Communication and crisis management in companies How do players in the airport industry communicate externally about the Covid-19 crisis? What crisis communication strategies are they using?

Details

Supervisors

De Cock, Sylvie

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue, à finalité spécialisée: langues des affaires

Abstract

Description of the research question The world is now facing an incredible and unexpected sanitary crisis due to the Coronavirus or Covid-19 pandemic. Many sectors and companies have been affected internationally and drastic measures had to be taken to cope the virus. One of the sectors that has been strongly impacted is the tourism sector since hotels, restaurants, ... have had to limit their activities. Since the virus became international, aviation activities have also had to be restricted and it has huge consequences for the airport industry. The aim of this thesis would be to analyze the strategies used by the airport industry to communicate externally about the crisis and its aftermath. Description of the method As far as the method is concerned, I used a qualitative method since my thesis focuses on how airports, and more particularly London Heathrow and London Gatwick, are managing the Coronavirus crisis and analyzes the strategies used to communicate about it externally. To do so, I collected the data from external communication items published by the organizations that will be taken from their website, annual reports, and Instagram posts. I then used a quantitative approach to record, in an analysis grid based on the literature review, the number of times a certain response strategy was adopted.