Destination Image Co-creation in Times of Sustained Crisis

Abstract

Customer co-creation feeds from customer engagement, value recognition and experience appreciation. Tourists participation in the image communication of a destination in adversity is well documented along literature addressing their motivation and reliability as intelligence information. What remains still vague, is an exploration of the above dynamics in cases of destinations in sustained crisis hence, customer predispositions under an extended duration yet reduced intensity destination image challenge exposure. Using Lesvos (Greece) as a case study of a destination affected by refugee and immigrant mobilities since 2012, this paper explores those constructs affecting tourists' response and engagement in the formulation, promotion and hence co-creation of an affected destinations' cognitive and affective image. The theoretical contribution of the paper lies in the exploration of the conscious and unconscious tourist triggers that contribute towards the co-repair and co-restoration of a longaffected destinations' image, with managerial implications both for destination and crisis management.

The Bridge at the End of the World: Linking Expat’s Pandemic Fatigue, Travel FOMO, Destination Crisis Marketing, and Vaxication for “Greatest of All Trips”

“…Recent studies in management and marketing research have focused on the identification of new and effective strategies for destination marketing and image creation in the COVID crisis scenario, aimed at prospective growth in post-pandemic tourism [11,[46][47][48]81]. Glyptou [46] emphasized that positive image creation of a destination during times of a prolonged crisis, such as COVID-19, acts as a predictor of tourist intentions for visiting destinations. Ahmad et al [47] also argued that the destination image has a significant effect on the travel intentions of tourists.…”

“…Crisis marketing is a set of marketing strategies to successfully lead a business out of a crisis while securing its strong and long-term future [11]. Integrated into the tourism industry, crisis marketing is the use of marketing strategies by tourism destinations as measures of survival (and subsequent revival) when faced with a crisis [11,46]. The fusion of crisis marketing with destination marketing gives birth to destination crisis marketing-a useful business tool for the revival of tourism and attracting prospective travelers during (and after) a crisis [11].…”

“…Although the strategies adopted during crisis marketing mainly depend on the nature of the disaster or crisis, the prime purpose remains the same that is, to ensure the survival of a business during a crisis and revival after it, instead of making massive profits on the cost of people's life and healthcare risk. Several studies have focused on finding the pathways for the revival of global tourism by marketing destinations as safe during the COVID-19 crisis [11,[46][47][48].…”

“…Glyptou [46] focused on the restoration and co-creation of destination image in recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Similarly, Ahmad et al [47] empirically highlighted the positive effect of destination image and visit intentions of the travelers in the post-pandemic tourism industry.…”

“…In this respect, tourism marketers are advised to focus on offsetting the damage of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism (by engaging fully vaccinated travelers) with effective destination crisis marketing communications (e.g., ensuring authenticity, transparency, empathy, humility, creativity, and optimism), instead of just competing for tourists and tourist dollars. To do so, tourism marketers should give priority to promoting destinations as safe and COVID-free in their marketing campaigns [46][47][48]. Moreover, transformative ways of destination crisis marketing, with coordinated and timely response to online user-generated content (e.g., avoid alienating prospective travelers by not being insensitive to the crisis), are deemed useful to rebuild destination trust (with good rapport) and increase individuals' vaxication intention [9,11,91].…”