Crisis in the city? A systematic literature review of crises and tourism cities

Abstract

Crisis in the city? A systematic literature review of crises and tourism citiesTourism destinations are prone to crises and disasters that can cause significant loss and damage, with cities exposed even more to such events due to their complex nature. This was evidenced by the current coronavirus pandemic that had a devastating impact for many city destinations. Yet, this is an area of research that attracted little attention from academics until recently. This study provides an in-depth systematic review of the research published to date on crises in tourism cities and discusses how this field evolved over the years. The findings show that while there is a healthy amount of literature on crises in cities and a consistent body of knowledge on tourism crises, cities are somewhat overlooked in the context of tourism crises. Several other imbalances are highlighted with regard to the type of crises discussed, regions studied, research methods employed, and topics discussed. Avenues for future research are proposed.