Travel bubbles to maintain safe space for international travel during crisis - emotions reflected in Twitter posts

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered worldwide lockdowns and mobility restrictions, which continue to impact the global tourism industry. Early discussions on restarting the tourism industry occurred in high uncertainty constant change, and apprehension amongst political leaders and the public. Therefore, understanding public emotions and reactions toward border opening and international travel are essential. This research used the particular case of the 'travel bubble' between Australia and New Zealand to examine people's range of emotions as evident in social media. An automatic emotion analysis method was applied to identify eight emotions expressed through language. Furthermore, the content analysis was applied to detect key topics and understand potential triggers of the emotions. The theoretical background is appraisal theory which helps explain how a particular emotion was aroused. The results showed that people reacted positively to the travel bubble with anticipation, joy, and trust. Although fear peaked when the travel bubble temporarily paused, the confidence in the travel bubble was restored once a situation was resolved. By gauging people's emotions and concerns about the travel bubble, this research generates insights for tourism recovery and provides a method to gauge public emotions in future crises that affect international travel.

Climate crisis and flying: social media analysis traces the rise of "flightshame". (Special Issue: Transport, tourism and environmental crisis.)

Even before the global halt to extensive mobility due to the coronavirus crisis, there has been growing resistance amongst some groups to flying. Reflecting increasing concern about the imminent climate emergency, the phenomenon of feeling ashamed of flying and expressing related emotions through communication has resulted in the neologism "flygskam". Drawing on 14,212 Twitter posts that contained "flygskam" and a further 1037 using the English "flightshame", this research examined the spatial-temporal spread of these words from Sweden starting in 2016 to the rest of the world indicating a global phenomenon. The findings indicate that national context continues to be important in understanding the nexus of individual and social sensemaking and processing of new information. They also demonstrate, however, that global networks (facilitated through social media) might challenge the needs of physical mobility as requirements to connect, exchange views, and create identity through peer group membership. Further analysis of the content revealed key perspectives and topics, providing insight into the relatively homogeneous discussions amongst a network community. Only 6% of posts rejected the notion, whilst the majority indicated support and advanced suggestions for more sustainable alternatives. It might be too early to say whether language behaviour expressed in online communication translates into real behaviour, but the current pandemic may well provide further impetus to no-fly movements by way of a strategic alliance between different peer groups.

Relevant, or irrelevant, external factors in panic buying

In view of panic buying prevalence across countries during the COVID 19 pandemic, this study explores the external factors that may influence consumer engagement or disengagement with this buying behaviour and how they are related. Two studies were undertaken to achieve this research aim. The first was to explore these factors through a scale development processes. Three factors were revealed including (1) intervention and support from the government to combat and manage the pandemic, (2) intervention and support from businesses to prevent stockpiling or panic buying, and (3) influence of different categories of social groups, namely, family and relatives, peers and friends, acquaintance and non-acquainted social-media group. The second study collected data from five countries (Australia, India, China, Vietnam and Indonesia) to understand the relationship between these factors and panic buying engagement or disengagement. The rationale for the country choices has been provided in this manuscript. The results show that interventions and support from government and businesses influenced panic buying engagement, whereas social groups did not. Implications of these findings are highlighted for the relevant stakeholders. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd