Mobile Emergency Management Services Targeting Large Public Events

Introduction

Disasters can have negative and lasting effects on the tourism industry (Faulkner, 2001). For example the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan have also negatively affected the tourisms industry of this region. In a recent survey of tourism managers in Germany (Travel Industry Club & Trendscope, 2011), the country with the highest spending on international tourism (World Tourism Organization, 2009), 93% stated that tourists will avoid Japan as a destination for a long time range and 62% expect that this will lead to a reduced number of tourist arrivals for other Asian countries as well. Several crises and disasters have affected the global tourism industry in recent years (Ritchie, 2004). Examples comprise terrorist attacks (Paraskevas & Arendell, 2007), political instability (Fuller & Fugal, 2008), economic recession (Kreimer et al., 2003), bio-security threats and natural disasters (Hystad & Keller, 2007). Since tourism is also an important economic factor for many countries and many destinations depend on tourism to prosper in the market, there is an increasing pressure on managers and policy makers concerned with tourism to consider the impact of crises and disasters on the industry and to develop strategies to deal with their impacts (Ritchie, 2004). In order to mitigate disaster effects, it is essential to undertake steps to increase the level of disaster preparedness, including infrastructure investments for warning systems and training activities (Johnston et al., 2007). However, despite the devastating effect disasters can have on tourism, few tourism organizations have properly developed disaster strategies as an integral part of their business plans (Faulkner, 2001). This negligence is especially surprising as tourists protect themselves by avoiding travelling to unsafe areas (Elvia Reiseversicherung & Leuphana Universität Lüneburg, 2008) and safety represents an important factor (only topped by cost/benefit-ratio) for German tourist when deciding on their tourist destination (European Commission, 2009).

Emergency management systems (EMS) provide the capability to address this dilemma and to enable emergency forces to manage crises, including detection and analysis of incidents (Carver & Turoff, 2007). Persons in charge can be supported to prepare evacuations, control and support disaster forces and to locate victims (Carver & Turoff, 2007). Since mobile communication infrastructures offer standardized wireless communication services in almost all countries and allow a fast diffusion of information, they represent an existing IT infrastructure asset for saving human lives in emergencies (Leidner et al., 2009). They can allow emergency managers to distribute warnings to affected areas by cell broadcast to warn potential victims (Fritsch & Scherner, 2005). Facilitating social media as communication channel for crisis management and response appears promising, too. For instance, several authors have advocated the use social media for disaster relief (Kapucu, 2008; Liu et al., 2008; Sutton et al., 2008) and emergency management systems based on mobile communication infrastructures (Yuan & Detlor, 2005; Valtonen et al., 2004; Underwood, 2010).