ABSTRACT
The Potential of SARS to Disrupt Tourism Nevertheless, for the world community and
its tourism industry in early 2003 the SARS "epidemic" was a disaster of potentially huge proportions; coming closely as it did in the wake of earlier crises and initially being an unknown disease. In terms of the definitions commonly used in the tourism disaster literature (Faulkner, 2001), it impacted on the Asia Pacific tourism community with such severity that exceptional measures were necessary (Carter, 1991), and the disease epitomised all the essential ingredients of a disaster, as identified by Fink (1986) and Faulkner (2001). Most notably, it involved:
• A triggering event (here a disease with no immediately known origins, disease vectors, or cure), which was potentially so significant that it challenged the existing structure, routine operations and survival of tourism businesses and the whole regional tourism network;
• The epidemic presented businesses and Governments with a high threat situation, involving a short decision time and an element of surprise and urgency;
• There were perceptions of an inability to cope amongst the health services directly affected;
• It represented a turning point in the evolution of the tourism destinations of the Asia-Pacific Region, and others worldwide, especially if they recorded visitors who had contracted the disease (as the longer term impact was unknown); and
• At the height of the epidemic, and in the period afterwards, both the management environment and personal circumstances of those involved could be described as "fluid, unstable, and dynamic" (Fink, 1986, p. 20).
