Crisis Communication and Sustainable Place Marketing: A Preliminary Analysis before Choosing a Restorative Media Strategy

In the field of image restoration, it is customary to distinguish between two types of negative destination images. The first type is a negative image caused by an unexpected crisis, such as terror attack, natural disaster or sudden epidemic. The second is a prolonged negative image generated by long-lasting problems, such as economic hardship, high crime rates, continuous war or political instability. The question of how to restore a place’s positive image was dealt with in a number of academic and practical publications in the field of “crisis communication”. The variety of techniques and strategies proposed were important in creating a block of knowledge in image restoration; however, the same solutions were offered for places that differ greatly from one another. Moreover, the solutions proposed did not take into account the type of crisis experienced or the characteristics of the target audiences to be addressed. This is problematic, because clearly countries that are located on the margins of global tourism, such as Somalia, for example, cannot adopt the same image-restoration strategies as that of a country that is a major world tourism player, even if each experienced the same crisis, such as a terrorist event or an epidemic. Somalia’s location, its previous image, the availability of resources and its target audience are all very different elements from those characterizing that other country.