Second Home Tourism and Crisis Communication: Communication Preferences and Risk Awareness in Sweden

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-home owners 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.