Crisis Management in Cruise Tourism A Case Study of Dubrovnik
Crisis Management in Cruise Tourism A Case Study of Dubrovnik
Crisis Management in Cruise Tourism A Case Study of Dubrovnik
Introduction
tinations that are located in the Caribbean Sea, todays cruise tourism has a wider global distribution
in which Mediterranean cruises account for 19.5% of
the worlds cruise tourism (CLIA, 2015b, p.1).
Although cruise tourism is extremely vulnerable to business risks and impacts of adverse events
that may lead to crisis, this topic remains quite unexplored. Operational risks that can lead to negative economic consequences for cruise tourism have
been examined by London (2010), who, in an interesting way, in the case of cruise tourism in New Zealand, presented ive risk management strategies: Establishment of a committee for the co-ordination of
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cruise tourism, Cruise culture development, Education and training, Creation of national cruise manuals, and Creation of trust and recognition of cruise
brand. Hoogkamer (2013) wrote about the challenges of preserving cities of historical importance (using the example of Charleston, South Carolina, USA)
under the inluence of cruise tourism. In her work,
she drew attention to the threats that are the consequences of cruise tourism: pollution by ships, uncoordinated development of destinations under the
pressure of the cruise industry, and the loss of intangible heritage inluenced by the mass inlux of tourists from cruise ships (ibid.).
he newly established situation of cruise tourism
in Dubrovnik carries a number of hidden threats that
could lead to crisis situations with negative consequences. Dubrovnik has a signiicant economic beneit from cruise tourism, which is relected in direct
spending of tourists from cruise ships in Dubrovnik
as well as indirect beneits that are relected in the
spread of awareness about Dubrovnik as a desirable
cultural and historical destination. Bearing in mind
that rapid success carries hidden risks and dangers
that may, under unfavourable combinations of circumstances, lead to crises, the author of this paper
believes that Dubrovnik cruise tourism stakeholders
are inadequately prepared for managing crisis situations.
Cruise Tourism in a Cultural and Historical
Destination (Dubrovnik)
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ed that: History tends to repeat itself, irst as a tragedy and then as a farce. Stovel (1998, p. 13) notes
that there are passive resistance and a lack of interest in conservative communities regarding the planning and preparation for emergency events. It follows
that it is the utmost duty of Dubrovnik cruise tourism stakeholders to create a culture of open and constructive dialogue that would bridge the diferences
between themselves and those who are directly responsible for planning emergency events and those
that must provide support during emergencies.
Crises and Crisis Management in Tourism
Many authors have attempted to deine crisis to better understand this phenomenon; however, even today we are surprisingly in a situation in which we still
have no generally accepted deinition of a crisis, and
the very concept of the crisis is overused (Pauchant
& Mitrof, 1992; Ritchie, 2004). Pauchant and Mitrof (1992, p. 12) believe that the crisis is disruption that
physically afects a system as a whole and threatens
its basic assumptions, its subjective sense of self, its
existential core. One of the irst comprehensive deinitions was developed by Pearson and Clair (1998)
who claims that an organizational crisis is a rather
unlikely, strong-shock event that threatens the further feasibility of the organization and is characterized by the dimness of causes and outcomes as well as
by a deep belief that decisions must be made quickly (see in Crandall, Parnell & Spillan, 2010). he crisis is a sudden or developed change, which results in
a problem that must be addressed immediately (Harvard Business School Essentials 2004).
Santana (2003) points out that a crisis is a process that starts from events that, if not properly addressed, have the potential to evolve and cause an adverse outcome. Taking into account, the duration of
a crisis, Pearson (1996) lists three types of crises: a
sudden crisis, successive crisis, and prolonged crisis.
Exploring the roots of crises, Henderson (2007) inds
that the causes of most crises in tourism are located in the economic, political, socio-cultural, environmental and technological domains. Indeed, crises and disasters are a universal reality, and they are
an inseparable part of the human condition (Mitrof 2004, p.33). Acknowledging the fact that most crises are not deined by one event or that causes may
arise repeatedly overlapping with the initial and inal
stages of the cycle of a crisis (Heifetz & Linsky, 2002,
see Braden et al. 2004), Braden et al. (2004) have created a model that gives us a clear insight into the cycle of crises.
Crisis life-cycle Model
he crisis life-cycle is framed by time and degree disequilibrium (Braden et al. 2004, p. 5). he vertical axis
illustrates the amount of stress or chaos felt by members of the organization and it can be divided into a
comfort, learning and danger zone (Saar, 2004, see in
Braden et al. 2004, p. 5). he comfort zone is considered to be the status quo, and this is where most of
the organizations or bureaucracy wants to stay. Unfortunately, organizations that remain locked in a
comfort zone hold their values, culture, and operational paradigm in a static state in relation to an environment that is forever changing (Braden et al.,
2004). Above the comfort zone, there is a critical area
bordered by a learning zone and danger zone. he
line above the comfort zone has been described as the
minimum amount of stress that is needed in order
to change the organization. he size of the learning
zone is directly related to the organizational ability
to manage stress. Crossing over the line of the learn-
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Crisis management can be observed from the functional and institutional aspect. Institutional crisis
management refers to a group of people who are responsible for the activities of crisis management, and
they are the bearers of functional crisis management,
which is related to the tasks and processes changes
in the time at which a crisis occurs (Glaesser, 2006,
pp. 21-22, Popesku, 2011). Indeed, understanding the
type of crisis to which the destination is receptive
greatly inluences the development and implementation of strategies for crisis management (Ritchie,
2004, p. 675).
Strategic framework of Crisis Management
in Tourism
Figure 2
Source
Proactive planning and strategy formulation: environmental scanning; issues analysis; scenario
planning; strategic forecasting; risk analysis.
Scanning to planning: developing plans from scanning and issues analysis; contingency and emergency
planning.
STRATEGIC IMPLEMENTATION
Strategy evaluation and strategic control: formulation of strategic alternatives, evaluation of
alternatives, selection of appropriate strategies; making effective decisions quickly; influence or control
over crises/disasters.
Crisis communication and control: control over crisis communication; development of crisis
communication strategy including use of a public relations plan; appointment of a spokesperson; use of
crisis communication to recover from incidents; short versus long term crisis communication strategies.
Resource management: responsive organisational structures; redeployment or generation of financial
resources; leadership styles and employee empowerment.
1. Pre-Event Stage
Action taken to
prevent disasters
2. Prodromal
Apparent a
crisis/disaster is about
to hit
3. Emergency
Incident hits; damage
limitation and action
needed
4. Intermediate
Short term needs dealt
with; restoring services
Understanding and collaborating with stakeholders: internal ( employees, managers, shareholders ) and
external ( tourists, industry sectors, government agencies, general public, media ) stakeholders; need for
collaboration between stakeholders at different levels to resolve crises or disasters.
5. Long term (recovery)
Longer term clean up;
repair; reinvestment;
post mortem
6. Resolution
Normal or improved
state created
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- Understanding and collaborating with stakeholders is essential in order to successfully plan and
manage crises in the tourism industry. he logic of this relationship lies in a strong interrelation
between individuals and groups within the tourism industry, and their need to develop a successful strategy for resolving crises when they occur.
Resolution, Evaluation, and Feedback
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phenomenon, Coombs (2006, 2007b, p. 170) proposes four strategies of crisis communication (three primary and one secondary) depending on the perception of responsibility for a crisis that has occurred:
Primary
1. Denial: frames the group of communication strategies which aims to prove the absence of a crisis
or to separate all connections between the organization afected by the crisis and the crisis. hree
tactics are used in the framework of this strategy: Attacking the accuser, Denial and the Role of
scapegoat.
2. Reduction: is a communication strategy that is
used when an organization accepts the existence
of a crisis and when it tries to show that it has very
little control over the crisis that has occurred. he
tactics used on this occasion are Excuse and Justiication.
3. Reconstruction: is a communication strategy that
is used when an organization afected by a crisis
attempts to rebuild its legitimacy and protect its
reputation, while Compensation and Apology are
two tactics used on this occasion.
Secondary
4. Bolstering: is a group of strategies that show the
organization and its relationship with stakeholders in a positive light. When using Bolstering
strategy, the tactics used are Reminding, Ingratiation, and the Victim.
Events That May Adversely Afect Cruise Tourism
in Dubrovnik
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Bonaparte, irst visualize what is needed to be accomplished in order to win, and then follow their
intuition, adapting their activities along the way to
the unexpected events they encounter (see in Pfeifer,
2013). George (2009), making a parallel between crises and wars, argues that both have very uncertain
outcomes, which is why the generals and leaders of
organizations during crises and wars are at the limits
of their abilities while they are forced to use all their
wisdom and courage to successfully move the organization out of the crisis, that is, to win the war.
During crises, the leaders are greatly tempted; indeed, Boin et al. (2005) observe that the success or
failure of leaders depends on the results of their confrontation with ive critical tasks: giving a meaning to
a crisis; decision making during a crisis; giving significance to a crisis; ending a crisis; and learning from a
crisis. Recognizing morals and lessons from previous
crises is one of the most important features that separate the successful from the unsuccessful crisis leaders (George, 2009)
Characteristics of Crisis leadership
Lagadec (1993, p. 54) points out that success in managing the crises lies with the structures developed
before the occurrence of the crisis. Weick and Sutclife (2007) state several features that adorn the organizations with Crisis leadership; they call those organization Resilient organizations. Such organizations are built on a well thought-out basis that lies
on ive fundamental principles being: failure preoccupation, resistance to simplifying, sensitivity during
activity, commitment to lexibility and respect for expertise (Weick & Sutclife, 2007). he signiicance of
lexibility in organizations that cultivate the culture
of the Crisis leadership is seen by McCann and Selsky (2012). he main attributes of the organizations
of Crisis leadership are: appropriateness, awareness,
orientation towards action, resourcefulness, and
connections (McCann & Selsky, 2012)
Strategies of Crisis leadership
Figure 3
Source
During crises, people express a desire for a strong, reliable, and visibly engaged leader (Harvard Business
School Essentials, 2004, p. 86). At the very least, the
leader of the Crisis leadership must be visible, balanced, brave, dedicated and attentive (Braden et al.,
2004, p. 24); during the crisis, he must exhibit the following characteristics:
- visibility and image are what the most efective
leaders (e.g. Winston Churchill, Lee Iacocca, Rudolph Giuliani) demonstrate during crises (Harvard Business School Essentials, 2004, p. 87);
- to demonstrate courage is a very important aspect
of being a leader, in which he/she continues to act
despite feeling fear (Collins, 2003, p. 54);
- to show commitment is the ability of a leader to
show his determination to carry out all the tasks
in the work (Braden et al. 2004, p. 27);
- to maintain perspective is the ability of a leader
not to lose the ultimate goal of his sight regardless of the phase of the cycle of crisis in which he
is found (Braden et al., 2004, p. 27).
Focusing on Core Purpose
During his stay in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps, Frankl (1985, p. 95) the creator of
logotherapy, observed that people who have faith in
a better future also have a greater chance of surviv-
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al. Braden et al. (2004) summarize several key principles of this strategy:
- identify risks and potential crises: the environment is analysed, and the main risks in the operating environment are recognized and avoided
(Harvard Business School Essentials, 2004, p. 2);
Continuous planning boils down to inding and executing a large number of decisions before a crisis occurs (Harvard Business School Essentials, 2004, p.
Braden et al. (2004) recommend the following measures that lead to successful mitigation of a crisis:
- take the action: at the moment immediately after the impact of the crisis when the leader must
identify the problem and determine the measures
aimed at stabilizing the situation (Harvard Business School Essentials, 2004, p. 67);
- being on scene is the responsibility of leaders
sending a strong, clear message that they fully
understand the seriousness of the situation (Harvard Business School Essentials, 2004, p. 69);
- consultation with a team expert: is common when
a leader is looded by sensitive decisions because
of which he needs help (Braden et. al., 2004).
Tell the Story
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he aim of the research was to investigate the existence of crisis management within the stakeholders of
cruise tourism in Dubrovnik as well as the diferences in the perception of negative events that may lead
to a crisis in Dubrovnik cruise tourism. To fulil the
objective of the research it is necessary to answer the
following questions:
1. Is there crisis management within the stakeholders of cruise tourism in Dubrovnik, and is there a
readily appointed leadership (organizational philosophy, responsible person, and organization-
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growing number of stakeholders in Dubrovnik. Although cruise tourism in Dubrovnik is located in the
mature stage of the life cycle of the destination, crisis management, both as an abstract concept and in
the full sense of the word, is still unknown to the vast
majority of stakeholders.
Designing the Questionnaire
and Statistical Methods
he target population of this study were the leading Dubrovnik stakeholders of cruise tourism in
Dubrovnik, as well as employees in the Disney Cruise
Line company. he research was quite challenging
because Dubrovnik cruise tourism is extremely fragmented and broad; consequently, the author decided
to include the leading tour operators who serve approximately 70% of the cruise companies, followed
by the largest hotel chains in Dubrovnik, the tourism
community of Dubrovnik, the Dubrovnik port authority, the city council, the well-known restaurants,
a few guides as well as two professors from the local
university (RIT). he author also thought it would be
useful to include the representatives of the cruise industry, for which he chose the employees on the Disney Magic cruise ship who stayed on board during
his visit to Dubrovnik. Taking into account the circumstances of the research, the author distributed
100 questionnaires in the period from 11 March 2015
to 10 April 2015. he irst completed questionnaires
were returned to the author on 13 March 2015; by 17
April 2015, a total of 76 completed questionnaires had
been collected, which amounts to a 76% of the selected target population.
Demographic Characteristics of the Sample
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Table 1
Demographic Variable
Demographic Variable
Valid%
Gender
Male
42
55%
Female
34
45%
30-40
45
59%
41-50
18
23%
51+
13
18%
Age
Valid%
Tour operators
10
13%
Tourism community
6%
Guides
13
17%
Cruise company
24
32%
Dubrovnik stakeholders
52
68%
10%
Associate degree
21
28%
Bachelor's degree
28
36%
20
26%
Owner
6%
Executive
10
13%
8%
18
24%
11
14%
Table 2 is a clear indication of the fact that crisis management is very poorly represented among
stakeholders of Dubrovnik cruise tourism; however,
those respondents who claimed that their organizations have crisis management have also agreed that
there is a crisis management leadership within their
organizations.
14
18%
Table 2
Tourist guide
11
14%
3%
Level of Education
Occupations
Yes
Cruise company
24
32%
he city council
4%
Human resource
3%
Port authority
3%
Restaurants
5%
Hoteliers
13
17%
No
24
he city council
Human resource
Port authority
Restaurants
Hoteliers
13
Tour operators
10
Tourism community
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Yes
No
Guides
13
Agreement with the statement about whether
there is leadership in the crisis management
Cruise company
Without answer
he city council
Agree
Human resource
Agree
Port authority
Agree
Restaurants
Without answer
Hoteliers
Without answer
Tour operators
Without answer
Tourism community
Without answer
Guides
Without answer
media with extremely active reporting frequently using explicit pictures and videos. In contrast, the lowest mean value of Climate / environmental dimension
can be explained by the low interest for understanding problems and by a low level of information of respondents on negative events clustered around Climate / environmental dimension.
Perceived dimensions
of negative events
Mean
(M)
Std.
Deviation (SD)
Health / epidemiological
76
16.63
4. 86
Economic
76
15.48
3. 98
Climate / environmental
76
14.61
4. 21
Terrorism
76
18.64
4. 49
Political events
76
17.44
3. 98
From Table 3, it can be concluded that the respondents perceived the negative events clustered around
the dimensions Terrorism (M = 18.64) to be the highest potential risk, while negative events grouped
around Climate / environmental dimension were
perceived as a threat with the lowest potential (M =
14.61). he highest mean value of the dimension Terrorism can be easily understood when taking into account the current circumstances in which terrorist
attacks of all kinds have become a commonplace in
We obtained the answer to this research question using an independent t-test, variance analysis (ANOVA) and Tukey post hoc test. he results of the independent t-test showed only signiicant diferences in
the perception of negative events that may lead to a
crisis in cruise tourism in Dubrovnik with a group
of male and female respondents for the Health / epidemiological dimension. he male respondents had
a higher value of mean values than the female respondents did. his data may be explained by the fact
that male respondents were more common at higher
managerial positions in this study, whereby they had
the opportunity to come into contact with multiple
sources of information and thus to develop a bolder
perception of potential dangers hidden in the Health
/ epidemiological dimension.
he perception of negative events that may lead
to crises with stakeholders of cruise tourism in
Dubrovnik is tested using the independent t-test and
variance analysis (ANOVA); however, with the remaining groups of speciic demographic variables,
signiicant diferences in the perception of negative
events that may lead to operations crisis in cruise
tourism in Dubrovnik were not observed.
Conclusion
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Figure 4
Source
he strategic framework of leadership in crisis management for small and medium-sized cruise tourism stakeholders Dubrovnik
ater Faulkner (2001, p. 144), Ritchie (2004, p. 674), Braden at el. (2004, p. 17), Rossi (2008, p. 11).
he proposed strategic framework for the leadership in crisis management for small and medium-sized cruise tourism stakeholders in Dubrovnik
shown in Figure 4 was developed under the strong
inluence of Ritchie (2004) and Braden et al. (2004)
whose models were described in detail and presented in Sections Strategic framework of crisis management in tourism and Strategies of Crisis leadership.
Bearing in mind the importance of cruise tourism
in Dubrovnik and the current turbulent context in
which we live and in which tourism business activities
take place, it is of decisive importance for Dubrovnik
stakeholders of cruise tourism to place crisis management at the very core of their organizations. By
developing leadership in crisis management as an
organizational philosophy, appointing well-trained
individuals with correct attitudes as crisis management leaders and placing a crisis management at the
center of the organization itself, Dubrovnik stakeholders of cruise tourism would have the leadership
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in crisis management with all its pro-active properties. By adopting leadership in crisis management,
small and medium-sized cruise tourism stakeholders
in Dubrovnik can avoid many crises and, in the case
of those that are inevitable, leadership in crisis management can achieve control and management when
addressing the state of emergency, or a fast recovery
and organizational learning at the end of the crisis.
It would be beneicial for future studies to investigate crisis management and especially leadership in
crisis management in cruise companies and port of
calls that have experienced negative events that lead
to the crisis. In the case of the Carnival Corporation,
a case study approach would be very valuable in determining the efectiveness of strategic frameworks
and leadership concepts that were used during their
crisis (induced by the Costa Concordia shipwreck).
Another interesting study would be a critical analysis
of crisis management strategies within stakeholders
of Dubrovnik cruise tourism who are claiming that
they have such strategies. It is hoped that this pioneering study of crisis management in cruise tourism
will encourage further academic research due to the
limited literature on this topic. It is also hoped that
practitioners and managers in cruise tourism will
recognize the beneits of leadership in crisis management and that they will welcome such approach.
If the cruise tourism stakeholders embrace negative
events that can lead to crisis and establish leadership
in crisis management as part of their organizational culture, then they will be able to reduce potentially negative impacts on cruise tourism and the local
communities in ports of call in general.
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