**4. The concept of three-way destination safety solution to crisis management (TWaDeSS model)**

Three-way destination safety solution otherwise known as TWaDeSS model is a new concept in destination management that is proposed for tackling crisis arising from safety issues at rural tourism destinations. This model is product of long-term field/research experience on rural tourism development in Nigeria. It is anchored on three variables of host community, tourism resources and tourists/visitors to guarantee sustainable crisis management in rural tourism destinations. The TWaDeSS model is expected to be conducted by the developer/investors at the various stages of the rural tourism project. The model has three major stages that are to be followed accordingly by the developers/investors of tourism projects in rural areas to yield expected positive results (**Figure 1**).

**Figure 1.** *The flow chart for TWaDeSS model and its application.*

*Public Sector Crisis Management*

tourism resources in a deplorable state.

legal litigations from outside the community, among others.

among others.

traditional dances, notable festivals, masquerading, attractive ceremonies, food typologies, belief systems and ritual practices and traditional outfits or attire,

However, some of these rural communities have harnessed some of their tourism resources for meaningful tourism development that would improve their standard of living. While some of these communities have actualized their rural tourism base and transform their respective communities to *rural tourist destinations*, their counterparts have not been able to achieve similar heights, thereby leaving their

Crisis has been defined as "…negative changes in the security, economic, political, societal, or environmental affairs, especially when they occur abruptly, with little or no warning" ([15], p. 3). In tourism studies or management, crisis can be said to be unwanted circumstance that come with huge negativities on the tourist destination, host community, tourists, visitors, tourist attractions and tourism schemes or project in a given area. The consequences are better imagined than witnessed as it might lead to the closure or abandonment of tourism projects or schemes in a given area. In most cases huge capital investments and natural resources are lost to this situation. The causes could either intrinsic or extrinsic depending on the nature of the crisis. Intrinsic has to do with those crises that are caused from within the tourism project circle, i.e. the stakeholders and/or natural factors. The stakeholders may include members of the host community, visitors/tourists, tourism project managers, tourism project developers and tourism resources (developed or undeveloped), among others. The natural factors has to do with some unforeseen natural occurrences like earthquakes, erosion, heavy rains, weather conditions, volcanoes, land movements and some other similar natural occurrences that are not within the control of man. Then the extrinsic factors have to do with some other factors that could cause crisis that are not within the list given above. It could be persons outside of the defined stakeholders, intercommunal crisis, invaded criminal activities and

Crisis management on other hand has been defined as "…the overall coordination of an organisation's response to a crisis, in an effective, timely manner, with the goal of avoiding or minimizing damage to the organisation's profitability, reputation, or ability to operate and often involves the need to make quick decisions on the basis of uncertain or incomplete information" ([15], p. 3). In tourism management, crisis management can be said to be programmes designed and implemented to check possible crisis in tourist destinations or on tourism projects with the aim of either avoiding the crisis and its consequences or managing or controlling the consequences of both expected and unexpected crisis at tourist destinations. This view was supported by Colpofer [15] in the following lines:

*CM includes the development of plans, based upon an integral approach with internal and external organizations to reduce the risk of a crisis occurring and to deal with any crises that do arise, and the implementation of these plans so as to minimize the impact of crisis and assist the organization to recover from them and* 

However, safety issues has been identified as among the major sources of crisis at rural tourism destinations [6, 11, 14, 16–19]. Rural tourism projects in Nigeria of recent have been faced with multiplicity of crisis arising from safety issues. Poorly managed safety issues have given rise to high safety and risk perceptions among major actors in rural tourism projects in Nigeria and in some other sub-Saharan countries. This has sandwiched rural tourism projects in a

*restart its normal activities as quickly as possible. ([15], p. 3).*

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