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The purpose of this paper is to understand the online communication strategies used by destination management organizations (DMOs) during a terrorist attack. In particular, this study analyzes Twitter use during seven terrorism incidents in six European cities (Paris, Brussels, Nice, Berlin, London and Barcelona) between 2015 and 2017.

Twitter content was collected via NCapture, a web browser extension of NVivo, one week prior to the attacks, the day of, and two weeks following to determine the timeframe in which DMOs communicated about the crisis, the types of messages being communicated, and whether these messages are effective. This study uses Coombs’ Situational Crisis Communication Theory as a guide to analyzing the effectiveness of the crisis communication strategies.

The findings of this paper indicate that DMOs are not effectively using Twitter during a terrorist attack. Few tweets relating to the attacks provided tourists with information regarding their safety, with the remaining only communicating as victims. Many DMOs went offline in the days immediately following the attacks and each DMO’s crisis communication on Twitter only lasted up to one week following the attacks.

This study provides insight into the ways DMOs are using social media for crisis communication. These results inform DMOs on their responsibility in communicating information during a terrorist attack. Messages of support are useful in the recovery stage, but tourists need information on how to stay safe and Twitter is often the first source people go to for information (Simon et al., 2014).

The purpose of this paper is to assess the crisis communication strategies implemented by hotel and lodging organizations via social media. Specifically, this study analyzed Twitter content by hotels in Orlando, Florida during the summer of 2016 when several crises occurred that made global media coverage, including the alligator snatching on Disney property, the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub and growing concerns of Zika virus.

To understand crisis communication in the hotel industry, this study was guided by the technology-environment-organization framework and situational crisis communication theory (SCCT). Twitter content between June 1 and August 31, 2016 from Orlando hotels was collected and content analyzed to determine: was the message related to the crisis event, the SCCT strategy used and the influence of hotel organizational factors (ownership, size, classification) on the use of social media for crisis communication.

Results indicate that most hotels are not currently using Twitter as a form of crisis communication. Only the shooting at Pulse Nightclub was communicated and the SCCT bolster strategy was used throughout each of the crisis-related message, reminding stakeholders that they too are a victim.

This study provides insight into the ways hotels are using social media for crisis communication. Each crisis explored was different, and while the hotels were not responsible for creating the crises, they are responsible for the safety of guests. These results inform hoteliers that there is a responsibility to communicate during a crisis, particularly for informative purposes.

Although ethical management would seem to be a core responsibility in today’s business climate, empirical research and practical applications in the hospitality industry remain scarce. Hence, the aim of this study is to examine the influences of ethical value and corporate philanthropy on the foodservice industry in South Korea.

Frequency, reliability, confirmatory factor, correlation and structural equation modeling analyses were used.

The results indicate that, overall, ethical value directly influences corporate philanthropy and two aspects of organizational commitment (i.e. continuous and affective). Corporate philanthropy, in turn, positively relates to organizational commitment dimensions as well as financial and non-financial performance. Affective and continuous commitments lead to improvements in both financial and non-financial performance.

The strategic importance of ethical value and the following philanthropic activities in the foodservices is demonstrated from the findings of this research.

The current study is the first to develop and test an empirical model which accounts for the effects of ethical value on both financial and non-financial performances in the franchisor–franchisee relationship.

This chapter discusses the current risk perception literature in the tourism field. The chapter critiques the literature and offers a solution through a more conceptual and operational definition of risk perceptions. Specifically, the inclusion of affective risk perceptions will be added to the literature via the risk-as-feelings hypothesis. Extension of the current literature will enhance research moving forward.

The chapter will provide a literature review, propose a conceptual model, and operationalize the risk perception variables.

The outcome of this chapter is to provide a conceptual model as a framework to address risk perception studies in tourism and hospitality in the future. The model will provide clear measurement scales to be tested.

This chapter gives a much needed theoretical and conceptual foundation to the study of risk perceptions in the travel and tourism literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide greater insights into the-state-of-the-art in crisis management and aid in better response to health-related crises, with a specific focus on the hotel industry. This study extends the tourism crisis management model to include social media, concerning the role of monitoring and responding.

This study enhances the classic 4R (readiness, reduction, response and recovery) crisis management model to include social media for hotels facing a bed bug crisis and/or other health-related crises.

This paper discusses the use of social media at different phases of managing a bed bug crisis, which include risk reduction, readiness, response and recovery. Recommendations are also provided for hotel managers to combat health-related crises that are fought out on social media.

Social media has helped to bridge the communication gap between customers and hotels. Bed bug infestations are a growing health crisis, and they have obtained increasing attention on social media sites. Without managing this crisis effectively, bed bug infestation can cause economic loss and reputational damages to hotel properties, ranging from negative comments and complaints, to possible lawsuits. Thus, it is essential for hoteliers to understand the importance of social media in crisis communication, and to incorporate social media in hotels’ crisis management plans.

This study serves as one of the first attempts in the hospitality field to offer discussions and recommendations on how hotels can manage the bed bug crisis and other crises of this kind by incorporating social media into their crisis management practices.

The purpose of this paper is to develop nine criteria for tourism disaster resilience scorecard for destinations (TDRSD) by using the “disaster resilience scorecard for cities, based on UNISDR’s ten essentials”. As a surrogate for the city, the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) is used at the destination level to manage and oversee disasters within the perspective of a visitor. The initial section of the paper revises the scorecard to adapt to the destination, while the second part of the paper applies the scorecard to a specific city destination. The TDRSD scorecard for CVBs was used to evaluate the destination of Manta, Ecuador.

The approach included four stages. The first stage was to use a Delphi technique to evaluate and adapt the UNIDSRR scorecard to a destination (tourism) context. The second stage included conducting interviews with members of the Manta CVB and Mesa 5 (Emergency Management Department of Manta). Consequently, each answer was paired with support for the item and criteria score. Finally, the weak and strong scores were identified for each essential and match them up with recommendations and trends available in literature.

This study set out to do three things: suggest that a similar scorecard is necessary for destinations; adapt the UNIDSR scorecard to a destination focus; and apply the TDRSD to Manta, Ecuador. Overall, these goals were met. But most interestingly, findings suggest some troubling outcomes.

The study allowed to undercover gaps in the current risk management plan of the destination, while providing an evaluation of the engineering resilience of the tourism sector of Manta in case of a disaster.

This study aims to highlight that security and flexibilities remain the main points of contention in the cordiality business. This research points to planning a framework that empowers hotel users to get to the room using a mobile access key. Advancing secured facilities, mobile phone “Near Field Communication” (NFC) innovation as the entrance device by carrying out an application containing an imitated mobile key for explicit verification access is used.

The proposed system is evaluated by triangulation of experimental, numerical and rational evaluation using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with Malaysian hotel guests and employees.

The discoveries with the hypothesis supported validated that the suggested solution can eliminate physical cards, boost protection and encourage a contactless ecosystem. Theoretical, management and societal contributions are discussed here.

This experiment comes with the constraints that it was conducted in only two hotels and does not fully reflect the choices of a wider range of travellers. Secondly, the cost of existing NFC smart locks is still relatively high, and along with the development of technology, the price will decrease when supply exceeds demand.

To promote high-security attributes, NFC technology as the access system by implementing an application containing an emulated smart key for specific authentication access is used. The host-card emulation enables cost-effectiveness profit and initiating a defence system in the pandemic era.

To promote high-security attributes, NFC technology is used as the access system by implementing an application containing an emulated smart key for specific authentication access. The host-card emulation enables cost-effectiveness profit and initiating a defence system in the pandemic era.

The novelty of this study comes from the use of commonly available smartphone NFC features that are yet to be applied in the tourism ecosystem. The research provokes the applied concept of mobile smartkeys.