Tourists require better information on tsunami-affected destinations

Tourism authorities in the countries affected by the South East Asia tsunami need to provide accurate information on the scale of the damage if they want to convince visitors to return to the area, a University of Ulster expert said today.

Stephen Boyd, Professor of Tourism at the University, said the tourism industry was not good at crisis management following natural disasters.

“It can respond well to human induced problems such as conflicts, acts of terrorism or wars but does not have a crisis management plan to respond to natural disasters such as the tsunami,” Professor Boyd said.

“What the industry needs to do now is tell potential tourists to South-East Asia the scale of the damage following December 26 – how many hotels were affected, what areas are still open for business and the fact that local communities are calling for tourists to return to the area.

“It will be a big challenge to convince western tourists to go back to an area where thousands of westerners died.”

He welcomed the decision of the World Tourism Organisation – an umbrella agency of the United Nations that covers the tourism and related industry sectors in 145 countries – to hold special meetings in Thailand this week to draw up a plan to accelerate tourism recovery in the region.

“It is vital that we get the facts right. Inaccurate reporting about the region will do so much damage to the tourism economy that it may never recover. That will be another tragedy for people who have already suffered the loss of family members in many cases and have also suffered the loss of income from tourism, their only means of livelihood,” he concluded.

The World Tourism body operates in 145 countries, seven territories and has 300 affiliated members representing the interest of local government, tourism association and private sector companies such as hotel groups, airlines and tour operators.

(MB/SP)