ABSTRACT
With COVID-19, significant life events can alter how individuals perceive and employ transportation systems. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people's lives for a considerable time and may impact how people see travel and use transportation services. Due to the COVID-19 pandemics' severe physiological and psychological effects and ongoing financial difficulties, critical personnel must continue traveling for necessary tasks. The main aim of this study was to explore the use of taxi services after the Covid 19 pandemic perceived by travelers and commuters. To analyze the factors that influenced how people behave while using taxis for necessary travel during the COVID-19 restrictions imposed in Makkah, Madinah, Riyadh, and other Saudi Arabian cities. Between October 30 and December 15, 2021, 524 Saudi travelers participated in the online questionnaire assessment. Respondents' attitudes, perceptions, and attentiveness regarding taxi services after the lockdown were measured using a categorical scale. Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS-20 version and the Chi-Square, Phi, and Cramer's V tests to analyze were applied. The results of this study revealed how the COVID-19 outbreak caused some people to rethink their travel. This allows behavior-change approaches to target motives, challenges, and attitudes about changing travel options. © 2023, World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: This research intended to investigate the motivation and behavior of free independent travelers (FITs) who traveled to Southern Thailand in the Covid-19 pandemic. Theoretical framework: Studies on tourist motivation and behavior would provide more insightful implications and Covid-19 safeguards for tourism businesses especially in Southern Thailand – a dominant destination for domestic tourism demand. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected from 400 domestic FITs using a questionnaire survey, processed in SPSS software, and analyzed with descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and One-way ANOVA. Findings: The highest level of overall pull and push motivations of domestic FITs while traveling to Southern Thailand. The highest level of pull motivation identified in this study was a promotional scheme, called "WE TRAVEL TOGETHER” the government-subsidized 40% of accommodation expenses to increase tourism demand. Research, Practical & Social implications: Comparative responses to SHA Plus standard between domestic and international tourists using both qualitative and quantitative data from all stakeholders involved would provide a variety of insightful and beneficial perspectives on NNT in the Covid-19 pandemic. Originality/value: CCSA should pay more attention on this particular behavior of tourists which might easily spread the disease to others. Everyone should be more aware of this risk and show their greater responsible practice in society. © 2022 AOS-Estratagia and Inovacao. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
For many, the COVID-19 pandemic is an existential trauma. Existential traumas trigger people's ultimate concerns and shatter individuals' basic assumptions. Based on the perspective of existential positive psychology, this study explores the posttraumatic growth of travelers from Hubei, China, during the early outbreak period. Grounded theory is used to analyze the stranded experience of epicenter travelers during the sudden crisis. This study reveals the intertwined traumatic events that evoke existential anxiety in travelers, as well as five dimensions of posttraumatic growth. Moreover, a theoretical framework is presented, elaborating on the influence path of key factors such as social support, cognition, and coping strategies on posttraumatic growth. Finally, the finding shows a strong resonance between posttraumatic growth and transformative tourism experiences.
ABSTRACT
Many tourism destinations aim at expanding their market share of high spending visitors by shifting from quantity to quality. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the introduction of social distancing requiring hotspots and mass destinations to reduce their capacity. This paper proposes a two-step approach for identifying top spending European countries over time, distinguishing between leisure and business travelers. The methodology employs the Country Product Dummy index with a hierarchical clusterization, enriched by a convergence analysis. This approach overcomes general shortcomings of descriptive statistics and cluster analyses directly applied to raw expenditure data. The outcomes of this analysis provide a detailed picture of the European travelers' expenditure across time and geographical area. The identified top spending countries of leisure and business travelers can be targeted through ad-hoc marketing campaigns and specific packages for privileging quality tourism and planning economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 reopening phase, while shifting away from mass tourism. © The Author(s) 2021.
ABSTRACT
We enrolled arriving international air travelers in SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance, using molecular testing of pooled nasal swabs, and sequencing positive samples for viral sublineage. Traveler-based genomic surveillance provided early warning variant detection; we reported the first U.S. Omicron BA.2 and first BA.3 in North America, weeks before next reported detection.
ABSTRACT
Language barriers have always been considered as constraints on tourists' intentions to visit an overseas destination. However, little research has focused on how learning the destination language could affect tourists' behavioral intentions. This study attempts to fill this gap by analyzing the moderating effect of Spanish language proficiency on young Chinese travelers' intentions to visit Spain. A quantitative research method was adopted involving data collection through a structured questionnaire survey. A total of 642 Chinese university students were used as the sample in this study. The relationships between motivation, perceived cultural distance, destination image, and future behavioral intention were examined using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis. The moderating effects of Spanish-language proficiency on these relationships were tested through MICOM and multi-group PLS-SEM analysis. The results show that Spanish-language proficiency could moderate four hypothesized relationships in the model. Hence, this study contributes to tourism literature by highlighting the role of potential tourists' destination-language proficiency on their future behavioral intentions. Additionally, practical implications are also provided for DMOs to attract more Chinese young travelers in the recovery process from COVID-19.
ABSTRACT
Background: The spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by asymptomatic individuals has been reported since the early stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in various parts of the world. However, there are limited data regarding SARS-CoV-2 among asymptomatic individuals in Ghana. The aim of the study was to use test data of prospective travelers from Ghana as a proxy to estimate the contribution of asymptomatic cases to the spread of COVID-19. Methods: The study analyzed the SARS-CoV-2 PCR test data of clients whose purpose for testing was classified as "Travel" at the COVID-19 walk-in test center of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) from July 2020 to July 2021. These individuals requesting tests for travel generally had no clinical symptoms of COVID-19 at the time of testing. Data were processed and analyzed using Microsoft Excel office 16 and STATA version 16. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize data on test and demographic characteristics. Results: Out of 42,997 samples tested at the center within that period, 28,384 (66.0%) were classified as "Travel" tests. Of these, 1,900 (6.7%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. The majority (64.8%) of the "Travel" tests were requested by men. The men recorded a SARS-CoV-2 positivity of 6.9% compared to the 6.4% observed among women. Test requests for SARS-CoV-2 were received from all regions of Ghana, with a majority (83.3%) received from the Greater Accra Region. Although the Eastern region recorded the highest SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate of 8.35%, the Greater Accra region contributed 81% to the total number of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases detected within the period of study. Conclusion: Our study found substantial SARS-CoV-2 positivity among asymptomatic individuals who, without the requirement for a negative SARS-CoV-2 result for travel, would have no reason to test. These asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals could have traveled to other countries and unintentionally spread the virus. Our findings call for enhanced tracing and testing of asymptomatic contacts of individuals who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Male , Humans , Female , COVID-19/diagnosis , COVID-19/epidemiology , SARS-CoV-2 , Cross-Sectional Studies , Ghana/epidemiology , Prospective StudiesABSTRACT
PurposeThis study aims to extend the theory of planned behavior (TPB) model with additional factors such as perceived risk, knowledge of COVID-19, social media reviews, destination image and past experience to analyze what influences the travel destination intentions of young people.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey of young people was conducted, and SPSS 20.0 and Smart-PLS (Partial Least Squares) 3.0 software were used to evaluate the measurement and structural models.FindingsThe study uses the extended TPB (Ajzen, 1991) to build on the factors affecting the selection of tourist destinations in relation to the risk perception of COVID-19, past experiences and images of destinations when traveling after the pandemic.Research limitations/implicationsThis study demonstrates the feasibility of applying the TPB framework and protection motivation theory (PMT) elements to people planning to visit a travel destination in the immediate wake of a public health emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It explains the factors influencing tourists' intentions to visit during and after the pandemic. COVID-19 awareness and previous travel experiences influence post-pandemic travel decisions.Practical implicationsThis research result will help build motivation and confidence for local tourism businesses regarding the rapid recovery of the industry among young people. However, businesses need to vigorously promote safety and adapt tourism services to suit the new post-pandemic situation.Social implicationsThe results of this study can help tourism businesses understand why young people may be hesitant to come to their localities for tourism so they can come up with a suitable development strategy to attract tourists.Originality/valueThis study expands on the framework of the TPB to explore additional factors that positively influence youth travel, and the barriers that concern them. It also provides data on the novel context of tourism in the post-pandemic era.
ABSTRACT
Airports could serve as hotspots for the spread of the COVID-19 infection. We aimed to assess the awareness, attitude, and behaviors of non-Saudi travelers about COVID-19 and their satisfaction with preventive measures at Saudi airports. A cross-sectional study was conducted among non-Saudi travelers arriving in Saudi Arabia at two international airports. Data were collected using a questionnaire in Arabic, Hindi, and Urdu languages. Awareness, attitude, behavior scores, and satisfaction levels were calculated. Linear regression analyses were done to assess the predictors of awareness, attitude, and behaviors. A total of 633 participants were included in the study. The mean awareness, attitude, and behavior scores were 16.3/22, 18.3/24, and 3.2/5, respectively. Nationality, education, and income were significant predictors of awareness. Nationality was the only significant predictor of attitude, while gender and nationality were predictors of behaviors. Overall satisfaction with preventive measures was: transportation (94%), lounges and corridors (96%), counters (98%), and airport staff (97%). There was overall good awareness and attitude among travelers. Behavior scores were relatively low, which needs to change as air travel poses a threat to the spread of infectious diseases. Airport authorities need to manage passengers properly to ensure adequate distancing to prevent the potential transmission of infections.
ABSTRACT
The pandemic caused by COVID-19 is a health crisis that has had a major impact on the tourism sector worldwide. In mid-March 2020, all tourism activity in Spain was paralysed, restricting the demand for tourism-related goods and services with measures such as border closures, restriction of non-essential mobility and home confinement. This article analyses the impact of the pandemic on the tourism sector in each of the Spanish autonomous communities, how this health crisis has affected the reception of travellers and, as a consequence, the number of overnight stays, as well as which types of accommodation (hotel, extra-hotel and rural) have seen the greatest reduction in tourism demand. The results obtained confirm the negative effects that tourism activity has suffered due to the pandemic and its incidence in each autonomous community, which has accentuated the existing imbalances in the tourism sector, causing a turning point before and after the health crisis. © 2022 Asociacion de Geografos Espanoles. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic has hit industrial sectors very hard, including the tourism industry and halal tourism. The sustainability of the tourism industry must be main-tained, so the development of marketing strategies is very necessary. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the effect of halal tourism attributes on tourist loyalty and indirectly through the trust and satisfaction of Indonesian Muslim tourists. This quantitative study involved 504 respondents out of 519 collected. To determine the sample in this study, a judgment sampling technique was used. The analytical tool used is the PLS-SEM to test the effect of the relationship between the variables studied. As a result, the attributes of halal tourism indirectly affect loyalty through the trust and satisfaction of tourists. This means that tourist loyalty manifests itself in returning to visited tourist destinations, recommending others, inviting others to visit visited tour-ist destinations, and traveling back to visited tourist destinations, even though the en-try ticket goes up;it can arise directly as a result of offerings of halal tourism attributes, as well as mediated by the trust and satisfaction of domestic tourists with tourism attributes offered to the tourist destinations they visited during the COVID-19 period.
ABSTRACT
This paper presents the results of primary research involving a survey of travelers in Poland during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was conducted in January 2022 using the CAWI method on a representative sample of n =1,129 Polish adults aged 18 to 60. As many as 74% of respondents believe that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed traveler preferences with regard to urban, regional and trans-regional transport. Two-thirds of respondents (67%) cited a car as the most common mode of transportation, 40% said they walk, and 25% use buses. Just over 10% chose a bicycle (14%) or tram (11%). The least preferred mode of transportation was the train (7%). The three most frequently cited features of transportation services that respondents considered most important included easy ticket purchasing, ticket prices, and cost of travel. The aim of this paper is to discuss the decisions of Polish passengers using public transport during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the research may help to influence the passengers' purchasing decisions in accordance with the objectives of long-term transport policy of both the European Union and Poland related to sustainable transport development, as well as the decisions of transport operators as this is a stakeholder group that may be interested in applying them in their daily work and carriers themselves, competing for passengers.
ABSTRACT
Despite the vast annual number of international visitors to the tropics, surprisingly little data are available on the psychological well-being associated with the travels or with travelers' diarrhoea (TD). We herein recruited participants of a vaccination trial, OEV-123, before their 12-day holiday in Benin, West Africa. We assessed the travelers' psychological distress with a general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) and retrieved data on TD from the trial database. The GHQ-12 was completed before (wave 0), at return (wave 1), and 1-month after (wave 2) the trip. Of the 174 participants, 73% were women, with a mean age 40 years. Moreover, 24% reported psychological distress before traveling, 10% immediately after, and 16% 1-month after the trip (GHQ-12, 3 or more; 0-12 scoring). The findings showed that psychological well-being increased after the tropical holiday. The GHQ-12 middle wave sum score differed from the wave 0 (p < 0.001) and wave 2 (p = 0.008) sum scores, with travelers reporting highest levels of well-being on their return, with evidence of a lasting improvement. TD was experienced by 71%, and it had a negative impact on psychological well-being only if experienced after travel.
Subject(s)
Dysentery , Travel , Adult , Diarrhea , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
As an important component of the global logistics chain, the airline industry has great advantages for the entire world, whether economically or optimizing the time between transport. However, the coronavirus pandemic that started in 2020 had severe impacts on the sector, reducing its activity and restricting its operations. Therefore, it was necessary to adapt to the requirements imposed by health agencies in order to guarantee the activity in a safe manner for everyone involved, with investments in sanitation and change of protocols in the provision of the service, especially in the air transport of passengers. Thus, this study aims to analyze quality expectations from the perspective of air service consumers, with regard to the provision of air passenger service during the pandemic. Through the SERVQUAL tool, it could be seen that consumers expect the air service to be done safely, ensuring hygiene and effective communication with its users. This research allows us to understand the behavior of air transport consumers in Brazil and what can be expected from airlines with regard to quality service. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Por ser um importante componente da cadeia logística global, o setor aéreo possui grandes vantagens para todo o mundo, seja economicamente, seja otimizando o tempo entre transporte. Entretanto, a pandemia de coronavírus iniciada no ano de 2020 acarretou impactos severos no setor, reduzindo sua atividade e restringindo suas operações. Sendo assim, foi necessário se adaptar às exigências impostas pelos órgãos de saúde, a fim de garantir a atividade de forma segura para todos os envolvidos, com investimentos em sanitização e mudança de protocolos na prestação do serviço, principalmente no transporte aéreo de passageiros. Dessa forma, esse estudo tem como objetivo analisar as expectativas de qualidade sob a ótica dos consumidores do serviço aéreo, no que diz respeito à prestação do serviço aéreo de passageiros durante a pandemia. Através da ferramenta SERVQUAL pôde-se constatar que os consumidores esperam que o serviço aéreo seja feito de forma segura, garantindo a higienização e a que haja comunicação efetiva com seus usuários. Esta pesquisa permite compreender o comportamento do consumidor do transporte aéreo no Brasil e o que se pode esperar das companhias aéreas no que diz respeito a um serviço de qualidade. (Portuguese) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Revista FSA is the property of Revista FSA (Faculdade Santo Agostinho) 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 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 . (Copyright applies to all s.)
ABSTRACT
Airports are dynamic places and a significant number of people walk around it daily and use the aircraft as a way of transport. It is considered efficient, safe and time is saved these days by shortening distances between cities, states and countries, for work or leisure. The study aims to understand the perception of the airport health team about communication regarding the new coronavirus. It consists of a descriptive study with a qualitative approach and as a data collection technique, the phenomenological interview. The method suggested by Amedeo Giorgi and the analysis took place in the light of the Merleau-Ponty framework. As a result, the category communication and intersubjectivity of care at the airport and aircraft emerged. It is concluded that the deponents point out that objective, clear and safe communication is important during the health problems calls, whether for clinical, traumatic cases as well as infectious and contagious diseases.
ABSTRACT
This paper aims to investigate how the fear of COVID-19 has impacted the air travel anxiety, anger and trust among the travellers of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, Gujarat by collecting the primary data and analyzing through a variance-based SEM approach. The data was collected from 150 travellers through the snowball sampling technique including people who travelled during unlocking of flights and experienced mental constraints before and during travelling. The study revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between air travel anxiety and anger with fear of COVID-19 and a negative and significant relationship with trust. The current study has important implications for scholars as well as for airline management to understand how hard people are affected while travelling in the fear of COVID-19 and its spread. It would also help the administration to improve the conditions to ensure the safety of travellers. The paper concludes with a few sets of recommendations because people in India are horrified by the entry of the third variant of COVID-19. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to identify structural relationships between factors affecting domestic tourism intentions in Iran under COVID-19 conditions, taking into account the importance of behavioral intention in predicting behavior. Therefore, it adds to the emerging body of knowledge about travel intentions during the pandemic. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze 383 online questionnaires, which revealed a positive impact of "frequency of past travel" and a negative effect of "Covid-19 risk knowledge," "perceived risk," and "risk aversion attitudes" on "travel intentions." Furthermore, "perceived risk" and "risk aversion attitudes" mediated the relationship between "frequency of past travel" and "Covid-19 risk knowledge" with "travel intentions." Meanwhile, "socio-demographic variables" and "travel purposes" moderated the relationships between "risk aversion attitudes" and "travel intentions" and between "perceived risks" and "travel intentions." The findings enable tourism policy-makers, marketers, and businesses to take purposeful measures to recover domestic tourism.