Save the Day: How the Dissemination of Tourism Crises Can Reinvigorate a Tourism Destination Image after the Seoul Halloween Crowd Crush

Abstract

For tourism crises, social media present a double-edged sword: while disseminating the damage caused by tourism crises, it also has the potential to enhance the destination’s visibility and serve as a promotional tool. So, we cannot entirely negate the dissemination of tourism crises but rather proactively utilize its positive aspects to promote the sustainable development of the tourism destination image (TDI). Crisis events caused by management mistakes can be particularly damaging to people’s trust in destination management organizations (DMOs), and a crowd crush is a common and highly damaging type of tourism crisis caused by public management mistakes. Thus, the purpose of this study is to summarize the factors that may positively influence TDI in the dissemination of tourism crises such as the Seoul Halloween crowd crush. This study takes the Seoul Halloween crowd crush as an example and constructs a theoretical model based on information ecology theory. The relationships of variables in the model were analyzed through structural equation modeling. The results show that information transparency, subject authority, and social media interactivity positively influence an organic cognitive image. Social connection and social media interactivity positively influence this organic affective image. Finally, this study provides targeted recommendations for DMOs, which is important for the restoration of TDI after crises.