Quality & Safety / Two Sides of the Same Coin

Tourism and Hospitality Management, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 193-204, 2009 A. Steene: QUALITY AND SAFETY - TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN IN HOSPITALITY AND …

UDC 65.012.4:338.48:640.4

Preliminary communication Received: 03.07.2009

QUALITY AND SAFETY - TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN IN HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM

Anders Steene

H B Olsson International, Tourism Consultants, Sweden1

Abstract: This paper will discuss some methodical aspects in doing research in the field of hospitality and

tourism. Quality aspects have been dominant subjects for a long time in the industry, safety and security aspects were more or less not on the agenda in the early 90-ies. According to how society has developed, the experience of risk and danger has changed in the society over time and nowadays both safety and security as well as quality aspects has become important elements in the tourism products. The question is, if those two different approaches can be used as mutual methods. Key words: tourism, quality, safety, assessment, management, hospitality.

INTRODUCTION In the field of hospitality, tourism and travel, quality aspects have been the predominant subjects for a long time in the industry. Safety and security were more or less not on the agenda in the early 90-ies in the business. First after facing disasters, like the terrorist attack at Luxor Egypt 1992 and 1993, the shipwreck of m/s Estonia in the Baltic Sea on the 28th of September 1994 when 852 passengers died, the terrorist attack on the 11th of September 2001 in New York, the Iraq war and the SARS epidemic in 2003 or the Tsunami disaster on the 26th of December 2004 in Thailand, the industry became fully aware of safety and security matters. Today more or less all companies in the business of tourism have a security plan as well as a quality plan. Risk management/assessment as well as quality management/assessment focuses on improving the possibilities for a business to produce a product in a safe way and with a high...