by Dr Micheal Heah
MY second honeymoon holiday last month was “buried” under the Icelandic volcanic ash in Europe. I share the same misery, frustration and financial losses (from non-redeemable airline and hotel
bookings) with thousands other stranded travellers who either could not get a flight back or get to their European destinations.
The freak incident of a volcano eruption that dismantled the world’s air transportation system shows the need to take tourism seriously. Let me talk a little about how my wife and I felt about this incident.
Did we feel bad? Not really, because we could not compare our misery with those who had to camp in airports for weeks without a flight back, or those who had lost millions because they could not travel, and organisations like airlines, hotels, playgrounds and entertainment centres that depended on tourist dollars. Nor were we totally dampened by the cancellation of our trip to Europe because we opted instead to go to Hong Kong and China. It turned out to be a good holiday after all.
But the crisis exposed the vulnerability of tourism to both natural and man made hazards. This time a single volcano eruption caused untold damages that spread across continents. There will be many more crises that will come our way — environment-related, security-related, health-related, financial-related and all kinds.
They will continue to challenge the tourism industry. When a disaster strikes, affected countries would pray that they have a workable plan in place. In business, we call this Plan B. It is a second plan to fall back on when the first fails to deliver.
A good Tourism Plan B should contain plans to entice domestic tourists to travel within and attract regional tourists to their destinations. But how many countries have developed Tourism Plan B? A Tourism Plan B is essentially a broader strategy plan catering to more differing segments so that there will be a steady flow of tourists all year round.
The world is simply too uncertain to go for only a shorter term Plan A. Indeed, tourism is a big business and a major export commodity that can be repeated without fear of depletion if we take care of it. A mountain will remain a mountain no matter how many tourists climb up there. So let us think hard about sustaining our tourism attractions and making them work for us in good and bad times.
The writer is International Coach Federation (ICF)’s Credentialed Professional Coach with over 30 years experience in the tourism industry. For enquiries, call 03-2070 9988, or go to www.corporate-coach.com
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