How tourism deals with terrorism from a public relations perspective: A content analysis of communication by destination management organizations in the aftermath of the 2017 terrorist attacks in Catalonia

Abstract

The aim of this article is to verify how the Destination Management Organizations of Barcelona and Cambrils managed their crisis communication following the attacks of August 2017 via their Twitter platforms. To do so, an analysis template was created from the field of public relations and a content analysis was performed on the tweets published on the official accounts of these organizations during one month after the terrorist attacks. The results show that, despite the great communication potential of Twitter during crises following terrorist attacks, only Barcelona Turisme published a high volume of tweets in the first days after the attack. However, the content of the tweets by Barcelona Turisme and Cambrils Turisme focuses mainly on how the attack was dealt with, the actions they took to protect the stakeholders, and the promotion of their tourist attractions. The tweets reported to a lesser extent on what had happened during the attacks and the security measures adopted after the attacks. The study has shown the need for public relations and crisis communication by Destination Management Organizations when terrorist attacks take place. This article involves the creation of a highly useful methodology to analyse crisis communication management after terrorist attacks at tourist destinations.