A wasted invitation to innovate? Creativity and innovation in tourism crisis management: A QC&IM approach
Introduction
Whereas creativity and innovation have rapidly emerged as essential strategies to achieve destination competitiveness, increase profitability and attain business success, their role in security-induced tourism crisis management has not gained any academic interest (Carlisle et al., 2014; Hall et al., 2009; Mei et al., 2015; Nagy, 2012; Weiermair, 2004).
As of September 11th, the tranquil global industry of pleasure and delight is no longer as carefree as it was. Destinations worldwide have been confronted with various threats, hazards and crises of human-made or natural causes (Glaesser, 2006; Haddad et al., 2015; Pforr & Hosie, 2013; Tarlow, 2014). As no place is immune from an unpredicted crisis that might strike at any moment, sometimes without warning, understanding the theoretical and applied challenges of crises is a primary concern in today's tourism and hospitality industry worldwide (Beirman, 2003; Dwyer & Čavlek, 2019; Hall, 2010; Hystad & Keller, 2008; Lerbinger, 2012).
As tourism growth is occasionally interrupted, crisis management and mitigation have become increasingly significant. Yet, one might wonder whether yesterday's solutions can also serve today's challenges, certainly in the case of a crisis itself being a complex and uncertain issue. In this respect, this paper addresses the issues of security-induced tourism crises from a fresh viewpoint, and combines three theoretical perspectives: (a) tourism crisis management, with (b) creativity in tourism, and (c) innovation in tourism. It aims to understand the anatomy and challenges of crises through the creativity and innovation prism. To the best of knowledge, these separate and established theoretical fields have yet to be combined in the area of security-induced tourism crises.
The Israeli unprecedented security-induced tourism crisis (2000–2008) following the 2nd Intifada (violent Palestinian uprising) is used as a case study to evaluate the extent of creativity and innovation involved in the crisis interventions and their implications, in efforts made by the entire Israeli tourism and hospitality production chain to mitigate such a severe and prolonged crisis.
Given the identified gaps in the literature, and the distinctive Israeli case, a qualitative approach was undertaken to identify whether there were any new or improved (innovative) crisis management processes (strategies, practices, procedures and collaborations) that originated in novel, flexible thinking (creativity) and a renewed ‘out-of-the-box’ crisis approach? If so, what influence, if any, did they have on the process of crisis management and mitigation?
Section snippets
Theoretical framework
As tourism crisis is a complex problem of change and uncertainty, it poses substantial challenges to both supply and demand. These should be managed and mitigated in a way and level that can deal with their serious negative ramifications. The domains of creativity and innovation hold an inherent advantage in such cases, as they reflect the essence of flexibility and open-mindedness of thought and conduct. As such, they lead the way to improved, more resilient and out-of-the-box solutions that
Methodology
As this research aimed to evaluate the extent and implications of creativity and innovation involved in the crisis management of Israel's 2nd Intifada, a broad stakeholders' perspective was chosen. An in-depth qualitative investigation focusing on both actions and underlying mindsets of the various stakeholders was conducted.
Thus, the study incorporated two specific research questions: During the 2nd Intifada tourism crisis, were there any new or improved (innovative) crisis management
Conclusions
This paper presented the circularity formation and evolution of the QC&IM for the mapping, development and implementation of creativity and innovation-oriented tourism crisis management and mitigation solutions. It presents the methodological and empirical process of its formulation from theory to practical evaluation and back to theory. Combining three fields of knowledge: (1) creativity in tourism; (2) innovation in tourism, and (3) tourism crisis management resulted in new theoretical
Statements
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This paper does not generate any conflict of interest
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This paper was not financially supported
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