Second Home Tourism and Crisis Communication

Crisis is an inherent feature of contemporary societies; hence, risk awareness and crisis preparedness have become important in planning strategies. A crucial component that has emerged is the need for crisis communication and investigations to promote and involve communication by various local groups. One such group is second-home tourists, who are commonly well-integrated socially into local communities in the Nordic countries. However, the knowledge and inclusion of second-home tourists in planning strategies, including risk preparedness, requires improvement in local jurisdictions. Second-home communities are diverse, implying that efficient crisis communication needs to account for the place-specific characteristics of these temporary population groups. This short communication presents results from a survey on crisis-communication preferences and behaviour among second-home owners in Sweden. We explore how second homeowners communicate from their second home, to what extent they are aware of risks, and how they view the role of communication in a potential crisis.