COVID-19 and hospitality and tourism research: An integrative review

Carbon footprint of tourism in Spain: Covid-19 impact and a look forward to recovery

Tourism is very vulnerable to climate change and the disruption of Covid-19, facing two challenges: fighting climate change pursuing its carbon emissions goals, and recovering from the complex pandemic effects. We contribute to the incomplete understanding of tourism emissions pandemic impact and in different post-covid recovery scenarios. Using official data on tourists' consumption, we calculate the carbon footprint of tourism in Spain in 2019 and 2020 under different recovery pathways, including changes in consumption patterns and emissions efficiency, using a multiregional input-output model. Results show that the carbon footprint of tourism in Spain fell by 63% in 2020 compared to pre-pandemic levels, which would be aligned with the current sectoral decarbonisation target. However, the new tourists' consumption patterns resulting from the pandemic are insufficient to increase tourism sustainability if they imply pre-pandemic consumption levels. The results provide empirical ground for the binary debate on "recovery or reform".

Exploring hospitality workers' career choices in the wake of COVID-19: Insights from a phenomenological inquiry

The COVID-19 pandemic severely hit the hospitality industry and caused employees concerns over health, finance, and well-being. These challenges may trigger their decisions to leave the profession, leading to major talent crises in the industry. Guided by the transactional model of stress and coping and the career construction theory, this study explored how their experiences with the pandemic affected their career choices moving on. A phenomenological approach was adopted, and 31 current and past hospitality employees were interviewed. The findings supported the conceptual model and addressed the connection between stress management and career decisions among the participants. It is also noted that, besides generational differences, most participants' career decisions at this critical moment were influenced by their personality traits, industry involvement, and employer-employee relationships. Thus, to create a sustainable, resilient, and engaged workforce, hospitality practitioners must commit to crafting positive relationships with their employees both in regular and crisis times.

Compensatory travel in the post COVID-19 pandemic era: How does boredom stimulate intentions?

To promote tourism recovery in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, it is critical to understand the psychological factors that either boost or suppress travel demands. However, little is known about the underlying psychological mechanism that affects compensatory travel intention. Therefore, by scrutinizing the roles that autonomous self-motivation, sensation seeking, and perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 play, this study conducted two scenario-based experiments (N = 223 + 200) to explore the psychological mechanism and boundary conditions behind the influence of boredom on compensatory travel intention. The findings reveal that people are more likely to generate compensatory travel intention when there is a higher level of boredom during the COVID-19 pandemic due to their desire for sensation seeking. This effect is magnified when people adopt autonomous self-motivating strategies. However, for people with high (vs. low) perceived susceptibility to COVID-19, a high level of boredom evokes lower compensatory travel intention through sensation seeking.

Does geography matter? Implications for future tourism research in light of COVID-19

Due to the 2019 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, tourism is undergoing fundamental changes that are affecting tourism research. This situation calls for in-depth analyses of tourism research. Scholars have already published review studies on COVID-19-related research within the tourism field; however, these studies do not connect findings, such as the research focus, research methodology and target group, to form a research profile, and the geographical patterns of the findings are not identified. study, COVID-19-related tourism studies were collected and analyzed in depth following the Preferred Reporting Items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) method. In addition, data-driven methods, such as spatial multilayer networks, frequent patterns and content-based analyses, were applied to identify research profiles and their geographic patterns. This study pointed out the role of geographic patterns in tourism research, going beyond the research of the authors. Moreover, topics, focus destinations, applied methodologies and employed data sources have relevant geographic patterns. Four dominant research profiles that show that a shift can be observed in tourism research toward data sources and research methods were identified. Due to COVID-19, the strengthening of the application of quantitative methods and employment of secondary data sources are needed.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11192-022-04615-z.

How do Chinese tourists negotiate the constraints of engaging in post-COVID-19 domestic travel?

Post-COVID-19 domestic travel, a valuable component of tourism recovery, has been initiated. However, verified and detailed knowledge regarding epidemic-induced travel behaviour changes from an emic perspective is lacking. Focusing on actual behaviour based on a field investigation of Chinese domestic travellers, this study provides detailed knowledge of the travel constraint-negotiation interaction process between travellers and the epidemic. The findings suggest that the effects of COVID-19 involve various constraints including intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural factors at both the context and system levels. Both cognitive and behavioural strategies are synergistically used in an interlinking manner and depend not only on individual preference and self-efficacy but also, more importantly, on the temporality and socioculture of COVID-19 created by anti-epidemic practices.

Understanding Combined Health and Business Risk Behaviour: Small Tourism Firm Owners Reopening Amid COVID-19 in Pingyao, China

This study explores the psychological factors affecting small tourism firm (STF) owners’ decision making about reopening businesses in the midst of COVID-19 based on protection motivation theory and the theory of planned behaviour. The data were collected from a sample of 300 STFs in the Ancient City of Pingyao when the lockdown policy was lifted in China. A symmetric approach, i.e., partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS–SEM), and an asymmetric model, i.e., a fuzzy set/qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), were used to analyse the net effect of the psychological determinants and correlations between the variables leading to high and low behavioural intentions to reopen businesses. The results indicate that social norms and perceived business uncertainty were the critical factors influencing the intention to reopen. The pathway (low perceived risk of infection, low perceived business uncertainty, high reward, high response efficacy, high self-efficacy, high attitude, and high subjective norm) was only one configuration for a high intention to reopen. The study results are discussed based on dual-process theory, and practical implications are offered to guide STF recovery amid COVID-19.

COVID-19 risk perception and tourist satisfaction: A mixed-method study of the roles of destination image and self-protection behavior

This study aimed to examine the effects of COVID-19 risk perception on negative destination image and self-protection behavior, and the resultant effects on tourist satisfaction. Hence, this study applied a continuous interpretive mixed-method design combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. A quantitative survey (n = 486) in the cities of Ningbo, Huangshan, and Chengdu, China, and 19 qualitative interviews were conducted online. The results of the quantitative study show that: (1) Risk perception and negative destination image are antecedent variables influencing tourist satisfaction, and (2) there are significant positive correlations between risk perception and negative destination image, risk perception and tourist self-protection behavior, and negative destination image and tourist self-protection behavior. Moreover, (3) negative destination image had a partial mediating effect between risk perception and satisfaction. Furthermore, to supplement the research data and expand the quantitative findings, this study further examined whether the above variables are related to tourist satisfaction, through in-depth interviews with tourists. The findings showed that COVID-19 risk perception, negative destination image, and self-protection behavior all affect tourist satisfaction. The findings provide valuable crisis management suggestions for the government and should contribute to the efforts of tourist destinations to build a healthy and safe image, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of tourism industries in the post-epidemic era.

Vaccine Passport and Traveler Behaviors in the New Market of the Domestic and International Tourism Industry Facing the With-Corona Era

To ensure a smooth and rapid recovery of tourism, countries around the world are stepping up vaccinations against COVID-19. China, in particular has a very high vaccination rate due to its own vaccine production. Following this trend, many countries have started introducing vaccine passports as an alternative solution to verify valid and vaccinated travelers. This study attempted to understand the fundamental perceptions of travelers' intentions using vaccine passports. A total of 601 samples were investigated and analyzed. As a result, four factors were identified: perceived usefulness, destination trust, risk perception, and perception of incentives. Also, this study performed means comparisons analysis with the major demographic characteristics of respondents. Based on this study, it is expected that the results will contribute to the revival of the travel industry in the future and provide valuable implications for marketing plans to help the travel industry suffer from COVID-19.

How does COVID-19 differ from previous crises? A comparative study of health-related crisis research in the tourism and hospitality context

The importance of the risk to tourism and hospitality operations from pandemic-related crises has increased. Therefore, the current study offers a literature review targeting tourism and hospitality stakeholders' perceptions of past diseases and has three objectives: (1) Explore major topics from previous research on infectious diseases using topic modeling; (2) compare non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 crises; (3) investigate research topics in the tourism and hospitality industries. To meet our research objectives, we reviewed published pandemic-related articles in the tourism and hospitality literature since the year 2000. Based on the results, we first identified nine key topics related to infectious diseases (i.e., policy, human resources, branding, resilience, technology, global or community change, risk perception, disease impact, and lifestyle). Second, we suggest the application of different topic weights in non-COVID-19 and COVID-19 research. Third, we found that it is appropriate to apply different topic weights in tourism and hospitality research.

The economic and social impact of COVID-19 on tourism and hospitality industry: A case study from Oman

The COVID-19 pandemic has incurred a substantial economic and social impact around the world. Many sectors have been drastically affected but the tourism and hospitality industry was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 outbreak globally. The coronavirus pandemic has caused direct losses of half-billion Omani Rial to the tourism sector. This pandemic has also exacerbated the mental health of business owners of the tourism and hospitality industry in Oman. This research aims to investigate the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 on the tourism and hospitality sector of Oman. The data was collected from business owners of micro, small, medium, and large size-companies operating in the tourism and hospitality industry. A structured questionnaire was distributed and data collection was done from September 2020 to January 2021. The finding of the study reveals a negative economic and social impact on the tourism and hospitality industry of Oman due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The economic impact includes financial loss, reduction in customer demand at a national and international level, disruptions in the logistics and distribution channels, ruined the relationship with suppliers, customers, and employees. The social impact included depression, irritation, anxiety, and stress among the business owners about the present and future conditions. This study has given valuable suggestion to mitigate the negative economic and social impact on the tourism and hospitality industry of Oman. The finding of the study will support the government to boost the tourism and hospitality industry in Oman.

A bibliometric review of research on COVID-19 and tourism: Reflections for moving forward

By adopting a bibliometric analysis approach, this study systematically reviews and retrospectively analyses the rapidly emerging literature on COVID-19 in tourism and hospitality. A co-word analysis revealed the intellectual structure of 177 papers (published until January 2021) consisting of four major themes discussing the following various issues: 1) the impact of COVID-19 on tourist decision-making, destination marketing, technology adoption, and tourists' well-being; 2) the future of tourism post COVID-19; 3) managing change in tourism; and 4) the COVID-19's impacts on tourism and hospitality stakeholders. The findings show that preliminary publications tend to be descriptive, pre-mature and theoretical, i.e. most studies advocate and re-imagine a more sustainable, responsible and equitable post-pandemic tourism, but almost no research investigates in-depth whether, why and how such theoretical proclamations are being materialized or not and/or whether they will remain a COVID-19 induced fuss. The paper concludes by offering various directions and propositions for future research.