COVID-19 and medical tourism intentions for Iran – a test of the risk perception attitude framework (RPAF)

PurposeThis paper aims to examine whether medical tourism can be a frontrunner in terms of post-pandemic recovery for the industryDesign/methodology/approachA mixed-method analysis of 17 interviews and 210 questionnaires involving medical tourists to Iran was applied.FindingsMedical tourists perceived the risks posed by COVID-19 as a temporal one, and attitudes toward post pandemic visitation intentions remained strong. In addition, these tourists can mostly be classified into responsive individuals, who demonstrate not only high risk but also high efficacy levels to negotiate the threats posed by the pandemic. No gender differences were located between male and female medical tourists in terms of post-COVID-19 travel intentions to Iran.Originality/valueThis research extends the application of the risk perception attitude framework to a medical tourism context. Furthermore, medical tourists are uncovered as another segment of crisis-resistant tourists.

Hotel quarantine guest blogs: Unpacking Scheiner's spaces of immobility and implications on urban tourism politics

Hotel quarantine has been a prevalent process over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic as destinations seek to utilise such spaces to uncover potential positive cases within international tourism mobility. Yet, this abruptly designed layer of quarantine is vastly different to what hotels were built for and intended as spaces of leisure and hospitality. In addition, the spaces of immobility and how these are encountered by guests in quarantine are largely under-investigated. Addressing existing knowledge gaps, 15 blogs written from hotel quarantine guests were analysed through the work of Scheiner's spaces of immobility to examine how they negotiated with these spaces. The research revealed three dominant themes of food, health and wellbeing, the digital self, and assurances as key markers of immobility. These outcomes provide theoretical and managerial implications to reconsider urban tourism politics within cities in terms of hotel design and spatiality in the future.

Navigating external referencing through COVID-19 disruptions - Teaching tourism policy and planning in Australia and China

While the notion of external referencing has been undertaken across a range of disciplines, its adoption in a tourism setting remains largely fragmented. This project applies a ‘floating classroom’ as part of a virtual Community of Practice (CoP) to enable tourism policy and planning educators to perform a benchmarking exercise for maintaining teaching quality despite geographical separation and social distancing mandates. Virtual CoPs can help maintain teaching quality at a time when universities are increasingly required to uphold international standards of excellence and as the coronavirus continues to make face-to-face interactions risky. The CoP enabled mutual support and knowledge sharing for the design of teaching approaches, materials, and authentic assessments. The paper was limited to three educators teaching similar courses in Anglophone institutions and reports the results of a one-off study. But findings will assist educators interested in maintaining or enhancing teaching quality over the course of the pandemic and post-COVID-19 futures.

Enhancing online learning environments using social presence: evidence from hospitality online courses during COVID-19

COVID-19 has flipped traditional face-to-face exchanges. This quickly prompted involuntary changes that required appropriate pedagogical strategies suited to online courses. This study explored the experiences, interactions, and social presence (SP) of participants involved in the 2020 spring term postgraduate program in a Taiwanese university. Through the interviews with instructors and students, SP was analyzed in terms of affective association, community cohesion, instructor involvement, and interaction intensity. Results showed that SP was perceived favorably by students while teachers have attempted to enhance the learning environment by augmenting the SP indicators. This study advances the understanding that despite having low perceptions on community cohesiveness and interaction intensity, there is some emerging evidence to suggest that SP has been observed by learners even under the pressures and limitations imposed by COVID-19 on HEIs. Theoretical and practical contributions are provided to assist universities navigating their way out of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Teaching in Travel & Tourism is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd 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.)