Owing to the numerous peculiarities of the hotel business, the sensitivity of this sector to crisis situations is higher compared to other economic sectors. International tourism and hospitality as crucial elements of the tourism offer are exposed to a number of crises and disasters. Therefore, the crisis management concept must play a significant role in the operations of tourism companies and this paper addresses this issue. It starts with theoretical framework reviewing the fundamental determinants of tourism, concepts of crisis and crisis management in international tourism and the importance of crisis management in the hotel business. In the empirical part of the paper, the results of a survey conducted on a sample of 59 hotels in the Split-Dalmatia County are presented with the aim of providing insights about their approach on handling crisis situations.