ABSTRACT
The earthquake disaster has an impact on tourist visit intention. This study aims to investigate tourist behavior in the post-earthquake disaster linkage between information sources (word of mouth and electronic word of mouth) and risk perception toward tourists' visit intentions to a destination in Indonesia. This study applies the SOR theory to predict tourists' behavior in the destination aftermath. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model was used to examine the hypothesis of the study. The result found that information sources (electronic word of mouth and word of mouth) significantly influenced visit intention in the time of post-earthquake disaster. The risk perception has not significantly influenced visit intention in post-earthquake disasters. The discussion and conclusion of the study are discussed herein. Overall, the findings of the study may contribute to the theory by adding information sources to predict tourist behavior post-earthquake disaster and also gives a practical contribution to the tourism sector, stakeholders, tourism marketers, and policymakers in Indonesia to enhance the marketing strategy by considering destination promotion through word of mouth (offline) and electronic word of mouth (online) and its mechanism on tourists' travel decision in the time of aftermath.
ABSTRACT
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.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThis study aims to investigate the effect of tourists' anxiety levels regarding pandemic on their intention to travel and intention to destination visit as a reflection of risk perception.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed a quantitative research design. Multivariate statistical methods were used because they predict cause and effect relationships. The data collection process was completed in 32 days between March 20 and April 20, 2020. Smart-PLS software was used for data analysis.FindingsAccording to the study results, the level of concern tourists have about the COVID-19 outbreak directly affected their intention to travel and indirectly affected their intention to visit destinations.Research limitations/implicationsAccording to the results of the study, people's anxiety levels about COVID-19 will negatively affect their travel behavior after the pandemic. Such results suggest that when potential travelers' pandemic-induced anxiety levels increase, their travel intention after the pandemic will decrease. In addition, there is a positive relationship between people's intention to travel and post-COVID-19 touristic visit intentions. Therefore, as people's travel intentions increase, so do their destination visit intentions. Another important theoretical implication of this research is that people's pandemic-induced anxiety levels have been shown to negatively affect their destination visit intention through the mediating variable of travel intention.Practical implicationsA multidimensional and stakeholder engagement process needs to be followed to decrease the influences of the pandemic on destinations. Destination management organizations (DMOs) can take an active role in crisis periods to encourage stakeholder participation while attracting tourism demand in the post-COVID-19 era.Originality/valueThis study is important for its topical relevance and for providing specific theoretical and practical implications concerning tourists' travel behavior.
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted tourism globally due to international travel restrictions. One of the technological advancements, Virtual Reality (VR), offers the pre-travel experience as an alternative method to alter human existence in tourism destinations. VR has been applied in tourism and hospitality to promote tourist experiences, especially for Gen-Z, a generation born in the technology era. This paper investigates the determinant factors of VR experience impact on Gen-Z's visit intention to Indonesian tourism destinations during the Covid-19 pandemic. This study presents a Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) framework to provide a sequential process of the interaction between antecedents and consequences. The model was examined using 199 respondents and employed Smart PLS 3 for empirical analysis to assess the relationship. This study result confirmed that Gen-Z visit intention was derived from their satisfaction as a part of the response stage in the SOR model. Their satisfaction was affected by telepresence, focused attention, and temporal distortion, influenced by the sense and quality of information. This study contributes to digital tourism literature, particularly in VR studies amidst the pandemic. Furthermore, for the managerial implication, this study will give insight for tourism marketers and local or national governments to understand consumer behaviour through the technology approach in order to thrive back in business. © 2022 Editura Universitatii din Oradea. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted the tourism and hospitality industries worldwide. Tourism destination marketing has been an heated focus in tourism and hospitality academia, it is widely believed that it can promote the revival of industries in the post-pandemic era. But there is a lack of research on different graphic presentation forms in tourism advertisements. To bridge the gap in the related literature, this study aims at studying the impact of the image and text presentation forms of the scenic spot's name in tourism advertisements on tourists' visit intention to the tourist destination city by combining the theory of constructivism in cognitive psychology, SOR model, and affective-cognitive model to conduct a 2 × 2 between-group experiment. The study found that when the text part contains the scenic spot's name, the tourism advertisement has a significant impact on tourists' perceived advertising effectiveness, destination affective image, and visit intention. The results of eye tracking analysis also showed that fixation points are primarily distributed in the text part. Furthermore, this study explored the chain mediating mechanism of perceived advertising effectiveness and destination affective image and discovered that the impact of the text presentation form on the visit intention can be realized through the mediating effect of perceived advertising effectiveness and destination affective image. This study puts forward some suggestions for the tourism advertising and destination marketing of scenic spots with high-familiarity of destination cities with low-familiarity and improving the image of tourist destination cities.
ABSTRACT
CMC Tiga Warna is one of the coastal area management for conservation and ecotourism in southern Malang, Indonesia. Despite fewer tourist visits, the COVID-19 pandemic did not dissuade locals from managing and protecting ecotourism in the coastal area. This study aims to: (a) to describe coastal ecosystem management; and (b) to analyze coastal ecotourist visit intention related to tourism knowledge, perceived health risk, and risk attitude in the post-COVID-19 era as a part of developing strategy for coastal ecosystem management in the study area from the perspective of ecotourists and destination management. CMC Tiga Warna management, community group supervisors, the local community, and a variety of experts were interviewed in order to gather data for the current strategy. Coastal ecotourist visit intention data from domestic ecotourists was gathered via online and offline surveys. Analyzing the visit intention data with Warp-PLS. Using the visit intention model and interview data, the coastline management strategy was described. This study found that the coastal environment management plan constantly involved ecotourists and locals. Tourism knowledge and risk attitude are positively related to the visit intention, however perceived health risk is negatively related to it. The significant positive relationship between tourism knowledge and ecotourist visit intention is mediated by perceived health risk and risk attitude. Development of the coastal ecosystem management plan could be supported by boosting visit intention, ecotourism visits, or economic incentive as a motive for sustaining the conservation program's consistency, and ecological and social rewards in a sustainable manner. This study added to the Theory of Reasoned Action by adding two additional factors, tourist knowledge and perceived health risk, in addition to the attitude to predict the visit intention. The ecotourism manager should provide varied tourist information and knowledge as needed, reduce COVID-19 exposure risk at tourist destinations, and increase risk attitude.
ABSTRACT
Muslim-friendly medical tourism holds great potential in assisting with the post-covid efforts for the country. As of current literature, there is no prior research on what drives Malaysian Muslim consumers to visit Muslim-friendly hospitals. This study proposed the effects of push and pull factors on the intention to visit Muslim-friendly hospitals for medical tourism. A structured questionnaire was designed and distributed to 400 respondents who were sampled through multistage random sampling throughout the five zones in Malaysia;North Zone, East Zone, West Zone, South Zone, and Borneo Zone. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the data in order to examine the relationship between the push factors (religiosity and novelty-seeking), pull factors (Islamic attributes of hospitals) and the intention to visit Muslim-friendly hospitals for medical tourism. The result of the analysis indicated that religiosity and Islamic hospital attributes are the main push and pull factors that respectively predict the consumer’s intention to visit Muslim-friendly hospitals for medical tourism. Novelty-seeking, however, was found to not be able to predict the intention. This study can serve as a framework to enhance Malaysia’s Muslim-friendly hospitals to cater to medical tourists, both locally and internationally. The findings of this research can also contribute to the government and industry players in their post-COVID efforts to revive the local medical tourism industry and subsequently boost the Malaysian economy. © 2022, Malaysian Consumer and Family Economics Association. All rights reserved.
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.
ABSTRACT
Purpose Virtual 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/approach This 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. Findings The 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/value In 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.
ABSTRACT
Advertising can be used to promote tourism recovery post-COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effectiveness of such advertising in the pandemic context remains uncertain. This study shows that when a country is associated with a warmth stereotype, advertisements with emotional appeals increase visit intention, whereas advertisements with rational appeals are more effective when the country is associated with a competence stereotype. These relationships are mediated by processing fluency and strengthened when the perceived health risk at a destination is low. Our study enriches tourism research by revealing that the effectiveness of destination advertising depends on a combination of tourists' pre-established country stereotypes, destination marketing organizations' advertising messages, and the pandemic environment. It also introduces metacognition as a new mechanism underlying travel decisions.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic, which appeared in China in late 2019, has affected the world psychologically, socially and economically in 2020. Tourism is one of the areas where the effects of COVID-19 have been felt most clearly. The study aims to determine the effect of negative problem orientation (NPO) and perceived risk related to the COVID-19 pandemic on travel and destination visit intention. Design/methodology/approach: This study employed a convenience and probabilistic sampling method for collecting data from 531 respondents using an online questionnaire. Partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for testing research model. Findings: According to the findings, NPO and perceived risk related to the pandemic were found to have direct and indirect effects on the travel behavior of tourists. The results of this research provide theoretical and practical implications for hospitality and travel businesses on topics such as the psychological effects of the pandemic and the travel behaviors of tourists. Originality/value: It is estimated that the pandemic will also affect tourist behavior due to its effects on human psychology. For this reason, a study conducted in the context of tourist behavior theories is expected to contribute to the literature, managers and future of the tourism. © 2022, Ümit Şengel, Gökhan Genç, Merve Işkın, Mustafa Çevrimkaya, Ioannis Assiouras, Burhanettin Zengin, Mehmet Sarıışık and Dimitrios Buhalis.
ABSTRACT
Purpose - This study aims to investigate the effect of tourists' anxiety levels regarding pandemic on their intention to travel and intention to destination visit as a reflection of risk perception. Design/methodology/approach - This study employed a quantitative research design. Multivariate statistical methods were used because they predict cause and effect relationships. The data collection process was completed in 32 days between March 20 and April 20, 2020. Smart-PLS software was used for data analysis. Findings - According to the study results, the level of concern tourists have about the COVID-19 outbreak directly affected their intention to travel and indirectly affected their intention to visit destinations. Research limitations/implications - According to the results of the study, people's anxiety levels about COVID-19 will negatively affect their travel behavior after the pandemic. Such results suggest that when potential travelers' pandemic-induced anxiety levels increase, their travel intention after the pandemic will decrease. In addition, there is a positive relationship between people's intention to travel and post-COVID-19 touristic visit intentions. Therefore, as people's travel intentions increase, so do their destination visit intentions. Another important theoretical implication of this research is that people's pandemic-induced anxiety levels have been shown to negatively affect their destination visit intention through the mediating variable of travel intention. Practical implications - A multidimensional and stakeholder engagement process needs to be followed to decrease the influences of the pandemic on destinations. Destination management organizations (DMOs) can take an active role in crisis periods to encourage stakeholder participation while attracting tourism demand in the post-COVID-19 era. Originality/value - This study is important for its topical relevance and for providing specific theoretical and practical implications concerning tourists' travel behavior.
ABSTRACT
Despite the massive impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality industry, only limited papers empirically examined consumer reactions to current pandemic in the context of restaurants. To fill this gap, the primary aim of this paper is to reveal how individuals' intentions to visiting upscale restaurants are affected by dining out motivations under the COVID-19 pandemic. The second aim is to investigate the moderating role of risk perceptions of COVID-19 and trust in government in building relationships. The research was conducted in Istanbul, a city deeply affected by the coronavirus. Data gathered from 681 people living Istanbul were analyzed via structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis. Findings indicated that two motivations-namely, sociability and affect regulation-have positive impacts on visit intention toward an upscale restaurant. Consumers' COVID-19 risk perception and their trust in government moderate the relationship between some motivational factors and visit intention. The study makes a significant contribution to the literature in terms of both managing the risk perceptions of consumers and building trust in government.