Contemporary issues

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