“If I was going to die I should at least be having fun”: Travel blogs,meaning and tourist experience

Travel blogs are an under-utilised resource for researchers of tourism experiences. They can provide rich insights on how tourists express the transformational effects of their experiences for the self. This study of travel blogs by nineteen British bloggers reveals how elements of the narrative relating to self-reflection and emotions are central to the process of transforming their travel experiences into personally meaningful experiences. Bloggers implicitly and explicitly express how travel contributes to self-identity, signalling self-development. The study contributes to knowledge about the lasting impact of long term travel on people, adding meaning symbolic of an evolving self.     

Afraid to travel after COVID-19? Self-protection,coping and resilience against pandemic ‘travel fear’

COVID-19 has generated an unprecedented level of public fear, likely impeding tourism industry recovery after the pandemic is over. This study explores what trigger the public's pandemic ‘travel fear’ and how people impose self-protection, coping and resilience related to travel. The study integrates theories including protection motivation theory, coping and resilience theories to address the research aim. Using a quota sampling, an online survey of 1208 respondents across mainland China was conducted. Results found that threat severity and susceptibility can cause ‘travel fear’, which leads to protection motivation and protective travel behaviors after the pandemic outbreak. Findings also revealed that ‘travel fear’ can evoke different coping strategies, which increases people's psychological resilience and adoption of cautious travel behaviors. Several strategies are provided on how to mitigate people's ‘travel fear’ and encourage travel in a post-COVID-19 world.     

Too afraid to Travel? Development of a Pandemic (COVID-19) Anxiety Travel Scale (PATS)

Pandemics are affecting tourism in many ways. Being a niche research field before, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic created a strong urgency to develop this topic. For researching pandemic-induced changes in tourist beliefs and travel behaviour, we developed a construct that measures the intra-personal anxiety of travellers (and non-travellers): the Pandemic (COVID-19) Anxiety Travel Scale (PATS), using two large online studies (N = 2180; N = 2062) and including two different cultural contexts (US and Denmark). In Study 1, explorative and confirmative factors analysis confirms a short and easy-to-use 5-item solution, while the presented model adds face validity. Study 2 confirmed the structure (reliability) and tested nomological validity, by putting PATS into the context of different constructs (xenophobia and prevention focus). Although the proposed scale arose from the coronavirus (COVID-19), it is not limited to this specific pandemic and will hopefully prove to be a valuable measurement tool for future pandemics as well.     

Do mindfulness and perceived organizational support work? Fear of COVID-19 on restaurant frontline employees’ job insecurity and emotional exhaustion

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has impacted the restaurant industry tremendously. Building on the Conservation of Resources Theory, the current study investigates the relationships among U.S. restaurant frontline employees’ fear of COVID-19, job insecurity, and emotional exhaustion. The study also examines the moderating role of employee mindfulness and perceived organizational support. SPSS PROCESS macro was used for hypotheses testing. Results suggested that restaurant frontline employees’ fear of COVID-19 was positively associated with both job insecurity and emotional exhaustion. Fear of COVID-19 had an indirect effect on restaurant frontline employees’ emotional exhaustion via job insecurity. Employee mindfulness buffered the positive relationship between fear of COVID-19 and job insecurity. Perceived organizational support was found to intensify the positive relationship between job insecurity and frontline employees’ emotional exhaustion. The research provided useful human resource management practices for U.S. restaurant businesses amid crises such as COVID-19.     

Toward an integrated model of tourist expectation formation and gender difference

This study aims to build and test a theoretical model of tourist expectation formation and seeks to explore the gender differences regarding how tourists form their expectations toward a travel destination. Survey data were obtained from 774 outbound Chinese tourists to Macao, and structural equation modelling was used to test the model and proposed hypotheses. The results reveal that travel motivation, advertising, and word-of-mouth (WOM) recommendations influence travelers' cognitive image and cognitive image interacts with affective image to form individuals' expectations toward travel destinations. Notably, the impacts of travel motivation and advertising on cognitive image, and of cognitive image on tourist expectations were significantly stronger for males than females, while the effects of WOM on cognitive image and of affective image on tourist expectations were stronger for females than males. Both theoretical and practical implications of these important findings are discussed.     

Restriction reduction: The effects of mobility restriction on consumers’ preferences for advertisements of tourism products

Individuals frequently experience restrictions in their mobility owing to circumstances outside of their control. This paper examines the effect of mobility restrictions on individuals’ perceptions of personal freedom, and subsequent preferences for tourism advertisements. In a secondary data analysis and three experiments, we show that physical confinement triggered by restricted mobility causes individuals to psychologically feel that their personal freedoms are threatened. In turn, these experiences result in a compensatory response, where people more strongly prefer advertisements that signal scarcity-reduction over advertisements that signal control-restoration. This effect is mitigated when people are prevention-oriented and is reversed when the restrictions are enacted absolutely (without ambiguity and possible mutability). We discuss the implications of our findings for advertising practice and strategies for tourism product placement.     

COVID-19-induced layoff,survivors’ COVID-19-related stress and performance in hospitality industry: The moderating role of social support

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the hospitality industry hard globally, resulting in millions of employees being laid off. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, this study aims to empirically examine how and when COVID-19-induced layoff influences employees’ in-role and extra-role performance in the hospitality industry. We tested this model by using field data collected from 302 employees and their supervisors in China across two waves. Results revealed that COVID-19-induced layoff increases survivors’ COVID-19-related stress, which in turn leads to decreased in-role and extra-role performance. The strength of these indirect effects is mitigated by perceived family support against COVID-19. Unexpectedly, perceived organizational support against COVID-19 intensifies these indirect effects. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are further discussed.     

Factors influencing tourist food consumption

This study attempts to identify the salient factors affecting tourist food consumption. By reviewing available studies in the hospitality and tourism literature and synthesising insights from food consumption and sociological research, five socio-cultural and psychological factors influencing tourist food consumption are identified: cultural/religious influences, socio-demographic factors, food-related personality traits, exposure effect/past experience, and motivational factors. The findings further suggest that the motivational factors can be categorised into five main dimensions: symbolic, obligatory, contrast, extension, and pleasure. Given the lack of research in examining tourist food consumption systematically, the multidisciplinary approach adopted in this study allows a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon which forms the basis for further research and conceptual elaboration.     

Terminator or accelerator? Lessons from the peer-to-peer accommodation hosts in China in responses to COVID-19

This study investigates how peer-to-peer accommodation (P2PA) hosts in China have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. A multi-case study approach was adopted to depict the decision-making logic of three different types of hosts—speculators, diplomats, and entrepreneurs—based on an awareness-motivation-capability (AMC) framework under COVID-19. The findings highlight the role of owner motivation (profit/sharing/entrepreneurial-driven) and capabilities, such as having a unique value proposition and linkages with other hospitality experience, under COVID-19. Meanwhile, the platform collaboration capability failed to support survival during the pandemic. Moreover, the current study indicated that, after the COVID-19, entrepreneurs will continue to innovate, diplomats’ operations will remain unchanged and speculators will quit hosting. Hence, COVID-19 is an accelerator of P2P industry that reserving the hosts who embrace the original features of the P2PA sector, e.g. sharing and a focus on the experience, and eliminating the hosts who have diluted the uniqueness of the sector.