Heterogeneity of crisis communication practices in hotels: Anti-COVID-19 measures on Adriatic beach hotels’ websites

Abstract

Based on situational crisis communication theory, this study designs a research framework to identify differences in crisis communication practises on beach hotel websites in different Adriatic countries and between three consecutive summer seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative inductive content analysis of official pandemic-related guidelines/recommendations from national and international competent organizations was carried out. Subsequently, an overlooked repeated measures design with deductive quantitative content analysis of crisis communications on hotel websites during the three summer seasons was conducted. Employing the McNemar test, the Cochran's Q-test and Friedman test with post-hoc comparisons, it was discovered that (1) beside the bolstering strategy, the new ‘ignore strategy’ of crisis communication was also identified, which has many implications, (2) communication of anti-COVID-19 measures is statistically significant and relatively strongly associated with the country in which hotels are located, and (3) the number of different announcements on anti-COVID-19 measures is significantly different only between two seasons.