Opposite effects of bilateral media freedom on inbound tourism after natural disasters
Abstract
This study investigates the effects of bilateral media freedom on inbound tourist arrivals when natural disasters hit the destination country by analyzing a panel integrated data set covering 184 origin countries and 141 destination countries, comprising a total of 192,635 bilateral tourist movement relationships from 1995 to 2016. The results of gravity models with various robustness tests reveal that a higher level of media freedom in the destination (origin) country attracts (reduces) inbound tourist arrivals. More specifically, media freedom in the destination (origin) country lessens (exacerbates) the negative impact of natural disasters on inbound tourist arrivals to the affected country. These results advance the knowledge about media freedom in the field of international tourism following natural disasters, highlighting the importance of differentiated bilateral media communication strategies after natural disasters for destination countries.
RAS ID
44385
Document Type
Journal Article
Volume
27
Issue
3
Funding Information
National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 71502019, 72172100, 72102238] Innovation Spark Fund of Sichuan University [grant number: 2018hhf–37] Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China [grant number: 21XJC790007].
School
School of Business and Law
Copyright
subscription content
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Comments
Huang, L., Sun, W., Yang, Y., Huang, S., & Qiu, Y. (2022). Opposite effects of bilateral media freedom on inbound tourism after natural disasters. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 27(3), 246-258. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2022.2061362