal state of the modern society. In recent years, tourism industry in China has rapidly developed and bloomed into one of the most influential social and economic activities. However, due to its unique features and the changes of global environment, the tourism industry has been subjected to the impact of multi-level and multi-angle crises which are not only restricting its sustainable development but also testing the government's capability to handle the public crisis. Although the importance of crisis management is generally acknowledged, neither the government nor the tourist business has been fully equipped for the crisis. They are in particular need of a better tourism management mechanism.In May 2007 the outbreak of blue algae in Taihu Lake led to a water crisis and brought about serious impact on the tourism industry in Wuxi. When the local government and the tourist authority responded to the crisis, some problems of the existing crisis management mechanism have been exposed. With the growing proportion of the tourism industry to the national economy, tourism crisis management not only concerns the healthy and stable development of the tourism industry but also affects the government's public image and its executive ability.Based on the notions of crisis, tourism crisis and crisis management, this paper expounds, in the light of the characteristics of the tourism crisis, the impact of the crisis on the tourism industry and its side effects. It points out that tourism crisis management is a non-procedural process aiming to avoid or alleviate the severe threats brought about by the crisis, to restore the business environment and to regain the consumer confidence. This paper takes the water crisis in Wuxi as an example and analyses the measures taken by the government and other relevant administrative bodies. It is believed that the most important strategy in tourism crisis management is to establish a better crisis management mechanism. Upon this understanding, the analysis was carried out in three aspects, i.e. the insurance of relevant laws and regulations, the establishment of tourist management organization system and the specific functions of the organization system. As the main body to handle the public crises including the tourism crisis, the local government should bring the various forces into full play, be it governmental or non-governmental, from the enterprises or from the mass media, in order to build a better crisis management mechanism. Only in this way can the government improve its capability to organize, coordinate and manage the tourism crises so as to ensure a sustained, stable and coordinated development of tourism.