Tourism has a reciprocal relationship with natural disasters. The study aims to investigate the role of tourism as a strategy in the disaster phases based on (2001. Towards a framework for tourism disaster management. Tourism Management, 22, 135–147) and Ritchie (2004. Chaos, crises and disasters: A strategic approach to crisis management in the tourism industry. Tourism Management, 25, 669–683)’s disaster management frameworks in the case of the earthquake occurred in Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan in April 2016. The analysis was based on interviews with twelve informants and stakeholders in tourism development collected in Kumamoto in summer 2018. The results suggest that the tourism industry contributes differently across the phases of a disaster but is mainly significant in terms of information provisions, communications and emergency accommodations for tourists. More fundamental changes may be observed in the long-term recovery and resolution phases, whereby tourism is most important in information collection, experience learning in disaster, institutional reform and strategy of sustainable tourism development and poster-disaster destination marketing. The study further advances the existing disaster management framework through the enrichment of knowledge from tourism stakeholder perspective. Empirically, the research findings inform tourism development and sustainability strategy of Kumamoto area after a rarely occurred earthquake disaster. Highlights

Online user-generated data are useful to researchers and practitioners to investigate an online destination image, which contributes significantly to the development of a tourism destination brand. However, finding an effective and efficient way to analyse big data remains a key challenge in the tourism industry. This study aims to figure out Hong Kong’s online destination image from reviews of tourism websites by mainland Chinese tourists. Precisely 72,284 online reviews from three tourism websites in mainland China were selected and analysed with the help of data mining and sentiment analysis. The key findings demonstrate that Chinese tourists have an optimistic image of Hong Kong; mainland tourists are of the view that Hong Kong’s weather is both hot and stuffy, Hong Kong houses pleasant and convenient yet small hotels, together with authentic yet expensive food, convenient shopping with a good night view, friendly locals, clean and lively atmosphere and also poor service. Overall, the sentiments, manifested online by mainland tourists about Hong Kong’s tourism industry, are positive although this group also observed some negative factors. This paper deepens the understanding of the destination image of Hong Kong, while noting substantial implications for both tourism management and the authorities.

Linear cultural heritage (LCH) is a precious treasure of human beings, but its spatial distribution and development modes in the context of tourism value are not clear. This study constructs the resource (R) –natural environment (N) –industrial economy (I) evaluation system through the Delphi method, analytical hierarchy process and entropy method to examine tourism value from the perspective of the whole heritage. This system is verified to the case of a World Heritage Site, the 1800 km-long Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal in China. Combined with the situation of 22 cities along the canal, the standard values of each evaluation variable are determined. Besides total tourism value, R–N–I coordination is also calculated through a three-dimensional model. They are regarded as a classification basis in the grouping analysis method. According to the results, a resource is the most important factor, while natural environment and industrial economy are external supports for LCH tourism. Tourism value along Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal is divided into ‘high-value imbalance type’, ‘key breakthrough type’, ‘comprehensive strengthening type’ and ‘low-value restriction type’. The findings offer theoretical construct and policy recommendations for the development and sustainability of LCH tourism.

Local residents are always the recipients of economic, environmental and socio-cultural impacts from tourism development. Residents’ perceived impacts, attitudes towards tourism and the resultant supportive or opposing actions collectively affect the success of tourism, but are not thoroughly understood especially in small regions with rapid growth. The study investigated how the tourism impacts receive local perception, determine local attitudes and in turn lead to active or passive supportive action. The predisposition of linkage between attitude and behaviour is explored with the underlying aspects of impacts. Through the establishment of hypotheses of the relationship and an empirical survey-based study in Urlaubsregion Murtal (URM) in Austria, findings from local populations suggest that local attitude is significantly influenced by tourism impacts. In particular, socio-cultural impacts influenced attitude to a greater extent than the economic and environmental dimensions. The overall prevalent residents’ attitude in the URM is highly positive as the respondents indicated a sense of openness towards tourism development and the vast majority agreed that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. A significant positive relationship between attitude and support is detected. However, the residents also intended to act more passively than actively to supporting tourism development, but the connection from attitude to specific active or passive actions is not apparent.

Purpose: This paper investigates the usage and trust of Chinese social media in the travel planning process (pre-trip, during-trip and post-trip) of Chinese tourists.Design/methodology/approach: Through a combination of structured online survey (n = 406) and follow-up interviews, the research identifies the diversification of the demand-and-supply patterns of social media users in China, as well as the allocation of functions of social media as tools before, during and after travel.Findings: Social media users are diverse in terms of their adoption of social media, use behaviour and scope; the levels of trust and influence; and their ultimate travel decisions and actions. Correlations between the level of trust, influence of social media and the intended changes in travel decisions are observed. Destination marketers and tourism industries should observe and adapt to the needs of social media users and potential tourist markets by understanding more about user segmentation between platforms or apps and conducting marketing campaigns on social media platforms to attract a higher number of visitors.Research limitations/implications: This paper demonstrated the case of social media usage in mainland China, which has been regarded as one of the fastest growing and influential tourist-generating markets and social media expansions in the world. This study further addressed the knowledge gap by correlating social media usage and travel planning process of Chinese tourists. The research findings suggested diversification of the demand-and-supply pattern of social media users in China, as well as the use of social media as tools before, during and after travel. Users were diversified in terms of their adoption of social media, use behaviour, scope, the levels of trust, influence and the ultimate travel decisions.Practical implications: Destination marketing organizations should note that some overseas social media platforms that are not accessible in China like TripAdvisor, Yelp, Facebook and Instagram are still valued by some Chinese tourists, especially during-trip period in journeys to Western countries. Some tactics for specific user segments should be carefully observed. When promoting specific tourism products to Chinese tourists, it is necessary to understand the user segmentation between platforms or apps.Originality/value: Social media is a powerful tool for tourism development and sustainability in creating smart tourists and destinations worldwide. In China, the use of social media has stimulated the development of both information and communication technology and tourism.