Emergency, disaster and crisis management models in tourism industry

Abstract

In an ever-changing world individuals, communities and societies continuously encounter plenty of threats which are posed or may be posed and which lead to extreme situations, emergencies and crises bringing a number of human losses, casualties, injuries and doing harm to the environment and buildings. In the modern economy and social life of many countries tourism plays a significant role, therefore, disasters may have a considerable impact on the provision of tourism services or on the entire tourism industry. It has been noticed that losses as a result of disasters are increasing and the number of people affected is rising. This leads to the growing interest in the tourism industry and tourists by scientists. Referring to the modern scientific understanding of disasters, emergency situations, and crises, the authors of the article analyse crisis management models in the sector of tourism. It should be noted that many models emphasise the constituent of human resource development and learning of the entire organisation which is seen as an important factor to both avoid emergencies, disasters and crisis in tourism, and to successfully manage crises. The major result of the article is the theoretical model for research of crisis management in the Lithuanian tourism industry.