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This paper aims to discern the potential dimensions amid the duality of heritage tourism and peace. Reflecting on the phases of destruction and rebuilding of Seated Buddha of Jahanabad, this study used the content analysis of 40 news sources, to unravel the resultant avenues of heritage tourism and peace.

Following the qualitative research strategy, the interface of NVivo 12 has been used to transcribe the textual and visual content of media news. The media news aired on the incident of destruction phase in 2007, and rebuilding drive in 2012–2016 were the two sets of collected data. A hierarchy of thematic analysis was adopted to identify nodes, subthemes and themes.

Findings of this study highlighted six themes: peaceful imagery, PI; heritage dissonance, HD, vs interfaith harmony, IH; peace allegory through restoration, PAR; precursor of heritage sustainability, PHS; community heritage consonance, CHC; and heritage touristic valuation, HTV.

This study lacks statistical data of the quantitative research domain. Aimed at a single heritage site, it analyzed limited number of news sources.

This study offers implications for industrial, theoretical, managerial and governmental stakeholders in their respective domains. Moreover, it also provides takeouts for common readers.

This study contends a significant research issue and analyzes the destruction and rebuilding of a heritage site in a developing country. Primarily in the sociogeographic context of the research issue, the resultant dimensions are novel and demanding.

The purpose of this study is to discern the underlying dimensions of destination branding and social media in the socio-geographical context of Pakistan. The study while selecting an event – Pakistan Tourism Summit 2019 – has explored the narratives of foreign social media influencers (SMIs). These narratives and content of tourism website of Pakistan have been comparatively analyzed to disentangle the voluntary and involuntary branding eventualities.

Qualitative research strategy has been adopted. Using the interface of NVivo 12, thematic analysis on the narratives of foreign influencers and content of tourism website has been performed. Eventually, influencer’s videos and website’s content have been transcribed and integrated into inductive themes.

The findings implies that multiple halt points exist in tourism branding of Pakistan. Stigmatized image as a dangerous place for visitation, superficial/exaggerated branding by the influencers, colonial mindset to marginalize the domestic influencers, domestic branding through foreign influencers and veiled tourism potential are the various dimensions emerged during analysis phase.

Given the limitations of the qualitative research approach, the current study lacks statistical avenues of quantitative or mix-method studies. Selection of a single event and website further limits this study and calls for the necessity of future studies having wider units of data collection and other portals of social media.

For policy makers, academia and supply sector, this study offers touchpoints to be emphasized in the strategic, legal and theoretical fronts of destination branding.

Despite the hegemony of SMIs in destination branding, there is scarcity of research on the paybacks of such branding campaigns. This endeavor in response to this call, accentuated the destination branding via foreign social media activists regarding the tourism potential of Pakistan. Findings provides novel insights and branding ethos deemed necessary to be considered in destination branding strategies/campaigns.

Tourism and natural hazards share a long pathway, owing to the fragile existential status of certain tourist destinations and voluntary and involuntary intervention of mankind in the business of natural environment. Over a course of history, numberless natural hazards prevailed and left behind some of the colossal and collateral damage on the physicality and virtuality of destinations. Volume of studies contended this direct and inverse association. Resultantly, impact measurement, ongoing imagery issues and future forecasting have been made to ease out the tourist destination from the consequences of natural hazards. Moreover, considering the inner fabric of tourism system (demand and supply side), natural hazards have been foreseen as unwanted yet necessary event to be emphasized and taken care of. Predominantly, in the existing global milieu of maximum human intervention in the climatic cycle and its outcomes in the form of global warming, climate concerns, natural hazards have been considered as inevitable and destined. Hence, it needs a comprehensive literature-based study to assess the risk factor of natural hazards on the tourist destinations. This study, in acquiescence to address this grey section, intends to explore the existing studies (drafted on the risks impacts of natural hazards on demand, supply and ancillary segments of tourism) and structure the findings thematically and orchestrate these findings in the existing body of literature. Implications from the findings have been presented.

Tourism and health outbreaks share a symbiotic history (Hall, Scott, & Gössling, 2020; Ozbay, Sariisik, Ceylan, & Çakmak, 2021). Pandemics, epidemics, and endemics have transformed the perception of tourists. Previous outbreaks were geographically limited, resulting in the substitution effect (Prideaux, 2005; van der Veen, 2014). However, the COVID-19 pandemic urged the authorities to cease mobility worldwide. Evidently, mobility-oriented businesses like tourism have received immediate impacts from the pandemic. From shutdown to the minimum clearances, under strict restrictions, the tourism industry suffered atypical outcomes. Heat check-meters, contactless check-ins and check-outs, automotive service trays and counters, and reduced carrying capacity have been introduced to curb the impact of the pandemic on tourism. Tourism requires, throughout its cycle—before, during, and after the trip—the use of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, the internet of things, and geotargeting (Buhalis & Amaranggana, 2015). The usage of technology has been assured to be compatible with the prerequisites of restrictive and compliance measures (Lau, 2020). Moreover, in the supply sector, a competitive environment has also been created to market these new modified products and services. This chapter pursues the investigation of new offerings in a different normal, concerned with health issues, ethical behaviors, and trips with a social purpose to contribute to local development. Secondary data analysis has been performed to achieve this goal. This study implicates the new offerings duly implemented during the new normal.

The recent COVID-19 virus outbreak, as well as many other global risks, has put the tourism industry on the brink of collapse. Even if interesting advances have been seen the light of publicity based on risk perception, no less true seems to be that the current theory is not enough to understand and describe the impacts of new global risks that may destroy the industry in question of weeks. This introductory chapter gives a snapshot on the fragile conditions we are moving today and interrogates further the future of tourism.

Since it was adopted from psychology just after the turn of twentieth century, risk perception theory has multiplied and successfully evolved in the fields of tourism research. A dearth of studies has focused on risk perception over the recent decades. We have certainly identified three clear-cut traditions: demographical school, psychological school and critical perspective. With benefits and problems each theory has shed light trying to measure the impact of global risks in the tourism and hospitality industries.

This book keeps the originality to update what has been published in the earlier decades. We are incorporating new topics to the discussion as well as new epistemologies and methodologies. Gathering different high-quality products authored by well-renowned authors coming from different countries, it lays the foundations to a new understanding of risk perception and tourism safety-security debating the next steps and the real challenges posed on the industry in a not so long near future.