Abstract
On October 29, 2022, the 10·29 Itaewon Tragedy in South Korea claimed 159 lives and left 196 injured, who were predominantly young adults celebrating Halloween and post-social distancing. Global leaders extended deep condolences, recognizing the profound effect of this devastating incident had on the nation. Past research reveals that disasters have detrimental effects on tourist destination images and visitation intentions. Emotional and cognitive reactions to disasters follow an intricate mechanism. According to the cognitive appraisal theory of emotions, emotions originate from two-stage cognitive appraisals of certain environments. In tourism contexts, tourists' emotions may also influence how disasters and other negative incidents are perceived and interpreted. This study employs the difference-in-differences method to investigate how tourists' emotions contribute to post-disaster changes in destination images. The tourism industry is highly sensitive to crises, and social disasters related to safety can have huge impacts on destination images. Safety perceptions of tourists can be crucial to their destination selection, and therefore the Itaewon area, Korea's first special tourist zone, demands a more comprehensive analysis. As such, this study seeks to understand the destination image changes caused by the 10·29 Itaewon Tragedy and suggest ways to alleviate the negative ripple effects that its residents and tourism businesses may face.
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