Explaining US travel behavior with perceived threat of pandemic, consumer sentiment, and economic policy uncertainty.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, consumer behavior has been affected by the perceived threat of the pandemic and economic uncertainty. This paper aims to explore the dynamic effects of COVID-19, consumer sentiment, economic policy uncertainty, and fuel prices on travel behavior in the United States. Using updated daily trip data, the results show that consumer sentiment has a positive long-run impact on travel demand for air and auto, suggesting that a positive change in consumer sentiment can boost demand for these modes of transportation in the long term. Additionally, consumer sentiment has a favorable effect (1.34) on demand for long-distance trips, but it has a negative impact (-0.42) on the number of people staying at home. Economic and political shocks have a detrimental impact on demand for air and auto travel, suggesting that consumers reduce the frequency and cost of these transport services if they have pessimistic expectations about the future state of the economy and policy. However, in the short term, US travelers appear to be insensitive to shocks in consumer sentiment and economic policy uncertainty. Regarding the perceived threat of the pandemic, the results indicate that rising COVID-19 cases have a negative long-term effect on demand for air travel (-0.09) and public transit (-0.19), while they are positively associated with demand for auto travel (0.06). Similarly, the increasing number of deaths due to COVID-19 has led to a shift from shared-use mass transportation (air travel and public transit) to private autos and non-motorized travel, such as walking in the short term.

Tourists' travel mode and length of stay: Application of a fully nested Archimedean copula structure

Tourism decisions are interdependent of one another. This study aims to explore the interrelations among three pertinent tourism choices, i.e., travel season, transport mode and length of stay, from a data-driven perspective. To achieve a joint model of three travel behavioural decisions, this paper adopts a Frank-type fully nested Archimedean copula function, which is capable of efficiently incorporating a logistic regression model, a multinomial logit model and a lognormal accelerated failure time model. Then, we empirically evaluate the proposed model framework using single-destination Sydney-based trip-level data collected in 2017–2018. Gumbel, Clayton and Frank copula results are compared. To illustrate its application, the modelling results are used to build a simulated COVID-19 pandemic scenario according to the social distancing restrictions within New South Wales, Australia, and a three-dimensional elasticity analysis for trip destinations is performed. The findings suggest the model provides nuanced insights into simulating tourist behaviours and transport policy appraisal aimed at tourism recovery or/and development. © 2023 The Author(s)

Assessing Supply Chain Performance in the Covid 19 Context: A Prospective Model

The Covid-19 pandemic [1] has severely disrupted companies' activities, especially in their supply chains. Indeed, the crisis has generated a disruption of supplies and therefore of supply and demand in different countries [2], a transformation of customer and supplier paradigms [3], and a revitalization of transport and logistics modes ([4];[1]). If the crisis continues to disrupt both the design and the management of companies' supply chains [5], the measurement of their performance, which is already largely controversial, must be revisited. This study aims at proposing the measurement of the performance of SCs with respect to the challenges and opportunities induced by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Its objective is to propose a prospective model for evaluating this performance in the post-pandemic period. The study analyzes the existing literature and proposes a set of indicators to measure the performance of SCs through a prospective approach. The indicators selected are relatively global and integrate financial and non-financial, strategic, tactical and operational dimensions. © 2022 IEEE.

Logistics of critical supply and resilience during the covid-19 pandemic in Norway

The covid-19 pandemic has challenged the logistics of critical supplies such as food, fuel, and necessary medical supplies. A research project was executed to document how regional actors in the transport sector handle the logistic challenges during the pandemic in 2020, in Mid-Norway. Key research questions were: (1) How is demand and logistics impacted by the pandemic (especially on critical supplies);(2) What is the impact on and between transport modes (e.g. air, sea, road, rail), and their ability to operate as normal;and (3) What is the effect on Norwegian import and export activities? This paper presents the results of a limited literature review on the risks of a pandemic on critical supplies, and systematic interviews of key actors in transportation and logistics. Eleven candidates were interviewed in the period April to June 2020 and then analysed. In addition, nine candidates were approached for more informal conversations. All candidates were interviewed minimum two times to identify possible effects from the pandemic over a period. Key findings show that logistics of critical supplies have been identified as an area in national risk assessments but has not been prioritized through actual action plans. Furthermore, the project discovered poor emergency preparedness and poor preparedness in logistics operations, although mitigated by the ability to improvise and use of existing resources to ensure necessary supply of critical items. © ESREL 2021. Published by Research Publishing, Singapore.

The Impact of the COVID19 Pandemic on Shopping Trips Behavior in Urban Areas

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic is highly considered in the recent time because of its significant role in changing the behavior of trips. However, its effect on the shopping trips according to the shopping types is rarely considered. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the changes in the behavior of shopping trips and their control factors during the COVID-19 pandemic according to the shopping types. The considered shopping types are food and drinks, cosmetics, clothes and shoes, electronic devices, dolls and children products, electricity devices and furniture. The time of COVID-19 pandemic is divided into six stages stating from December 2019 to the recent time. The collected data are categorized into two groups. The first group represents the changes in the behavior of shopping trips including frequency, mode choice, distance of trip, and time of trip. The second group represents the socio demographic factors such as age, gender, marital states, income level, education level, and car ownership. It also includes the experience in using electronic facilities and location factor. The questionnaire form is used as a method of data collection. The results show increase in the rate of food, electronic devices and dolls shopping despite the remarkable decline in the rate of other shopping types between March 2020 and October 2020, after that the behavior has been similar to the behavior of shopping trips before COVID-19 pandemic. However, the frequency of using e-shopping and using walking in short shopping trips is still higher than before pandemic even in post-pandemic period. This encourages using avoid-shift strategy to promote sustainable transportation system and cities. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Transport mode preferences of university students in post-COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 outbreak very quickly disrupted the order of human beings. While many sectors have been trying to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 process, they have also been trying to plan the new process for after the pandemic. Transport is one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic and it is necessary to produce the right political formulations for the post-pandemic period. For this reason, it is necessary to carefully examine the changing user demands in various segments of society due to COVID-19 and reveal effective post-pandemic transport policies. This study contributes to this requirement. Accordingly, this study investigated the transport mode preferences of university students in post-pandemic period in Istanbul, one of the important metropolises of the world, via the use of a survey. The reason for university students were focused on was that the mobility of university students is very high and in addition, they are more flexible than other age groups in using different transport modes. The main findings obtained from the study show that there will be a significant change in demand in transport modes after the pandemic. In particular, while a critical decrease may be observed in the travel demand for public buses, shared minibuses and LRT in public transport in post-pandemic period, a high increase in demand for private car use is highly probable. In addition, the research results indicate that COVID-19 can cause an increase in use of e-scooter/hoverboard and active travel modes. The results obtained through the statistical analysis and the discussions based on these results can make a significant contribution to the post-pandemic transport policies of cities with high university student populations and various transport modes, such as Istanbul.