A planning model for crisis management in the tourism sector

The article proposes an analytical planning framework for managing crisis situations in the tourism industry. It applies the principle of acting in successive phases by which each stage aims to reduce the residual negative effects remaining after implementing the preceding one. The first phase relates to pre-crisis policy measures designed to reduce the overall sensitivity of the industry to crisis situations, the second phase deals with response policies to be implemented when conditions of crisis-certainty exist, and the third phase considers various specific short-term supplementary measures.The optimization process employs portfolio theory and linear programming models. It can be used by governmental agencies in charge of long-range countrywide or regional planning as an auxiliary tool for policy decesions.