Crisis management in the Australian tourism industry: Preparedness, personnel and postscript

Since the pilots’ strike of 1989, the Australian tourism industry has experienced a series of ‘shocks’ or crises which have included the 1991 Gulf War, the Asian economic crisis in 1997, the dotcom crash of 2000, the collapse of the HIH Insurance Company, the World Trade Centre attacks and the demise of Ansett Airlines in 2001, the Bali bombings in 2002 and the Iraq War and the outbreak of the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic in 2003. In 2002, a research project was carried out in a range of sectors of the Australian tourism industry to investigate the impact of the collapse of the HIH Insurance Company, the World Trade Centre attacks and the demise of Ansett Airlines on these organisations and the range of responses adopted to these events. This paper describes the preparedness of organisations to respond to these events; the personnel or human resource (HR) strategies implemented and the postscript, the organisational learning which had occurred. Interview findings indicate that there was little preparation for such events, a widespread reluctance to retrench staff, and limited organisational learning had taken place.