Titanic ally, tourism is growing as one of the export commodities in the world. It has been realized that tourism and travel makes direct, indirect and induced economic impacts to most nations across the world [1]. The increment in the number of the newly emerged destinations has ignited this industry to make sound contributions to the socio-economic development [2]. In this regard, Ethiopia has come a long way to become one of the new tourist destinations in Sub Saharan Africa region [3]. Ashley and Mitchell [4] argue that ... despite the concentration of aggregate tourism receipts in developed nations, tourism is relatively more important than rich countries.

However, the tourism industry is susceptible to external shocks such as natural disasters, political unrest, economic crisis, and contagious diseases [5]. These inevitable factors- either collectively or separately - may adversely affect the tourism industry in particular and the economy of the country in general. In other words, tourism and its contributions are badly hit by the aforementioned incidents. In the 2017 report of Global Peace Index by Institute for Economics and Peace, violence costs 12.6% of World GDP [6]. Straightforwardly, the World Tourism Organization has defined a tourism crisis as “any unexpected event that affects traveler confidence in a destination and interferes with its ability to continue operating normally” [7]. In the UNWTO 2015 tourism report, the growing concern over safety and security, coupled with the unusual strong exchange rate fluctuations and the drop of oil and other commodities’ prices, was identified as a factor that influenced the flow of tourists in the same year [2]. That is, political unrest can substantially affect the tourism activity [8] and the economy of the country [9].

Moreover, although Fletcher and Morakabati [10] argued that a single terrorism act can adversely harm the tourism industry than coup and internal political problems, Yap and Saha [8] asserted that political instability has significant adverse impact on tourism demand than terrorism even in the presence of world heritage sites where tourists currently prefer to visit [11]. Given its relative long-lasting nature, political instability can highly affect the tourism demand and supply than other one-off and irregular incidents. Most importantly, Hall and O’Sullivan [12] described the effect of political instability on the tourists’ choices of destination. They stated that:

“Perceptions of political instability and safety are a prerequisite for tourist visitation. Violent protests, social unrest, civil war, terrorist actions, the perceived violations of human rights, or even the mere threat of these activities can all serve to cause tourists to alter their travel behavior”.

One of the mechanisms to get rid of these incidents is declaring state of emergency [13] which has its analogous effect on tourism industry. State of emergency is coined with different phrases such as state of necessity, emergency powers, state of siege, martial law, emergency decrees among different nations. Numerically, in the data compiled by Richard and Clay, political related instability has triggered half of the declaration of state of emergencies over the past three decades in the world followed by natural disasters [13].

Besides, different marketing, economic, diplomatic/political strategies may come in place as mechanisms to re-attract veteran and first time tourists to a destination. However, as it can be learned from some crisis hit destinations, declaring state of emergency will not always help a given destination to recover from the crisis especially for their main market. This is compellingly due to the fact that when a country experiences political upheaval and terrorist-related incidence, potential tourists may be warned not to visit the country and that could significantly affect its tourism industry [8]. In any case and at any scale, travel advisories issued by tourist generating countries affect the tourism industry of a crisis stricken host destination.

On the contrary, the Ethiopian government has repeatedly advocated that state of emergency, which was declared on October 6, 2016, has considerably created conducive environment for tourists to travel within the country, and it (government) publicized through the state media that tourism has not been adversely affected so far due to the political crisis. Chiefly, Ethiopian Tourism Organization stated that tourists can travel either independently or in group to every part of the country as a result of the declaration of state of emergency [14]. Does this mean tourism has been as its normal times i.e., safest and pleasant times? Does this mean that tourists who are already in the country feel comfort? Have tourism receipt and/or arrival increased during the state of emergency or had subsequent effect on the industry? Will tourism boost soon after this declaration come to an end? Can we really say that majority of the prospective visitors will be surely encouraged to choose Ethiopia than other competitive destinations while state of emergency remains in place or even after it’s lifted in a little while? What makes Ethiopia exceptional from the rest of the countries that experienced political unrest and their tourism have been badly affected? By and large, the state of emergency was officially lifted on 4^th of August 2017 though it yet remains effective in some undefined districts of the country. Above all, the destructive effect of political instability and other calamities on tourism and socio-economic development of newly emerging tourist destinations of Africa has not been studied well [15].

In the light of this, this paper has attempted to review the adverse impacts of political instabilities on tourism demand of certain nations, and how their tourism has recovered from the crisis as well as what lessons must be drawn in shortening the recovery period in particular and post crisis management in general discussing largely the outward look of Ethiopian tourism since the outrage of political crisis and during the state of emergency.

A case review was used to assess the effect of political turbulence on tourism activities. This method considerably appreciates a critical reappraisal of a case [16]. Information regarding the fate of tourism during and after political unrests in certain countries that experienced the situations was gathered from, journals, web sites and book. The political crisis experience of Fiji, Thailand, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt and Philippines were narratively reviewed. Added to this, a retrospective review on Ethiopian tourism while the state of emergency remains in place, was carried out. Then, it was attempted to relate the Ethiopian case with facts.

Ethiopian tourism in the state of emergency

As an important part to the entire economy, which has shown a “double digit” growth over the last couple of years [17], Ethiopia’s tourism has correspondingly progressed in the past period of time. US, by large, China, Britain and Germany were the main markets of Ethiopia for more than 770,000 foreign tourists visited Ethiopia in 2014 [2]. In addition to its historical sites [in fact, includes other tourist corners], Ethiopia’s recent relative recognition as one of the safest destinations in the continent put the country on the verge of tourism success becoming a newly emerging popular tourism destination [18].

However, a recent political turmoil in Ethiopia, which has resulted in the declaration of state of emergency, has brought mixed messages over its effect on tourism industry. In this regard, tourism and travel professionals indifferently agree the negative consequence of political crisis on destination’s tourism. This was further substantiated by Nigel Nicoll of the African Travel and Tourism Association that the state of emergency and travel advisory will have an effect on travel bookings as long as the decree remain effective [19]. Generally, there is a common agreement that political crises have even a long standing adverse impact than other forms of crises [20].

On the contrary, the Ethiopian Tourism Organization repudiated the claim that tourist arrivals decreased since the state of emergency came into effective rather the organization stated the reduction of trip cancellations [14] indicating the return of ‘situation’ to normal state despite the political unrest [21]. Which situation-the absence of demonstration, violent protest or the immediate rebound of tourist flow? Not surprisingly, a risk consultancy and analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, Emma Gordon, suspiciously consider this statement (ibid.). Virtually, the state of emergency has abated the spillover of civil protests, demonstrations, and other forms of chaos in the country. But, a compressed political tension, which is full of uncertainty, can still independently influence the confidence of tourists in choosing the destination particularly if state of emergency is in place.

In the same token, some tour and travel companies such as Jacaranda Tours and Go Addis Tours found their businesses were not affected due to the political instability in the country [19]. If this was true, it would disprove the scholarly assertion that political crisis has an adverse effect on tourism in particular and economy of the destination in general at any scale. If these and similar tour companies really developed a number of package tours as usual, why have accommodations at major tourist sites been hit by shortage of tourists? For instance, in the interview (for a research carried out on the Challenges of Tourism Development in Oromia National Regional State by Consortium of Universities and Colleges in Oromia ) with local communities in Bale zone, it was stated that 75% of booking at Dinsho Lodge was cancelled during the state of emergency. Or they just dishonestly replied for the sake of showing the political affiliation or support they have had or for just unnecessary fear or…? However, it does not mean that tourists will never come to a destination during political crisis or the resulted state of emergency. According to Najdić and Sekulović [5], it is evidently known that crisis at destination considerably affects the behavior of tourists to change their preference but not to totally stop travel [italics mine]. Based on their demographic profile such as sex, age, education, and their culture, tourists have a room of accepting a certain amount of risk [22], as the demographic profile substantially influence tourist’s image formation of a destination [23].

On the other hand, several reports came up with unequivocal interpretation on the adverse consequence of crisis on Ethiopia tourism. The state of emergency, coupled with its main cause-public protest, has resulted in the decline of tourist flow to the country taking rock hewn churches of Lalibela, which is honey-pot site, as a typical example [18]. The effect on Lalibela tourism evidently approved that actual tourist sites may remain to be victims of the political crisis that happen elsewhere in the country particularly on the main roads to the sites. It was remembered that 25 km to both sides of most highways in Ethiopia was labeled as ‘Red Zone’ for short period of time. One of the local tour guides described the out of seasonality of the 2016 October month unlike the time ever before (ibid.). Generally, he reported that this volatile sector is suffering from the contemporary political crisis.

Furthermore, during my trip to the historic route of Ethiopia, typically to Bahir Dar, Gondar and Lalibela, eight months later after the declaration of state of emergency, anonymous local tour guides confirmed the continuity of the decline of international tourist arrivals and receipt compared to the previous couple of years. Likewise, the tourist number to Bale Mountains National Park dropped off by more than 7% (from 8,606 to 7,984) in 2015/6 and by 10.25% (from 7,984 to 7,166-eleven months report) during the state of emergency in 2016/7 compared to the previous years [24]. In a research conducted by Yap and Saha [8] on the effect of political instability, terrorism and corruption on tourism development, it was found that tourism revenue drop by 36% for every unit increment in political instability while Neumayer [25] similarly found the decline of tourist flow by 32%. More importantly, the international tourism receipt of Ethiopia has terribly turned down by about 71% in 2016 from the previous year (from US$395,000,000 to US$280,000,000) with a share of 0.8% in Africa, which is lesser than its East African counterparts’, Kenya (2.4%), Tanzania (6.1%), and Sudan (2.9%) [26].

Evidently, it has been realized that tourism bookings to Ethiopia (hotel, airlines, and tour operators) have been cancelled due to the wave of protests and the decree of state of emergency [17-19]. Tour operators Saga, Cox and Kings and Kuoni were some of oversea travel companies that have cancelled trips to Ethiopia [19]. In the report of Lena [17], a UK based travel company subtly described that they were unusually abstained from advising their customers to have a trip to Ethiopia. In effect, several home based tour operators’ businesses have dropped off by half after the protests have begun [18]. Matter-of-factly, the Grand Holiday manager, in an interview with Admas News Paper, announced the enormous booking cancellations especially from USA, Belgium and Finland. Added to this, the number of German tourists has significantly plummeted following the return of Angela Merkel from visit of Ethiopia (ibid.).

In the report of Van Dar Wolf [18] to VOA news radio, it can be understood that some of the tour operators expectedly developed hope for the immediate end of protest due to the declaration of state of emergency, and the rebound of tourist flow as a result. In this regard, for instance, Euromonitor projected the 2% decline in the international tourist arrival in Egypt as potential tourists were yet wary of travelling to the country even after the political revolution ended [8].

The Command Post, a responsible organ for the execution of the decree, temporarily prohibited foreign diplomats to travel beyond 40 km radius out of the capital without special permission though the General Attorney, Mr. Getachew Ambaye, indicated the inapplicability of this particular directive on international tourists to travel to any part of the country [14]. So how could their stranger fellow citizens (tourists) travel with full of confidence and without fear to the forbidden spots while familiar diplomats were restricted even if this specific directive was lifted soon? Such crises will affect the image of a destination and drive tourists’ perception of safety and security in reservation [20]. In most cases, tourists eliminate alternative destinations that are not significant than the other using different subjective and common criteria. Undoubtedly, the political crisis in a given destination will contribute to the increment of tourist arrivals in competitive destinations. In other words, tourists might choose an alternative destination with similar characteristics but in a more stable condition [25] than unsafe featured destination.

Travel advisories to Ethiopia

The pervasive and protract political crisis result in travel warning to the destination by official authorities in tourist originating countries [25]. Given the widespread of political unrest across Ethiopia since Nov. 2015, several tourist originating destinations such as UK, New Zealand, US, Ireland, Canada, Australia have issued travel warning to their citizens. Agreeably, some of travel advisories given by tourist originating embassies to Ethiopia have been exaggerated, Grand Holiday Tour Manager stated [19]. For instance, the Australian government sensitized its citizens over the continuous threat of terrorism in Ethiopia just because of the September 2013 terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping centre in the neighboring country, Kenya. In fact, the westerns and some of their strong allies habitually magnify every shock occur in Africa even if the event is featured with very lesser fatal than the incidents experienced in their regions.

In this aspect, as it was recalled, the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism adopted by Resolution A/RES/406(XIII) at the thirteenth session of UNWTO General Assembly (Santiago, Chile, 27 September – 1 October 1999) outlined in its Article 6 the obligations of stakeholders in tourism development as follows:

“Governments have the right and the duty - especially in a crisis, to inform their nationals of the difficult circumstances, or even the dangers they may encounter during their travels abroad; it is their responsibility however to issue such information without prejudicing in an unjustified or exaggerated manner the tourism industry of the host countries and the interests of their own operators; the contents of travel advisories should therefore be discussed beforehand with the authorities of the host countries and the professionals concerned; recommendations formulated should be strictly proportionate to the gravity of the situations encountered and confined to the geographical areas where the insecurity has arisen; such advisories should be qualified or cancelled as soon as a return to normality permits” [27].

The Australian government kept advising its citizens to reconsider their trip to different parts of Ethiopia including the capital city, Addis Ababa. In effect, despite the removal of some restrictions of the decree in March 2017, the level of advice has not changed following the grenade attacks in Gondar (on 4 January 2017) and Bahir Dar (On 10 January and 24& 29 April 2017) while some parts of the country have yet been attributed with higher levels of risks. Market generating destinations such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, advised their respective citizens to cancel all trip to Gambella region and the Danakil depression and to border areas with Kenya, South Sudan, Eritrea, and Sudan due to higher level of insecurity. The Australian diplomats have also been banned from making private trips to most of Amhara region, one of the country’s tourist honey-pot quarter.

According to the Australia Embassy, the ‘Not to Travel’ advise was supposedly due to the grenade attacks in Gondar and Bahir Dar, ongoing conflict, roadblocks the establishment of checkpoints without prior warning, terrorism, periodic violence and volatility of security in general (Italics mine). Although the government of Australia traced some terrorist incidents such as the December 11, 2015 grenade attack at Anwar Mosque in Addis Ababa, the October 13, 2013 bomb blast in Bole sub-city of Addis Ababa-claimed by Alshabab terrorist group, and the 2012 five foreign tourists’ death and two kidnapping in Danakil tourist site (the kidnapped tourists were released two months later), Ethiopia is yet relatively said to be one of the safest countries in Africa with sporadic outrages alike everywhere in the developed worlds. If truth be told, the political violence and civil protests that spilled over from Oromia regional state since its occurrence in November 2015 into other parts of Ethiopia was quite different in its feature and repercussion than any recent political crisis the country has faced. Consequently, Ethiopia ranked first among the world countries that deteriorated peace in 2016/17 [6]. Similarly, the Fragile States Index produced by the Fund For Peace (FFP) showed that Ethiopia, along with Mexico, was the most worsened country for the time from 2016 to 2017 [28]. Added to this, it is quietly clear that the claim of Australian government about the incapability of the Ethiopian security force to be omnipresent across the country and to handle the upheavals as well as the disconnection of telephone and internet network have triggered the travel advisory.

Typology of travel advisory

Different countries outline the level of security at a given destination based on their own assessment to advise their respective citizens concerning their trip to the affected area. In effect, tourists from such originating countries will likely change their purchasing behavior to destination connected with crisis. Although it is the duty of the country issuing travel warning to make its own assessment, UNWTO (nd) urged the members that the crisis-stricken countries should provide timely and accurate information and advice about the phenomenon.

Level 1 - Exercise normal safety precautions: Quite simply, this level shows, by and large, the similarity of the security atmosphere to the home country of tourists with different governing rules and customs but stable government. Despite the possibility of crisis to happen, the perceived threat is not as such consequential. Therefore, tourists are always in their usual precaution pattern.

Level 2 - Exercise a high degree of caution: This typology of security is quite different from the tourist originating countries in terms of its risk size or otherwise type. The security at such destination is hardly predictable with imminent political crisis momentarily. Yet, tourists may travel to these destinations with extra precaution. Naturally, several African countries and other destinations with limited democracy systems might be featured with this degree of security.

Level 3 - Reconsider your need to travel/Avoid non-essential travel/High risk: The travel advisory pertaining to the third level of security largely affects the tourism activities as tourists are warned to reconsider their trip to the destination. That is, non-essential travel, which is very subjective, is far better to be avoided. The ongoing political unrest, terrorism, natural disaster, contagious disease, or continuing threats of other crises are common here. Needless to say, political instability more than any other reasons at host destination is a determinant factor for the happening of a ‘deferred tourism demand’ as tourists postpone or completely cancel their trip. Shortly, tourists either defer their travel (especially non-essential trip), or substitute, or otherwise redirect due to the existing significant threat in the whole or part of destination. Overall, a mandatory travel to a ‘high risk’ destination will be with full of risks. The third and the forth levels of security make it difficult to buy travel insurance provided that the standard travel insurance policy will not usually cover losses or injuries occurred at destination unless it’s bought as ‘riders’, which are exclusions to the normal insurance, for additional payment.

Level 4 - Do not travel/Avoid all travel/extreme risk: This level indicates the most dangerous security environment where travelers are totally advised to avoid all travel to crisis-hit destination, and even if tourists are already in ‘Extreme risk’ zone, they have to evacuate as soon as possible.

Although Canada did not make a nationwide travel warning to its citizens, the country generally marked Ethiopia as a destination with a high degree of caution whereas Australia advised avoidance of nonessential trip because of the uncertainty of security and ongoing crisis. Here under (Figure 1) is a summarized figurative representation of crisis level in Ethiopia in 2016/17 on the bases of tourist originating countries’ assessment.

Figure 1: Overview of crisis level given to Ethiopia by tourist originating countries.

The 1987 coup incident has placed Fiji in political instability. This resulted in the decline of tourism receipt and tourist arrival in the aftermath of this political problem. Shortly, this leading foreign exchange generator, tourism, for the nation has been threatened for couple of years even after the oblivion of the unrest [29]. This clearly indicates that the crisis has a subsequent adverse effect on tourism demand despite the fact that the problem has come to an end. In the same fashion, it was noted from the report of National News Bureau of Thailand that the tourism volume has dropped off by 3% (from 28.1 m to 27.5 m) following the civil protest in Bangkok and surrounding areas in 2014 [30]. It has been exacerbated by the emergency decree placed for two months in the capital city, Bangkok, and the surrounding areas. Similarly, the election result-triggered violence and uncertainty in Kenya in 2008 have resulted in the immediate downfall of tourist flow to the country. Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa have also suffered from the internal political instabilities.

In fact, Media badly affects image of a destination hit by political crisis [12] as well as recovery time [29]. Given that media covers political crisis longer than, for instance, natural disaster, the aftereffect of political crisis remains to be negative on the perceived image of tourist destinations for a quite longer time [29]. This was further asserted by Campirranon [31] that media coverage of political unrest would… significantly affect the confidence of tourists to travel to the crisishit destination. In the light of this, international Medias have played significant role for the plummets of inbound tourism volume of Fiji as they disclosed the problem to the world instantaneously supporting with live updates [29]. Media coverage of the riot and protests in Kenya highly influenced American and Europeans to cancel their vacation to the country [32]. Likewise, the political crisis took place in major parts of Ethiopia for the last couple of years have been global events through the international Medias such as CNN, BBC, CGTN, Aljazeera, and other web-based and social Medias so that no one can conceal the incidents from prospective international visitors. Alike others, the political turmoil in Thailand was made a global news headlines.

As of now, people can access fresh information about particular destinations elsewhere in the world due to the advancement of technology. To this end, internet has become the first source of information, coupled with word of mouth, on where to go and what to do there [33]. International tourists will likely have incorrect perception of risks due to unfamiliarity and a far distance as they are exposed to incomplete information. Although Najdić and Sekulović [5] believes that destination’s political situation highly influence tourists travel with travel agencies than the walk-ins as the former use media as source of information while the later rely on recommendation and past experience, it’s truism that both will likely be affected.

Consequently, tourists will develop and/or reshape the primary image of a destination that significantly affects their choices. According to Di Marino (nd), tourists have primary image of a given destination that can be met or not; they will never arrive with null perception. Perceived image of a destination considerably influences tourist to choosing of a destination and increase the volume of visitors [34]. Therefore, honest communication about the crisis with customers is indispensible [31].

In the discourse of getting rid of this problem, Thailand developed and implemented different variety strategies in addition to lifting the decree so as to increase the tourist flow. Chiefly, under the main theme “Thailand: Best Friend Forever (BFF)”, the Thailand Tourism Authority intensively carried out marketing and promotional activities. These reforms spanned from offering incentives for hotel investment, allowing duty free import for all capital investment, avoiding corporate tax on profits, up to opening tourism advocacy representatives in several oversea countries through diplomatic missions, and employing home based marketing and promotion especially price driven consumer inducements. Added to these, the country formed a new groups called ‘Tourism Action Groups’ (TAG) during the coups with an aim of formulating and coordinating a national crisis response and a tourism recovery strategy. In this regard, although Ethiopia has not officially formed a special group that exclusively deals with the crisis management in addition to the formerly responsible organizations like Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Ethiopian Tourism Organization, and tourism and hospitality related associations, the emergence of ‘Skal International Addis Ababa’ could be theoretically taken as an opportunity for the nation’s tourism to recover from the crisis swiftly through promotion and marketing though it has played nothing so far.

In the same manner, given the decline of inbound tourism in the aftermath of the 2001 crisis dominated by political instability, Philippines developed different marketing strategies such as shrinking off the destination price compared to its neighbors, promoting the landmarks of the country, and hosting large number of travel writers and travel industry professionals to act as a de facto ambassadors of tourism to the Philippines [29].

However, a country hit by political crisis might not be able to recover substantially for all its markets. This was practically proved in the case of Fiji experience that the nation was unable to recover for its main market, mainly USA and Canada (Ibid.). Thus, it’s natural to suggest that the exhaustive and collaborative effort should be exerted in an attempt to come out of the tourism crisis and work for tourism resilience. But, with respect to private sectors, Beirman [29] is of opinion that tourism risks are not utterly accepted by tourism investors even if they are cushioned by incentives and special tax privilege. Furthermore, investors either delay or cancel their investment plan in destinations struck by political instability [35]. In line with this assertion, the owner of Bishangari Lodge, one of the pioneering and true eco-lodge in Ethiopia, announced that the business will no longer exist following the fire damage accidents caused by political turbulence across Oromia region in 2016. Subsequently, job opportunities for local residents, market created for locally produced materials, tax paid to government, the promotion of local culture, and incentives for conservation of environment have all been deserted. This disinvestment vividly implies that tourism has been adversely affected in Ethiopia.

For this reason, the tourism and hospitality related organizations in many tourism destinations that experienced the state of emergency usually ask for the ending of the decree. For instance, the Jamaica Hotel and Tourism Association publicly opposed the declaration of state of emergency on the behalf of the hoteliers [36] worrying its possible adverse impacts on the industry of the country.

Although the government of Ethiopia denied the considerable unfavorable impact of state of emergency on tourism, it is a common belief that lifting emergency decree will boost the tourism industry within short period of time. To this end, while admitting but undermining the impact of state of emergency on tourism, the governor of Tourism Authority of Thailand, Thawatehai Arunyik, was optimistic about the rebound of things to normal in Bangkok [30]. Clearly, the then caretaker government decided to end the state of emergency a few days early considering had the adverse impact of political crisis on tourism industry in particular and economy in general. However, the issue of travel advisories had to be answered for Thai tourism to substantially recover from lagging as more than forty countries issued travel warning to their citizens to Bangkok since the violence. In the news report of CNN, Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) expressed its concern over the travel advisories along with the removal of the decree because the study of PATA showed air travel bookings from Hong Kong to Thailand went down over 50% since the emergency came into effective. Because, Hong Kong gave the Bangkok a “black” designation -- a dubious honor shared only with Egypt, the Philippines and Syria (ibid.). In this manner, hotels, lodges, travel agencies, tour operations, airlines and other tourism related businesses faced substantial cancellation of reservations due to the travel warnings given by tourist originating countries.

Crises are now occurring more frequently [37] with negative consequences on businesses or destination or even on the entire region at large. The tangible and intangible elements of a destination such as tourist infrastructure and destination image will be damaged due to the susceptibility of tourism to crisis [38]. In their nature, all crises do not have identical repercussions, for their scope and severity difference [39]; so does crisis strategies. Zissis Maditinos and Vassiliadis [37] are of opinion that the effective strategies developed to respond to the crisis depend on time pressure, the extent of control and the magnitude of these incidents. For sustainable and resilient tourism in a destination, crisis management mechanism has to be effectively developed.

Niyaz [38] believes that crisis management is yet somewhat a tricky concept within tourism despite its well-known existence in other businesses. In its simplest definition, crisis management is the planning for, responding to, and recovering from a crisis [38]. The comprehensive definition of crisis management given by Santana states that:

“crisis management is an ongoing integrated and comprehensive effort that organizations effectively put into place in an attempt to first and foremost understand and prevent crisis, and to effectively manage those that occur, taking into account in each and every step of their planning and training activities, the interest of their stakeholders” [40].

The proactive and reactive strategies should be employed to tackle the crisis, during and after the event [38]. Levit [41] stressed the significance of developing and implementing a crisis management strategy jointly by all tourism stakeholders in order to minimize the aftereffect of predicament and shorten the upturn time. With an aim of rebounding the influx of tourists within short period of time, the strategic approach to crisis planning and management will lessen the unpleasant impacts of crisis on destinations and help (re)develop confidence of travelers [42]. Based on the previous crisis experience, it is possible to develop a contingency plan to mitigate the imminent crisis’s effect [31]. Added to this, Peters and Pikkemaat [43] asserted that …a lesson from similar tourism destinations can be taken for the successful development of crisis management tools. Beirman [29] recommended that a lesson learned from crisis should be incorporated into the day-to-day marketing of a destination. Likewise, world tourism organization advises to integrate tourism into national emergency structure, but many nations underestimate the sector in this respect.

Moreover, a crisis management model proposed by Mitroff includes 5 phases or mechanisms: the warning sign; preparation; repression (damage limitation); recovery; and the learning [44]. On the same issue, Beirman [29] appreciates that there a number of good strategies that can be used: a) the joint act, cooperation of all the major structures involved in tourism; b) the use of media, press public relations campaigns with a focused public targeted to the right audience that is receptive to the message and which filters the information in their own advantage and c) the recovery of the market with the help of marketing [44]. On the contrary, Media can also badly influence the swift recovery of a destination from crisis due to its distorted coverage [38].

In using marketing particularly as successful crisis management strategies, there appears to be a balance between pull marketing and push marketing [29] as well as the good image of a destination is pivotal [45-51] and vice versa. According to Hunt [34], image of a destination attracts tourist equivalent to or even more than the actual attractions do. Actually, the expectations and preferences of tourists to holiday have to be well known in order to forecast the upcoming tourism fashions [5].

From the literature, it can be concluded that political instability with several proxies viz. religious and ethnic tensions, violent revolution, coup, riots, public protest and demonstration, war, etc. affect the tangible and intangible (namely image) constituents of tourist destination. These political crises may result in the declaration of state of emergency which possibly exacerbate the undesirable impacts of the incidents on the vulnerable industry, tourism. Similarly, alike other destinations in the world, tourism in Ethiopia has been suffering from the recent political instability oscillating between ‘high risk’ and ‘extreme risk’ of crisis levels. It’s truism that the performance of tourism during the state of emergency rather look good than times in climax of crisis, but not healthy yet vis-à-vis the peace time was. This implies that tourism activities require peace and stable environment both in originating and destination regions. In response to the development of resilient and sustainable tourism in Ethiopia, comprehensive and effective crisis management strategies have to be collaboratively developed by the concerned stakeholders. To this end, researches on the issue shall be thoroughly carried out.