Natural Disasters, Tourism Crises and Marketing Challenges: An Indonesian Perspective

The tourism industry is vulnerable to crises of assorted manifestations, not least those related to natural disasters, which adversely affect international arrivals and destination images. Such events highlight the importance of managing crisis situations and marketing is one important tool in their successful resolution. An earthquake in Indonesia in 2006 and its consequences for one particular destination are the focus of the paper which reviews the impacts and official responses to the marketing challenges in the initial stages of the ensuing tourism crisis. Reactions are shown to partly correspond to tourism crisis management guidelines, but effective implementation of strategies may be undermined by prevailing conditions in the country. Wider influences are thus a source of tourism crises and also of constraints with regard to their competent handling which includes marketing for recovery.