Smart Tourism using Attractive and Safe Travel Recommendation Technology

The tourism sector was among the most affected sector during the COVID-19 pandemic and has lost up to USD 5.87 billion potential revenue. Since many countries closed the borders, including Indonesia, by applying travel restrictions and thus tourists postponed their visits. Whereas vaccine distribution has shown good progress as the vaccination percentage in Jakarta and Bali has shown promising results since the majority of its population has been vaccinated, and it helps many industries, including tourism, recover. However, the pandemic might change tourist behavior. In addition, information about tourist destinations is spread poorly in various sources, and it psychologically affects tourists' decision to visit. Many works have been published to address this issue with the recommendation system. However, it does not provide geopolitical variables such as PPKM in Indonesia to ensure safeness for the tourist. Therefore, this research aims to enhance innovations in the tourism industry by considering the geopolitics factor into the system using Multiple Linear Regression. The result of this research demonstrates the effectiveness of geopolitics added variable on three different cities Jakarta, Java, and Bali. It can be implemented in a wide area in Indonesia. For further research, the proposed model can be used in a wide area in Indonesia and developed for a more comprehensive recommendation system. © 2022 IEEE.

Enhancing Employer Attractiveness: The Impact of COVID-19 on Generation Z

This paper investigates how employer attractiveness has been affected by developments in the attitudes, values, and goals of Generation Z (born between 1995-2010) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Research shows the challenging environment for employers who are increasingly facing a 'war for talent' and the need to focus on generational needs and expectations. Work concepts in many cases have been adapted to Generation Y, but a revision of strategies is needed for the newest generation on the labour market. The insurance industry has long struggled to attract young talent and along with retail, logistics, tourism, and banking has been ranked the lowest in employer attractiveness by Generation Z. This is corroborated by the fact that larger corporations are also often perceived as unattractive by young people. While many industries have struggled with the consequences and challenges of the pandemic, the insurance sector can be seen as having mastered the crisis comparatively well. This paper questions whether the relative job security offered by the insurance sector, can be increasingly influential in post pandemic job choices. Since Generation Z was already described as securityoriented before the pandemic, this is expected to have increased as a result of COVID-19 and be reflected in their career and employer choices. The perspectives of Generation Z and employers from the German insurance industry are compared through survey and interview data. The young cohort suspects a worsening of their situation particularly in job offerings and security. At the same time, the insurance industry positions itself well in exactly these areas. Furthermore, the aspirations and expectations of Generation Z towards the professional world coincide strongly with the offerings of insurers as employers. However, the respondents see the sector's image as a deterrent. Although this paper focuses on the insurance industry, strategic recommendations given on how the sector can position itself, are relevant for other sectors facing the challenge of attracting Generation Z employees. © 2022 Authors. All rights reserved.

Does wearing facial masks increase perceived facial attractiveness? An eye-tracking experiment.

As wearing a mask has become a routine of daily life since COVID-19, there is a growing need for psycho-physiological research to examine whether and how mask-fishing effects can occur and operate. Building upon a notion that people are likely to utilize information available from the facial areas uncovered by a mask to form the first impression about others, we posit a curvilinear relationship between the amount of the facial areas covered by a mask and the perception of others' attractiveness such that the attractiveness perception increases initially and then decreases as more facial areas are covered by a mask. To better examine this covering effect, we conduct an experiment using an eye-tracker and also administer a follow-up survey on the facial attractiveness of target persons. Our results showed that the facial attractiveness of target persons increased as the areas covered by a mask increased as in the moderate covering condition where the target persons wore only a facial mask, demonstrating that the mask-fishing was indeed possible thanks to the covering effect of a mask on the facial attractiveness. The experimental results, however, revealed that the mask-fishing effect disappeared as the areas covered increased further as in the excessive covering condition where the target persons' face and forehead were covered with a mask and a bucket hat. More importantly, the eye-tracking data analysis demonstrated that both the number of gaze fixation and revisits per unit area were significantly lower in the moderate covering than in the excessive covering condition, suggesting that participants in the moderate covering were able to form the impression about the target persons using cues available from the eyes and forehead areas such as hairstyle and eye color whereas those in the excessive covering were provided only a limited set of cues concentrated in the eyes area. As a result, the covering effect no longer existed under the excessive covering. Furthermore, our results showed that participants in the moderate covering were more likely than those in the excessive condition to exhibit the higher level of curiosity and perception of beautifulness but perceived the lower level of coldness when evaluating the target persons. The current research offers theoretical contributions and practical implications made from the eye-tracking experiment and discusses possible avenues for further research.

Comparing the Experience of Pre-Service Teachers in the First and Final Semesters in Online Learning Using a Focus Group Study

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, online learning has become the innovation and an alternative virtual education adopted by universities, due to campus closures. The sudden adoption of the innovation without prior preparation and training causes the ineffective implementation of online learning in most institutions. Based on this description, insufficient information is available regarding the experiences of the student population, which are the most affected by online learning in higher education. Therefore, this study aims to explore the experiences of pre-service teachers regarding their numerous abilities to provide a good online learning program. Using a qualitative focus group study design, data were obtained through the focus group discussion (FGD) on 58 and 52 teachers, which were divided into 10 study groups during the first and final semesters. The results showed that both groups had similar and different experiences, regarding lecturers' ability to effectively perform online learning. According to the experience of the participants, the lecturers with pedagogical and social-personal skills were able to emphasize and encourage the attractiveness of online learning. In addition, some of the differences highly depended on the specific indicators of the two aspects. These results are expected to provide a framework for university lecturers and administrators, towards implementing the learning process.

The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on explicit and implicit attitudes towards black sanitary mask wearers

Pre-COVID-19 epidemic studies found that wearing a sanitary mask negatively impacted perceived facial attractiveness. In particular, people demonstrated more negative explicit or implicit attitudes toward wearers of sanitary masks when the masks were black rather than white. The present study examined whether changes in social behavior in response to the COVID-19 epidemic, including the prevalent use of sanitary masks, might alter explicit and/or implicit attitudes toward wearers of black sanitary masks. We measured explicit (Study 1) and implicit attitudes (Study 3) and fecial attractiveness (Study 2) of males wearing black or white sanitary masks. The results revealed that attitudes toward wearers of black sanitary masks were more positive than those measured pre-epidemic. Regardless of mask color, explicit attractiveness rating scores for low-attractiveness faces tended to increase after the epidemic. However, no such improvement was observed for high-and middle-attractiveness faces. There was also no change in implicit attitudes measured by the implicit association test. These results suggest that the COVID-19 epidemic has reduced explicit negative attitudes toward wearers of black sanitary masks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Editorial Introduction: Special Issue: Time, Urgency, and Collaboration in the Corporate University

Elite universities saw huge gains on their endowments while community colleges are struggling to survive4 and lipservice to "diversity" does not translate into job security.5 We began this work with the conviction that transnational, intersectional collaborative strategies are urgently needed in response to the global rise of neo-nationalism within a persistent system of neoliberal racial capitalism: violence, poverty and displacement are escalating while wealth disparities continue to increase. Productivity translates into numbers and speed, resources are distributed based on seemingly neutral algorithms, while teaching and scholarship are assessed in terms of numerically measurable outcomes. [...]while right wing movements frame academia as a hub of subversive, radical thinking and activism, innovation and collaboration in the service of transformation often face institutional obstacles. The emphasis in the essays in this volume is not just on identifying injustice and violence but on creating paths for alternatives to emerge, to, with cover artist Althea Murphy-Price, position anew, create new spaces and paces, new materials, notions of beauty, and forms of resistance, to build communities and collaborations that will "imagine otherwise" (Sharpe 2006, 115)7 and make different collaborations and worlds possible. On Our Cover Art Althea Murphy-Price received her B.A. in Fine Art from Spelman College before completing her Master of Arts in Printmaking and Painting at Purdue University and her Master of Fine Arts at Tyler School of Art, Temple University.

A safe haven in times of crisis: The appeal of family companies as employers amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Family firms often struggle to recruit skilled non-family employees. Applying a mixed-method strategy, this article investigates the changing perception of family firms as attractive employers in the context of the COVID19 pandemic. Experimental results indicate that family firms benefit from a greater popularity amid crises owing to perceptions that they offer greater job security and compensation. Qualitative findings expand on these results by identifying new attractiveness-relevant factors that only come into play amid crises-specifically, multifaceted conceptions of family firms' crisis responses and their importance for local communities and economies contribute to their situational appeal.

VR tourism experiences and tourist behavior intention in COVID-19: an experience economy and mood management perspective

PurposeVirtual reality (VR) technology is a potential tool for tourism marketers to maintain the attractiveness of their destinations and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effectiveness of VR technology in motivating potential tourists' visit intention under lockdown conditions remains unknown. An integrated model based on the experience economy framework and mood management theory was, therefore, used to explain how tourists' VR experiences affect their mood management processes and subsequent behaviors. This research also examined how perceived travel risk influenced the relationship between mood management processes and future decisions.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a cross-sectional design based on a sample collected from a Chinese survey company, Sojump. The author surveyed 285 respondents who had experienced VR tourism activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research model was tested using partial least squares–structural equation modeling.FindingsThe results demonstrated that the four dimensions of VR experiences differently affected mood management processes, while perceived travel risk differently moderated the influence of mood management processes on visit intention and VR stickiness. This provides insights for tourism marketers to adapt to the current tourism environment and develop recovery strategies.Originality/valueIn response to gaps in the literature, this research examined the effectiveness of VR technology in driving tourists' visit intention during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing insights for tourism marketers to successfully implement VR tourism and plan timely recovery strategies.

Enhancing museums' attractiveness through digitization: An investigation of Italian medium and large-sized museums and cultural institutions

The Covid-19 pandemic put the museums' viability under stress, with national and supranational policies imposing closures and restricting the number of admitted visitors. Digitization enables cultural institutions to overcome such constraints, prompting innovative service delivery models. However, evidence on digitization's implications on organizational attractiveness (OA) is scant. Taking a retrospective approach, the article proposes a parallel mediation analysis to shed some light on the effects of digitization on museums' attractiveness. Findings suggest that digitization enhances OA directly and indirectly, via the delivery of digital services to physical visitors. Furthermore, digitization allows museums to meet the virtual visitors' expectations, enriching the cultural service offering. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

When less is not more: the effect of transparent masks on facial attractiveness judgment.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have been widely used in daily life. Previous studies have suggested that faces wearing typical masks that occlude the lower half of the face are perceived as more attractive than face without masks. However, relatively little work has been done on how transparent masks that reveal the lower half of the face affect the judgment of facial attractiveness. To investigate the effect of transparent masks on the perceived attractiveness, in the current study, we asked participants to rate the attractiveness of faces without masks and with a typical opaque mask and a transparent mask. The results showed that faces wearing opaque masks were evaluated as more attractive than those wearing transparent masks or no masks. The benefit of opaque masks was more pronounced in faces that were initially evaluated as unattractive. Interestingly, wearing transparent masks decreased the perceived attractiveness of faces but only for the faces initially rated as attractive, possibly because of the visual distortion of the lower half of the face by transparent masks. In summary, we found that opaque and transparent masks have different effects on perceived attractiveness, depending on the attractiveness of faces. Given benefits of transparent masks in socio-emotional and cognitive processing, it would be important to further understand the effect of transparent masks on face information processing.

Does panda diplomacy promote Chinese outbound tourism flows?

This study examines whether panda diplomacy promotes Chinese outbound tourism flows. A gravity model of tourism outflows from China to 137 destination countries over the 1995-2018 period is used for the empirical analysis. The results indicate that destination countries that host pandas from China attract a substantial number of Chinese tourists compared to those that do not. This effect persists over time and is stronger in later years, particularly after three years of hosting pandas. The findings of this study suggest that destination countries that host pandas can enhance their international tourism attractiveness for tourists from China. This improvement can be realized by incorporating panda-themed international marketing campaigns, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The preferred location of coworking spaces in Italy: an empirical investigation in urban and peripheral areas

With a rising globalization of the economy and society, the digital transformation, and the economic downturn started in 2008, working is becoming less dependent on distance, location, and time. These are some of the reasons that have fostered the development and diffusion of new working spaces like coworking spaces. The paper aims at exploring the location determinants of coworking spaces, an issue that has been less developed by the literature up to now. By focusing on the 549 coworking spaces located in Italy at the year 2018, the paper investigates the location factors of such workplaces, and the attractiveness of large cities as well as peripheral areas. The results of the descriptive statistics and the econometric analysis (a Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial model is applied) confirm that coworking is mainly an urban phenomenon, since coworking spaces tend to be knowledge-intensive places for creative people. Specifically, the municipalities showing higher innovation and entrepreneurial environment (i.e. major cities) are preferred locations. Besides, it is discussed whether coworking spaces may contribute to fostering the development of peripheral and inner areas in Italy, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic where the share of teleworkers outside metropolitan areas has massively increased.

A deeper understanding of switching intention and the perceptions of non-subscribers

PurposeMost previous studies on new technologies and services have concentrated on their acceptance, seldom exploring in depth why users may choose not to accept technology or service and remain "non-users.” This study aims to understand free platform users' intention to switch to paid subscription platforms.Design/methodology/approachThis study utilized push-pull-mooring (PPM) theory to investigate free OTT platform viewers' switching intentions toward paid OTT platforms. A research model was established and examined via a two-stage partial least square (PLS) method. A total of 446 free users were collected from Facebook and Line for data analysis.FindingsResults show that perceived intrusiveness is the push factor and alternative attractiveness is the pull factor and that both have a positive impact on the switching intention of non-subscribers. Habit represents the mooring factor and negative affects switching intention. Perceived convenience and perceived enjoyment are shown to be two significant habitual antecedents. Furthermore, habit is revealed to moderate the effect of users' perceived advertisement intrusion and alternative attractiveness on switching intention to strengthen positive impact when the habit is strong.Originality/valueThis study is one of the pioneering studies to consider free-to-paid switching behavior on media services using PPM's structural equation model. Contrary to previous research, the study found that, in the context of the free-to-paid transition, highly accustomed users' perception of pull factors and push factors were strengthened, thus generating the tendency to switch platforms.

How the hotel industry attracts Generation Z employees: An application of social capital theory

Post pandemic, the hotel industry is facing a significant labor shortage. This study investigates how the hotel industry attracts the Gen Z workforce through CSR activities during COVID-19. The study develops a framework based on social capital theory. A total of 407 online surveys were collected, and PLS-SEM was performed to test the proposed model. Results indicate that the person-organization fit increases cognitive trust and affective trust, subsequently affecting hotels' organizational attractiveness. COVID-related knowledge only moderates the relationship between cognitive trust and organizational attractiveness. Moreover, affective trust is weighed heavier by Gen Zs who were currently unemployed, while cognitive trust exerts more influence on those who were currently employed. The study findings provide valuable insights and meaningful implications for hotel managers to attract and retain Gen Z talents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Short break drive holiday destination attractiveness during COVID-19 border closures

Research into the topic of destination image has been popular in the tourism literature since the 1970s. However, only a minority of destination image studies have focused on the context of short break drive holidays. Domestic holidays have taken on increased importance for the tourism industry in many parts of the world during travel restrictions caused by COVID-19. Building on theorizing from evolutionary psychology, this paper reports a study with the data collected from two samples in New Zealand and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conjoint analysis revealed the two most important destination attributes in terms of crowdedness and accommodation type, and latent class analysis revealed four segments. These insights have practical implications for marketers of smaller, less crowded destinations interested in the short break drive market, particularly given uncertainties about international leisure travel during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the possibility of future coronavirus outbreaks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Face Masks Use and Face Perception: Social Judgments and Emotion Recognition

An outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) made face masks use a norm in individuals' daily lives. The information individuals obtained with face perception is potentially affected by regular face mask use. This study investigated the effects of face masks, ethnicities, and sex on the social judgments including sex, age, trustworthiness, facial attractiveness, and approachability. Later, the effects of face masks, ethnicities, and sex, and facial expressions of happy, neutral, and sad faces on valence and arousal were studied. Likert-type scales and Self-Assessment Manikin were used in an online experiment by Psychopy to capture face perception. Only sex influences sex score in an apparent manner, and unmasked faces appear as more attractive. Face masks and ethnicities do not seem to have effects on sex, age, attractiveness, trustworthiness, and approachability. Faces with different expressions influence the scoring in valence and arousal scale. The results of the present study may be informative for the current pandemic for people to have fruitful social engagements. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

European destination regions and social exclusion challenges

This paper presents a typology of European regions according to the type, mix and magnitude of human mobilities attracted over the 2008–2018 period, tourists being one of them, but extending to the related movement of different cohorts of migrants. Regional clusters are then assessed in terms of their social performance in domains such as health, material conditions, housing, and labour. Significant associations between regional types and social trends are interpreted in the light of potential factors affecting these outcomes. Results point to the uneven repercussions of housing unaffordability in the fastest growing destination regions, on the polarisation of living conditions in the European ‘star destinations' and on the challenge of precarious labour, especially for migrant workers, in established mature destinations. In a stage of reignition of tourism activity after the COVID-19 crisis, these insights are meant to contribute to the recovery debate, informing about key social issues and vulnerabilities which, in specific regional contexts, could have been amplified by the current crisis. Copyright © 2022 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Employer branding under COVID-19 pandemic in Russian companies

An integrated approach to employer branding during COVID-19 pandemic based on employer branding orientation is considered in this article. The empirical study in employer branding was conducted in Russian companies in 2020. The research object was the HR professionals from Russian medium-sized and large companies. Using the data from the descriptive survey, the number of strategic (employer branding orientation, employer branding strategy, employer value proposition) and operational (communication programs, communication channels and content) features in employer branding in Russian companies during COVID-19 pandemic were identified.

Occlusion of faces by sanitary masks improves facial attractiveness of other races.

Recent studies provide mixed results regarding whether the perception of facial attractiveness is increased or decreased by partial occlusion with a sanitary mask. One set of studies demonstrated that occluding the bottom half of a face increased facial attractiveness. This effect is thought to occur because the occluded area is interpolated by an average facial representation that is perceived as attractive. However, several groups of studies showed that partial occlusion can increase or decrease perceived attractiveness depending on the attractiveness of the original (unoccluded) face, due to regression to the mean. To reconcile this inconsistency, we propose that the occluded area is interpolated not by an average facial representation, but by a template of moderate attractiveness, shaped by the distribution of each viewer's experience. This hypothesis predicts an interaction between occlusion and the attractiveness of the original face so that occluded attractive faces are rated as less attractive, while occluded unattractive faces are rated as more attractive. To examine this hypothesis, the present study used attractiveness-rating tasks with mask-free versus masked faces in own-race and other-races categories. Viewers were familiar with own-race faces and unfamiliar with other-races faces. If moderate-attractiveness interpolation were the explanatory factor, the interaction between the occlusion and the attractiveness of the original face should be found only in the rating of own-race faces. Consistent with this hypothesis, the interaction between the occlusion and the attractiveness of the original faces was significant only for the own-race faces. Specifically, wearing a sanitary mask decreased the facial attractiveness of attractive faces in the own-race, while it increased the attractiveness regardless of the level of facial attractiveness in other-races. These findings suggest that the occluded area of own-race faces is interpolated by a facial template of moderate attractiveness. The other-races template could be developed using familiar exemplars such as celebrities. Thus, interpolation by such a template should result in elevated attractiveness relative to that by an own-race template. Accordingly, the apparent inconsistency in the literature regarding the effect of partial occlusion on physical attractiveness can be explained in terms of differences in the template involving interpolation of the occluded area.