Physically Apart, Emotionally Close: How Family-Run Hotels Used Instagram During the COVID-19 Pandemic – Social Media Crisis Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Introduction

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism industry suffered from an unprecedented economic crisis, resulting in a decrease of -70% in international tourist arrivals (World Tourism Organization, 2020). The global crisis disrupted global travel, but also most of the social interactions. Tourism firms and entrepreneurs have to adapt and mitigate the negative effects of the crisis (Zenker and Kock, 2020). One way to stay close to potential travelers is to communicate via digital channels (Wong, Ou et al., 2021). On the one hand, the continuous exchange between tourism firms and (potential) visitors facilitates the transmission of vital information and safety measures (Sano and Sano, 2019). On the other hand, it enables tourism organizations like hotels, restaurants, or destinations to stay emotionally close to their visitors despite the physical distance and thereby increase the intention to visit the region after the crisis (Hang, et al., 2020).

This book chapter investigates the crisis communication of family businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic in spring and summer 2020. The researchers focus on the peculiarities of family businesses, the decisive influence of the family as manager-owners, and their values. It situates the crisis communication in the context of family firms and investigates how family-led businesses communicate during the first COVID-19 lockdown and the reopening in the summer season. Theoretically, the research is anchored in the field of crisis management and crisis communication (Faulkner, 2001; Pillmayer and Scherle, 2018; Ritchie and Jiang, 2019), with a focus on family values (and the resulting challenges) of family firms (Rau et al., 2019). As Nadegger et al. (2020) have argued in their analysis of tourism destinations in the COVID-19 crisis, strategic and authentic communication can foster engagement with (potential) guests, deliver crucial information in time, and create emotional intimacy despite physical distance. With the steady rise of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies), there is a need to investigate the basic principles of the new ways to communicate (e.g. spontaneous, emotional, interactive) (Oliveira and Huertas, 2019; Roshan et al., 2016) also within the family firm context. Therefore, this study investigates the major themes used by family-owned hotels in their crisis communication on Instagram during the lockdown and the reopening of the Austrian tourism sector in spring and summer 2020.

With a multi-modal framework (Leeuwen, 2011; Ravelli and van Leeuwen, 2018), this study analyzes 598 Instagram posts of seven family-led hotels in Austria. The complex nature of Instagram posts is analyzed by adopting a mixed-method approach, regarding the hashtags, the visual elements, and the captions. The underlying themes are inductively discovered and discussed according to two different periods: the lockdown from March to May and the reopening from June to September 2020. This book chapter discusses how family-run hotels cope with various stages during a global pandemic by assessing their crisis communication on Instagram. The researchers identify underlying strategies and themes that are used to keep their community close despite being unable to travel or to visit the region. The paper concludes by discussing the relevance of social media platforms for small family businesses to achieve this kind of emotional closeness through crisis communication on social media platforms. The insights should help family business firms to embrace their family values (e.g. solidarity, persistence among others, for details see Rau et al., 2019) and also include them for a successful communication strategy - in times of crisis and afterwards.