Managing Risk in Tourism, Events and Hospitality

Managing Risk in Tourism

In the 21st century, numerous threats and dangers are especially evident when it comes to such a field of human expertise as tourism, events, and hospitality since the very this area presupposes a great variety of risks for people’s lives. Therefore, the ability to manage risks in this field is paramount for conducting a business in a successful manner. Moreover, within the framework of globalization and technical development humanity has achieved, risks become more diverse and difficult to manage. Such a situation makes scholars search for the solution to this problem. Thus, the most successful approach in solving risk management problems is to consider them from three essential points of view that exist in legal, ethical, and sustainability dimensions. Therefore, there emerges a need in investigating each of these dimensions and researching their fundamental particularities since they can serve as a useful tool in managing risks in the field of tourism, events, and hospitality.

The inclusive argument for this work is focused on the idea that it is principal to intricate the regulations within the risk management range to avoid accidents in the area of tourism, events, and hospitality. The structure of the paper is built on the explanation of three dimensions of risk management in tourism and hospitality, such as legal, ethical, and sustainability, while the conclusion finishes it. Therefore, the improvement of these dimensions is the correct and successful way for the development of risk management in tourism since it aims at protecting people’s lives from various dangers.

Legal Dimension of Risk Management

Risk management is the field of expertise that is closely connected with other branches of management. In other words, every type of management, regardless of the area of its functioning, is subordinated to a legal basis (Clinch & Filimonau, 2017). This means that risk management must function according to the legal regulations that have been elaborated by the higher echelons of authority. Every incident that is likely to happen during traveling is accompanied by a great variety of legal regulations (Clinch & Filimonau, 2017). These include insurance, taxation, customs procedure, and many other aspects (Sun, Zhou, Wall, & Wei, 2017). In the case of an incident during a trip, the legal side should regulate the actions of people who are responsible for the safety of tourists (Clinch & Filimonau, 2017). The same aspect is applied to risk management during various events and when people stay in hotels (Waikar, Hegde Desai, & Borde, 2016). Hence, this is an essential reason why risk management possesses a legal dimension.

The legal aspects that are important in the field of risk management in tourism are as follows. They should include the law regulations of disasters’ consequences and compensations, the procedures of ensuring people’s safety and health protection (Sun et al., 2017). Therefore, specific legal issues, which affect the risk management area in tourism, cover the questions of proper circulation of documentation, ensure the correct safety measures for clients, and so on (Tsai & LinLiu, 2017). At the same time, these legal issues must be elaborated and improved constantly as the nature of risks changes regularly (Morakabati, Page, & Fletcher, 2016). Consequently, the providers of tourism, events, and hospitality services are to be governed by the most up-to-date information on how legal compound functions in a particular risk situation (Clinch & Filimonau, 2017). Along with this, the legal dimension of risk management in tourism and hospitality should forecast possible incidents and disasters, thus being ready to react in the fastest and the most proper way. Such an approach would help prevent numerous incidents (Fren?, Niculescu, & Trif?nescu, 2016). Consequently, the legal dimension is extremely important as it performs a disaster-preventative function and provides correct and suitable regulations for the consequences of various disasters. Such an identical characteristic can be understood as the ultimate repercussion of the legal dimension of the risk management in the areas of tourism, events, and hospitality.

Ethical Dimension of Risk Management

Risk management in tourism and hospitality also possesses an ethical dimension due to the fact that the incidents, which are likely to happen in the course of one’s traveling, can lead to undesirable outcomes. Thus, information on such incidents or their consequences should be kept in secret. Such an approach would provide security of personal data, which is a purely ethical field of expertise (Fren? et al., 2016). The model of ethical application to risk management performs the function of prevention of possible risks due to the fact that ethics should provide security measures from the ethical point of view (Bozkurt & Ozkul, 2016). These measures can include the security of personal data and non-exposure of a person who has suffered from a possible risk. Such a vision can be concerned as a specific ethical issue within the framework of risk management.

Ethical issues are supposed to be considered in the framework of risk management as they ensure a smooth cooperation between its various participants. These actors are comprised of service providers, clients, and regulators at the state level (Bozkurt & Ozkul, 2016). At the same time, the significance of ethical dimension is difficult to underestimate. On the one hand, it serves as the basis for the legal dimension as it shapes the fields of expertise of both of them (Fren? et al., 2016). On the other hand, the ethical dimension leads to the creation of the sustainability dimension of risk management as it ensures the proper ways of functioning of risk management in tourism and hospitality in order to produce meaningful results (Tsai & LinLiu, 2017). The implication of this dimension presupposes the involvement of all actors for their successful cooperation to ensure the protection and prevention of possible risk situations, incidents, and disasters (Bozkurt & Ozkul, 2016). Furthermore, this implication comprises the resolution of the consequences that are likely to emerge as the result of some incident (Bozkurt & Ozkul, 2016). Therefore, the ethical dimension is a significant aspect of risk management as it determines the manner of actions that all participants of risk management, including the clients of service provides, should maintain.

Sustainability Dimension of Risk Management

Sustainability is the core of any management field as it determines how successful the management approaches and tools are. When introducing sustainability dimension mechanisms in the tourism, events, and hospitality area, it is significant to ensure their proper choice and functioning (Sun et al., 2017). The aspect of sustainability dimension of risk management within the framework of the above-mentioned areas originates from the need of its constant development (Gendron, Brivot, & Gu?nin-Paracini, 2016). Thus, the sustainability in risk management presupposes a firm basis of legal and ethical regulations that are initially aimed at their constant development to ensure the proper functioning of this sphere (Gendron et al., 2016). The core issues, which arise from the sustainability dimension here, are closely linked with the changing nature of risks that emerge in the tourism and hospitality sector (Waikar et al., 2016). Due to the constant technological development, risks acquire a rather complicated nature. Therefore, the task of sustainable risk management is to be able to foresee them and search for the methods of resolution of hypothetical risks to protect people from harm.

The sustainability aspects that should be considered within the risk management field are comprised of following ones. Firstly, they include financial support from the state and the government (Gendron et al., 2016). Secondly, this is a global cooperation between countries to establish a unique and united system of the sustainable development of risk management (Orchiston, Prayag, & Brown, 2016). Thirdly, it is significant to make the three above-mentioned dimensions cooperate to ensure a strong and successful development of the sustainability one (Sainaghi, Phillips, & Zavarrone, 2017). The mutual and fruitful cooperation and interaction of all these dimensions would guarantee a successful and constant functioning of sustainability in risk management (Gendron et al., 2016). Therefore, these are the essential implications of the sustainability dimension in risk management (Morakabati et al., 2017). Finally, to achieve their proper functioning, it is significant to have the sustainability dimension be based on the ethical grounds that determine the legal field of expertise within the framework of risk management in tourism in general.

Conclusion

Three dimensions of the risk management in tourism, events, and hospitality have been examined, and they comprise legal, ethical, and sustainability aspects. All of them are extremely significant as they produce a versatile conglomerate of mechanisms that, when united, create the necessary conditions for the proper functioning of risk management. Consequently, it is possible to claim that risk management techniques and approach are successful only when each of these three dimensions works together and formulates the aspects it is responsible for. Finally, these dimension serve to help ensure the proper preventative function of risk management as it is aimed at saving people’s lives and protecting them from danger.