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2011 52: 312 originally published online 17 June 2011Cornell Hospitality QuarterlyLori Pennington-Gray, Brijesh Thapa, Kyriaki Kaplanidou, Ignatius Cahyanto and Elaine McLaughlin

Crisis Planning and Preparedness in the United States Tourism Industry  

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Lodging Strategy

1University of Florida, Gainesville

Corresponding Author:Lori Pennington-Gray, Department of Tourism, Recreation, and Sport Management, UF’s College of Health and Human Performance, University of Florida, 325 FLG, PO Box 118209, Gainesville, FL 32608 Email: penngray@hhp.ufl.edu

Crisis Planning and Preparedness in the United States Tourism Industry

By Lori Pennington-Gray1, Brijesh Thapa1, Kyriaki Kaplanidou1, Ignatius Cahyanto1, and Elaine McLaughlin1

Abstract

An empirical exploration of disaster planning and preparedness for the industry finds a reasonably high level of planning, with noteworthy weaknesses. Based on 155 telephone interviews with tourism leaders from three industry segments (namely, lodging, attractions, and promotions), the majority of organizations surveyed had a written crisis preparedness plan which was updated regularly—often annually. Most organizations had direct communication arrangements with local emergency preparedness agencies, but connections with national agencies, notably the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were less frequent. Given that many respondents were in destinations with many visitors (in this case, Florida), perhaps most troublesome finding was the relatively low percentage of written plans addressing procedures for visitors—mentioned by barely half of the respondents—and the relatively low participation in central relocation systems—again, just half of respondents. Overall, resource allocation had a greater impact on whether an organization would engage in crisis planning and communication procedures than did crisis experience.

Keywords

tourism industry, crisis management, emergency preparedness, crisis communication

Given the economic importance of the tourism industry, the effects of a crisis can have devastating and sustained long-term impacts for destinations, as well as the nation’s econ-omy (Blake & Sinclair 2003; Faulkner 2001; Heath 1998; Santana 2004). Travel and tourism is a $1.3 trillion industry in the United States, which directly generates 7.7 million jobs with $177 billion in payroll income. It also contributes $117 billion in tax revenues for federal, state, and local gov-ernments. Tourism is the third largest retail industry and also is the first, second, or third largest industry in 90 percent of the fifty U.S. states (United States Travel Association 2009). Hence, it is imperative for national, state, and local governments to focus on preparedness and recovery efforts for the tourism industry (Gurtner 2005; Ritchie 2004). In this article, we explain the findings of an exploratory study that examines the status of disaster planning among a group of U.S. travel-related agencies and businesses.

The tourism industry has been one of many businesses affected by numerous crises and disasters around the globe in recent years (Faulkner 2001; Ritchie 2004; Santana 2004). As part of an overall regional disaster plan, tourism organizations and destinations need to be prepared to assist tourists during catastrophic events, and tourism destination managers should have crisis and disaster management com-petency (Ritchie 2004). While the specific nature of a crisis or disaster cannot be known in advance, managers can still

reduce the risks through meticulous preparation for incident management based on likely occurrences (Faulkner 2001). When we speak of crisis management, we mean planning for, responding to, and recovering from a crisis or disaster. Tourism crisis management plans comprise communication and training, visitor evacuation, and economic recovery.

Although many researchers have written about crises and disasters, we have seen little emphasis with regard to the tourism industry (Paraskevas and Arendell 2007; Santana 2004), especially with respect to comprehensive and inte-grated crisis management, disaster recovery, or organiza-tional continuity (Lee and Harrald 1999; Ritchie 2004). Studies related to tourism have generally focused on a specific cri-sis or the effects of a particular event, recovery efforts, and strategic management frameworks.

Studies have also examined travelers’ destination image, risk perception, safety, and travel destination choices in connection with specific manmade or natural crises and

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Pennington-Gray et al. 313

disasters (Carter 1998; Floyd et al. 2004; Kozak, Crotts, and Law 2007; Law 2006; Lepp and Gibson 2008; Pizam, Tarlow, and Bloom 1997; Reisinger and Mavondo 2005; Rittichainuwat 2006; Sonmez and Graefe 1998; Thapa, Holland, and Absher 2008). Unfortunately, what we do not find is integrative research that examines the current levels of preparedness and planning for crises and disasters within the U.S. tourism industry. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to explore current levels of preparedness and planning within the U.S. tourism industry to provide a benchmark for inter-ested parties.

Literature ReviewTourism Crisis Management Planning

In 2003 the Pacific Area Travel Association (PATA) pro-posed a comprehensive four-phase disaster planning model—Reduction, Readiness, Response, and Recovery—that is most applicable for destination planners. Created through the collaboration of multiple stakeholders, the model is geared toward destination management organizations (DMOs). Component one, the reduction phase, outlines a proactive approach to increase crisis awareness through potential crisis identification, emphasizing and securing political aware-ness on the impact of crisis to the tourism industry, and designing standard operating procedures to address the potential crisis. These procedures are developed through a SWOT analysis of an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Step two, readiness, refers to the activities and procedures that are necessary to evaluate the level of organizational preparedness for a potential crisis and the development of a strategic, tactical communication plan to manage a potential crisis. In the readiness phase, the DMO would design a crisis management plan that desig-nates a crisis management team, alerts tourism-related industries that the plan and team exist, and prepares appro-priate health and safety procedures.

The response phase explores the effectiveness of plans and procedures that are designed as part of reduction and readiness phases. An emergency response should include communication procedures, investigation of travelers’ sta-tus, and assistance for individuals and families. The recov-ery phase specifies procedures and plans designed to return a community to normalcy. In the crisis response and recovery phase, DMOs would implement a business conti-nuity plan, address human issues, and debrief all parties involved.

Crisis CommunicationCrisis communication has been extensively studied and employed as an important element in the strategic planning process in the response phase of the PATA tourism crisis

management framework (Cloudman and Hallahan 2006). A written crisis communication plan is vital to the overall framework for strategic communication that allows organi-zations to respond quickly and effectively (Cloudman and Hallahan 2006; Fall 2004; Carden 2003).

More important, the role of media (Beirman 2003; Keown-McMullan 1997), information technology (Troy et al. 2008), and the internet and social media (Jefferson 2006) need to be continually reevaluated. In particular, social networking needs to be used to provide critical avenues for information dissemination to prevent or offset negative (and inaccurate) information flow. Without a proactive positive approach, rapidly spreading, intense negative publicity can dramatically affect a destination’s marketing appeal (Armstrong 2005; Armstrong and Ritchie 2008), especially during the recov-ery stage, given that most tourists give paramount consider-ation to safety concerns (Floyd et al. 2004; Kozak, Crotts, and Law 2007; Law 2006; Lepp and Gibson 2008; Reisinger and Mavondo 2005; Sonmez and Graefe 1998).

Studies that examined communication strategies during and after the 9/11 terrorist attack, for example, found that immediate, reactive yet strategic communication was criti-cal to the recovery of the tourism industry (Fall 2004; Fall and Massey 2005). Overall, the focus of crisis communica-tion is to provide a steady flow of correct and consistent information to the public and associated stakeholders (Ritchie 2004). The information should be designed with customized messages to different stakeholder groups, which should be identified in advance. Regaining visitor confi-dence and speeding up a destination’s image recovery is one key reason to formulate detailed crisis communication and marketing plans (Law 2006; Sonmez, Apostolopoulos, and Tarlow 1999).

Predictors of Tourism Crisis Management PlanningA DMO’s ability to develop a comprehensive tourism crisis management plan depends on factors both external and internal to the organization (Ritchie 2004; Heath 1995; Glaesser 2006). Internal factors usually relate to the culture of the organization, commitment of top management (Cassedy 1991; Faulkner 2001; Turner 1994), commitment of resources to the process (Blackman and Ritchie 2007; Cloudman and Hallahan 2006; Marra 1998), size of the organization (Caponigro 2000; Cloudman and Hallahan 2006; Guth 1995; Spillan and Hough 2003), financial posi-tion of the organization (Pearson and Mitroff 1993; Ritchie 2004; Spillan and Hough 2003), and autonomy and process orientation (Cloudman and Hallahan 2006). External fac-tors generally include experiences with crises (Guth 1995; Pearson and Mitroff 1993), opportunities to develop a plan (Marra 1998), the media’s effect on the organization (Sonmez, Apostolopoulos, and Tarlow 1999), threat level

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314 Cornell Hospitality Quarterly 52(3)

Exhibit 1:Predictors of tourism crisis communication procedures and crisis planning

Resource Allocation

Crisis Experience

Tourism Crisis Planning Criteria

Tourism Crisis Communication

Procedures

of a crisis, and the degree of control in response to a crisis (Ritchie 2009).

Among the internal factors, top management’s commit-ment to developing a crisis management plan is the most important factor in determining the likelihood that an effective plan will be developed, that guidance during the crisis will be effective, and that a strong message will be communicated during and after the crisis (Faulkner 2001; Turner 1994; Cassedy 1991). Parsons (1996) recommends the designation of one senior executive as head of the cri-sis team and as spokesperson. Resource allocation in the event of a crisis indicates an organization’s commitment to crisis management (Ritchie 2004). These resources typ-ically include both financial and human resources, and can represent funds allocated toward the development of a plan (e.g., create teams who meet regularly, train employ-ees, and participate in the local emergency operations cen-ter meetings), and also include support services for victims of crises (e.g., lodging for employees who may need it dur-ing a crisis).

With regard to the organization’s size and financial posi-tion, large organizations may be more likely than small organizations to have a plan (Caponigro 2000). In addition to having fewer resources, Caponigro (2000) suggests that small organizations may believe that crisis planning is less important, may assume that a crisis will not affect their industry, or think that their well-managed business could manage through a crisis without a plan. The strongest pre-dictive external factor for a crisis plan is crisis experience (Guth 1995; Pearson and Mitroff 1993), simply because an organization that has experienced a crisis is more likely to invest in the development of a plan.

Purpose of StudyThe purpose of this study was to explore current levels of crisis planning and preparedness in the U.S. tourism indus-try, and to examine the influence of organization or busi-ness resource allocation and crisis experience with respect to communication procedures and planning criteria. The study tests the conceptual model shown in Exhibit 1 and the three following research questions formulated based on the review of literature.

Research Question 1: What is the current scope of crisis planning and preparedness among tourism organizations or businesses?

Research Question 2: To what extent does resource allocation and crisis experience affect tourism organizations’ or businesses’ crisis communica-tion procedures?

Research Question 3: To what extent does resource allocation and crisis experience affect tourism organization or business crisis planning criteria?

Method

This exploratory study used 155 phone interviews with key state and national tourism organization leaders to examine the state of disaster planning. We first conducted a pilot test to assess interview length and the content validity of the items and constructs in the survey. After some minor changes and starting with a sample of 364 participants in the annual conferences of the Tourism Industry Associa-tion (TIA) and the Florida Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau (FACVB), we were able to complete a total of 155 phone interviews in January 2008 (a response rate of 43 percent). Eighty-eight percent of the sample consisted of representatives from promotion organizations (primarily DMOs and tourism boards), but the other two main tourism industry sectors were also represented: lodging (3 percent, mostly large resort hotels) and attractions (9 percent, largely nature-based attractions and theme parks). Participants represented organizations with an average of thirty-three years in operation. One-fourth of the sample was located in Florida.

Independent VariablesThe model’s two independent variables were resource allo-cation (an internal factor) and crisis experience (an external factor). Resource allocation (monies or resources such as time allocated by top management to support crisis man-agement planning) was measured with the following three questions: (1) Does your organization or business provide emergency preparedness training for employees? (2) Does your organization or business have a seat at the emergency operations center (EOC) during an emergency in your area or region? and (3) Does your organization or business have access to a centralized reservation system to place evacuat-ing visitors or incoming emergency workers in available lodging in your area or region? We thought that these three items created a good gauge of resource allocation, because access to a centralized reservation system requires financial and human resources. Certainly, having a seat at the EOC

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would suggest a commitment on management’s part to emergency planning and emergency procedures.

The logical measure for crisis experience was whether the organization or business had actually experienced at least one of twelve natural disasters or manmade crises. We did not judge the intensity of any crisis, but simply recorded the range of emergencies. Thus, we simply asked: “Please tell me if your organization or business or area has had any experience with each of these types of emergency or crisis situations within the past five years?”

Dependent VariablesThe dependent variables were the following: crisis com-munication procedures and crisis planning criteria. We mea-sured crisis communication procedures in an index based on whether a business or organization had a direct commu-nication protocol during emergencies or crises with any of fourteen agencies and organizations related to emergency preparedness and tourism. Those fourteen organizations were local, state, and national government and emergency management agencies, local and national weather stations, the official state tourism office, and local and national media.

For crisis planning criteria, we developed an index based on six items related to whether the organization or business had a written emergency plan for employees and visitors, a written evacuation plan, and standard operating procedures and a manual for those procedures; whether the organiza-tion or business played a role in training the industry for emergencies; and whether it coordinated with the State Office of Tourism.

ResultsResearch Question 1: Emergency Preparedness

On average, all respondents reported a high involvement (63 percent) of their headquarters or CEO in emergency preparedness planning. Twenty-eight percent said that they were “somewhat involved” while 5 percent noted a lack of involvement. About one-third of the respondents reported that the ultimate decision maker in times of crisis was the president (32 percent), while the chief executive officer was cited by 13 percent of respondents, and 53 percent indicated that some other position was the primary decision maker. In terms of resource allocation commitment, 58 percent noted that their organization or business provided emergency preparedness training for employees. Forty-nine percent reported that their organization or business had a seat at the emergency operations center, and 37 percent indicated that their organization or business had access to a centralized reservation system to place evacuating visitors or incoming emergency workers (see Exhibit 2).

Exhibit 2:Resource Allocation

Yes No

Resource Allocation n % n %

Does your organization or business provide emergency preparedness training for employees?

90 58.1 65 41.9

Does your organization or business have a seat at the Emergency Operations Center during an emergency in your area or region?

65 48.9 68 51.1

Does your organization or business have access to a centralized reservation system to place evacuating visitors or incoming emergency workers in available lodging in your area or region

55 36.7 95 63.3

Exhibit 3:Crisis Experience

Yes No

Crisis Experience n % N %

Weather 118 74.7 40 25.3Natural disasters 102 65.0 55 34.8Crime 62 40.5 91 59.5Equipment failure 37 23.6 120 76.4Physical (accidents) 34 22.1 120 77.9Financial 21 13.6 133 86.4Health 17 10.9 139 89.1Cultural barriers 17 11.2 135 88.8Food Safety 14 9.0 141 91.0Terrorism 12 7.7 144 92.3Disease 8 5.1 148 94.9Political 2 1.3 153 98.7

Most respondents indicated that they had experienced some form of emergency in the previous five years. Weather emergencies (75 percent), natural disasters (65 percent), and crime (40 percent) were identified as the top three. The bottom three included terrorism (8 percent), disease (5 per-cent), and political instability (1 percent) (see Exhibit 3).

Communication procedures were relatively consis-tent, as most respondents noted that their organization had a direct communication arrangement with emergency preparedness agencies. Typically these are local agen-cies, including the official state tourism office (92 per-cent), the local tourism industry (89 percent), local media (88 percent), local and county government (87 percent), and local emergency management agency (85 percent).

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316 Cornell Hospitality Quarterly 52(3)

Exhibit 4:Crisis Communication Procedure

Crisis Communication Procedure

Yes No

n % n %

Official state tourism office 141 92.2 12 7.8Local tourism industry 136 88.9 17 11.1Local media 133 87.5 19 12.5Local and county government

129 87.2 19 12.8

Local emergency management agency

127 85.2 22 14.8

State government 117 78.0 33 22.0State emergency management agency

109 74.1 38 25.9

Visitors to your organization or geographic area

103 67.8 49 32.2

National tourism industry 87 59.2 60 40.8Local weather service 85 61.6 53 38.4National media 82 55.4 66 44.6National weather service 54 39.1 84 60.9National emergency management agency

45 32.6 93 67.4

National government 42 31.6 91 68.4

Exhibit 5:Crisis Planning Criteria

Yes No

Crisis Planning Criteria n % n %

Does your organization or business have a written emergency preparedness plan for employees?

114 77.6 33 22.4

Does your organization or business have a written emergency preparedness plan for visitors?

63 44.7 78 55.3

Does your organization or business have a written evacuation plan?

115 76.2 36 23.8

Does your organization or business have a standard operating procedures and manual?

102 72.9 38 27.1

Does your organization or business play a role in training the industry for emergencies?

68 44.2 86 55.8

Is your organization or business coordinated with the state office of tourism?

136 88.9 17 11.1

About one-third reported a communication connection with the national government (32 percent) or the federal emergency management agency (FEMA) (33 percent) (see Exhibit 4).

The majority (78 percent) of respondents’ organizations had a written emergency preparedness plan for employees. This included four lodging properties, eleven of the four-teen attractions, and 137 promotion agencies. Eighty per-cent of the respondents indicated that their plan was updated annually; 92 percent noted the plan was specific to their organization, and 87 percent reported that the plan was in coordination with local emergency services. Just under half of the respondents (45 percent) reported having a written emergency preparedness plan for visitors. Two of lodging firms and ten of the attractions had a written plan for visi-tors, and 42 percent (n = 57) of the promotion organizations did so. Eighty-five percent noted that the written plan was updated annually, 90 percent noted that it was specific to their organization, and 97 percent reported that the plan was coordinated with local emergency services.

A solid 76 percent of the responding organizations had a written evacuation plan, three of the four hotels, all but one of the attractions, and 102 of the promotion firms. Seventy-eight percent reported that the plan was updated annually, while 82 percent noted it to be specific to their organization. Similar numbers of respondents indicated that their organiza-tion had a standard operating procedure (SOP) and manual.

In total, 73 percent of the organizations had SOPs, includ-ing three of the four hotels, eleven of the fourteen attrac-tions, and 72 percent of the promotion organizations. The SOPs and manual were updated annually by 81 percent of the organizations, and 95 percent said these SOPs were spe-cific to their organization.

With respect to training, 68 percent indicated that their organization or business played a role in training the indus-try for emergencies. More specifically, three of four within the lodging segment noted their training, followed by 63 organizations within the promotions segment. Finally, about 89 percent reported that their organization coordi-nated with the State Office of Tourism. Again, almost all the lodging and promotion segments indicated that they are so coordinated (see Exhibit 5).

Research Question 2: Crisis Communication ProceduresA multiple regression analysis was used to test the impact of tourism organizations’ resource allocation and crisis experience on the extent of direct communication proce-dures with various agencies and organizations related to emergency preparedness and tourism. As we indicated above, the model examined the effects of two independent variables (resource allocation index and crisis experience index) on a single dependent variable (crisis communica-tion procedure index). Multicollinearity tests did not reveal any problems with the correlations among the independent variables (Tolerance was .95 and Variance Inflation Factor [VIF] was 1.05). The low multicollinearity indicators also

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Pennington-Gray et al. 317

Exhibit 7:Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations for Predicting Crisis Communication Procedures

Variable M SD 1 2

Communication Procedures Index 9.18 3.68 .68** .29*Predictor variables Resource Allocation Index 1.42 1.22 — .17* Crisis Experience Index 2.75 2.12 —

**p < .005, *p < .05.

Exhibit 9:Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations for Predicting Crisis Planning Criteria

Variable M SD 1 2

Crisis Planning Criteria Index 3.96 1.74 .69** .31*Predictor variables Resource Allocation Index 1.46 1.15 — .22* Crisis Experience Index 2.85 2.04 —

**p < .005, *p < .05.

Exhibit 8:Regression Analysis Summary for Predicting Crisis Planning Criteria

Variable B SE B β

Resource Allocation Index 0.98 .10 .65**Crisis Experience Index 0.14 .06 .16*

Note: R2 = .50 (n = 109, p < .005).*p < .05, **p < .005.

suggested a lack of potential interaction between the two interval variables (Tabachnick and Fidell 2007).

The results showed a statistically significant impact of both independent variables on the dependent variable, with 50 percent of the variance explained. The resource alloca-tion index had a higher impact on the crisis communication procedures index (β = .65, p < .005) than did the crisis expe-rience index (β = .17, p < .05). The results are illustrated in Exhibit 6, and Exhibit 7 gives the means, standard devia-tions, and intercorrelations included in the model.

Research Question 3: Crisis Planning CriterionLikewise, a multiple regression was used to test the impact of a tourism organization’s resource allocation and crisis experience on its crisis management planning, again mea-suring the effect of the resource allocation index and the crisis experience index on the crisis planning criteria index. Multicollinearity tests did not reveal any problems with the correlations among the independent variables (Tolerance and VIF tests were identical as above because of the same independent variables). Likewise, the results showed a statistically significant impact of both independent variables on crisis management planning. The resource allocation index again had a higher impact on the crisis planning criteria index (β = .65, p < .005) than did the crisis experience index (β = .16, p < .05), and the two independent variables again explained 50 percent of the variance in the dependent variable. The results are reported in Exhibit 8,

Exhibit 6:Regression Analysis Summary for Predicting Crisis Communication Procedures

Variable B SE B β

Resource Allocation Index 1.98 .22 .65**Crisis Experience Index 0.30 .12 .17*

Note: R2 = .50 (n = 99, p < .005).*p < .05, **p < .005.

and the means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among all the variables included in the model are noted in Exhibit 9.

DiscussionThis study’s chief finding is encouraging. The majority of travel-related organizations in the sample had a written crisis preparedness plan, which was (in most cases) updated annually. This far exceeds the findings of Drabek (1995), who reported that only 28 percent of the tourism firms he studied had a written disaster management plan. This is also a favorable result compared to two studies from the turn of the century, which found that only 40 to 50 percent of nontourism companies had crisis management plans (Kiger 2001; Penrose 2000).

Also encouraging is this study’s finding of a high degree of involvement by top leadership in emergency prepared-ness planning. However, the level of resource allocation commitment was not extremely promising. Slightly more than half of the sample reported that they provide emer-gency preparedness training for employees, while less than half had access to a centralized reservation system and a seat at the emergency operations center during an emer-gency. Moreover, it was surprising that only 37 percent indicated having access to a centralized reservation system to find lodging for evacuating visitors or incoming emer-gency workers. This finding was puzzling given that the main concern (based on experience) was weather-related crisis and natural disasters. It would be reasonable to expect

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318 Cornell Hospitality Quarterly 52(3)

that the industry would be intimately involved with housing and coordinating visitors and emergency management work-ers during and after a crisis. Perhaps the respondents may have misinterpreted the idea of a centralized reservation and thought it had to be an electronic system rather than a formal network that may include merely making phone calls on behalf of those needing shelter.

Since most of the sample was local promotion agencies, it makes sense that communication procedures among the organizations predominantly involved local agencies (e.g., official state tourism office, local tourism industry, local media, and local government and EMS agency). However, we were surprised to find that only 42 percent had a written emergency preparedness plan for visitors. More promising were the number that had a written emergency preparedness plan for employees (77 percent) and the 75 percent that had a written general written evacuation plan. Even so, we would have hoped that all the promotion organizations would have written plans in place, given that they are in the business of attracting and optimizing visitor experiences.

The lack of communication with the national govern-ment and FEMA is particularly disquieting, since the major-ity of the respondents represented DMOs and tourism boards, which are the very organizations that should be working with federal agencies in a natural disaster. We note that many of the respondents are located in Florida, which has had more than its share of weather-related issues. A more concerted effort is needed to develop formal commu-nication policies and procedures with federal agencies. At the international level, for instance, the World Travel Organization (UNWTO) has implemented a communica-tion procedure referred to as TERN or Tourism Emergency Response Network, which operates as a mechanism for communication in the event of a crisis. Faced with a crisis or disaster, the UNWTO would implement the TERN net-work, whereby all members of TERN are notified about the crisis and would collectively congregate via conference call to discuss the implementation strategy. The involvement of UNWTO is recommended for communication procedures and policies that could operate nationally.

Finally, results identified that both resource allocation and past crisis experience were predictors for crisis planning and communication procedures. The findings support the lit-erature in which internal factors such as commitment from top management and commitment of resources to the pro-cess are important factors in determining the likelihood of an effective plan. Other studies have found that crisis experi-ence is the most predictive factor for an organization’s likeli-hood of investing in the development of a plan (e.g., Pearson and Mitroff 1993). However, in this study, resource alloca-tions were stronger predictors than past crisis experience with respect to both crisis planning and communication pro-cedures among tourism organizations in this sample. This

was somewhat surprising given the high representation of organizations based in Florida, which have faced numerous issues, notably, the weather emergencies and natural disas-ters that they said they experienced in the prior five years.

Future ResearchThis study used experience as an index based on the variety of crises that an organization or business may have experi-enced. However, it is plausible that the intensity of a past experience is a better indicator with respect to the develop-ment of a written management plan than the breadth of experience encountered. For example, an experience with one large hurricane may be a more meaningful predictor than near misses or a series of smaller storms. Thus, future research is recommended to examine this issue. One of the limitations of this study was that it was restricted in the range of tourism sectors and geographic representation. This limitation prevented further extrapolation of findings based on the various sectors and regions. In addition, there may be differences between the public and private sectors as well as the size of the tourism organizations and busi-nesses. Given that there may be distinct patterns among different sectors, regions, ownership, and sizes, future research is recommended to address this issue.

The examination of internal and external predictors of tourism crisis preparedness, planning, and management is a useful approach to further provide comprehensive under-standing of the issues. In that regard, additional variables can be used to further expand this research. Given the paucity of studies on crisis management in the tourism industry, we suggest further investigations of these relationships along with other aspects of crisis planning and management. Also, a qualitative approach to examine predictors in more depth could result in the development of frameworks for the indus-try. While this exploratory study has shed some light on the relationship between past experiences, resource allocations, and crisis communication and planning, further research on this topic would be helpful in product development, com-munication strategies, and tactical training strategies.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors would like to thank President Bernie Machen for the funding to establish the Tourism Crisis Management of Florida.

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Bios

Lori Pennington-Gray, Ph.D., the director of the Tourism Crisis Management Institute at the University of Florida, is an associate professor at UF’s College of Health and Human Performance depart-ment of tourism, recreation, and sport management. Brijesh Thapa, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of Florida, director of the Eric Friedheim Tourism Institute, and co-director of the Tourism Crisis Management Institute. Kyriaki Kaplanidou, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and affiliate member of the Friedheim Institute. Ignatius Cahyanto is a research associate in the Tourism Crisis Management Institute. Elaine McLaughlin is strategic opera-tions director of the Tourism Crisis Management Institute.

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