Theoretical foundations for the study of image and reputational management in tourism and hospitality

Abstract

Risk and reputation recovery in tourism should not be viewed as independent or isolated from other discipline areas. Frameworks, processes and theories cited in studies that explore tourism crisis recovery often include those from service recovery, public relations (PR) and communication, marketing, branding and consumer psychology. Many of the contributed case studies in this book demonstrate the use and application of these concepts, all of which are introduced and explored in this chapter. This chapter is organised into five sections. First, an understanding of the psychology behind consumer behaviour in times of crises is important to organisations and destinations seeking to maintain or recover their reputation. This chapter then begins by exploring the consumer behaviour concepts commonly employed by those seeking to better understand the impact of crisis and disasters on tourist demand. Following this, the influence of the media on the formation of tourists’ image perceptions and subsequent behaviour is discussed. The next section discusses the role of marketing communications strategies and branding to the recovery process and in then we introduce the relationship between resilience and reputation and image recovery, a phenomena that features in two of our contributed cases yet remains understated in the current academic literature. The chapter concludes with a discussion on service recovery and its importance to image and reputation recovery within the tourism and hospitality sector.