Breaking waves: A bibliometric odyssey on crisis communication in tourism and hospitality (1980–2022) and paving the path for future research

Abstract

Tourism and hospitality crisis communication research (THCCR) has produced a large corpus of literature with a disparate set of themes since 1980. Few studies have traced the growth of crisis communication in tourism research. In this paper, we attempt a state-of-the-art examination of the growth and development of THCCR by adopting a quantitative bibliometric approach. The analysis traces the development of the social, intellectual and conceptual structures of the field along with its thematic evolution. The analysis reveals three dominant clusters of themes, namely: crisis communication and social media; tourism, crisis and disaster and crisis management and COVID-19. The findings provide several theoretical and practical implications. The study concludes by providing directions for future research.