Lucia Danzi is from Italy and she was my last PhD student supervision at Otago. She completed her viva last year and is now all ready to graduate. It’s a bittersweet moment for me – I’m so happy to see Lucia reach this milestone and so excited for her future – and at the same time, Lucia is the last of my Otago PhD supervision students.
Lucia’s PhD focused on collaborative networks in tourism disaster management in nature-based destinations in Aotearoa New Zealand. Using a mixed-methods Social Network approach, she examined how these networks are structured, how they evolve during emergencies, and what factors enhance their effectiveness and sustainability.
Her research underscores the critical role of tourism stakeholders in disaster management and highlights the need for stronger collaboration between the tourism and emergency sectors. To address this, Lucia developed a conceptual framework to help stakeholders establish, optimise, and sustain effective collaborative networks, improving disaster preparedness and response.
Lucia’s thesis was written in a hybrid format, with results chapters presented as individual publications. The first article is published in the Journal of Travel Research, the second is under review with the Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, and the third is being revised for resubmission to the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. In her published article she explores the practices and structural characteristics of tourism disaster management collaboration in Piopiotahi/Milford Sound and Tahuna/Queenstown, in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
The study identifies Civil Defence and Emergency Management groups and Regional Tourism Organisations as key coordinators linking tourism and emergency services.
She hopes her findings inspire tourism businesses to adopt a comprehensive approach to disaster management by integrating risk reduction and readiness measures into their plans and collaborating with emergency management organisations. Her research also encourages policymakers to increase funding for Civil Defence Emergency Management groups to enhance their partnerships with tourism stakeholders.
Link to the OPEN access article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00472875241268623?icid=int.sj-challenge-page.citing-articles.10
