Strategic crisis management in tourism: An application of integrated risk management principles to the Croatian tourism industry

Strategic management of crises and disasters is considered a vital ingredient for managing sustainable tourism development. Contemporary tourism research has so far provided several conceptual articles and agendas for research regarding this important topic, with discussions particularly intensifying after the 9/11 events. Nowadays, this topic is more critical than ever, particularly after the beach massacre in Port El Kantaoui and the preceding terrorist attack at the Bardo National Museum in Tunisia in 2015. Since that time, with the steady rise of ISIS/ISIL, terrorism has, unfortunately, turned into a persisting threat on a global level. This regional spotlight portrays the application of integrated risk management (IRM) principles to the case of Croatian tourism as a means of thinking holistically about the exposure to risks in an economy that is heavily dependent on tourism. In particular, this study focuses on the risk-assessment phase and develops an initial risk map to quantify and prioritize industry risks that may affect Croatian tourism on a season-to-season basis.