COVID-19: TCMI providing timely insights for the tourism industry
The COVID-19 crisis brought swift changes in the way our society functions and, unfortunately, has reduced or eliminated the workload of many professionals worldwide. This is not the case for our EFTI Director, Dr. Lori Pennington-Gray, whose expertise is Tourism Crisis Management. She and her team have been working non-stop for the past several months to provide the industry with relevant data and insights. Additionally, Dr. Pennington-Gray has recently been interviewed by large media channels (e.g., The New York Times) and her AMA session on Reddit had strong engagement.
Dr. Pennington-Gray leads the Tourism Crisis Management Initiative, which focuses on developing management strategies for the tourism industry in times of crises through methods of crisis reduction, readiness, response and recovery. Dr. Pennington-Gray is working with two of her former PhD Students (Dr. Ashley Schroder, Dr. Danielle Barbe) on the COVID-19 Perceptions of Travel Risk Survey. The trio is conducting weekly surveys with American travelers to understand travel-related concerns during the COVID-19 crisis. Their reports include a number of variables including perception of threat, future travel decisions, trusted sources and a travel anxiety index.
Insights from their research can be found here. More complete data and additional insights from their ongoing weekly waves are available as top line reports and can be purchased through subscription packages of 3, 6 or 12 months. Professionals interested in more detailed content can also request Proprietary Question Insights and/or a Sentiment Analysis report. Elements of their study have also been included as resources for tourism businesses in COVID-19 Resource Guides developed by travel and tourism organizations (e.g., Visit Florida, Travel and Tourism Research Association, US Travel Association). The study aims to help industry leaders and business managers/marketers with forecasting and strategic decision-making.
Dr. Pennington-Gray participated this past Monday (April 6) in an AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) session for the “Ask Science” community on the social news site Reddit, through “UF Explore”. Using the username “drtourismcrisismgmt”, Pennington-Gray offered “Expert Insights” for Reddit users. The thread received a variety of questions, including “How destinations will be impacted without collecting bed taxes?”, “How will the decision-making process about travel change?”, “What is the impact of information sources in the decision making?”, and “How the crisis is expected to effect the next travel season?” The thread received an 3,700+ upvotes or likes and Dr. Pennington-Gray's individual responses to questions received close to 200 likes. You can read the Reddit AMAs post here.
As the crisis unfolds, the Tourism Crisis Management Initiative will continue to monitor US Residents’ travel risk sentiment. Insights will be available weekly on this website. If you want to become a subscriber, check the COVID-19 Page.
