Social Media and Crisis Management in Tourism: Applications and Implications for Research

Abstract

Firms are increasingly facing crises events, while tourism is an industry that is highly vulnerable to numerous risks. Despite the wide adoption of social media in tourism and the previous research examining the use of the Internet for crisis, there is limited but emerging research on the use of social media for crisis management. This article aims to fill in this gap by reviewing the literature. The literature is critically analyzed with the aim to identify the use and the impact of social media for crisis management to both tourism suppliers/organizations and tourism demand. The implications of social media are exemplified with several examples. The literature clearly demonstrates how tourism organizations should exploit the inbound and outbound communication, networking, and collaboration capabilities of social media for including several other stakeholders into their crisis management strategies and activities. The article also discusses the practical and research implications of social media in crisis management for tourism policy makers, tourism suppliers, and researchers.