RESUMO
Due to the risk of COVID-19, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games were staged without spectators for the first time in modern Olympic history. Health risks, including pandemics such as COVID-19 and SARS, have caused a serious concern for event participants, stakeholders, and tourists. While seeking information on risks posed by particular destinations is an essential step when making travel decisions, especially during a pandemic, there is limited sport tourism research that scrutinized the relationship between prospective travellers' health risk perceptions in the specific context of COVID-19. This article examines the relationship between prospective spectators' risk perception toward COVID-19 and their information-seeking about the virus, with a specific focus on the moderating effect of spectators' risk-taking tendency in the context of their intention to attend the Games. The study involved a survey of 240 South Korean and 286 American prospective spectators. Prospective spectators perceived COVID-19 as a source of severe risk, significantly decreasing their intention to travel to the destination. This study found positive associations between COVID-19 risk perception and information-seeking and between information-seeking and intent to attend. The results imply that information-seeking regarding the pandemic in the host region is an important predictor of prospective spectators' attendance because seeking information demonstrates an intention to attend despite a perception of high risk. Furthermore, this paper makes a cross-national comparison of the implications of the moderating role of an individual's risk-taking tendency. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
RESUMO
During highly uncertain times such as the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, it is vital to understand and predict individuals' responses to governments' crisis and risk communication. This study draws on the Orientation-Stimulus-Orientation-Response (O-S-O-R) model to examine (1) whether uncertainty reduction motivation (a pre-orientation factor) drove Americans to turn to traditional news media and/or social media (stimuli) to obtain COVID-19 information;(2) if these media preferences shaped their COVID-19 knowledge, cognitive information vetting, and trust in government communication (post-orientation factors);and finally (3) whether these factors contributed to their intended and actual behaviors (responses), such as getting vaccinated. Thus, this study explores how multiple communicative and cognitive mechanisms contribute to public compliance with government health recommendations during a pandemic. Mediation analyses showed positive indirect effects between uncertainty reduction motivation and behavioral outcomes via use of social media (in relation to traditional news media) and COVID-19 knowledge and cognitive information vetting. This study discusses theoretical and practical health communication implications of these findings. © 2023 SAGE Publications.