CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
INTRODUCTION
The
hospitality industry is a fascinating industry that is vulnerable to
contemporary issues, this issues affect the industry directly and indirectly.
Contemporary issues have become more frequent and complex to the industry and
it is better to be prepared well in time in order to minimize the issues
(Hogan, 2012). There are several issues that affect the industry but the writer
decided to discuss about safety and security as the major issue that is
affecting the industry nowadays.
SAFETY
AND SECURITY IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
According
to Albattat and Som (2014) safety and security is one the biggest issue
affecting the hospitality industry and it is the most important aspect that
comes to a tourist’ mind when planning to travel. Safety relates to protecting
guests and staff within and out of the hotel from any hazards such as injury
and death caused by using dangerous materials whilst security refers to
protecting property from criminals and terrorists. Furthermore Kovari and
Zimanyi (2008) indicates that safety and security has been an indispensable condition
that has gained much bigger importance in the last two decades, aspects such as terrorism, crime and safety
have been the major issues affecting the
industry.
TERRORISM
Mansfield
and Pizam (2006) discusses terrorism as a major global concern in the
hospitality industry that does not only affect the tourist destination where
the event took place but it also damages the image and infrastructure. However
Richter and Waugh (1986) suggests that terrorists attack tourists when they are
touring a destination because they want to gain instrumental advantage by
disrupting the industry and also gain publicity. But nevertheless Sonmez (1998)
views Richter and Waugh statement differently indicating that gaining publicity
should not be regarded as the most important aspect by terrorists because
attacking tourists destroys the industry and contributing factors to the country’s economy such as foreign
exchange declines.
There
was a terrorist attack in the United States of America in September 11, 2001,
Bolivia attack in 2003, the attack in Hilton Taba Hotel in Sinai Peninsula in
2004 and also several attacks caused by Al Quaeda in Kenya, have left the image
of this destinations severely damaged and the recovery process takes much
longer than what anyone might think. However Botswana has shown a virtuous
reputation in the tourism industry due to non-terrorism issues. The country
never experienced terrorism scandal before and the number of international
tourists had dramatically increased and still continuing to increase.
CRIME
Crime
is also one of the aspects that might hinder a tourist from travelling to a
tourist destination, issues such as theft, hijacking and drug use reduces the
number of tourist’s visits. Mansfield and Pizam (2006) indicates that visitors
are the most victims of crime than residents as they are mostly harassed by
thieves and drug peddlers. In supporting the above statement the researcher
once experienced a situation whereby a tourist became a victim of theft in a
hotel she was working in, where by an employee stole a valuable property of the
tourist as a result of this the hotel lost a loyal client because of crime.
However
Kovari and Zimanyi (2008) illustrates that when a country is known for having
high crime rate, sometimes it also becomes the victim of crime as tourists
might come to a certain country to commit crime knowing that the first suspects
will be the residents of that country. Supporting the above mentioned statement
by Kovari and Zimanyi, in 2014 South Africa once experienced a situation where
by a tourist couple visited the country and it happened that the male partner
murdered his female partner, when asked why he murdered his partner in a
foreign country the tourist explained that because South Africa has high crime
rate, so the tourist knew that the local residents will be first the suspects
of the crime. In Botswana the government and non-governmental organizations
have played a major role on fighting crime. The decline on crime rate had
positively impacted Botswana tourism, since tourists prefer places where the
crime rate is low. Credit card theft is also one of the biggest issues and to
reduce its occurrence previous guest’s folios with guest information should be
kept in a safe place or shredded and not to put guest credit card information
on internal documents (Gallagher, A.J, 2014).
SAFETY
Albattat
and Som (2014) discusses that safety issues when it comes to tourists, are
explained as crisis that usually affect the physical safety of tourists which
is visiting or participating in dangerous tourist activities, for example a
tourist might visit a place like Maun where there is Thamalakane River, just
because they are fascinated by seeing the residents of Maun getting into the water
to fetch water lily (Tswii), the tourists will also want to do the same not
knowing that they are getting their lives in danger of being attacked by
crocodiles. Therefore Hall, Timothy and Duval (2007) emphasizes on training
both the tourists and the staff about the dangers that they might encounter
while participating in tourist activities thus to ensure their safety. All
stakeholders should rise to the occasion by mitigate and ensure the wellbeing
and safety of tourists.
CONCLUSION
Terrorism,
crime and safety have been crucial condition in the hospitality and tourism
industry. The impacts of these conditions have impacted the industry direct and
indirect. Tourists of today consider more on the security and safety issue of
the place they want to visit. Therefore
political instability of some countries have declined the number of tourists. These
are world watersheds which negatively impact the tourism industry. Now is the
high time for hospitality and tourism researchers to find out new issues on
safety and security for tourists, this could be done through incorporate new
research academic results by introducing new subjects, for example risk
management in hospitality and tourism.
REFERENCES
Albattat,
A.R. & Som, A, P.M. (2014) Safety
Security and Loss Prevention during Hospitality Emergencies
Gallagher,
A.J. (2014) employee theft, fraud and how
hotels can manage the risks: Gallagher
Hospitality Practice
Hall,
M, Timothy, D.J & Duval, D.T, (2007) Safety and security in tourism:
relationships, management and marketing, Journal of Travel and
Tourism Marketing, 15 2–4
Hogan,
J. (2012) additional observation on hotel
safety and security
Kovari,
I & Zimanyi, k. (2008) safety and
security in the age of global tourism: The changing role and conception of
Safety and Security in Tourism
Mansfeld, Y. & Pizam, A. (2006) Tourism, Terrorism, and Civil Unrest Issues
Ritcher,
L.K and Waugh, W.L. (1986) terrorism and tourism as logical companions, international journal of tourism
management. Volume
7, Issue 4, Pages 230-310
Sönmez,
S. (1998). Tourism, Terrorism and Political Instability: Annals of Tourism Research, 25(2):416
