Tourism crises: a comparative perspective

Abstract

This paper compares two very different tourism crises: the 2004 tsunami on the Andaman coast of southern Thailand and the occupation of the Bangkok airports in the course of Anti-government protests in 2008. The paper focuses on the significance of the different sources of these crises for their distinctive dynamics: exogenous or endogenous to the society's socio-political or tourist system. The source of the tsunami crisis was exogenously generated; though a major disaster, it could have been relatively successfully managed, since it did not affect the socio-political centre. The source of the airport occupation crisis was the ongoing political struggle. Though a comparatively much less severe tourism crisis, the government was unable to resolve it since its authority imploded. The author argues that the management of tourism crises is deeply embedded in the socio-political system, as shown in this comparative study; its practices should therefore not be taken for granted, but considered a topic of investigation.