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The United Downs geothermal power project has been developed by Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL) and is the first geothermal electricity project in the UK. The site was selected in 2010 for its geology (strongly faulted, radiogenic granite), surface infrastructure, grid connection and potential community acceptance. The deep drilling programme started in 2018, with the production well drilled to 5,275 m MD and deviating from 3,390 m to a final inclination of 33.5º, representing the deepest onshore well in the UK. The injection well was then drilled to 2,393m MD, deviating from 1,020 m to a final inclination of 40º. The drilling of a deep production well and shallow injection well into a natural fault zone is a concept developed by GEL, based on some of the results from the research at the Hot Dry Rocks project in Rosemanowes, Cornwall. The production well has successfully encountered significant permeability horizons within the target fault zone, temperatures of 180ºC and world-class lithium concentrations. It is expected to provide between 2 and 3 MWe to the National Grid and carbon neutral heat to a proposed 6 km heat main and the project has been associated with many universities and pan European research projects. Despite the delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the United Downs project has seen a number of exciting milestones since EGC 2019, including completion of drilling, extensive well testing/stimulation and signing of the first Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for deep geothermal electricity in the UK with Ecotricity. The team also secured grant funding for a demonstration plant that will trial Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) from the deep geothermal fluid. This paper presents an overview of the initial results of drilling and testing, briefly highlighting the success of hydraulic stimulation and management of induced seismicity during development. It also provides a forward look to the final stages of the United Downs development and the future of geothermal power projects across Cornwall. © 2022 Geothermal Resources Council. All rights reserved.
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Hotel managers and researchers are increasingly interested in artificial intelligence (AI) and robots, which are vital to the future of the hospitality industry. However, adopting robotic services is challenging due to the current state of the art and insufficient understanding of the relationship between customer satisfaction and robotic services. Hotels are building a competitive advantage through high technology permeating various service environments. This study examined customer perceptions and satisfaction with smart hotels during COVID-19 based on online reviews by building a list of smart hotel properties that identifies well-performing and poorly performing service quality. Results highlight the advantages of smart hotels in the tourism environment and provide helpful guidance for hoteliers to apply high technology in the service environment. This study examines and demonstrates that the utility of new technologies in a smart hotel at modern times to deal with the challenges of COVID-19, and assures precision and speed in service delivery to improve sustained competition and guest experience. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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It is an effective approach to improve forecasting by extracting effective information from large panels of search query data. Feature extraction techniques (FETs) can extract information from all features by creating new fewer features based on algebraic transformation;however, they have not been extensively investigated and compared for tourism forecasting. We employ five FETs to process multi-dimensional search query data, and build a bunch of models based on econometrics, machine learning, ensemble learning and hybrid methods. The improving performances of FETs based on tourism demand forecasting in Sanya after COVID-19 and in Macau before COVID-19 are evaluated. The results show that forecasting models with FETs outperform the benchmark model SARIMAX without FETs, which demonstrates the efficacy of FETs in search query data extraction. This study provides meaningful guidance for improving the quality of multi-dimensional data and optimizing tourism forecasting. © 2023 Elsevier Ltd
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The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine-Russian conflict have posed a huge threat to international tourists. Adopting protection motivation theory, this study investigated how mainland Chinese outbound tourists perceived three significant travel risks, namely, natural disasters, infectious diseases, and social instability. Confronted with travel risks, Chinese outbound tourists are very likely to change their travel plans. Notably, infectious diseases and social instability are the main concerns. A comparison of workers and non-workers, students perceived a higher magnitude of threat and response efficacy. Assistance from the Chinese government can significantly enhance tourists' confidence to travel abroad. Implications are provided accordingly. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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The outbreak of COVID-19 has offered a painful lesson to the stakeholders of the travel and hospitality industry. To speed up the recovery of the industry, practitioners need to better understand the factors that influence potential travelers' evaluation of infection risk when traveling abroad. Hence, this study proposes time orientation (future and present orientations) as a robust determining factor. Analyzing 614 pre-pandemic and 606 mid-pandemic survey responses, this study consistently found that future and present orientations positively predict the evaluation of infection risk because of the highly perceived value of cleanliness. The presence of the pandemic amplifies the positive prediction of present orientation on the evaluation of infection risk. These findings extend the literature of time orientation by revealing its influence on travel risk and the psychological mechanisms behind it. Meaningful implications are provided for travel operators to identify the potential travelers. © The Author(s) 2023.
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Purpose: With the rapid development of sharing economy, travelers are facing choices between conventional hotels and the peer-to-peer sharing accommodation in urban tourism. The purpose of this study is to examine how travelers form their preferences in such choice situations and whether/how their preference formation mode would change with the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: A relative preference model was constructed and estimated for both domestic and outbound tourists, based on two waves of survey data collected before and after the COVID-19. The results of this study were compared to derive the evolution of preference formation patterns. Findings: A set of 15 key value attributes and personal traits was identified, together with their differential effects with the pandemic. Their divergent effects between domestic and outbound trips were also delineated. Based on these findings, the competitive edges and advantageous market profiles were depicted for both hotel and sharing accommodation sectors. Originality/value: This study contributes to the knowledge of tourists’ preference between accommodation types and adds empirical evidences to the impact of the pandemic on tourist behavior patterns. Both hotel and sharing accommodation practitioners can benefit from the findings to enhance their competitiveness. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Background: The impact of immunosuppressants on COVID-19 vaccination response and durability in patients with immune-mediated infammatory diseases (IMID) is yet to be fully characterized. Humoral response may be attenuated in these patients especially those on B cell depleting therapy and higher doses of corticosteroids, but data regarding other immunosuppressants are scarce. Objectives: We aimed to investigate antibody and T cell responses and durability to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines (BNT162b and/or mRNA 1273) in IMID patients on immunomodulatory maintenance therapy other than B-cell depleting therapy and corticosteroids. Methods: This prospective observational cohort study examined the immuno-genicity of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines in adult patients with IMIDs (psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, infammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis) with or without maintenance immunosuppressive therapies (anti-TNF, methotrexate/azathioprine [MTX/AZA], anti-TNF + MTX/AZA, anti IL12/23, anti-IL-17, anti-IL23) compared to healthy controls. Automated ELISA for IgGs to spike trimer, spike receptor binding domain (RBD) and the nucleocapsid (NP) and T-cell release of 9 cytokines (IFNg, IL2, IL4, IL17A, TNF) and cytotoxic molecules (sFasL, GzmA, GzmB, Perforinin) in cell culture supernatants following stimulation with spike or NP peptide arrays were conducted at 4 time points: T1=pre vaccination, T2=me-dian 26 days after dose 1, T3=median 16 days after dose 2 and T4=median 106 days after dose 2. Neutralization assays against four SARS-CoV-2 variants (wild type, delta, beta and gamma) were conducted at T3. Results: We followed 150 subjects: 26 healthy controls and 124 IMID patients: 9 untreated, 44 on anti-TNF, 16 on anti-TNF with MTX/AZA, 10 on anti-IL23, 28 on anti-IL12/23, 9 on anti-IL17, 8 on MTX/AZA (Table 1). Most patients mounted antibody and T cell responses with increases from dose 1 to dose 2 (100% sero-conversion at T3) and some decline by T4, with variability within groups. Antibody levels and neutralization efficacy was lower in anti-TNFgroups (anti-TNF, anti-TNF + MTX/AZA) compared to controls and waned by T4 (Figure 1). T cell responses were not consistently different between groups. Pooled data showed a higher antibody response to mRNA-1273 compared to BNT162b. Conclusion: Following 2 doses of mRNA vaccination there is 100% seroconver-sion in IMID patients on maintenance therapy. Antibody levels and neutralization efficacy in anti-TNF group are lower than controls, and wane substantially by 3 months after dose 2. These fndings highlight the need for third dose in patients undergoing treatment with anti-TNF therapy and continued monitoring of immunity in these patient groups, taking into consideration newer variants and additional vaccine doses.
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BACKGROUND Little is known about the impact of immunosuppressants on COVID-19 vaccination in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMID). Although humoral response may be attenuated in patients using immunomodulators (IMM) and TNFinhibitors (anti-TNF), data regarding cellular response are scarce and conflicting. This study was aimed to identify immune response to COVID-19 vaccination in IMID patients. METHODS A prospective observational multicentre cohort study was conducted to examine the immunogenicity of mRNA vaccines to SARS-CoV-2 in adult IMID patients using immunosuppressive therapy (anti-TNF, IMM, anti-TNF+IMM, anti-IL12/23, anti-IL-17, anti-IL-23) or no therapy as compared to healthy controls (HC). Patient details and vaccination history were recorded. Blood samples were drawn at 3 time points: before, 3-4 weeks after first and 2 weeks after second vaccination. Humoral immune response to S and RBD proteins were assessed by ELISA. Neutralization was tested against 4 variants of SARS-CoV-2 by surrogate neutralization ELISA. Cellular immune responses were determined based on analysis of 9 secreted cytokines and cytotoxic molecules after stimulation of PBMC with S peptide pools. Response to N protein was used to assess SARS-CoV-2 exposure. RESULTS A total of 159 subjects (133 IMID patients and 26 HC) were included in this study (median age 42 years [IQR 30-53], 52% male). Of 133 IMID patients, 87 had inflammatory bowel disease, 23 psoriatic arthritis, 18 psoriasis, 11 ankylosing spondylarthritis and 4 rheumatoid arthritis. Of these, 44 used anti-TNF, 9 IMM, 18 anti-TNF+IMM, 33 anti-IL-12/23, 9 anti-IL-17, 10 anti-IL-23 therapy and 10 no therapy. All subjects received 2 doses of mRNA vaccines (2x Pfizer, 2x Moderna or mixed) between December 2020 and September 2021. The vast majority of subjects had minimal binding antibody and T cell responses to N, indicating they were COVID-19 naïve. After dose 1, anti-TNF group had lower IL-2 vs untreated IMID (p<0.01), and the anti-IL-23 group had lower IFN-g vs HC (p<0.01), though there was wide variation in responses within groups. Following dose 2, median responses between groups were mostly similar, but antibody responses were significantly lower in patients on anti-TNF as compared to HC in subjects that received two doses of Pfizer (p=0.01). Pooled data for all subjects combined show a higher response to Moderna over Pfizer in ELISA, neutralization and T cell readouts, and a lower response for those over 60 years of age after dose 2. Longer follow-up is in process to monitor the durability of these responses over time and after third dose. CONCLUSION Immune responses after 2 doses of mRNA vaccines in immunocompromised IMID patients largely reach the level of that of HC albeit antibody responses in the anti-TNF group are weaker and with wide variability between subjects within some groups
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Online learning has attracted attention from academics and educators for several decades. Online learning plays a significant role in many educational institutions, including higher vocational hospitality colleges, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, students' learning experience of online and face-to-face higher vocational hospitality courses is scarcely understood. To fill this research gap, a higher vocational college in China is selected as a case study to conduct a comparative study. Results show that students scored higher in face-to-face hospitality course learning experience than in online courses. Theoretical and practical implications are provided accordingly.
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COVID-19 has struck the global travel industry, and local tourism provides a choice. However, little research has explored this market. Our study filled that research gap by incorporating three critical variables that COVID-19 brings, namely, travel anxiety, constrained travel choice, and community citizenship behavior, to extend the model of the theory of planned behavior (TPB). This study surveyed 403 residents in Hong Kong and asked them to evaluate their attitudes toward and intentions to participate in local tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic and predict their local tourism after COVID-19. Results suggested that constrained travel choices and community citizenship behaviors would, directly and indirectly, affect residents' attitudes and intentions. Travel anxiety influenced perceived behavioral control, although that variable did not directly affect participants' attitudes and intentions. This study has managerial implications for planning and promoting local tourism in the extended future.
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Purpose - The purpose of this study is to develop a holistic resilience framework and its contributing factors for organizations in the hospitality and tourism industry for coping with uncertain environments, such as those brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach - This conceptual paper is based on a broad review of the literature on organizational resilience and strategic leadership. A conceptual framework is developed and discussed. Findings - This study develops a holistic "strategic leadership-enhanced organizational resilience framework" that addresses the actions and mindsets required by hospitality and tourism organizations to attain organizational resilience and health. Research limitations/implications - This study fills the research gap in corporate resilience frameworks for hospitality and tourism. This study has practical implications for the industry by suggesting specific actions that companies can take to enhance their organizational health and resiliency under environmental uncertainty. Originality/value - Previous studies suggested only partial strategic resilience responses. This study constructs a holistic "strategic leadership-enhanced organizational resilience framework" in the hospitality and tourism context.
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Introduction: Tele-cardiac rehabilitation has demonstrated safety and efficacy in several clinical studies. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the centered-based CR service was totally suspended. To facilitate patients to exercise at home while being monitored. A pilot home-based cardiac tele-rehabilitation program was developed with a structured protocol at Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) and rolled out from October 2020. Objectives: 1. To minimize the impact of suspension of in-hospital CR service due to outbreak of COVID-19. 2. To evaluate the effects and develop a home-based CR program for remote rehabilitation, based on advanced technological infrastructure and complementary clinical protocols. Methodology: Target patients: Low risk cardiac patients who fulfil the intake criteria, able and willing to use digital monitoring devices including blood pressure machine, smart watch and smart phone. Program design: The program will last for 12 weeks and consists of education, exercise training and relaxation training. Each consenting patient will be given a training kit containing a training log-book, informative educational leaflets and a set of QR codes to access our home-made education, exercise training & relaxation practice videos. Individual phone consultation by multidisciplinary will be scheduled once a week at the first five weeks. Patients can view the video at their own convenience, and then discuss or ask questions during phone follow-up. Individualized exercise will be prescribed according to patients' age, mobility and cardio fitness level. Patients can follow the designated video to do exercise at home. They will be instructed to measure and record their blood pressure, heart rate, and rate perceived exertion (RPE) before and after exercise. Physiotherapist will phone call patient to monitor and coach patients. Evaluation: All patients will undergo a detailed face-to-face assessment at baseline and at 12-week. They are including 6-minute walk test, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood test for lipid profile, etc. In addition, patients will also request to fill in a set of questionnaires to measure the physical activity level, functional performance and psychological fitness. Conclusion: It believes that tele-rehabilitation is a more cost-effective model compared to center-based CR. It enables a new direction for the CR program.
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The objective of the article was to assess whether there might be a possible association between COVID-19 cleaning recommendations from public health agencies and the media and the number of chemical exposures reported to the National Poison Data System. CDC and the American Association of Poison Control Centers surveillance team compared the number of exposures reported for the period January-March 2020 with the number of reports during the same 3-month period in 2018 and 2019. Fifty-five poison centers in the United States provide free, 24-hour professional advice and medical management information regarding exposures to poisons, chemicals, drugs, and medications. During January-March 2020, poison centers received 45,550 exposure calls related to cleaners (28,158) and disinfectants (17,392), representing overall increases of 20.4% and 16.4% from January-March 2019 (37,822) and January-March 2018 (39,122), respectively. Although NPDS data do not provide information showing a definite link between exposures and COVID-19 cleaning efforts, there appears to be a clear temporal association with increased use of these products.
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Using bibliometric analysis, this research provides a comprehensive, systematic, and visual overview of 441 studies related to smart tourism, which were published between 2010 and 2021, thus considering the state of research and trends in this research field from the beginning of smart tourism research to the entry of the fifth-generation mobile communication technology era and the explosion of COVID-19. It also offers insights into its future research agenda and advancing the development of smart tourism. This paper can provide intuitive and valuable information to promote theoretical and practical research on smart tourism.
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COVID-19 has spurred online marketing across sectors while the hotel industry is not an exception. Hoteliers are increasingly reliant on social media to promote and sell their rooms while social media influencer marketing prevails. To maximize their return on high investment on influencer marketing, marketers need to choose the right person. As limited implications can be drawn from the existing literature, this study adds knowledge to the scholarship by unveiling consumers' views on an influencer who is suitable for hotels and whom they are willing to take the advice. By conducting ten in-depth interviews, we revealed that hotel consumers expect the social media influencer to be physically appealing, experienced in travelling, having numerous followers, proficient in photography, able to suggest unique attractions in the property, good at providing discount information, and unbiased in his/her recommendations. The findings not only provide useful implications for hoteliers who want to pursue influencer marketing on social media, but also pave the knowledge ground for future research to investigate this marketing trend.
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Infectious disease normally largely affects international tourist flow. For example, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has greatly affected global tourism, and its effect is expected to extend further. As the first country in the world to detect the pandemic, how the international tourist flow to Mainland China (hereafter known as China) changes along with the COVID-19 outbreak is still underexplored. To bridge this research gap, this study identifies the changes in the international tourist flows to China by categorizing international tourists to seven regions of the world and examines the degree of sensitivity among five clustered groups through Python modelling. Findings show that the international tourist flows from Europe, Asia Pacific and North America to China were largely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, different sensitivity levels of the five identified clusters among the 193 countries affected by infectious disease ranged from ‘least sensitive’ to ‘most sensitive’. Practical implications are further discussed. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has severely affected many territories and industries since January 2020. Despite studies on COVID-19 from different perspectives, research on the impact of COVID-19 on hospitality and tourism education remains scant. In view of this research gap, the current study reviews the COVID-19 outbreak and its impact on hospitality and tourism education, particularly in online educational delivery. A local case in Hong Kong was selected to investigate the response of hospitality and tourism educators. Implications for curriculum design, workforce arrangement, and basic actions for educators are provided. More importantly, this study aims to appeal significant attention on hospitality and tourism education during similar crises. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.