ABSTRACT

The early years of the twenty first century have been a period of unusual turmoil and challenge for the global tourism industry. Acts of terrorism targeted at tourism infrastructure and tourists, severe natural disasters, regional warfare, crime waves, outbreaks of communicable disease, economic downturns and spectacular business collapses have contributed to crisis situations affecting the tourism industry within individual countries, geographic regions and globally as in the case of the September 11 terrorist attack in 2001. Some travel professionals and media observers inaccurately depict fluctuations in the tourism market as a crisis. In the context of destination marketing, however, ‘a crisis is an event or a set of circumstances, usually beyond the direct control of an individual enterprise or destination marketing management which severely compromises the marketability of a destination requiring radical management measures to restore the market’ (Beirman 2003, 4). There are a number of key strategies and tactics employed to optimise market recovery from a crisis event. A vital element in any successful tourism recovery campaign is the formation and implementation of a recovery alliance between the major tourism stakeholders. These include national, regional and local governments and their destination marketing authorities, national and regional tourism industry associations, airlines, land and sea transport carriers which service the destination, tour operators, hoteliers, attractions and related service industries.