Tourism Destination Image Recovery: A Conceptual Study on the Current Practices and Prospects

Abstract

Crises or disasters negatively impact different sectors, and the tourism industry is one of the sectors that get affected massively. The severity of damage caused to the industry is immeasurable, and the frequency of crises destroying the tourism industry's backbone is far more than other industries. Since emergencies or disasters negatively affect the destination's image, it
eventually affects the tourist inflow with dampening travel intentions. When a crisis happens, a tourism destination primarily plunges into action to stimulate or induce tourism demand by adopting image recovery strategies to increase the influx of tourist arrivals. However, the recent Novel Corona Virus COVID-19 Pandemic has created a global catastrophic situation. The virus has not spared all countries regardless of their economic, technological, and scientific prowess. Importantly, all earlier calamities related to the virus were dominated by the monster Covid-19, thereby posing significant health risks on the one hand and socio-economic and political risks in another hand.
Eventually, as a key driver of the economy, the tourism sector has faced a major setback in revenue and job loss during the COVID-19 crisis. As a result, tourism destinations are grounded with the deserted look and have almost lost a positive vibe. Thus there is an emergent need for regaining glories and fame of tourism destinations, with the option of formulating and implementing image recovery strategies. With this background, the present study attempts to debate and discuss theoretical backgrounds and linkages of the components of image recovery strategies and their applicability to the current pandemic scenario. Based on the review of secondary data, three central components consist of message, source, and audience. The study has suggested a short and long-term integrated plan for image recovery strategies to revitalize the lost grandeur of destination image, severely blemished by the COVID-19.