Why do freelance tour guides still stay after the attack of COVID-19：A path-dependent perspective

The tourism industry has been devastated by COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019), with tour guides taking the brunt. Through in-depth interviews with 24 freelance tour guides in China and thematic analysis, this study addressed why they continue to work in this field and provided some insights for the freelance tour guides to stay in the tourism industry. The findings revealed that some individuals stay active because of their optimistic and open personality, professional recognition, etc. In contrast, others are passively locked into their current career path due to their cautious personality, fear of losing human capital, inertia, low self-efficacy, and limited job opportunities. These findings promote the application of path dependence theory in the career decision-making of freelancers by enhancing our understanding of the diverse reasons underlying individuals' retention behaviors in an unorganized setting in the context of COVID-19.

A User-POI-Guide Cost Optimization Method for Tourism Planning Considering Social Distance and User Preferences

MaaS (Mobility as a Service) itself has come into common use, and these developments have attracted keen interest from the industry in recent years. MaaS can be applied as a solution to deal with the current situation by considering the social distance. However, due to the time-share mechanism, personal assets are monopolized by specific users for a long time that cannot be shared with other users at the same time. Thus, the sharing economy companies in the tourism industry (e.g., Airbnb Experience and Huber) are in a dilemma of low productivity and high cost. In this research, we propose a new travel guide sharing service that considers the concept of social distance and user preferences. The user side only needs to select simple conditions such as travel time and the number of POIs (Point of Interest) that she/he plans to visit, meanwhile, the guide side simply inputs the POIs that she/he can guide. Furthermore, by analyzing these basic information, our proposed system can recommend the tour guides, scenic spots, and route planning to provide a real-time tour guide plan, which addressed the user's preferences and reduced the face-to-face communication to users in advance. To verify the effectiveness of our proposed method, we also ask 68 users to evaluate our system and analyze the results of questionnaires. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Implementation of Haversine Algorithm and Geolocation for travel recommendations on Smart Applications for Backpackers in Bali

Bali is one of the islands known as a tourist destination with the main purpose of traveling to Bali to enjoy the beauty of nature. Various tourist activities in Bali are well known both nationally and internationally. With so many types of tours available in Bali, travelers, especially first-time visitors, may need a guide on the tourist attractions they want to visit in Bali. However, some tourists, especially backpackers, backpackers are known to explore tourist attractions independently, freely, and with as little budget as possible. Concerning this statement and the decline in tourists to Bali due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the author decided to use the Haversine formula to develop a geographic information system for smart backpacker travel recommendations. with this problem. This Android application helps tourists travel from registration to tour guides. Implementing the Haversine formula in your app is equivalent to up to 88% of the distance reported by the Google Maps API. These results are used as a recommendation function for the selection of attractions by showing the distance between the previous backpacker's location selection and attractions. © 2022 IEEE.

Tour guides' self-efficacy and resilience capability building through sharing economy platforms

Purpose: This study aims to explore how the local tour guides (LTGs) operate through the sharing economy platform. This study explores how LTGs have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions using self-efficacy and other resources to improve resilience and performance. This study also delineates the working mechanisms of peer-to-peer (P2P) platform-enabled, dynamic capability building processes, in the tourism sharing economy. Design/methodology/approach: This research adopted an interpretive approach to understand the focal phenomenon using two types of data. A total of 40 semi-structured interviews with LTGs and 26,478 online tourist reviews from tour guide service participants' before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were used. Findings: The findings of this study revealed that LTGs used sharing economy platforms to arrange flexible tour guide services. Resilience emerged through dynamic capability that addressed contextual factors in real time. LTGs coordinated different resources and customers during a time of uncertainty. Different sources of self-efficacy and types of dynamic capability were identified. The interplay between LTGs' self-efficacy and dynamic capability was also delineated. Practical implications: The findings provide guidance for LTGs on P2P platforms and other sharing economy sectors on how diverse resources enabled by the sharing economy can enhance resilience during times of uncertainty. LTGs that engage with contextual information and are dynamic can adopt itineraries and services that will benefit tourists and their business. Originality/value: This study contributes to the sharing economy literature by theorizing the working flow that enables LTGs to exert self-efficacy and leverage dynamic capability on P2P platforms. This study also contributes by linking resilience to contextual factors in real time. The outcomes provide guidance for LTGs to remain competitive and establish resilience in uncertain environments. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Influx of Backyard Farming with Limited Biosecurity Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic Carries an Increased Risk of Zoonotic Spillover in Cambodia.

Backyard farming with limited biosecurity creates a massive potential for zoonotic spillover. Cambodia, a developing nation in Southeast Asia, is a hub for emerging and endemic infectious diseases. Due to pandemic-induced job losses in the tourism sector, rumors suggest that many former Cambodian tour guides have turned to backyard farming as a source of income and food security. A cross-sectional study including 331 tour guides and 69 poultry farmers in Cambodia before and during the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic was conducted. Participants were administered a survey to assess food security, income, and general farming practices. Survey data were collected to evaluate the risk perceptions for avian influenza virus (AIV), antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and general biosecurity management implemented on these poultry farms. Overall, food security decreased for 80.1% of the tour guides during the COVID-19 pandemic. Approximately 21% of the tour guides interviewed used backyard poultry farming to supplement losses of income and food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a significantly higher risk than for traditional poultry farmers. Agricultural intensification in Cambodia due to the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an influx of makeshift farms with limited biosecurity. Inadequate biosecurity measures in animal farms can facilitate spillover and contribute to future pandemics. Improved biosecurity and robust viral surveillance systems are critical for reducing the risk of spillover from backyard farms. IMPORTANCE While this study highlights COVID-19-associated changes in poultry production at a small scale in Cambodia, poultry production is expected to expand due to an increase in the global demand for poultry protein during the pandemic, changes in urbanization, and the reduction of the global pork supply caused by African swine fever (ASF). The global demand and surge in poultry products, combined with inadequate biosecurity methods, can lead to an increased risk of domestic animal and human spillovers of zoonotic pathogens such as avian influenza. Countries in regions of endemicity are often plagued by complex emergency situations (i.e., food insecurity and economic fallouts) that hinder efforts to effectively address the emergence (or reemergence) of zoonotic diseases. Thus, novel surveillance strategies for endemic and emerging infectious diseases require robust surveillance systems and biosecurity training programs to prevent future global pandemics.

Using Service Blueprint to Optimize the Process Management of Group Package Tour in Kinmen

The COVID-19 led to a global border blockade, and domestic group package tours have become Taiwan tourism industry's main economic source. This study takes 30 group package tours in Kinmen by non-participatory observation method and in-depth interviews with eight tour guides, and four components based on the service design optimization are categorized as follows: (1) accommodation;(2) restaurant;(3) attractions visit;and (4) shopping. The research data indicates that: (1) Tourism operators should consider both the input of service manpower and the supervision of the quality of service delivery. (2) Tour guides are the most important key in multiple delivery services. Practical implications and future research directions are also proposed for application and management. © 2022, Chinese Society for Quality. All rights reserved.

Tourism as a Tool in Nature-Based Mental Health: Progress and Prospects Post-Pandemic.

The healthcare sector recognises the role of nature in mental health. The tourism sector is equipped to take people to national parks. The conservation sector gains support from visitors. Theoretical frameworks for mental health benefits from nature tourism include: tourism destinations and activities; tourist personalities and life histories; sensory and emotional components of tourist experiences; and intensity and duration of memories. Mental health deteriorated worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recovery of global economic productivity requires immediate, accessible, affordable mental health measures at national scales, and nature-based approaches provide the best option. Different countries have adopted a variety of public, private, or voluntary mechanisms. Some focus on design of activities, others on provision of facilities. Costs and implementation depend on key research questions: marginal benefits of nature tour guides or psychologists compared to self-guided nature experiences; comparisons between repeated brief visits and one-off nature holidays; effects of biodiversity, flagship species, and scenic or wilderness quality; and differences between individuals, depending on personalities, life histories, and mental health status and symptoms.

The Impacts of Environmental Dynamism on Chinese Tour Guides' Sustainable Performance: Factors Related to Vitality, Positive Stress Mindset and Supportive Policy.

Although previous research shows great interest in improving the sustainability of organizations' performance, little is known about individual sustainable performance, especially for special groups such as tour guides. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this study aimed to investigate the effect of environmental dynamism caused by COVID-19 on tour guides' sustainable performance and mediating role of vitality and intervention mechanism in this relationship. Adopting a quantitative research method, we collected data from 382 professional tour guides in China via three surveys. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) and PROCESS were used to test the hypotheses. The results revealed that: (1) environmental dynamism was negatively related to tour guides' sustainable performance and (2) vitality at work mediated this negative effect; (3) a positive stress mindset moderated the relationship between environmental dynamism and vitality; (4) supportive policy's moderating role in the relationship of vitality and sustainable performance was not significant. The above conclusions contribute to the literature about the external environment, emotional state, performance management and application boundary of COR theory in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Outlook and Direction of AI Tour Guide Services - From the Lifelong Machine Learning View

Artificial intelligence (AI) has entered tourism and become a new service in a tour guide. AI technology can help tourism by providing customized services and attracting visitors to fight with the crisis of the COVID-19 epidemic. This paper introduces how AI tour guide services contribute to tourism and its main issues. The future development of AI tour guides also was discussed at the end and the authors believe lifelong machine learning is the key to developing AI tour guides. © 2021 IEEE.

Modeling of the correlation between tourist cognitive behavior and safety accidents

Since the Covid-19 pandemic was effectively controlled in China. Scenic visitors are also recovering quickly. Therefore, various tourism safety accidents occur in tourist destinations. Because of the occurrence of Covid-19 makes tourists more deeply aware of the importance of tourism safety. This paper will explore the important factors and mutual influence of tour guides in the process of group tour. Combining the experience of tour guides with the comprehensive scholars' research on tourism safety. Remind visitors of safety issues that are easy to ignore during tourism. Select ten travel emergencies from the perspective of experts and tour guides that including missing the tour group, changing travel plans, missing flights, lost property documents, lost tourists, sick passengers, traffic accidents, public security accidents, fire accidents, sports accidents. Evaluation of impact accidents using the DEMATEL method. It is looking for the cause or impact of safety accidents to remind tour guides to lead the tour to prevent the occurrence of safety accidents. The results of the study proved that changing travel plans, missing flights, missing the tour group three standards are the main causes of travel safety accidents. © 2021 IEEE.

Reopening for Business Post-COVID-19: Augmented Reality as a Strategy for Attracting Visitors to a Tourist Destination

Critical thoughts about tourist destinations overcoming and mitigating impacts from COVID-19 lie in the opportunities created by the pandemic. In this paper, an innovative way to attract tourists to Madeira Island and specifically for the Caminho Real (CR) is proposed, assisted by augmented reality. There are important considerations for developing software suitable for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets;values and benefits for sustainable tourism development and for being an educational experience respecting social distancing;and services included in the augmented reality application. Therefore, some propositions are presented to evaluate the possibility of augmented reality as a secure opportunity to show historical, cultural, and ethnographic aspects when visiting a tourist destination, while respecting social-distancing constraints.