Local Community Participation in Destination Image Rebuilding During Crisis

Abstract

Crises, generally recognised as specific non-routine events in societies or their larger subsystem (e.g., regions or communities) that involve social disruption and physical harm (Kreps, 1988). An escalating and unpredictable terrorist attacks, political insurgency, natural disasters, and health pandemics that prevailed in the world, are affecting the globalised tourism industry. The consequence of a crisis is that even one unfortunate incident can destroy the good image of a destination that had built from years (Mathes, Gärtner & Czaplicki, 1991). The main aim of the present study is to ascertain the role of the local community in destination image rebuilding during the crisis. The mixed methodology was applied in this study. The semi structured in-depth interviews were conducted to collect primary data while secondary data was collected using online sources like UGC-Inflibinet, Ebsco host and Google Scholar. The study emphasised that community participation have a significant role in tourism development in crisis. The main finding of this study reveals that local communities play a pivotal role in image rebuilding for the crisis hit destination and a model is proposed for the same.

Keywords: Crisis, Community Participation, Destination Image, Rebuilding Image

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