Indonesia has natural attractions as the main asset of the sustainable tourism industry. However, with the widespread use of social media, reviews from individuals have become a serious challenge in maintaining the image and reputation of destinations in the digital era. Reputation crises triggered by negative reviews and viral content on social media often hinder the development of tourist villages, including ecotourism destinations in North Sumatra. The problem is that crisis communication management at the tourist village level is still not digitally structured, and crisis responses tend to be reactive. The Digital Crisis Communication Strategy (DCCS) model can assist tourist villages in managing crisis communication strategically and in an integrated way by utilizing communication technology such as local influencers, digital storytelling, as well as clarification and engagement mechanisms on social media. The purpose of this study is to develop and test the DCCS model in maintaining the reputation of sustainable ecotourism destinations, with a focus on Pantai Labu Tourism Village and Tangkahan Tourism Village, North Sumatra. The research employs a quantitative explanatory approach using a survey of 200 tourists who had visited the two villages. The main variables analyzed include digital crisis communication strategy, tourist trust, and destination reputation recovery. Data analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) with a Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach. The findings show that the path coefficient estimation of trust has a positive and significant effect on DCCS. This indicates that the higher the level of tourist trust, the more effective the digital crisis communication strategy that can be applied. In other words, trust becomes the foundation for destination managers in implementing digital communication strategies. Reputation also has a positive and significant effect on DCCS. A good destination image, managerial credibility, and service consistency are proven to improve the effectiveness of digital-based crisis communication strategies.

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