Tourism Crisis Research Articles

From tsunami through terror attacks to Covid-19: crisis communication strategies and recovery campaigns to combat Thailand’s tourism crises

ABSTRACT Countries dealing with tourism crises use a variety of crisis communication strategies, as found in various studies. Thailand is one of the strongest global tourism brands and tourism remains its dominant industry. In recent decades, it has suffered several crises: natural disasters, terrorist attacks, a pandemic, and internal political tensions. This study analyzes which crisis communication strategies Thai officials adopted to restore Thailand’s positive image during tourism crises; in addition, we analyzed how these strategies stem from the country’s ideations and cultural values, a subject that was scarcely addressed in previous crisis communication theory.

The Contentious Role of Tourism in Disaster Response and Recovery in Vanuatu

Tourism is a key contributor to the economy of the Pacific Island country Vanuatu. Yet many Ni-Vanuatu have seen their access to natural resources lost or reduced as a consequence of foreign investment in the tourism industry and associated land leases, while few community members found secure employment in the tourism sector to compensate for those losses. The tension between externally driven tourism development and local resource access has been exacerbated in the aftermath of 2015 Tropical Cyclone Pam which caused extensive damage both to the tourism industry and local communities. Employing a tourism-disaster-conflict nexus lens and drawing on semi-structured interviews with hotel managers, research conversations with hotel staff and community members, and focus group discussions with community leaders, this study examines how the tourism sector has impacted post-disaster response and recovery, particularly in terms of land relations and rural livelihoods. Findings suggest that tourism can be a double-edged sword for disaster-prone communities. While resorts play an important role as first responders, their contributions to post-disaster recovery processes remain ambiguous and marred by tensions between expatriate investors and indigenous Ni-Vanuatu people. These findings also hold lessons for the tourism crisis triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic in the South Pacific and elsewhere.

An analysis of user-generated crisis frames: Online public responses to a tourism crisis

A gap exists in the research on how online media frame a tourism crisis and the effects on travel intentions. This research proposed a basic crisis frames model for public online communications including nature (N), causes (C), processes (P), and results (R). Chinese online public opinions on the Thailand drownings in 2018 were collected and the Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR) technique explored the responses within the data. The results showed that: (1) crisis frames had a dynamic impact on negative travel intentions, and the effects and variance contributions of frames differed; (2) disturbance information produced by a negative communication incident from the destination was a factor promoting the accumulation of online public opinion; and (3) online data of public opinion and the VAR model are appropriate for research on tourism crisis information communication. This research provides new insights and a method for investigating tourism crises and dynamic responses in online communication.

Managing Sustainable Tourism in Monkey Forest Ubud due to Covid-19 Pandemic

Purpose: This study aims to determine the sustainable tourism management of Monkey Forest Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, in the presence of the Covid-19 pandemic which has resulted in a tourism crisis.
 Research methods: This study uses a qualitative method to describe the condition of Monkey Forest Ubud in the presence of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is explained in a descriptive manner to show the sustainability management applied by its management during the pandemic.
 Results and discussion: The management of Monkey Forest Ubud carries out operations by paying attention to economic, ecological and socio-cultural aspects, which aims to create sustainable tourism in the pandemic situation, so as to create harmonization of relations between the surrounding community and the manager of such an attraction.
 Implication: The management must pay attention to economic, ecological and socio-cultural aspects which shows that Monkey Forest Ubud supports sustainable tourism.

Social isolation, anxiety, mental well-being and push travel motivation: the case of COVID-19 in Turkey

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effects of social isolation, anxiety, and mental well-being perceptions on push travel motivations, in the context of the COVID-19 crisis affecting individuals living in Turkey. The reason for examining this period specifically is to reveal how the push travel motivations of potential holidaymakers have been affected due to the new situation whereby they have had to stay at home. Determining the reasons affecting the holiday motivations of individuals is vital for predicting future tourist mobility, especially during this tourism crisis. Data were collected from individuals staying at home due to the curfew during the COVID-19 crisis. Findings reveal that push travel motivation differs according to demographic factors, and that social isolation affects mental well-being negatively, while anxiety and push travel motivation are positively affected. It was found that mental well-being has a positive effect on push travel motivation. In addition, mental well-being has a higher positive effect on push travel motivation than anxiety.

Recovery strategies and marketing campaigns for global destinations in response to the Covid-19 tourism crisis

ABSTRACT The study analyzes which image repair strategies were adopted by officials and marketers around the world to combat the Covid-19 tourism image crisis. We used qualitative content analysis of news reports, videos/ads, social media posts, and recovery campaigns taken from international and tourism news outlets, websites, and YouTube. As a result, we would like to offer a new theoretical framework that divides the image repair strategies into the three phases of a pandemic tourism crisis: pre-lockdown, lockdown and post-lockdown/recovery. The new theoretical framework might be helpful for studies analyzing destinations’ image repair efforts while combating pandemics, as well for practitioners.

Who are vulnerable in a tourism crisis? A tourism employment vulnerability analysis for the COVID-19 management

Providing targeted support to people who are mostly impacted financially is critical in managing the socio-economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, governments face the challenge of pinpointing vulnerable workers. Building upon the multi-regional input-output model and a high-resolution employment profile, this research develops a new analytical model to recognize the vulnerable population in a crisis by identifying who they are, where they work and what sector they work for. The model was applied to Indonesia to assess tourism losses and found four regional hotspots where the employment vulnerability of women, youth and low-education workers was more than five times higher than the national average. Findings demonstrated that this model could assist with rapid and efficient targeted support for crisis management in the short term and continued investment for an equitable disaster recovery in the future.

Archaeological Sites as Peripheral Destinations. Exploring Big Data on Fieldtrips for an Upcoming Response to the Tourism Crisis after the Pandemic

Archaeological heritage sites constitute the most recent addition to the tourism supply of Madrid, one of the most visited regions of Spain. In 2003, the Plan de Yacimientos Visitables (Plan of Archaeological Visitable Sites) was implemented, museumising 21 sites. However, the peripheral nature of these sites and the lack of personnel prevent strict control being carried out of who visits them, the practices of these visitors and how they rate the sites. This study proposes a systematic procedure to analyse the data gathered from Twitter and Flickr, in order to determine the most shared archaeological spaces in the years immediately preceding the pandemic, and to assess the perception that the visitors had of them. The information provided is useful for learning about the real weight that these sites have in leisure experiences (school trips, guided tours, recreation, etc.). Now that travel has been restricted due to the pandemic, we should ask whether Spain’s minor heritage is able to structure new proximity tourism routes. This is based on the hypothesis that, until now, these types of heritage have had a very limited role in recreational practices, but offer potential as “outdoor museums” in the present climate.

COVID-19 and game park employees’ livelihoods in a distressed destination

ABSTRACT This paper examines the extent to which COVID-19 impacted the livelihoods of game park employees in a destination with ongoing political and economic challenges. Data were collected through interviewing employees revealed employee resilience levels and strategies to save their livelihoods during a crisis. It showcased the weaknesses of organizational social capital nodes in assisting employees during their vulnerable moments. It was found that employees on short-term contracts were the most affected, as they were the first to be laid off. The paper suggests up-skilling game park employees and develops empowerment interventions that help them generate second streams of income. This coping strategy is rarely discussed in the literature of tourism crisis and disaster management.

Problems and prospects for the development of the tourism industry in a global pandemic.

The author notes that in a global pandemic, global mobility restrictions have led to a deep crisis in international and domestic tourism. Other sectors of the economy related to tourism, such as transport, hotels, restaurants, services, etc., were also affected. Given that the tourism industry is an important component for the formation of the state budget of many countries, and for some countries - the main budget-generating industry, it is clear how important it is to find mechanisms to minimize losses caused by quarantine restrictions on mobility. Governments are trying to find ways to compensate for the loss of revenue caused by the slowdown in tourism growth, which is needed to finance public services, including in the social sphere, environmental protection, agriculture and the financial sector, and to take measures to meet debt maturities, both in the public and in the private segment. Forecasting and identifying trends for the further development of the tourism business and related sectors of the economy in a pandemic is one of the important tasks of analysts, economists, and logisticians from around the world. The measures currently proposed are aimed at reducing the rate of the global pandemic - mass vaccination of the population, regional and local lockdowns, self-isolation of tourists and various migrants, all this does not work in favor of improving the rate of tourist travel. Thus, it can be stated that the global pandemic has affected the entire tourism business - the work of operators, airlines, hotel chains, digital booking platforms, advertising in the media, so we can confidently predict a global contraction of the tourism industry for at least the next five years.

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Trend Prediction of Tourism Economic Vulnerability in China’s Major Tourist Cities

The evaluation and trend prediction of tourism economic vulnerability (TEV) in major tourist cities are necessary for formulating tourism economic strategies scientifically and promoting the sustainable development of regional tourism. In this study, 58 major tourist cities in China were taken as the research object, and an evaluation index system of TEV was constructed from two aspects of sensitivity and adaptive capacity. On the basis of the entropy weight method, TOPSIS model, obstacle diagnosis model, and BP neural network model, this study analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns, obstacle factors, and future trends of TEV in major tourist cities in China from 2004 to 2019. The results show three key findings: (1) In terms of spatiotemporal patterns, the TEV index of most of China’s tourist cities has been on the rise from 2004 to 2019. Cities throughout the coast of China’s Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration show high vulnerability, whereas low vulnerability has a scattered distribution in China’s northeast, central, and western regions. (2) The proportion of international tourists out of total tourists, tourism output density, urban industrial sulfur dioxide emissions per unit area, urban industrial smoke and dust emission per unit area, and discharge of urban industrial wastewater per unit area are the five major obstacles affecting the vulnerability degree of the tourism economy. (3) According to the prediction results of TEV from 2021 to 2030, although the TEV of many tourist cities in China is increasing year by year, cities with low TEV levels occupy the dominant position. Research results can provide reference for tourist cities to prevent tourism crises from occurring and to reasonably improve the resilience of the tourism economic system.

Humour: coping with travel bans during the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis study aims to extend the use of psychology in the field of tourism crisis and disaster management using coping theory. It examines how resident emotions change in the extended prodromal stage of the COVID-19 pandemic and how residents used humour to cope with stress from not being able to travel.Design/methodology/approachEarly COVID-19 (March–April 2020) was characterised by negative media reports, lockdowns and travel restrictions but for Indonesia, no direct effects in terms of loss of life. This unusual context has led to phenomena not previously studied – humour as a coping strategy. This research consists of two studies: Study 1 used thematic analysis of interviews before and during the early lockdown period with a panel of 245 quarantined residents who had travelled in the prior two years. Study 2 followed up using a #hasthtag analysis of travel-related videos content posted on Instagram and TikTok.FindingsThe COVID-19 global pandemic is an unusual crisis which has resulted in high levels of stress and uncertainty. This study identified the unusual characteristics of the COVID-19 crises and changes of quarantined resident’s emotions during the pre-event and prodromal stages. In addition, this study found the use of humour as a coping mechanism during the lockdown period and the use of social media as the vehicle for humour.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings may be generalisable only to a crises and disasters with an extended prodromal stage. Interestingly, climate change has some similar characteristics where warning signs are available, but the personal implications have not yet become apparent.Practical implicationsThe emotions associated with crisis are dynamic and crisis managers may tailor communication to help deal with stress.Social implicationsThis research provides an insight into how humorous content can be used to reduce negative emotions in the early stage of a stressful event associated with travel restrictions. This study may be suitable for use in integrated marketing communication in post-recovery messaging for the tourism industry and destination management organisation in the digital platform.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate “dark humour” during the early stages of COVID-19 and also the use of coping strategies to explain how humour can reduce stress.

Global tourism in crisis: conceptual frameworks for research and practice

Purpose The aims of this Editorial are twofold: (i) synthesise emergent themes from the special issue (ii) tender four theoretical frameworks toward examination of crises in tourism. Design/methodology/approach The thematic analysis of papers highlights a diversity of COVID-19 related crises contexts and research approaches. The need for robust theoretical interventions is highlighted through the four proposed conceptual frameworks. Findings Crises provides a valuable seam from which to draw new empirical and theoretical insights. Papers in this special issue address the unfolding of crises in tourism and demonstrate how its theorization demands multi and cross-disciplinary entreaties. This special issue is an invitation to examine how global crises in tourism can be more clearly appraised and theorised. The nature of crisis, and the extent to which the global tourism community can continue to adapt remains in question, as dialogues juxtapose the contradictions between tourism growth and tourism sustainability, and between building back better and returning to normal. Originality/value The appraisal of four conceptual frameworks, little used in tourism research provides markers of the theoretical rigour and novelty so often sought. Beck’s risk society reconceptualises risk and the extent to which risk is manmade. Biopolitics refers to the power over the production and reproduction of life itself, where the political stake corresponds to power over society. The political ecology of crisis denaturalises “natural” disasters and their subsequent crises. Justice complements an ethic of care and values like conative empathy to advance social justice and well-being.

COVID-19 pandemic and tourism: The impact of health risk perception and intolerance of uncertainty on travel intentions.

Understanding tourist behavior during and after major tourism crises is essential to help destinations recover. The COVID-19 pandemic — a period of uncertainty and risk — makes it relevant to assess factors that influence travel intentions. There has been little research on tourist behavior during health crises and, in particular, on perceived health risk and uncertainty effects on travel intentions. This study was carried out at the beginning of the pandemic in Brazil and aims to investigate the role of health risk perception and intolerance of uncertainty on travel intentions for 2020 and 2021. We applied an online survey to 1150 Brazilian participants from April to May 2020. Our findings indicate that perceived COVID-19 severity, perceived probability of infection, and expected duration of the pandemic are significant predictors of travel intentions for both years. This paper contributes to a deeper understanding of crisis-resistant tourists’ characteristics and provides insights for destinations’ recovery.

Effect of Covid-19 pandemic on tourist travel risk and management perceptions.

This study aims to explore the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions. Driven on the effect of the pandemic, we investigate tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions and its effect on society using a sample of 716 respondents. The data was collected through social media platforms using a representative sampling method and analyzed applying the PLS-SEM tool. The findings reveal that Covid-19 pandemic has greatly affected travel risk and management perceptions. Travel risk and management perception had a significant association with risk management, service delivery, transportation patterns, distribution channels, avoidance of overpopulated destinations, and hygiene and safety. The results also identified the mediating effect of travel risk and management perceptions. The finding of this study contributes to tourism crises and provides future research insights in the travel and tourism sector and response to change tourists’ travel risk and management perceptions in the post-covid recovery period.

Rethinking Sport Tourism Events in a Post-Covid-19 South Africa

Sport tourism and its related events have been identified as a unique niche product and South Africa is considered globally as a leading sport event tourism destination. Despite the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector, it is recognised for its resilience and ability to overcome crises thereby creating employment and assisting economies to recover. For this recovery to effectively take place, recovery strategies, frameworks and policies are now a necessity for the sustainability of South Africa as a sport event tourism destination. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of existing published and unpublished literature sources and policy documents in order to identify the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on sport event tourism in South Africa and to propose directions for recovery strategies going forward, as well as recommendations for future research areas. In doing so, the current paper has found that through adequate recovery policies, strategies and frameworks, sport event tourism in South Africa can effectively be used as a post pandemic tool for urban regeneration, new business opportunities and a range of positive social impacts for host communities. As the sub sector begins to reopen, recovery strategies that include considerations of risk communication, community engagement, risk mitigation and the hosting of hybrid events are essential for its sustainability. For the effective implementation hereof, additional research is needed in the fields of crises in sport event tourism, the use of technology in the sub sector, as well as collaboration in small scale sport event tourism.

Using DANP-mV Model to Improve the Paid Training Measures for Travel Agents amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic bringing travel to a standstill, an initiative of paid training for travel agencies was launched by the government. The purpose of this research is to improve the effectiveness of this measure, which is fundamental to the next tourism crisis management. Based on the related theories of tourism crisis management, organizational learning, and behavior adaption, the DANP-mV model developed an evaluation system for examining the training measure. The result of an influential network relationship map (INRM) shows that using influential effects, the “policy object” dimension and its criterion “subsidiary” should be the first improvement priority. To effectively achieve the aspiration level, the gap values point out “training courses” dimension and its criterion “excellent services” are first to improve. An action plan is produced containing all the findings and made available for easy indexing. It may contribute to the current measure improvements. Therefore, this innovative approach could help decision makers with tourism crisis policy making and help the sector with evolving learning readiness to remain sustainable.

Risk, crisis and disaster management in hospitality and tourism: a comparative review

PurposeThis paper aims to summarize the current state of research on risk, crisis and disaster management in the generic field, and in tourism and hospitality. It identifies key themes and compares the main topics studied in both the tourism and hospitality management and marketing literature.Design/methodology/approachA narrative (thematic) review and synthesis was completed based on articles published in the top 20 tourism and hospitality management journals from 2011 to March 2021. A review was conducted of the generic literature from 2016 to 2020.FindingsFrom 210 papers reviewed, only 47 are in the hospitality field. The authors found that 80% of papers were empirical with slightly more quantitative papers produced. The majority of the papers focused on crises. Three key themes were found from the review and future research proposed to address gaps based on these findings and a review of 26 papers from the generic risk, crisis and disaster management field.Practical implicationsResearch is required into planning and preparedness, not just response and recovery to crises and disasters. Future research should consider hospitality rather than tourism, particularly focusing attention outside of the accommodation sector. Hospitality studies also need to go beyond the micro-organizational level to include more meso- and macro-level studies.Originality/valueThe review provides a number of future research directions for tourism and hospitality research in the field. The paper provides a comprehensive multi-dimensional framework to synthesize studies and identifies research gaps. It also provides recommendations on methodologies required to progress these research directions. Research in this field is likely to grow because of the impact of COVID-19.

The missing link between overtourism and post-pandemic tourism. Framing Twitter debate on the Italian tourism crisis

PurposeThis paper aims to exploit existing tourism knowledge to frame the unprecedented pandemic tourism crisis, its key aspects and impacts on the tourism industry. It builds a conceptual bridge and discusses the opportunity to capitalise on the missing link between the pre-COVID overtourism and the post-COVID “undertourism” debates.Design/methodology/approachA cross-fertilisation between the overtourism knowledge and the emerging COVID-19 literature stream is proposed and supported by an online media analysis focussing on the Italian tourism debate on Twitter. A text analysis of 2,500 posts helps discuss the conceptual framework.FindingsThe analysed Twitter debate prioritised socio-economic impacts, regulative actions and the recovery approach, representing government as the pivotal actor to overcome the pandemic crisis. An integrative interpretative framework results from this research, opening three areas of inquiry, such as the recovery–reform continuum, managerial approaches beyond regulative frames of action and a critical sizing of digital technologies deployment.Research limitations/implicationsSamples with different geographical and temporal coverage may provide further and multifaceted insights into the emerging tourism online media debate.Originality/valueAn original conceptualisation counter-intuitively frames post-pandemic tourism scenarios. Additional elements of originality are the online media analysis contributing to the emerging COVID-19 agenda and the use of Twitter social platform to investigate the tourism debate.

Effect of government enforcement actions on resident support for tourism recovery during the COVID-19 crisis in Macao, China

ABSTRACT This study investigated the relationship between government enforcement actions, resident satisfaction with government performance, resident trust in government, and resident support for tourism recovery. A survey instrument was designed to evaluate resident satisfaction with six enforcement actions (appropriate, timely, executive ability, sustainable, cooperation with stakeholders, and transparency) taken by the Macao government during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each factor had a different effect on satisfaction and trust that influenced the resident support for tourism recovery. This study developed a tool to evaluate government enforcement actions in response to the tourism crisis and provided timely suggestions to the government for tourism recovery.