Hazard or disaster: Tourism management for the inevitable in Northeast Victoria

Abstract

In recent years, analysts have focussed on building a range of strategic responses to enhance the ability of communities and businesses to manage and recover from natural disasters. The experience from each new crisis adds further to the process of hazard management. The results in tourism research have expanded the community's collective capacity to respond to such circumstances, but little consideration has been given to how small firms, which are the mainstay of the industry, actually deal with the impacts of a regional catastrophe. The 2003 bushfires in northeast Victoria (Australia) devastated over 1.1 million hectares, destroying the livelihood of some operators and leaving more than one thousand small tourism firms without a revenue base. This paper examines how they prepared for, and recovered from, the event. Perhaps not surprisingly, it exposes their vulnerability and lack of preparedness for dealing with a hazard of this magnitude. On the other hand, it demonstrates the resilience of real-world operators and their reliance on accumulated experience to manage their own recovery. There are lessons here that may well apply in similar circumstances. For example, the paper notes the inadequacy of insurance as a risk management strategy, but emphasizes the value of collective approaches to marketing to rebuild the confidence of future visitors.