GAR 2013 Main Report

149

Good examples do exist, however, as with Fiji where the banking and insurance sectors work together to protect their investment in tourism assets ( GAR 13 paper

Mahon et al., 2012

Mahon, R., Backen, S. and Rennie, H. 2012.,Evaluating the Business Case for Investment in the Risk Resilience of the Tourism sector of Small Island Developing States., Background Paper prepared for the 2013 Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction., Geneva,Switzerland: UNISDR..
Click here to view this GAR paper.

). A new alliance between the Insurance Council of Fiji and the Fiji Institute of Engineers has resulted in a certification programme overseen by a vetted panel of engineers. To acquire insurance and access bank loans, builders are required to go through this certification programme (Ibid.).

9.5

The double-edged sword
of social demand

Client demand in the tourism sector continuously undermines efforts to create incentives for more risk-sensitive investment. New and unique selling points for holiday destinations that meet the current demand and yet promote resilience should be identified.

Up to 2,700 tourists may have died in coastal resorts in Thailand in the December 2004 tsunami (Rosa, 2012

Rosa, D. 2012.,The Boxing Day tsunami and its effects on Thailand's tourism.. Available at http://www.neumann.edu/academics/divisions/business/journal/Review2012/Rosa.pdf.

). However, this mass mortality did not diminish the enthusiasm of tourists for tsunami-prone coastal areas, in Thailand or elsewhere.

Social demand, expressed through market demand, plays an important role when changing investment behaviour in other industries. In the tourism sector, however, the demand itself is driving the risk with limited incentives to proactively reduce it. In fact, an asymmetry exists in the valuation of risk by potential tourists: destinations perceived as unsafe benefit from efforts that counter this perception, whereas places that are already perceived as relatively safe do not increase arrivals by specifically promoting this aspect (Sirakaya et al., 1997

Sirakaya, E., Sheppard, A.G. and McLellan, R.W. 1997.,Assessment of the relationship between perceived safety at a vacation site and destination choice decisions: extending the behavioral decision-making model., Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 1997, 21(1).. .

). This means that to a certain extent, although destinations may be punished for being perceived as unsafe, there is no reward for being perceived as safe ( GAR 13 paper

Mahon et al., 2012

Tourists prefer proximity to the beach, which poses a challenge to coastal zoning for safe tourism

developments. A survey of 367 international visitors to the island of Tobago revealed that about 43 percent thought that it is moderately to extremely important that their hotels have disaster plans; a similar percentage found it moderately to extremely important to receive guarantees of personal safety from disasters; whereas about 40 percent of tourists thought it moderately to extremely important to receive information about disaster events at their hotel. However, more than 82 percent thought that it is moderately to extremely important that their hotel be located close to the beach ( GAR 13 paper

Mahon et al., 2012

As a consequence, the tourism sector can actively distort communication of risk information. Examples from the Maldives and Thailand specifically show that the tourism industry can be reluctant to share risk information out of concern that tourists will perceive them as lacking destination safety (Becken et al., 2011

Becken, S., Hay, J. and Espiner, S. 2011.,The risk of climate change for tourism in the Maldives., In: Butler, R. and Carlsen, J., (eds): Island Tourism Development. Journeys towards Sustainability., Wallingford, UK: CABI.. .

; Rittichainuwat, 2012; GAR 13 paper

Mahon et al., 2012

At the same time, although tourists may place responsibility for disaster risk management on resort and facility managers, the industry assumes that responsibility lies with local and national governments (Drabek, 2000

Drabek, T.E. 2000.,Disaster evacuations: Tourist-business managers rarely act as customers expect., Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, August 2000, pp.48-57.. .

), who may not have fully assessed the risks. In Florida, for example, only about one-half of tourism businesses surveyed in 2011 had either written procedures for disaster events or evacuation plans in place (Pennington-Gray et al., 2011

Pennington-Gray, L., Thapa, B., Kaplanidou, K., Cahyanto, I. and McLaughlin, E. 2011.,Crisis Planning and Preparedness in the United States Tourism Industry., Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 52(3), 312-320.. .

). Even major hotel chains do not visibly take disaster risk into account (Bouvier and Konold, 2011

Bouvier, A. and Konold, C. 2011.,Pre-crisis and emergency risk communication in the hotel industry in partnership with non-Governmental organizations.. .

Yet, there are signs that in transparently managing disaster risks in the tourism sector, both businesses making investments and SIDS striving to attract those investments increase their competitiveness. Several countries that have begun to spearhead this challenge are investing in measures that move significantly beyond ‘business as usual’ response preparedness to potentially effective risk management and reduction ( GAR 13 paper

Wright, 2013

Wright, N. 2013.,Small Island Developing States, disaster risk management, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and tourism., Background Paper prepared for the 2013 Global ASsessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction., Geneva,Switzerland:UNISDR..
Click here to view this GAR paper.

). Varied mea-