On the post-pandemic travel boom: How capacity building and smart tourism technologies in rural areas can help - evidence from Iran.

While there have been numerous studies investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism, few research projects have examined the impact of the outbreak on using smart tourism technologies (STT), especially in developing countries. This study adopted thematic analysis, with data collected using in-person interviews. The participants for the study were selected using the snow-balling technique. We explored the process of developing smart technologies during the pandemic and its impact on smart rural tourism technology development upon travel restart. The subject was investigated by focusing on five selected villages in central Iran which have tourism dependent economies. Overall, the results indicated that the pandemic partially changed the government's resistance towards the fast development of smart technologies. Thus, the role of smart technologies in curbing the virus spread was officially recognized. This change of policy led to the implementation of Capacity Building (CB) programs to improve digital literacy and minimize the digital gap that exists between urban and rural areas in Iran. Implementing CB programs during the pandemic directly and indirectly contributed to the digitalization of rural tourism. Implementing such programs enhanced tourism stakeholders' individual and institutional capacity to gain access to and creatively use STT in rural area. The results of this study improve our understanding and knowledge of the impact of crises on the degree of acceptability and use of STT in traditional rural societies.

Quarantine hotel employees' protection motivation, pandemic fear, resilience and behavioural intention

Quarantine hotels have been established by governments to accommodate COVID-19 infected or potentially infectious guests. The employees of these hotels, despite the high-risk environment, must provide services to guests. However, limited research is conducted on the impacts of the pandemic on their psychological well-being and health. This study investigates the protection motivation of quarantine hotel employees, fear of infection, coping strategies and behavioural intentions towards guests. A sample of 242 respondents in designated quarantine hotels in Iran revealed that fear of infection significantly affects employees' protection motivation intention. Employee psychological resilience is greatly affected by different coping strategies. The findings indicate that untact hospitality can significantly be increased by the protection intentions of hotel employees. Cautious contact with guests is also significantly increased by protection motivation intention and employees' psychological resilience. The results offer both theoretical and practical implications.

Resilience in hospitality and tourism: issues, synthesis and agenda

Purpose>This paper aims to identify research approaches and issues in relation to the main paradigms of resilience: engineering resilience, ecological resilience and socio-ecological resilience. This paper provides a synthesis of the core elements of each resilience approach and their implications.Design/methodology/approach>A critical thematic review was undertaken of the hospitality and tourism resilience literature.Findings>Resilience is a contested boundary object with different understandings according to conceptual and disciplinary position. The dominant approach in hospitality and tourism studies is primarily informed by engineering resilience with the focus at the organizational level. The ontological and epistemological understanding of resilience and change concepts appears limited leading to a lack of appreciation of the multi-scaled nature of resilience and the importance of slow change.Research/limitations/implications>The research has important implications for understanding the key elements of different approaches to resilience.Practical implications>The research synthesis may help improve resilience strategy and policymaking, including indicator selection.Social implications>The research notes the relationship of resilience to sustainability, the potential for learning and decision-making practices.Originality/value>In addition to thematic analysis, a model of the multi-scaled nature of resilience is provided and the key elements of the three main approaches with implications for theory and practice.

Rethinking sustainable substitution between domestic and international tourism: a policy thought experiment

The role of domestic tourism as a substitute for international tourism has not received adequate attention in the literature. However, the potential for substitution has become particularly important in the COVID-19 pandemic context which has significantly impacted travel flows as well as the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Drawing upon data on major tourism destinations and generating markets, a tourism policy thought experiment is conducted to explore the substitutability of domestic for international tourism in selected countries in light of COVID-19 and other situations, such as the climate crisis and the urgent need for low carbon tourism. The analysis and discussion highlight the complexities in achieving sustainable substitution in rescaling international mobilities to domestic. It is argued that without careful changes to overall tourism provision and consumption behaviours in the international-domestic tourism division, a (partial) shift may provide short gains but is likely to fail in the long term. The paper concludes with a critical analysis of contemporary debates on COVID-19 related tourism transformation in relation to substitution between domestic and international tourism and sustainable tourism futures.

Crisis preparedness of hospitality managers: evidence from Malaysia

Purpose>Crisis planning and improvements to business resilience are increasingly significant aspects of hotel management. This study investigates the crisis preparation of hotel managers in Malaysia and how their perceptions affect crisis planning and preparation.Design/methodology/approach>A qualitative research method of semi-structured interviews with 24 hospitality managers in Malaysia was conducted. Data were analysed thematically using ATLAS.ti software, version 8.Findings>The findings showed that crisis preparation among Malaysian hospitality firms is relatively neglected. Hotel crisis preparation schemes are greatly influenced by senior managers' intentions and organizational culture. Organizational resilience also has a significant role in hotel crisis planning and preparedness. Interestingly, in terms of long-term adaptation, hotels were less inclined to be “learning organizations” and managers were reluctant to change their organizational established structures, core beliefs and practice sustained resiliency in crisis preparation.Practical implications>Understanding the crisis preparation of hospitality managers is important to develop effective strategies for different crises considering their severity and urgency. This study identified influential organizational and personal factors which affect crisis preparation of hospitality managers in Malaysia. The study further recommends a proactive mindset in crisis preparation of hotels.Originality/value>Crisis preparation of hospitality managers had received limited attention, and this study highlights how managers consider crisis planning and preparation.

The Triple Blow Effect: Retailing in an Era of Disasters and Pandemics—The Case of Christchurch, New Zealand

In the last two decades, the retail sector has experienced unprecedented upheaval, having severe implications for economic development and sustenance of traditional inner-city retail districts. In the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, this effect has been exacerbated by a series of earthquakes in 2010/2011 which destroyed much of the traditional retail precinct of the city. After extensive rebuild activity of the city’s infrastructure, the momentum of retailers returning to the inner city was initially sluggish but eventually gathered speed supported by increased international visitation. In early 2020, the return to retail normality came to an abrupt halt after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study uses spending and transaction data to analyze the compounding impact of the earthquake’s aftermath, shift to online shopping, and the retail disruption in the Christchurch central retail precinct because of COVID-19. The findings illustrate how consumers through their spending respond to different types of external shocks, altering their consumption patterns and retail mode (offline and online) to cope with an ever-changing retail landscape. Each event triggers different spending patterns that have some similarities but also stark differences, having implications for a sustainable and resilient retail industry in Christchurch. Implications for urban retail precinct development are also discussed.

Factors Affecting Pandemic Biosecurity Behaviors of International Travelers: Moderating Roles of Gender, Age, and Travel Frequency

Research undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic has identified a number of significant factors that affect international travelers’ biosecurity behavior. Tourists’ age and gender as well as travel frequency have been found to have significant impacts on consumers’ non-pharmaceutical intervention practices. However, despite the importance of age, gender, and travel frequency, such studies have overlooked international tourists’ values, attitudes, interventions, and behaviors relevant to biosecurity during a pandemic. In order to bridge this gap, the purposes of this study are to build and test a conceptually comprehensive framework on the relationships between values, attitudes, interventions, and behaviors, along with the moderating effects of age, gender, and travel frequency. To meet the study objectives, a digital survey was administered during 1–5 September 2020, which generated n = 386 total useable responses. Data were analyzed using the partial least squares approach. The results revealed that tourists’ values have the greatest effect on their attitudes toward COVID-19 biosecurity for travel, which in turn positively influences interventions and behaviors. Interventions also have a significant impact on travelers’ COVID-19 biosecurity behavior. This study expands the theoretical understanding of biosecurity and pandemic behavior. The findings of this research also provide significant insights to the literature as well as stakeholders, such as governments, health organizations, international health and tourism agencies, and destinations, with respect to managing international travel biosecurity measures.

Demarketing Tourism for Sustainability: Degrowing Tourism or Moving the Deckchairs on the Titanic?

Demarketing is generally recognized as that aspect of marketing that aims at discouraging customers in general or a certain class of customers in particular on either a temporary or permanent basis and has been increasingly posited as a potential tool to degrow tourism and improve its overall sustainability, particularly as a result of so-called overtourism. The paper provides an overview of the various ways in which demarketing has been applied in a tourism context and assesses the relative value of demarketing as a means of contributing to sustainability and degrowing tourism. It is argued that demarketing can make a substantial contribution to degrowing tourism at a local or even regional scale, but that the capacity to shift visitation in space and time also highlights a core weakness with respect to its contribution at other scales. The paper concludes by noting that the concept of degrowth also needs to be best understood as a continuum of which demarketing is only one aspect.

Traveler Biosecurity Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects of Intervention, Resilience, and Sustainable Development Goals

Even prior to COVID-19, biosecurity was a significant issue for tourism, especially at national borders. Since personal nonpharmaceutical interventions can be effective for an individual’s health and psychological resilience during a pandemic, understanding tourists’ biosecurity behavior is essential given the broader relationship with traveling during COVID-19. However, existing research has not explicitly examined this relationship during any pandemic, nor has it explored potential long-term implications. To fill this gap, this study built and tested a theoretically comprehensive framework including prosocial behavior, ethics, perception, intervention, resilience, biosecurity behavior, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) due to COVID-19. Results reveal that prosocial behavior and perception have significant impacts on intervention, which influences resilience and biosecurity behavior. Resilience has an effect on biosecurity behavior. Three SDG groups have different effects on the relationship between intervention and biosecurity behavior. Deep learning sheds light on tourist’s biosecurity practices during COVID-19 and when international travel resumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Travel Research is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Can the value-attitude-behavior model and personality predict international tourists’ biosecurity practice during the pandemic?

Biosecurity is vital for preventing the introduction of exotic fauna, flora, and disease from one territory into another. Attention to biosecurity measures has become an important element of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is limited theoretically informed research on tourist biosecurity behavior. To fill this research gap, an integrated research framework with value-attitude-behavior and personality theories is used to identify what influences tourist biosecurity behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected in September 2020 from Americans who had traveled overseas and analyzed by structural equation modeling, multi-group analysis, and deep learning. Results show that value has the greatest effects on attitude followed by personal and social norm on biosecurity for traveling during the pandemic. Personalities significantly moderate the linkages between attitude, personal norm, and behavior. Deep learning confirmed the best prediction of the current model and the importance of personal norms.

Do perceived risk and intervention affect crowdfunder behavior for the sustainable development goals? A model of goal-directed behavior

Crowdfunding offers a new potential source of financing of sustainability initiatives and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in particular. Such funding support is potentially even more important given the impacts of COVID-19 on the global economy. However, little theoretically based work has been conducted on sustainability crowdfunding. Therefore, this study builds and tests an integrated convergence framework to predict crowdfunder behavior for sustainability, through the lens of an extended model of goal-directed behavior (EMGB) and theories of risk as a second-order construct as well as intervention as a moderator. Results indicate that perceived risk and intervention play significant roles within the EMGB model in crowdfunding for sustainability projects related to the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. This study offers both theoretical and managerial implications for crowdfunding for sustainable development.

Destination image during the COVID-19 pandemic and future travel behavior: The moderating role of past experience

This study investigates the effects of cognitive destination image shaped by media during the COVID-19 pandemic on willingness to support and post-pandemic travel intention. Drawing upon the concept of cognitive destination image and through an online self-administered survey, the effects of four factors including trust, crisis management, healthcare system, and solidarity on travel behavioral intention are compared based on tourists’ prior experience of a given destination. To achieve this aim, ten countries with different coping strategies, numbers of positive cases and mortality rate were studied. A total number of 518 useable questionnaires were collected from the prospect international tourists who followed news related to COVID-19 for one of the selected countries and plan to travel in the future. Partial least squares – structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis were used to test the model and hypotheses. The results showed the high predictive power of the model on post COVID-19 travel behavioral intention. The findings revealed the strong and positive effects of trust and healthcare system on behavioral intention of respondents without past experience to visit a destination, whereas the effect of solidarity on behavioral intention was identified much stronger for the prospect tourists with past experience of visiting a destination. This research provides unique theoretical contributions by investigating the effects of trust, crisis management, healthcare system, and solidarity shaped by media during COVID-19 outbreak as the components of cognitive destination image on future behavioral intention across past experience of visiting a destination. This study also provides insights on post-crisis recovery factors affecting travel behavioral intention and demand.

Panic Buying and Consumption Displacement during COVID-19: Evidence from New Zealand

Panic buying and hoarding behavior is a significant component of crisis- and disaster-related consumption displacement that has received considerable attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding such purchasing and stockpiling behavior provides critical information for government, disaster managers and the retail sector, as well as policy makers to adjust crisis response strategies and to better understand disaster management, including preparedness and response strategies. This study examines consumer purchasing behavior, retail spending and transactional data for different retail sectors between January 2017 and December 2020 using data for the greater Christchurch region in New Zealand. Once COVID-19-related panic buying began, overall spending increased sharply in anticipation of lockdowns. Transactional spending increased and subsided only slowly to a level higher than pre lockdown. The magnitude of the panic buying event far exceeded historical seasonal patterns of consumer spending outside of Christmas, Easter and Black Friday, although daily spending levels were comparable to such consumption events. The results of the study highlight the importance of comparing panic buying to other events in terms of purchasing motivations and also considering that so-called panic buying may contribute to greater individual and household resilience. The volume of sales alone is not adequate to define panic buying. Instead, the extent of divergence from the normal daily spending value per retail transaction of a given population provides a much more accurate characteristic of panic buying.

Pandemics, transformations and tourism: be careful what you wish for

Disease outbreaks and pandemics have long played a role in societal and economic change. However, the nature of such change is selective, meaning that it is sometimes minimal and, at other times, a...