Towards a research agenda for post-disaster and post-crisis recovery strategies for tourist destinations: a narrative review

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a review of the literature concerning post-disaster and post-crisis recovery for tourist destinations. A total of 64 articles on this topic published in peer-reviewed tourism journals between January 2000 and June 2012 were included in the review. These articles were written on a number of different disaster contexts, including weather-related events (floods and hurricanes), natural disasters (earthquakes and tsunami) and other events (such as pandemics and terrorist attacks). The key themes that emerged included a lack of communication between stakeholders, media sensationalism, the importance of selecting the most effective marketing messages, lack of disaster-management plans, damage to destination image and reputation, and the changes in tourist behaviour following crises and disasters. The review identifies ways to improve the speed and effectiveness of response to disaster, the importance of relationship marketing with loyal customers and the need to quickly repair destination image. Suggestions for future research arising from this review include the urgent need to encourage tourism operators to engage with crisis preparedness and disaster-management strategies and the importance of gaining a better understanding of the consumer response to disastrous events.