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The purpose of this research was to identify the effects of message framing relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic in enhancing behavioral intentions to engage in international air travel. A survey of 1,300 respondents was conducted using the Posttest Control Group experimental design method. The “loss” message regarding cash-redeemable coupons was most effective in raising intentions to take an international flight and obtaining a favorable assessment of the presented message contents. Covariates including income level, travel purpose, premium card ownership, perceived risk, importance of airline brand, and sanitation were significant in determining the intention to take an international flight. The results of this study can help to establish promotional strategies to foster international travel once the pandemic recedes.

Combining conceptual perspectives from emerging research on COVID-19, safety-seeking motivations, and extremeness aversion in choice (i.e., compromise effects), we examine how and why the perceived threat of COVID-19 affects consumers’ choice and decision making in the hotel and restaurant domains. Across seven studies (two studies from secondary data sets and five experimental studies), we provide novel evidence that the perceived threat or threat salience of COVID-19 amplifies the general tendency to select compromise options, avoiding extreme ones, within a choice set. We highlight the role of safety-seeking motivations as the underlying mechanism in the relationship between perceived threat and extremeness aversion in choice. We further document a boundary condition that the extremeness aversion effect is stronger for leisure travelers than for business travelers.

This study investigates the relationship between the COVID‐19 threat and consumer evaluation of a product with authenticity appeals in advertisements. We propose that threatening situations like COVID‐19 motivate consumers to lower their uncertainty and increase their preference for products with authentic advertising messages. Because individuals react differently to threatening environments according to their early‐life experiences, commonly reflected in childhood socioeconomic status, we examined whether childhood socioeconomic status moderates the relationship between threat and consumer evaluation of authenticity in advertisements. First, secondary data from Google Trends provided empirical support for our predictions. In additional experimental studies, participants evaluated different target products in four studies that either manipulated (Studies 2 and 3) or measured (Studies 4 and 5) COVID‐19 threat. Our results provide converging evidence that consumers positively evaluate products with authentic advertising messages under the COVID‐19 threat. Consumers' motivation to lower their uncertainty underlies the effect of COVID‐19 threat on their evaluation of authentic messages (Study 3). This attempt to reduce uncertainty is more likely to occur for consumers with relatively higher childhood socioeconomic status (Studies 4 and 5). These findings suggest that using authenticity appeals during a pandemic could effectively reduce consumers' perceived uncertainty and generate positive consumer evaluations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation markets. However, how the interplay between tourists and destination attributes has affected P2P accommodation consumption during the pandemic has not been investigated. To address this gap, this study first explored the spatially varying relationship between destination attributes and COVID-19-disrupted Airbnb performance change across Florida counties. Subsequently, we performed two experimental studies to examine whether trip purpose and the level of perceived threat affect Airbnb use intention. The results of the spatial analysis show that, depending on the type of destination attribute, Airbnb listings experienced different revenue losses across urban and rural areas. Additionally, results of experimental studies show that business tourists with a low perceived threat of COVID-19 are more willing to consume Airbnb listings than leisure tourists. This study contributes to ascertaining the destination and behavioral heterogeneity in pandemic-induced P2P accommodation consumption using spatial analytic and experimental studies.

This study examined the antecedents and consequences of rapport between customers and salespersons in the context of duty-free shops. Specifically, this study proposed six sub-dimensions of service-dominant orientation (i.e., relational, ethical, individuated, empowered, concerted, and developmental interactions). These dimensions have a positive influence on rapport. In addition, rapport is hypothesized to aid in the formation of customer satisfaction and brand preference, which in turn positively affects word-of-mouth communications. Data were collected from 649 Chinese shoppers who have purchased a product in a Korean duty-free shop. In addition, this study employed confirmatory factor analysis to check the adequacy of the measurement items and structural equation modeling to test 11 hypotheses. Data analysis results indicated that five sub-dimensions of service-dominant orientation, excluding individuated interaction, play an important role in the formation of rapport. Furthermore, rapport has a positive effect on customer satisfaction and brand preference, which in turn positively affects word-of-mouth communications. The findings of this study offer valuable insights for managers of duty-free stores into the most effective methods for managing their operations and providing an appropriate blend of products. Furthermore, this paper contributes to theoretical understanding in this area by improving the acceptability of a commonly believed shopper behavior model.

Graphical abstract Image 1, Highlights • The information presented and the design of health campaigns significantly influence perceived threats and irrational behaviors such as stockpiling intentions. • Childhood socioeconomic status of individuals has an impact on the effectiveness of these advertising strategies. • The results lead to definite practical implications for organizations and policy makers for increasing the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are becoming more prominent in the tourism industry. Nowadays, consumers are faced with multiple options involving both human and robot interactions. A series of experimental studies were implemented. Four experiments demonstrated that consumers had a more positive attitude toward robot-staffed (vs. human-staffed) hotels when COVID-19 was salient. The results were different from previous studies, which were conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the moderating role of perceived threat in consumers’ preference for robot-staffed hotels was significant, the respondents’ preference was attributed to the global health crisis. This research provides a number of theoretical and managerial implications by improving the understanding of technology acceptance during a health crisis.

This study explores how familiarity and attachment, along with cognitive and affective image explain destination loyalty across visitors with divergent degrees of frequency of visitation (low vs. high). Serbians (n = 401) who have previously visited Greece comprised the sample population for this study and were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. Findings reveal that overall familiarity shapes cognitive and affective destination image, while each image component uniquely explains destination loyalty (R2 = 0.51). Differences also exist in the magnitude of the relationships tested among the two groups. Implications for theory and practice, along with limitations and research directions, are discussed.

This exploratory study, based on 316 questionnaires completed by mainland Chinese tourists in Hong Kong, investigates whether certain conditions are sufficient to motivate tourists’ decisions to buy luxury products. The results of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis reveal that a combination of four conditions (emotional attachment, fashion leadership, prestige sensitivity, and social value) is sufficient to influence tourists to shop for luxury brands. It must be pointed out, however, that the four conditions are unnecessary in some social and shopping contexts, and thus the findings do not reject the possibility that alternative conditions may also influence luxury shopping decisions. This study using fuzzy-set theory demonstrates that tourists who score highly in all four conditions constitute an almost perfect subcategory of luxury shoppers. Therefore, it is recommended that other scholars examine the conditions that are sufficient to influence tourists rather than concentrating on other factors.

This study investigates the competitiveness of overseas destinations as perceived by leisure tourists from mainland China, with a focus on how the competitiveness of destinations varies by choice set. The results of this study confirm the funnel-down structure of consumer choice sets including the early choice set, the middle choice set, and the late choice set: The size of these sets became progressively smaller as the moment for making the final decision drew nearer. In addition, the results clearly indicate that travel distance is an important determinant of tourism demand: Short-haul destinations are more competitive than long-haul destinations.