Leadership, creativity, and recovery from crisis in rural tourism

Leadership and crisis are closely intertwined, yet studies of leadership during crisis remain scarce. The 2020 Covid-19 outbreak offers an ideal context to examine leaders’ roles during severe crises. Grounded in the theoretical framework of transformative leadership and based on a study of four cases in rural Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, the study examines rural tourism enterprises’ post-pandemic recovery to identify how leadership navigated organizations through the recovery process. The study demonstrates that each case displays components of transformational leadership that facilitated businesses’ recovery. Creativity appears especially important in promoting effective leadership amid crisis and uncertainty. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.