African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (Aug 2019)
Managing Disaster and Crisis in Tourism: A Critique of Research and a fresh Research Agenda.
Abstract
The paper critically reviews the research available on crisis and disaster management strategies for tourist destinations as published in tourism and travel related journals adopting a narrative analysis approach. A total of 74 research papers published on the subject in widely recognized top tier tourism and management journals, between January 2000 and September 2018, have all been incorporated into this study. The studies covered the various type of natural disasters and other events like terrorist attacks, pandemics and political upheaval. The study found the key themes including media sensitization, destination reputation and image, effectiveness and speedy response to a disaster and the importance of relationship marketing/collaboration and communication strategies etc are all critical after crises and disasters occur. Abundant opportunities exist to further expand the theory in this study area through future research and the construction of a theoretical framework, greater empirical exploration, and further discussion of the findings. The current review highlights the types and number of studies conducted in the Crisis Disaster Management (CDM) field and the lack of research on various facets of crises, and also disaster or post-disaster recovery for tourism destinations. The review ascertains ways to improve the speed and effectiveness of responses to a disaster, the significance of relationship marketing with loyal repeat customers and the need to speedily repair a destinations image after an event of cataclysmic proportions. Suggestions for future research, developed from the present study, incorporate the pressing need to support tourism operators to engage with crisis preparedness and disaster-management strategies and the significance of gaining a better comprehension of the customer response to disastrous events.
