Risk, crisis and disaster management in hospitality and tourism: a comparative review

Purpose This paper aims to summarize the current state of research on risk, crisis and disaster management in the generic field, and in tourism and hospitality. It identifies key themes and compares the main topics studied in both the tourism and hospitality management and marketing literature. Design/methodology/approach A narrative (thematic) review and synthesis was completed based on articles published in the top 20 tourism and hospitality management journals from 2011 to March 2021. A review was conducted of the generic literature from 2016 to 2020. Findings From 210 papers reviewed, only 47 are in the hospitality field. The authors found that 80% of papers were empirical with slightly more quantitative papers produced. The majority of the papers focused on crises. Three key themes were found from the review and future research proposed to address gaps based on these findings and a review of 26 papers from the generic risk, crisis and disaster management field. Practical implications Research is required into planning and preparedness, not just response and recovery to crises and disasters. Future research should consider hospitality rather than tourism, particularly focusing attention outside of the accommodation sector. Hospitality studies also need to go beyond the micro-organizational level to include more meso- and macro-level studies. Originality/value The review provides a number of future research directions for tourism and hospitality research in the field. The paper provides a comprehensive multi-dimensional framework to synthesize studies and identifies research gaps. It also provides recommendations on methodologies required to progress these research directions. Research in this field is likely to grow because of the impact of COVID-19.