مدیریت بحران استراتژیک در توریسم: کاربرد مدیریت ریسک یکپارچه در صنعت توریسم کرواسی

Strategic crisis management in tourism: An application of integrated risk management principles to the Croatian tourism industry

چکیده
مدیریت استراتژیک بحران ها و بلایا جزء حیاتی مدیریت توسعه توریسم پایدار می باشد. تحقیقات توریسم معاصر چندین مقاله مفهومی و برنامه آموزشی برای تحقیق در مورد این عنوان مهم ارائه کرده اند و بحث هایی را مطرح کرده اند که در تأکید شدیدی بر رخدادهای 11 سپتامبر دارد. . امروزه این عنوان اهمیت بیشتری نسبت به قبل پیدا کرده است، خصوصاً پس از قتل عام ساحلی در Port El Kantaoui و پیشی گرفتن حملات تروریسی در موزه ملی Bardo در تانزانیا در سال 2015. از آن زمان، با رشد دائمی ISIS/ISIL، توریسم متأسفانه به تهدیدی دائمی در سطح جهانی تبدیل شده است. این نورافکن منطقه ای کاربرد اصول مدیریت ریسک یکپارچه (IRM) را در مورد توریسم کرواسی به عنوان ابزار تفکر همه جانبه در مورد در معرض خطر قرار گرفتن در اقتصادی به تصویر می کشد که عمیقاً وابسته به توریسم است. به خصوص این مطالعه روی فاز ارزیابی ریسک تمرکز می کند و نگاشت ریسک اولیه ای برای بررسی و اولویت بندی ریسک های صنعتی توسعه می دهد که می توانند روی توریسم کرواسی بر مبنای فصلی تأثیر بگذارند. 

برای توسعه مدیریت مقصد استراتژیک با هدف کاهش ریسک و تقویت آمادگی در زمانی که وقایع منفی رخ می دهن، Ritchie (2004، 2008) پیشنهاد کرده که بینش خاص توریسم را باتئوری ها / مفاهیم دیگر رشته ها ترکیب کنیم. حتی قبل از آن Manning (1999) به این نکته اشاره کرده که مدیریت ریسک برای مدیریت توسعه توریسم پایدار حیاتی است در حالی که Faulkner (2001)، ارزیابی ریسک را به عنوان یکی از اجزای کلیدی فرایند برنامه ریزی مدیریت حادثه (بلایا) شناسایی و تعریف کرده است.

اهمیت در نظر گرفتن دیدگاهی استراتژیک در مورد در معرض رخدادهای بحرانی بالقوه قرار گرفتن، مخصوصاً روی مقاصدی تأکید دارد که بواسطه بخش بالایی از توریسم در فعالیت اقتصادی کلی توصیف شده اند. با تلاطم سیاسی و اجتماعی که دائماً در بسیاری از مناطق جهان در حال افزایش است، رویکردی همه جانبه و کنشگرا به مدیریت رخدادهای نامطلوب پدیدار شده که پیش نیازهای لازم برای حفظ پایداری (تاب آوری) تویسم و اقتصاد کلی را در بسیاری مقاصد به نمایش می گذارد.

در تأیید این مطلب نورافکن منطقه ای کاربرد فرایند مدیریت ریسک یکپارچه (IRM) را به تصویر می کشد که برای کمک به سیاستگذاری توریسم در کراسی توسعه یافته که هر ساله بیش از پیش در تابستان پذیرای توریست ها در بخش مدیترانه ای اروپا می باشد. با سهمی 4/84 درصدی از توریست بین المللی، کرواسی رکوردی 34/14 میلیون سفری و 61/72 میلیون اقامت توریست را در سال 2015 به خود اختصاص داده است. طبق اظهارات بانک ملی کرواسی، درآمد توریسم در سال 2015 به 96/7 میلیارد یورو (6/7 درصد افزیش) رسیده است که نشانگر سهم 1/18 درصدی GDP کرواسی می باشد. طبق این گزارش، توریسم کرواسی بسیار بین المللی است، در حالی که در همین حین نشانگر پشتیبان قابل توجه اقتصاد کلی کرواسی می باشد. رخدادهای بد اخیر که روی چندین مقصد رقابتی در مدیترانه اثر گذاشته اند، نظیر حملات توریسی تکرار شده در تانزنیا و ترکیه، از یک طرف، و مهاجرت انبوه از سوریه و عراق که روی کل اروپای جنوبی تأثیر گذاشته اند، از سوی دیگر فشار بیشتری به سیاستگذاران توریسم وارد کرده تا رویکردی کنشگرایانه در جهت پیش بینی و متعاقباً مدیریت رخدادهای بحرانی بالقوه اتخاذ کنند.

Abstract

Strategic management of crises and disasters is considered a vital ingredient for managing sustainable tourism development. Contemporary tourism research has so far provided several conceptual articles and agendas for research regarding this important topic, with discussions particularly intensifying after the 9/11 events. Nowadays, this topic is more critical than ever, particularly after the beach massacre in Port El Kantaoui and the preceding terrorist attack at the Bardo National Museum in Tunisia in 2015. Since that time, with the steady rise of ISIS/ISIL, terrorism has, unfortunately, turned into a persisting threat on a global level. This regional spotlight portrays the application of integrated risk management (IRM) principles to the case of Croatian tourism as a means of thinking holistically about the exposure to risks in an economy that is heavily dependent on tourism. In particular, this study focuses on the risk-assessment phase and develops an initial risk map to quantify and prioritize industry risks that may affect Croatian tourism on a season-to-season basis.

To enhance strategic destination management with the goal to reduce risk and boost readiness when negative events occur, Ritchie (2004, 2008) suggests combining tourism-specific insight with theories/concepts from other disciplines. Even earlier, Manning (1999) had already noted that risk management is crucial to the management of sustainable tourism development, while Faulkner (2001), identified risk assessment, in particular, to be one of the key ingredients of the disaster management planning process.

The importance of taking a strategic perspective on the exposure to potential crisis events is particularly emphasized for those destinations which are characterized by high shares of tourism in their overall economic activity. With political and societal turbulence steadily increasing in many regions of the world, a holistic and proactive approach to managing undesirable events thus emerges a necessary prerequisite for maintaining sustainability of both tourism and the overall economy in many destinations.

In line with this, this regional spotlight portrays the application of an integrated risk management (IRM) process which has been developed to assist tourism policymaking in Croatia, which is a popular and fast-growing summer destination in the European Mediterranean. With a share of 84.4% of international tourists, Croatia recorded 14.34 million arrivals and 72.61 million overnights in 2015 (Croatian Bureau of Statistics, 2016). According to the Croatian National Bank, tourism revenues in 2015 amounted to 7.96 billion Euros (7.6% increase), which represents a share of 18.1% of Croatian GDP. Accordingly, Croatian tourism is highly international, while, at the same time, representing a significant pillar of Croatia’s overall economy. Recent unfortunate events that have affected several competitor destinations in the Mediterranean, like the repeated terrorist attacks in Tunisia and Turkey, on the one hand, and the mass migrations from Syria and Iraq which have affected whole Southeast Europe, on the other, put further pressure on tourism policymakers to take a proactive approach towards foreseeing and subsequently managing potential crisis events.

مدیریت بحران استراتژیک در توریسم: کاربرد مدیریت ریسک یکپارچه در صنعت توریسم کرواسی

Strategic crisis management in tourism: An application of integrated risk management principles to the Croatian tourism industry

ارزیابی مبتنی بر GIS مبنی بر اثربخشی و پوشش مکانی شبکه های حمل و نقل عمومی در مقصد گردشگری

A GIS-Based Evaluation of the Effectiveness and Spatial Coverage of Public Transport Networks in Tourist Destinations

Abstract

This article develops a methodology for evaluating the effectiveness and spatial coverage of public transport in tourist cities. The proposed methodology is applied and validated in Cambrils municipality, in the central part of the Costa Daurada in Catalonia, a coastal destination characterised by the concentration of tourism flows during summer. The application of GIS spatial analysis tools allows for the development of a system of territorial indicators that spatially correlate the public transport network and the distribution of the population. The main novelty of our work is that this analysis not only includes the registered resident population, but also incorporates the population that temporarily inhabits the municipality (tourists). The results of the study firstly permit the detection of unequal spatial accessibility and coverage in terms of public transport in the municipality, with significant differences between central neighbourhoods and peripheral urban areas of lower population density. Secondly, they allow observation of how the degree of public transport coverage differs significantly in areas with a higher concentration of tourist accommodation establishments.

1 Introduction

The extensive growth of cities in recent decades, combined with the sustained increase in daily mobility, has meant a rise in the use of mechanised means of transport in urban areas, as well as the generation of high levels of traffic congestion and a severe environmental impact. At a time of growing concern for global warming, an increased use of public transport is seen as part of the solution [1], and an effective way of reducing external costs and the negative effects of motorised travel [2]. The relationship between transport and environmental, social and economic sustainability has been explored by a number of researchers [1,3–8].

In this context, one of the strategic objectives of many city governments is to promote the substitution of the use of private motorised vehicles with other systems that have a lower impact on the environment, the economy and public health, such as public transport, walking or cycling [9]. However, organising an alternative user-friendly transport system that is effective in providing services and facilities that can guarantee the shortest possible travel and waiting times [10] is not a simple process. A public user-friendly transport system requires consideration of crucial aspects such as accessibility to stops/stations, system mobility and connectivity with other transport modes [11]. The spatial equity of transport systems impacts on economic dynamics, personal opportunities and, ultimately, the quality of life of the population [12,13]. In other words, poor planning of territorial coverage can lead to situations of social disadvantage. In this regard, the contribution of GIS in the field of Transport Geography is more than a simple control of generic functionality [14]. GIS offer key possibilities in transport modelling [15], facilitating the storage, updating and processing of spatial data and allowing the planning, analysis, control and management of transport networks.

Numerous and widely varying research studies have used GIS tools to analyse and organise transport networks. Blythe et al. [16] examined the wide range of emerging technologies and techniques capable of integrating different public transport modes and services at urban and inter-city scale in order to improve the attractiveness and competitiveness of public transport networks to the detriment of the use of private vehicles. Arampatzis et al. [15] presented a GIS-based decision support system (DSS) to analyse and evaluate different transport policies with the purpose of improving environmental and energy efficiency in the supply of transport. Different characteristics of public transport, including spatial coverage, frequency, comfort or fleet adaptation for disabled persons, may require special analysis, given that they provide an understanding of the efficacy and equity of the service provided for the citizens. Along these lines, Murray [7] identified the inefficiencies of the coverage of access to public transport in the city of Brisbane using GIS-based spatial analysis techniques. Moro and Villaescusa [17] studied spatial accessibility to primary schools in Bilbao, basing their work on the hypothesis that the criteria used to assign students to schools were not the most appropriate, with some students possibly being forced to commute for longer spatial and temporal distances than necessary. Salado et al. [18] proposed a set of indicators related to measurements of the equity and efficiency of the urban public transport service of the city of Alcala de Henares (Madrid). Saghapour et al. [2], in the city of Melbourne (Australia), developed a new measure of accessibility to public transportation that integrated transport service frequencies and population density. The results show that the use of public transport is substantially higher in areas with a higher rate of accessibility. Delmelle and Casas [19] evaluated the spatial equity of the express bus transport service in the city of Cali (Colombia) by means of exploration patterns of accessibility in relation to the socioeconomic level of the city neighbourhoods. They demonstrated that transport network accessibility was higher for middle-class neighbourhoods than for those of higher and lower socioeconomic classes. Cardozo et al. [20] analysed the relationship between urban and socioeconomic variables and the demand for public transport in the subway system of Madrid.

Other interesting and particularly innovative applications have been developed by Benenson et al. [21] and Stenneth et al. [22]. The first presented an extension of ArcGIS©, Urban.Access, which allows to estimate and compare the accessibility of different modes of transport to the workplace and other places of interest. Meanwhile, the second proposed a methodology for identifying user mode of transport by means of GPS sensors in their mobile devices and knowledge of the transport network (real-time bus location; spatial information of the railway line, and spatial data about bus stops and stations).

یک مطالعه اکتشافی برای مدیریت ارزش آفرینی در شرکت های خدمات گردشگری: درک مراحل خلق ارزش در فصل مشترک شرکت خدمات گردشگری و مشتریان آن

An exploratory study into managing value creation in tourism service firms: Understanding value creation phases at the intersection of the tourism service firm and their customers

Abstract

To satisfy customers, managers of tourism services need to understand their customers’ value requirements and then develop a unique service value offering based on those requirements. This understanding underpins their effort to provide superior value to customers and deliver the proposed services through employees. Problematically, previous work on value creation (i.e. customer value) has focused separately on either the firm or customer. This theoretical separation does not allow investigation of whether there may be discrepancies between what value firms offer and what value customers perceive they have received. We bring tourism service firms (manager and employee) and customers together and examine the nature of a tourism service provider’s value proposition, its contribution to the value offering, and subsequent impact on customers’ perceived-value-in-use. We focus on the important role that employees play as boundary spanning workers in the value creation phases, linking the tourism service provider and customer.

1 Introduction

Delivering superior value to customers is a critical task for service firms in today’s highly competitive marketplace. Managers and academics place a high priority on how firms create and deliver value and how customers evaluate the value embedded within a service (Bowman & Ambrosini, 2000; Lepak, Smith, & Taylor, 2007; O’Cass & Ngo, 2011; Priem, Li, & Carr, 2012; Sparks, Bradley, & Jennings, 2011; Ulaga & Eggert, 2006). Value creation and delivery are especially important for tourism service providers (e.g., hotels, airlines, travel agents, theme parks), because many tourism market segments have reached saturation (Avci, Madanoglu, & Okumus, 2011; FitzPatrick, Davey, Muller, & Davey, 2013; Grissemann & Stokburger-Sauer, 2012) and tourists (here after we use the term customer to imply tourist) are becoming more demanding (Sanchez, Callarisa, Rodriguez, & Moliner, 2006).

Given the demonstrable need for firms to understand their customers’ value expectations, and manage the complexity of value creation as a multi-phase and multi-party concept, it is puzzling that the vast majority of research to-date in the broader management and marketing domain is either conceptual or possesses a single phase, single party perspective (i.e., the customer’s perspective or firm’s perspective in isolation) (e.g., DeSarbo, Jedidi, & Sinha, 2001; Helkkula, Kelleher, & Pihlstrom, 2012; Priem, 2007; € Sirmon, Hitt, & Ireland, 2007; Ulaga & Eggert, 2006). Particularly, in tourism research settings, scholarly attention given to value creation has focused heavily on the customers’ perspective (i.e., Dong & Siu, 2013; Gallarza & Saura, 2006; Sanchez et al., 2006; Siu, Zhang, Dong, & Kwan, 2013) which has resulted in a distinct lack of attention being given to the core theoretical development of ‘value creation’ set within the context of multi-phase and multi-party theory (c.f. comments by Bowman & Ambrosini, 2000; Lepak et al., 2007; Sok & O’Cass, 2011).

The singular focus on the customer side in tourism scholarship can lead to one-sided view about value creation. In many respects there may be discrepancies between the value tourism service providers propose (to offer their market) and believe they have offered, and what value customers perceive they receive. As such, we integrate the firm’s and customer’s perspectives to advance value creation theory in tourism settings (c.f. Sok & O’Cass, 2011). Drawing from Service Profit Chain Theory (Heskett, Sasser, & Schlesinger, 1997), this study takes into account the role of employees in tourism service delivery, as well as their level of customer orientation within value creation settings.

Service Profit Chain research suggests that there are direct relationships between the firm’s profit, employee capability and customer satisfaction (Heskett et al., 1997). Service Profit Chain indicates that employee capability (i.e. to enact the firm’s value proposition) will generate customer satisfaction (i.e. customers’ perceived-value-in-use), which is a driver of the firm profitability. This view is consistent with the argument that in a competitive market, tourism service providers must demonstrate that they can translate strategy (i.e. their value proposition) into results (i.e. customers’ perceived-value-in-use). While the successful translation of strategy into results in services depends on a range of factors, Cadwallader, Jarvis, Bitner, and Ostrom (2010) argue that in services, it is contingent on the actions of frontline service employees (hereafter employees) as employees often are the service. In tourism (which is largely a service based sector), Tajeddini (2010) argues that because of tourism’s inherent intangibility and heterogeneity, tourists often judge services based on the behavior/ capability of employees.