Two Sides of a Coin: A Crisis Response Perspective on Tourist Community Participation in a Post-Disaster Environment.

Xue Chen,Jie Zhang,Honglei Zhang,Jinhe Zhang,Ke Wu,Lingling Yang,Donghe Li,Sifeng Nian

doi:10.3390/ijerph16122073

Abstract

This study investigates the attitudes and behavioural intentions of community crisis response and tourism community participation in tourist destinations after the occurrence of a disaster. Further, we built a conceptual model of perceived community participation benefit, community attachment, community resilience, and crisis response and community participation intention and measured it using 556 samples surveyed after the Wenchuan earthquake, China. The results indicated that benefit perception, community attachment, and community resilience have a positive effect on crisis response and community participation. The study further reveals that the local tourism community gradually transforms the negative aspects of terrible disasters into development opportunities. Our case study particularly focuses on the initiative shown by and positive participation of the tourist community in the aforementioned transformation. The study proposes the Attachment, Benefit, and Capability framework of tourist community participation based on the crisis response perspective and expands the boundaries of tourist community participation research. The study has theoretical and practical significance, puts forward relevant countermeasures, and has significant implications.

Highlights

With the dawn of the new century, the number of disasters and disaster victims and severity of disaster-related economic losses have significantly increased worldwide, and the disaster crisis has become an obstacle to sustainable development
The outcomes showed that tourism community participation and crisis response attitude had a positive influence on intentional behaviour during the period after the Wenchuan earthquake and verified that the local communities’ attitude was positive and active, rather than negative and passive
This study selected the tourism community following the occurrence of the Wenchuan earthquake in China as the study area and used structural equation modelling (SEM) to examine the tourism community participation mechanism from the crisis response perspective

Summary

Introduction

With the dawn of the new century, the number of disasters and disaster victims and severity of disaster-related economic losses have significantly increased worldwide, and the disaster crisis has become an obstacle to sustainable development. The tourism industry is not immune to crises [2]. The tourism industry is undoubtedly one of the most important components of economies worldwide; it is one of the most susceptible and vulnerable components to crises and disasters, as well. In the twenty-first century, the global tourism industry has been affected by terrorist attacks, political instability, economic recession, ecological security threats, and natural disasters [3,4,5]. The management capability and crisis response capacity of the industry to handle complex and critical situations are observed to be limited [6]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion