Abstract
A little over a year after the pandemic and ensuing state-of-emergency were officially declared, it seems timid signs of budding recovery are finally appearing. This paper presents empirical evidence related with a destination recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected during the early reopening of tourism in Spain (Easter break). This research evaluates the links between communication -both DMO (destination marketing organization) and tourist-generated communication- and destination awareness, imagery and perceived health safety. We also analyzed the impact of travel frequency on the entire construct set, as well as its role as potential moderator in the causal model. Results allow us to put forth a series of recommendations for tourist destination managers, aimed at meeting the challenges of progressively opening up tourism and mobility as the COVID-19 pandemic reality continues to evolve.
1. Introduction
Tourism crises are diverse. Health crises (e.g., epidemics), terrorist attacks (e.g., September 11, 2001 in NY or March 11, 2004 in Madrid), natural disasters (e.g., 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2015 Nepal earthquake) and political instability (e.g., coup d’´etat in Burma) all have a direct impact on traveler decision-making. From an economic, social and healthcare perspective, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a disruptive impact around the world (Yu et al., 2021). The tourism sector has felt the brunt of this more than most due to city lockdowns and restrictions on domestic and international mobility imposed by governments globally (J. Kim et al., 2021; Rastegar et al., 2021). Such restrictions have had their greatest impact in destinations like Italy, Spain, New York or parts of China (Zenker and Kock, 2020).
5. Discussion and conclusions
Tourism destination perception and imagery are key factors driving destination positioning and overall industry success. Hence, how a destination can leverage resources to foster positive brand imagery—with a view to distinguish itself and out-position competitors—becomes a critical issue for tourism decision-makers (Zhang et al., 2021). In line with the crisis management literature (e.g., Novelli et al., 2018) and Information Richness Theory (Daft and Lengel, 1986; Kucukusta et al., 2019), our data show that, during early recovery stages, DMO-generated communication impacts destination imagery and awareness. In contrast, our findings indicate communication in general has a positive yet non-significant impact on perceived health safety. The descriptive data shows sufficient but low values for perceived health safety; this may mean that pioneering tourists are very likely to exhibit low risk aversion, basing travel decisions on other stimuli like promotions. That said, our findings vary depending on how often tourists travel (travel-frequency).
