tourism review online magazine - natural disasters: real force majeure for tourism

Natural disasters – floods, rains, earthquakes, volcano eruptions – impact immensely the tourism industry of the affected destinations. Learn about the valtellina Flood, tsu-nami, machu Picchu’s troubles with rain as well as the volca-noes in Iceland.

Natural Disasters: real Force Majeure For tourisME T H I C A L

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ETHICAL Natural Disasters: Real Force Majeure for Tourism

Januar y, 2011

Valtellina is the common name used for the Alpine province of Sondrio, in Northern Italy. This long valley became very famous in the summer of 1987, when a huge flood hit the whole area. An incredibly warm summer caused the glaciers to release a great quantity of water, which summed up to exceptionally heavy storms (the rainfall of two months fell in just three days).As a result, the rivers broke the banks, sub-merging villages and destroying roads and rails. There were fifty-three casualties and damages for an estimated 2 billion euro. Some landslides occurred too – the biggest one bur-ied Sant'Antonio morignone and three other villages just south from Bormio under forty-million cubic metres (more than 1.4 billion cubic feet) of rocks and earth, virtually cutting off the upper part of the valley.

not All Publicity is good Publicity...

Needless to say, this disaster attracted the attention of media. The coverage didn't repre-sent very good advertising though. of course, the zone wasn't in a “business-as-usual” situ-ation, but virtually all the tourist areas were intact, albeit more difficult to reach. This was the case of resorts like madesimo and val-malenco, whereas Bormio and Livigno and the whole Upper valtellina, albeit unharmed, were

tHE vAltEllinA flood: dEstroying roAds, rAils And tourism

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isolated from the rest of Italy (but could be reached through Switzerland). many reports on this disaster were 'spiced up' and impre-cise, to say the least – risking to ruin the good publicity linked to the 1985 Fis Ski World Cup hosted in Bormio.

good PricEs AgAinst PrEjudicE

The local tourist office reacted quickly. After a very short time, two information points were set up on the road leading to the valley, in order to try and save the summer season by giving honest, up-to-date information on the current situation and on alternative routes. A second wave of bad weather, though, compro-mised this objective, and put the winter sea-son in danger.

Works started for the number-one priority (a road link with the Upper valtellina through the

area ravaged by the landslide, which opened on 21st December that year), whereas the local tourist bodies decided to launch a heavy advertising campaign on newspapers and Tv channels – mostly in Italy and Germany – with the agreement of the regional and national authorities.

“Forza valtellina” (“Go valtellina”) was the campaign's slogan. It was one of the first exam-ples of an image rescue campaign for a resort, funded by an emergency measure just weeks after the disaster occurred.

The main lever used to save tourism was rep-resented by discounts on services (lift pass, thermal spas and shops). Accommodation prices were left untouched, as it was believed that lowering them would decrease the per-ceived value of the resorts, with a long-term negative effect. The “valtellina Card” was cre-

ated, with, among other things, a 50% reim-bursement of the weekly lift pass in the most affected towns (30% for the other ones).

convincing tourists And sKEPtics

A8-page insert was included in the most important magazines (no less than 6 million copies over 4 weeks). Heavy discounts on nor-mal advertising fees were obtained, mainly through personal contacts. Therefore an invest-ment of 2 million euro created a campaign with a much higher value (7-9 million euro, say some estimates). Attention by the political world was strong, with many authorities visit-ing the area and some of them actually making last minute decisions to spend their summer holidays in Upper valtellina just after the flood. Support also came from Standa, a famous chain of department stores which organized special contests among its customers.

Not everybody, though, believed in the suc-cess of these measures – for example, the lift owner in Bormio didn't want to open that winter. He was convinced through bank guar-antees signed by local operators who agreed to cover any loss which might occur. Luckily for them, they didn't have to pay anything, as the season went so well, with an actual increase in the lift passes sold!

The authorities seized all possible occasions to promote the province, even in the following years. Among the many initiatives, a 1,000 sq. m. pavilion during the 1988 trade fair in milan was open. Another way to have positive media coverage came from sport events, such as the Fis Ski World Cup races or the Giro d'Italia bicy-cle competition.

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tHE lEgAcy AftEr 23 yEArs

Nearly all traces of the flood have now dis-appeared – except for the scar left by the big landslide, which is still visible. The road sys-tem is now more comfortable, thanks also to big investments by the central government through a special act of law, the 1990 “Legge valtellina”. more than 1.2 billion euro financed roads, infrastructure and other projects.

All in all, the name of valtellina is now bet-ter known than it used to be before, whereas the 1987 disaster is almost forgotten – and the sense of unity among tourist operators which characterized the months after the flood has also somewhat faded.

The author wishes to thank Gianni Confortola, Mario Cotelli and Credito Valtellinese for the pre-cious information provided.

By Adriano PedranaAdriano Pedrana is, among other things, journalist and promoter for Livigno and Valtellina.http://www.pedrana.it

http://www.olomouce-guide.com

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Januar y, 2011

Tourism companies sell Asian nature and cul-tural landscapes to their customers. Asia is a land rich in different cultures, which is what makes traveling there so appealing. South and Southeast Asia sits along the Indian ocean, a warm, inviting, and relaxing place to be. This was the case until the earthquake off the coast

of Sumatra caused a tsunami along the coast on December 26, 2004.

Asian governments were urging Western tourists not to change their travel plans. Tour-ism plays an important economic role in these countries, and in some cases accounts for more than half of the country's income. many

tourists have been frightened about traveling to this part of the world since the tsunami hit. over 7,000 tourists are said to have died from the disaster, and nearly 500 are missing. more than half of the death toll came from the coun-try of Sweden, which lost 3,559 citizens to the tsunami.

tsunAmi’s EffEcts on tourism

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Imagine sitting on the beach without a worry in the world, when suddenly the ocean's water drains outward at an incredible rate. Would you be intrigued to find out what happened, and venture into the area where fish are now flopping around, or where there are many sea shells and other sea creatures suddenly vis-ible? That is what many tourists did, and that is how many of their lives were taken. Curiosity got the best of them, while some indigenous peoples knew better and sought refuge in the mountains.

Indian ocean resorts had been experienc-ing a good tourist season. most tourists come from European countries and Austra-lia. The area had been avoided for sometime after the Bali bombings, Iraq invasion, and the threat of SARS. After these problems had begun to lessen, the tsunami suddenly brought more worry to the tourism indus-tries of the region.

indonEsiA

Indonesia was hit badly by the disaster, but hardest hit was northern Sumatra. This region is not a viable tourist hot spot, like other islands in the country (such as Bali and Lombok), due to an on-going civil war. The country hoped to actually increase its tourist count because most of its land was unharmed by the disaster, but tourist counts fell by 16% from the month of December to January. The previous year, tourist counts were down just 2% between the two months.

Indonesia depends on its tourism industry for about U.S. $5 billion per year and Bali accounts

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for about 60% of that income. Bali's tour-ism had suffered from previous years mostly because of terrorist bombings and the threat of SARS. Bali was not affected physically by the tsunami, but has been affected economically.

tHAilAnd

Hotels, restaurants, and other travel busi-nesses claim that the tsunami and aftershock had no long term impacts on Phuket's booking and arrivals, but one source states that there was a 27% drop in tourism.

"It's 99 percent operational now," Simon J. Hand, a Phuket resident who is associate edi-tor of Asia-Pacific Tropical Homes magazine, said in late march. "At its worst, it was 90 per-cent operational. Patong Beach is the main tourist trap, and the wave hit everything along the shorefront road. But 150 yards farther up, even the next day, you wouldn't have known anything happened."

The Bangkok Phuket Hospital is working to bring tourism back to the country. It claims that now is the time to visit Thailand, since there are many special deals at hotels and restaurants. Now, during the high season, the beaches are not over-crowded. The beaches are now cleaner than they have ever been due to cleanup efforts after the tsunami. Tourism websites assert that the best way to help the area recover is to simply visit it! They also try to lure some people in with saying

"We are ready for tourists that want to use our service like plastic surgery, dental treat-ments, or eye LASIK at TRSC at a fraction of the price in most western countries."

sri lAnKA

Sri Lanka was hardest hit in the southern regions. At first, workers in the tourism indus-try were upset at what appeared to be a lack of sympathy from tourists. Seeing tourists laughing and enjoying themselves was tough, considering many of the workers had lost their homes, families, and possessions to the tsu-nami. Tourism is the fourth largest industry in Sri Lanka, so when the industry started to slide, feelings were pushed aside to and more efforts were made to bring more people to the island.

"The Tourism ministry has begun a $6 million marketing campaign to lure visitors back to the

island, but the strategy has had only limited success. many areas remain in such bad shape that they offend the sensibilities of visitors who come in search of poolside relaxation."

About 800,000 people depend on the tour-ist industry either directly or indirectly in Sri Lanka. "Hotels across the country are running an average at 20% capacity, even thought 80% of them were untouched by the disaster"

indiA

It seems that India's tourism industry was not as badly hit as other countries. most tour-ist areas are along the Arabian Sea, while the

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Bay of Bengal supports local fisheries. There is one large commercial destination, Chennai (formerly madras), on the eastern coast of India that was hit hard. About 650,000 peo-ple were displaced in this area. Areas worst affected were the islands that are closest to the epicenter, which lie on the tip of India.

"Indira Point, which was India's southern-most tip and a 100-sq km island, has just dis-appeared into the ocean... Although there were some tourists and Andaman & Nicobar Islands were being positioned to become the next maldives, these plans will now need to be shelved, as there has been huge loss of coral and other marine life. Loss along India’s main coastline was concentrated on some regions and recovery and re-habilitation work is cur-rently ongoing."

The tourism outlook for India remains strong as its hotspots were not severely damaged, except for the Andaman and Nicobar islands. They also hope to bring in more tourists that would have otherwise gone to Thailand and malaysia.

lEt's bring tHE tourists bAcK!

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is working to find a solution in bring-ing tourists back to the area. ASEAN is a group of 10 member countries in Southeast Asia. members are working together to lure tourists into not only their own countries, but to South-east Asia as a whole. They have been invit-ing international travel writers and sending promotional video clips to potential tourists. ASEAN is also working to create more tourism amongst its own citizens to offset the loss from foreign travelers.

Governments maintain that their countries are safe for travelers and if anyone truly wants to help, they can start by reviving their tourist econ-omies. ASEAN is also working to make beaches safer, for example, there have been talks of set-ting up a tsunami early-warning system.

The countries understand that there is a psy-chological reason that tourists have not chosen them as destinations in recent months, but are optimistic that the effects of the tsunami will not be long-term and tourists will return soon.

SourCeSForbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/business/commerce/feeds/ap/2005/03/02/ap1857187.htmlTaipei Times : http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/01/25/2003220882Bertand's Weblog: http://www.codeconsult.ch/bertrand/archives/2005_01.html7,000 foreign tourists killed in tsunami: Hindustand Times.com: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1178745,001301540000.htmTsunami recovery: Tourism in Asia Starts Back: http://goasia.about.com/od/thailand/a/tsunamirecovery.htmTsunami Wave-an economic Tourist Disaster-Saturday, 8th January 2005 at 4 Hoteliers: http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_fshw.php?mwi=51

By Jennifer De Vries ([email protected])http://academic.evergreen.edu

(Text shortened)

http://www.tourism-review.com

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Tourism is often described as a fragile industry in that demand for travel is highly susceptible to numerous factors. Nevertheless, for many countries the tourism sector is an important contributor to the economy. Especially in some less economically developed countries the local economy is dependent upon and greatly relies upon the tourism industry. one of the most unforeseeable forces affecting tourism are natural disasters. Natural disasters can have a tremendous impact on tourism as they usually destroy the natural environment and infrastructure and thus tourism is significantly disrupted. Additionally, natural disasters more often than not cause an increase in tourists’ concerns about security and safety.

In late January 2010 Peru’s south-eastern region, the Cusco area, experienced heavy torrential rains which forced a two month clo-sure of Peru’s top tourist attraction, the Inca Citadel of machu Picchu. The Urubamba River, which runs down past the Inca ruins on machu Picchu, swelled to an unexpected volume of water and up to 20,000 people had their homes destroyed by the floods. According to The Economist, officials predicted a damage of $240m to infrastructure and farming.

machu Picchu with the pre-Columbian Inca site is one of the most popular tourist desti-nations in South America and normally some 68,000 people a month come to visit the ruins. Locals depend on those tourists, who reach the site either by walking along the Inca Trail, or via train.

The machu Picchu railway, which carried about 2,200 tourists a day was destroyed by the floods and the Inca ruins of machu Picchu

EmErgEncy: mAcHu PiccHu closEd

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were cut of from the lower sites. The heavy rains forced the evacuation of thousands of tourists from machu Picchu. As the Cusco region accounts for a high percentage of the country’s tourism revenue, Peru was facing fears of a tourism decline resulting from the natural disaster. In fact, thousands of foreign tourists cancelled their holidays to Peru. The inaccessibility of machu Picchu caused a loss of at least a million dollars a day for the Peru-vian tourism industry.

Bartolome Campana, director of the National Chamber of Tourism, highlighted the impor-tance of the tourism sector for Peru when he admitted that the country is dependent on tourism. The government reacted quickly and launched a campaign to deal with the destruc-tion. To help the tourism industry, government cut off prices. Domestic tourists were offered

half-price flights and hotel rooms to visit Cusco, the city nearest the world-famous machu Pic-chu.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the tourism revenues represent a highly significant 7.4 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and therefore great losses in this sector would affect thou-sands of jobs. The Peruvians seemed to have recognized the problem that was highlighted by the crisis – Peru’s over-dependence on machu Picchu for the tourism sector.

BBC online anticipated that “the number of holidays cancelled by European, Japanese and US tourists is clear evidence that for almost all first-time travellers to Peru, it's machu Pic-chu or bust”. Thus, the country decided to seize the opportunity and to diversify its tour-ism sector in both the short and long term. officials tried to encourage visitors to explore different parts of Peru such as the Nazca lines and the Colca canyon. other attractions in the Cusco region that have been promoted to keep people coming to Peru were Sacsayhua-mán fortress, the Coricancha sun temple or the town of Pisac.

The re-opening of machu Picchu at the beginning of April 2010 was of symbolic and economic importance to Peru. Peru's Tour-ism minister martin Perez estimated a loss of $185m (£122m) for the time the machu Picchu was closed. And according to Richard Leon, Director of the travel company Peru For Less, the natural disaster has been more disruptive to Peru’s tourism industry than the financial crisis and the swine flu combined.

Nevertheless, Peru seems to be back on track. Shortly after the floods the govern-ment estimated that despite the difficulties, about 2.2 million tourists would travel to Peru in 2010. With its main attraction, the machu Picchu, and the initiative to diversify and also promote other attractions Peru is likely to hold and maybe even improve its position as one of the top South American travel destinations.

In the end it clearly shows how important crisis management is in tourism, especially if tourism is such an essential part of the coun-try’s economy. But it also demonstrates that relying on a single attraction that acts as a pil-lar of a whole industry can have tremendous impacts in times of global warming and an increase in natural disasters.

By Wiebke Wohlfahrt

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Mt. eyjafjallajokull eruption in Iceland wreaked havoc on Europe’s air transport sys-tem and threatened to turn off the steady number of foreign tourists expected to visit Iceland in 2010. Tourism stakeholders in Ice-land, alarmed by twenty percent drop in visi-tor numbers in April and may compared to the previous year, got together and pooled their efforts in a joint marketing campaign named Inspired by Iceland.

The eruption claimed no lives and no homes were destroyed. A column of extremely fine grain ash rose high up in the sky where wind picked it up and blew it out to sea. Eventually the ash reached Britain and Ireland, mainland Europe and Scandinavia and airports in those areas were temporarily shut for passenger safety reasons.

A distinction must be made between two separate eruptions in and around mt. Eyjafjal-lajokull in 2010. The first one took place on the Fimmvorduhals Pass and the second one which produced the ash took place under the icecap near the top of mt. Eyjafjallajokull.

fimmvorduHAls PAss EruPtion

on 20 march 2010 a volcanic fissure opened on Fimmvorduhals Pass (1,100 m) between Eyjafjallajokull and myrdalsjokull glaciers. Although geologists had been monitoring the

area for a while prior to the eruption there had been no clear indication of an imminent erup-tion.

Standard precautionary acts included the immediate closure of airports. Some 800 peo-ple living in the vicinity of the mountain were summoned to leave their homes for the night for safety reasons. In hindsight those pre-cautionary measures were unnecessary but made it into the news worldwide thus rais-ing an alarm amongst individuals and school groups about to visit the country. As a result many postponed their visit to Iceland until fall while others gave up on the idea of visiting all together.

It is a bit ironic that at the same time as for-eign visitors cancelled their trip to Iceland many locals and some brave foreign visitors flocked to the eruption to see it in action at close quar-ters. It was a great spectacle to see the red hot lava with a yellow glow spout from one, and sometimes two, fissures before it flowed slowly down the hill in a northerly direction.

In one place the lava poured over the edge of a deep gorge and spread half way down like the ribs of a fan turned upside down. People watched this phenomenon in awe from a natu-ral viewing platform on the opposite site, lis-tening to the crumbling sound of the molten lava crushing down and felt its heat on their face and body.

As many as 5.000 people visited the eruption in a single day using various modes of trans-port to get there. Although most used modi-fied SUvs some actually walked while others used a snowmobile, a mountain bike or a heli-copter to experience the sight.

mt. EyjAfjAllAjoKull EruPtion

A second eruption started on 14 April below the icecap of mt. Eyjafjallajokull and ended rather unceremoniously around the middle of may. This eruption was triggered by the first eruption and was the one that proved cata-strophic for aviation in Europe and tourism at

crisis mAnAgEmEnt: EyjAfjAllAjoKull EruPtion

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large. The composition of the magma in the second eruption was much more explosive than in the first eruption. Further, meltwater from the glacier came into contact with the magma and caused even more violent explo-sions. This combination produced 10 km high column of very fine ash above the mountain.

People’s perception of the magnitude of the eruption and its effect on Iceland and its people was greatly exaggerated by the media. Indeed, if it had not been for the media, people in Reykjavik, just over an hour’s drive away from the mountain, would have remained oblivious to its existence. All four international airports remained operational throughout the eruption with the exception that two had to be closed for about five days in total. The eruption had

no effect or little effect on air travel between Iceland and the Americas.

insPirEd by icElAnd mArKEting cAmPAign

The ministry of Tourism, Industry and Energy in co-operation with Icelandair and Iceland Express airlines, Reykjavik city, the Export Council and the Iceland Tour operators’ Association launched an ambitious market-ing campaign named Inspired by Iceland. The campaign which cost US$ 6 million ran from mid-may through mid-July 2010 and was sup-posed to convey the message that it was safe to travel to Iceland. The campaign included a fresh internet approach using community based websites such as Facebook and Twitter and reached about 2 million people, press trips for travel journalists, website advertising ban-ners in several countries etc.

Although it is quite difficult to assess the campaign’s actual success it is a fact that in the period January to November there was only 1.5 percent decline in the number of visitors in 2010 compared to the same period in the previous year. A much less drop then feared. Those responsible for the campaign are happy with its success. It was even nominated in two categories for the European Excellence Award 2010 – an award for best corporate commu-nication and public relations in Europe. It was nominated in the best campaign in the Nordic

countries as well as best crisis management campaign categories.

Icelanders were encouraged to take part in the campaign by sending a message to foreign friends abroad and contribute videos. Perhaps more important than the concrete success or failure of the campaign is the new found col-lectiveness of diverse groups of stakeholders in tourism – ranging from the general public to the government, local authority, travel agents, tour operators, restaurants and transport com-panies.

lEssons lEArnt

A memorandum from stakeholder’s close-up meeting reiterates positive aspects gained from the campaign. Tourism stakeholders worked together united with the one goal in mind to minimize the negative economic effect of the two eruptions by attracting more tour-ists. Locally the campaign brought attention to the importance of the tourism industry which until now has been seen as a marginal industry by the public and policy makers.

By Stefan Helgi ValssonStefan Helgi Valsson is a freelance journalist and lec-turer in tourism geography at the university of Iceland. He is a professional tourist guide in Iceland, tourist guide trainer and founder of reykjavik Bike Tours.http://www.reykjavikbiketours.is

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on 14 April 2010 a volcanic eruption started under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier in Iceland, generating considerable news about the country, some of it inaccurate. The eruption’s impact and the ash clouds that it caused are now infamous in the tourism industry world-

wide. Within days of the eruption, a wave of cancellations began across all sectors and tour-ist arrivals shrank by 22% in April alone. Had the situation been ignored, it would have had a disastrous impact on the important tourism industry in Iceland, one of the most important

sectors of the economy. yet the way in which the Eyjafjallajökull eruption was tackled by the small nation’s tourism professionals and other interested parties led to a more successful peak season than even the most optimistic had thought possible.

Joining forces, the Icelandic government, the City of Reykjavík, airlines Icelandair and Ice-land Express, Promote Iceland and about 80 other tourism-related companies took quick actions to address challenges and misconcep-tions about travel to Iceland during and after the eruption. These actions began as an offen-sive crisis management effort to counter the worldwide impression that travelling to Ice-land was dangerous.

A primary dimension of the strategy was the launch of the successful campaign Inspired by Iceland. The campaign encourages people to travel to the country with the argument that “Iceland has never been more awake and there has never been a more exciting time to visit the country.” Its main focus is to allow individuals to share their stories and memories of Iceland, and hopefully turning a negative event—the fear caused by the volcano—into a positive result—changing the focus of international attention on Iceland into a chance to showcase the island’s many unique and appealing attri-butes. The campaign’s website, Inspiredbyice-land.com, is its main platform.

The campaign was launched on 3 June with “Iceland Hour” – an hour during which the entire nation became involved by sending tens of thousands of messages to family and friends all over the world. These messages included links to a video promoting Iceland as a travel

joining forcEs: insPirEd by icElAnd

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destination, using the upbeat song “Jungle Drum” by Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini. The video shows people joyously danc-ing to Torrini’s song in various locations (both rural and urban), demonstrating that Iceland is still full of life and unaffected by ash. Iceland Hour was a huge success, with one-third of the nation taking part. As of November 2010, the website with the video has been visited over three million times.

Celebrities also joined the campaign by shar-ing their stories; among them are yoko ono, Eric Clapton and viggo mortensen. over 500 stories from friends of Iceland have also been shared on the website. Stephen Fry, the British television presenter, tweeted: “Despite what you might think, Iceland is as alive and charming as ever.”

And he’s right. The newest figures evaluating “Inspired by Iceland” indicate a strong global impact. Although the full effects of the cam-paign will take some time to register, a sur-vey conducted in the UK, Germany and Den-mark indicated increased interest in Iceland as a destination. The objective of saving the high season was also achieved, with figures for travellers coming to Iceland equalling the number for 2009 with only a 0.6% decrease, and with a 12% increase in incoming travel-lers in october.

Iceland has never been more awake – its rough landscape and ever-changing weather is an important part of the attraction and lei-sure of this Iceland in the North Atlantic. The Icelandic music scene is alive, with Iceland Air-

waves being the highlight, and from the spring of 2011 Icelandic music and events will have a new home in Harpa, the breathtaking concert hall and conference centre being built at Reyk-javík harbour.

Iceland, with its unspoiled nature and Scan-dinavian infrastructure, is also a perfect health and wellness destination, taking visitors far from the madding crowd and welcoming them in peaceful and tranquil surroundings. Come and be active, be inspired.

By Anna Valdimarsdóttir ([email protected]) and Inga Hlín Pálsdóttir ([email protected])http://www.inspiredbyiceland.com

tourism review online magazine - natural disasters: real force majeure for tourism

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