ABSTRACT
With destinations steadily ‘opening back up for business' (while COVID-19 cases are still high in many areas), there is an increasing need to consider residents. Integrating the cognitive appraisal theory and the affect theory of exchange, this work tests a structural model examining the degree to which residents' perceptions of COVID-19 precautionary measures explain emotions directed toward visitors, and ultimately their willingness to engage in shared behaviors with tourists. Data were collected from 530 residents in 25 U.S. counties with the highest percentages of historical COVID-19 cases per population. A total of 10 of the 12 tested hypotheses were significant, contributing to 60% and 85% of the variance explained in contending and accommodating emotions, and 53% and 50% of the variance explained in engaging in less intimate–distal and more intimate–proximal behaviors with tourists. The implications highlight the complementary use of the two frameworks in explaining residents' preference for engagement in less intimate–distal interactions with tourists.
ABSTRACT
This work tests an extended theory of planned behavior model to examine residents' behavioral intent to oppose tourism living in densely populated US counties with historically high rates of COVID-19 cases. The addition of three constructs serves as antecedents to the traditional theory of planned behavior constructs. Results revealed that passive and active opposition explained 67% of the variance in behavioral intent to oppose tourism. Of the proposed model hypotheses, 14 of the 15 were supported with oppositional attitudes toward tourism, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control explaining 78% and 68% of the variance in passive and active behavioral intent, respectively. This paper contributes several theoretical implications (e.g., to ascertain residents' opposition to tourism in the context of COVID-19, the current study employed TPB constructs and showed how TPB constructs effective predictors of residents' intention to oppose tourism). The current study indicates that as the level of residents' awareness of COVID-19 increases, they will have more negative attitudes, norms, opinions, and intentions toward tourism. Our findings will help inform destination marketing organizations in their efforts to navigate the best steps forward while balancing residents' health and well-being with much-needed economic recovery.