Why tourists engage in online collective actions in times of crisis: Exploring the role of group relative deprivation

Abstract

Abstract Social media platforms empower tourists to engage in secondary crisis communication and even take collective action against destinations. Such online actions result in challenges for tourism destinations related to crisis management and image restoration, especially for human-induced tourism crises caused internally by managerial or institutional faults. Based on the theory of relative deprivation and examining the reputation crisis of Snow Town as a case, this study aims to understand the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral mechanisms of tourists’ secondary crisis communications. The results show that group relative deprivation perceived by tourists can elicit their group-based anger and distrust toward the destination and can also lead to online collective action and offline behavioral intentions (here, negative travel intention). Additionally, the results show a reverse influence of aim-oriented and behavior-oriented online collective actions on travel intentions and that aim-oriented actions positively mediate anger and travel intentions. This study provides new insights into how a personal incident evolves to become a tourism crisis during social-media communications and discusses managerial implications for crisis management and post-crisis marketing.