ABSTRACT
In February 2001, the first case of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) was confirmed in the UK since an outbreak of the disease in 1967. A total of 2,030 cases of the disease were identified and a total of over 4 million animals were culled during the crisis with worldwide media broadcasts showing burning carcasses of culled animals. The English Tourism Council (ETC) predicted that losses to English tourism in 2001 would be £5bn, while in 2002 and 2003 reductions would total £2.5bn and £1bn respectively (ETC, 2001a). On January 15, 2002, government officials announced that the disease had finally been defeated after 11 months of battling the outbreak. Despite the end of the disease, the outbreak has deeply affected the farming and tourism industry and raised questions concerning government policy toward the farming and tourism industry. Questions have been specifically raised concerning the responsiveness and preparedness of the tourism industry for the FMD and the ability of tourist promotion agencies to reduce the negative media coverage due to slow response time. Although the outbreak was not expected, Faulkner (2001)
notes there are an increasing number of disasters and crises which affect the tourism industry, ranging from natural to human influenced disasters. This has been made most evident since the events of September 11, 2001, which dramatically impacted upon the tourism industry illustrating the need to understand and effectively manage such incidents, with crisis communication an important part of this management.
