IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/anture/v91y2021ics0160738321001560.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Media discourses about a superspreader destination: How mismanagement of Covid-19 triggers debates about sustainability and geopolitics

Author

Listed:
  • Mayer, Marius
  • Bichler, Bernhard Fabian
  • Pikkemaat, Birgit
  • Peters, Mike

Abstract

Winter sport destinations received increased attention from worldwide media due to their Covid-19 superspreader status. Using a critical media discourse analysis (N = 1036) for the case of Ischgl, Austria this paper 1) identifies crisis-specific media discourse patterns, 2) analyzes the embedding of discourses in prevailing public debates and 3) discusses the responsibility of media coverage. Our findings reveal scapegoating patterns reinforced by destination image but later replaced by fundamental discussions about the sustainability of Alpine winter sports. As the crisis lasted longer, Ischgl became a meta-symbol for failures in dealing with Covid-19, with media coverage increasingly detached from the local situation, initiating a geopolitical blame game and highlighting media's responsibility for post-crisis tourism.

Suggested Citation

  • Mayer, Marius & Bichler, Bernhard Fabian & Pikkemaat, Birgit & Peters, Mike, 2021. "Media discourses about a superspreader destination: How mismanagement of Covid-19 triggers debates about sustainability and geopolitics," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:91:y:2021:i:c:s0160738321001560
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2021.103278
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738321001560
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.annals.2021.103278?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luo, Qiuju & Zhai, Xueting, 2017. "“I will never go to Hong Kong again!” How the secondary crisis communication of “Occupy Central” on Weibo shifted to a tourism boycott," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 159-172.
    2. Breitsohl, Jan & Garrod, Brian, 2016. "Assessing tourists' cognitive, emotional and behavioural reactions to an unethical destination incident," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 209-220.
    3. Kock, Florian & Nørfelt, Astrid & Josiassen, Alexander & Assaf, A. George & Tsionas, Mike G., 2020. "Understanding the COVID-19 tourist psyche: The Evolutionary Tourism Paradigm," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), 2010. "The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12864.
    5. Choquet, Anne & Sam-Lefebvre, Awa, 2021. "Ports closed to cruise ships in the context of COVID-19: What choices are there for coastal states?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Schnitzer, Martin & Winner, Hannes & Tappeiner, Gottfried, 2021. "Overtourism and support for sports mega events," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Liu, Bingjie & Pennington-Gray, Lori, 2015. "Bed bugs bite the hospitality industry? A framing analysis of bed bug news coverage," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 33-42.
    8. Robert Hassink, 2010. "Locked in Decline? On the Role of Regional Lock-ins in Old Industrial Areas," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 21, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    9. Lee, Choong-Ki & Song, Hak-Jun & Bendle, Lawrence J. & Kim, Myung-Ja & Han, Heesup, 2012. "The impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions for 2009 H1N1 influenza on travel intentions: A model of goal-directed behavior," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 89-99.
    10. J. O. Lloyd-Smith & S. J. Schreiber & P. E. Kopp & W. M. Getz, 2005. "Superspreading and the effect of individual variation on disease emergence," Nature, Nature, vol. 438(7066), pages 355-359, November.
    11. Schweinsberg, Stephen & Darcy, Simon & Cheng, Mingming, 2017. "The agenda setting power of news media in framing the future role of tourism in protected areas," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 241-252.
    12. Tobias Haas, 2020. "Cracks in the gearbox of car hegemony: struggles over the German Verkehrswende between stability and change," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(6), pages 810-827, November.
    13. Ritchie, Brent W. & Jiang, Yawei, 2019. "A review of research on tourism risk, crisis and disaster management: Launching the annals of tourism research curated collection on tourism risk, crisis and disaster management," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    14. Brandon Lieberthal & Allison M Gardner, 2021. "Connectivity, reproduction number, and mobility interact to determine communities’ epidemiological superspreader potential in a metapopulation network," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(3), pages 1-22, March.
    15. Martin Falk & Robert Steiger, 2020. "Size facilitates profitable ski lift operations," Tourism Economics, , vol. 26(7), pages 1197-1211, November.
    16. Martin Falk & Robert Steiger, 2018. "An Exploration of the Debt Ratio of Ski Lift Operators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-16, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Solnet, David & Robinson, Richard N.S. & Baum, Tom & Yan, Hongmin, 2022. "Tourism work, media & COVID-19: A changed narrative?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    2. Corbet, Shaen & Hou, Yang & Hu, Yang & Oxley, Les, 2022. "Did COVID-19 tourism sector supports alleviate investor fear?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Bellucci, Marco & Biggeri, Mario & Nitti, Carmela & Terenzi, Linda, 2023. "Accounting for disability and work inclusion in tourism," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Yang & Zhang, Carol X. & Rickly, Jillian M., 2021. "A review of early COVID-19 research in tourism: Launching the Annals of Tourism Research's Curated Collection on coronavirus and tourism1," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Zhai, Xueting & Zhong, Dixi & Luo, Qiuju, 2019. "Turn it around in crisis communication: An ABM approach," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Cairns, George & Wright, George & Fairbrother, Peter & Phillips, Richard, 2017. "‘Branching scenarios’ seeking articulated action for regional regeneration – A case study of limited success," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 189-202.
    4. José F Baños-Pino & David Boto-García & Eduardo Del Valle & Inés Sustacha, 2023. "The impact of COVID-19 on tourists’ length of stay and daily expenditures," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(2), pages 437-459, March.
    5. Arne Isaksen & Franz Tödtling & Michaela Trippl, 2016. "Innovation policies for regional structural change: Combining actor-based and system-based strategies," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2016_05, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    6. Strambach Simone & Klement Benjamin, 2013. "Exploring plasticity in the development path of the automotive industry in Baden-Württemberg: the role of combinatorial knowledge dynamics," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 57(1-2), pages 67-82, October.
    7. Carmelina Bevilacqua & Ilaria Giada Anversa & Gianmarco Cantafio & Pasquale Pizzimenti, 2019. "Local Clusters as “Building Blocks” for Smart Specialization Strategies: A Dynamic SWOT Analysis Application in the Case of San Diego (US)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-25, October.
    8. Luo, Anqi & Ye, Tian & Xue, Xunyue & Mattila, Anna S., 2021. "Appreciation vs. apology: When and why does face covering requirement increase revisit intention?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    9. Grillitsch, Markus & Hansen, Teis & Coenen, Lars & Miörner, Johan & Moodysson, Jerker, 2019. "Innovation policy for system-wide transformation: The case of strategic innovation programmes (SIPs) in Sweden," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 1048-1061.
    10. Grzegorz Micek & Robert Guzik & Krzysztof Gwosdz & Bolesław Domański, 2021. "Newcomers from the Periphery: The International Expansion of Polish Automotive Companies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, May.
    11. Strambach Simone & Halkier Henrik, 2013. "Editorial. Reconceptualizing change," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 57(1-2), pages 1-14, October.
    12. Gilbert, Brett Anitra & Campbell, Joanna Tochman, 2015. "The geographic origins of radical technological paradigms: A configurational study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 311-327.
    13. Hui Yan & Haixiang Wei & Min Wei, 2021. "Exploring Tourism Recovery in the Post-COVID-19 Period: An Evolutionary Game Theory Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.
    14. Romina Alkier & Goran Perić & Sandra Dramićanin, 2022. "Travel Risk Perception in a Health Crisis Caused by the Covid-19 Virus: The Case of Serbia," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2022(5), pages 85-107.
    15. Solnet, David & Robinson, Richard N.S. & Baum, Tom & Yan, Hongmin, 2022. "Tourism work, media & COVID-19: A changed narrative?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    16. Speldekamp, Daniël & Knoben, Joris & Saka-Helmhout, Ayse, 2020. "Clusters and firm-level innovation: A configurational analysis of agglomeration, network and institutional advantages in European aerospace," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(3).
    17. Matthias Kiese, 2019. "Regional cluster policies in Germany: challenges, impacts and evaluation practices," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(6), pages 1698-1719, December.
    18. Markus Grillitsch & Josephine Rekers & Franz Tödtling, 2019. "When drivers of clusters shift scale from local towards global: What remains for regional innovation policy?," PEGIS geo-disc-2019_03, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    19. Moritz Breul & Thi Xuan Thu Nguyen, 2021. "The Impact of Extractive Industries on Regional Diversification: Evidence from Vietnam," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2129, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2021.
    20. Weng, Weizhe & Yan, Lingxiao & Boyle, Kevin J. & Parsons, George R., 2022. "COVID-19 and Visitation to Central Park, New York City," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322086, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:91:y:2021:i:c:s0160738321001560. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/annals-of-tourism-research/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.