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Understanding vulnerable consumers when conducting Transformative Service Research (TSR) is essential but these consumers and their contexts are often complex and difficult to research. Despite a movement towards TSR methodologies suitable for studying vulnerable participants and their contexts, a comprehensive framework that can guide service researchers is lacking. The purpose of this paper is to investigate appropriate methods, procedures, and protocols that permit researching a wide range of vulnerable groups and exposures to vulnerable situations in TSR. This is undertaken via a review of the literature and the authors’ reflections of their experiences with researching vulnerability in various configurations (e.g., disasters, refugees, healthcare, disability, and older people). Through an iterative process of personal case reflections and group discussions blended with extant literature, patterns and insights regarding appropriate research protocols, techniques, processes, and sampling are identified. These insights contribute to the development of a comprehensive TSR framework in five research method areas including 1) consideration of the context, researcher, support persons and participants, 2) recruitment considerations relating to sampling, 3) recruitment considerations in terms of ethics and set-up, 4) data collection considerations relating to research protocol and set-up, and 5) data collection considerations. The framework can guide both academics and practitioners to enhance research outcomes for both participants and researchers.

Purpose This study aims to theorise and empirically test a model based on the hierarchy of effects behavioural learning approach (“do-think-feel”) to explain how travel during a crisis assists consumer well-being. The paper also examines whether the effect travel has on well-being is serially mediated by perceived risk and resilience and moderated by the personality trait of sensation-seeking. Design/methodology/approach This research uses a quasi-experimental design involving Australian consumers based on a sample of n = 307 who had travelled and n = 277 who had not during the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 584). A replication study (N = 290) is also undertaken to assess the robustness of the hierarchy of effects uncovered in the main study. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) and Hayes PROCESS macro. Findings The results reveal travellers have significantly higher levels of both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being than non-travellers, suggesting the transformative potential of travel experiences during a crisis. The transformative potential of travel is driven by perceived risk and psychological resilience, which mediate the relationship between travel frequency and well-being. Further, spotlight moderation analysis demonstrates that the effect of travel on well-being is most profound for those with lower levels of sensation-seeking. These relationships are also confirmed in the replication study. Originality/value This research is among the first in transformative service research (TSR) to test the mediators of perceived risk and resilience together in a singular study, showing how experiences such as travel are potentially transformative. It also evaluates personality traits such as sensation-seeking as a moderating factor, which is uncommon in TSR. Further, this study empirically validates a do–think–feel behavioural learning approach, as opposed to other hierarchy of effects sequences that are dominant in TSR and the wider services marketing literature.

The city of Christchurch, New Zealand, incurred significant damage due to a series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The city had, by the late 2010s, regained economic and social normalcy after a sustained period of rebuilding and economic recovery. Through the concerted rebuilding effort, a modern central business district (CBD) with redesigned infrastructure and amenities was developed. The Christchurch rebuild was underpinned by a commitment of urban planners to an open and connected city, including the use of innovative technologies to gather, use and share data. As was the case elsewhere, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant disruptions to social and economic life in Christchurch. Border closures, lockdowns, trading limitations and other restrictions on movement led to changes in traditional consumer behaviors and affected the retail sector’s resilience. In this study, we used CBD pedestrian traffic data gathered from various locations to predict changes in retail spending and identify recovery implications through the lens of retail resilience. We found that the COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns have driven a substantive change in the behavioral patterns of city users. The implications for resilient retail, sustainable policy and further research are explored.

This study develops and tests an integrative model of destination loyalty to tourist hotspot destinations. The study highlights the role of perceived destination adaptation and psychological reactive behaviors in determining tourist satisfaction and loyalty. The model was tested using data collected from 582 respondents who had recently visited one of the "overcrowded" Mediterranean coastal tourism destinations. Findings suggest that perceived destination adaptation negatively influences tourist satisfaction and positively influences reactive behaviors of approach, avoidance, and tolerance. Approach and avoidance behaviors predict assessed crowding levels and tourist satisfaction. Tourists' tolerance levels on assessed crowding was insignificant. Assessed crowding levels negatively affect tourist satisfaction and intentions to revisit and recommend the destination while positively influencing objections to revisit and recommend the destination. Concomitantly, overtourism awareness moderated the effect of assessed crowding levels on tourist satisfaction and intentions to revisit and recommend the destination. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

International human mobility has been the driving force of economic growth and policy decisions for the tourism industry. However, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated policy changes that explicitly limited mobility. Our research sought to examine whether closing borders to international tourists was related to the reduction in the number of COVID-19 fatalities, and the impact of country-level culturally accepted norms towards leadership in the implementation of these policy. This study builds on the call for further research on how tourism destinations plan for and respond to global crises and disasters. We used data from the World Bank and the GLOBE Project to test the direct effect of international tourist arrivals in 2019 on COVID-19 fatalities in 2020 and the moderating role of self-protective leadership on this relationship. Our findings supported our proposition that closing borders to tourists saved lives but selfprotective leadership is critical. In fact, a key contribution of our study is that attitudes towards leadership play an important role in the effectiveness of policy deployment during times of crisis; in particular, closing the border had a stronger impact in saving lives across countries where self-protective leadership is culturally acceptable and expected. Implications for destination management are also suggested.

The emotional aspects of heritage experiences remain so far under-researched with the emotional accessibility at such sites ignored. Using cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) and reversal theory, this study evaluates the role of motivation, tourism impacts, emotional accessibility, and felt emotions in determining tourist satisfaction at heritage sites. Based on a sample of 1531 international visitors to Petra, this study confirms that tourist motivation affects perceived positive but not negative tourism impacts. Tourist motivation contributes positively toward visitors accessing their emotions (emotional accessibility) derived from the site visit. However, only positive tourism impacts contribute to emotional accessibility, and the latter informs both felt positive and negative emotions. Significant relationships exist between these factors and tourist satisfaction. Implications for cultural sustainability and tourist experience management at heritage sites are suggested.

Using push-pull and identity-based motivation theory, this study examines the link between the push motives of the LGBT market, their identity, pull activities and travel patterns (location) during COVID-19. With a sample of 473 Australian LGBT travelers, this study identifies four motivation segments (Social Butterflies, Escapists & Safety Seekers, Blurring Binaries and Conformists). These segments differ on their identity (self and social) and travel activity choices, highlighting the heterogeneity within the LGBT market. The findings have implications for designing experiences and their marketing for the different segments of LGBT travelers post COVID-19.

While tourist emotions elicited at dark tourism sites are well understood, little is known about residents’ experiences at local dark tourism sites. This study explores residents’ emotional experiences at dark tourism sites, the cognitive appraisals of their experiences and emotions, and the coping strategies they deploy to address them. In-depth interviews with 37 residents of Christchurch, New Zealand (site of the Canterbury earthquakes), reveal that residents cognitively appraised their experience at local dark tourism sites on important facets such as centrality and controllability. Visits to local dark tourism sites embodied memories of the disaster that elicit more negative (e.g., sadness) than positive emotions (e.g., gratefulness). Residents coped through seeking comfort from others or positive reappraisal of the experience. Furthermore, visits to dark tourism sites are in and of themselves a coping strategy for residents postdisaster. Implications for the development of dark tourism attractions and support for resident well-being are offered.

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether the antecedents of co-creation influence braggart word-of-mouth (WoM) in a participative leisure context, theorising the concept of co-created food well-being and highlighting implications for interactive experience co-design. Design/methodology/approach A sequential mixed-method approach was used to test a theoretical model; 25 in-depth interviews with cooking class participants were conducted, followed by a post-experience survey (n = 575). Findings Qualitative results suggest braggart WoM is rooted in active consumer participation in co-designing leisure experiences. The structural model confirms that participation in value co-creating activities (i.e. co-design, customer-to-customer (C2C) interaction), alongside perceived support from service providers, increases consumer perceptions of co-creation and stimulates braggart WoM. Degree of co-creation and support from peers mediate some relationships. Research limitations/implications Limited by cross-sectional data from one experiential consumption format, the results nevertheless demonstrate the role of active participation in co-design and C2C interactions during value co-creation. This implies that co-created and co-designed leisure experiences can intensify post-consumption behaviours and potentially enhance food well-being. Practical implications The results highlight that integrating customer participation into service design, while also developing opportunities for peer support on-site, can stimulate braggart WoM. Originality/value Extends burgeoning literature on co-creation and co-design in leisure services. By encouraging active customer participation while providing support and facilitating C2C interactions, service providers can enhance value co-creation, influencing customer experiences and food well-being. Accordingly, the concept of co-created food well-being is introduced.

This study examines psychological factors that can trigger nostalgia from the heritage tourism experience. We treat nostalgia as an emotion rather than a push travel motive and argue that nostalgic...

The collaborative, or sharing, economy has experienced tremendous growth. For instance, in an often cited study, PWC suggests that by 2025 sales revenue in the sharing economy will rise to 335 billion dollars from 15 billion in 2013 (PWC, 2015), with the effects of COVID-19 on the sharing economy yet to be ascertained. Uber, the ride hailing app, has increased trips per year from 140 million in 2014 to 6.9 billion in 2019 (Iqbal, 2021). Since its launch in 2017, Lime Scooters, who rent e-scooters, is now operating in more than 120 cities across more than 30 countries (Glasner, 2020). Airbnb is another prime example of this success (Dolnicar, 2020; Fagerstrøm et al., 2017; Oskam & Boswijk, 2016; Prothero et al., 2011). Yet, the vulnerability of the sharing economy has been exposed since COVID-19 started in 2020. For example, evidence from Australia suggests that the financial loss as result of the pandemic is around AUS $14 million for Airbnb hosts (89.5% reduction in income) from January to August 2020, suggesting that hosts suffered 6.5 times more than the Airbnb platform itself (Chen et al., 2020). On the contrary, UberEats and the other three main food delivery apps in the US (DoorDash, Grubhub and Postmates) saw a collective rise in revenue of more than US $3 billion during the pandemic (Sumagaysay, 2020). These suggest that the effects of the pandemic on the sharing economy are not always negative. This chapter focuses on one specific player in the sharing economy, Airbnb, with implications for other peer-to-peer accommodation providers and beyond.

Reflections on meanings of life and death are rarely comfortable or linear, and can be triggered by crises and disasters. This study explores the meanings of dark tourism sites for residents, inclu...

The concept of resilience is complex, and research on what contributes to public sector organizational resilience outcomes and how to effectively model resilient organization is still in its infanc...

The S-O-R framework (Stimulus-Organism-Response) is used to examine the influence of telepresence in virtual reality (VR) on service perceptions, positive emotions and post-consumption behaviors. ...

As a rapidly evolving global pandemic, COVID-19 provides several opportunities for tourism researchers to study the resilience of the tourism industry from a socioecological system perspective. Pandemics are not new and, similar to other crises and disasters, can have lasting impacts on individuals, businesses, communities, and nations. This article offers ways to explore how COVID-19 could affect different aspects of tourism resilience, adopting a three-level approach (macro, meso, and micro). While recognizing that these three levels are not necessarily mutually exclusive, interactions between them can be a worthy area of research in itself. This article proposes a research agenda on COVID-19 and tourism system resilience and contributes to further understanding of scale of change (temporal and spatial), impacts, and resilience. The article identifies, for example, resilience of destinations, organizations, and tourists as important areas of future research in relation to the pandemic. However, theoretical advancements and managerial implications of such research should not be sacrificed at the expense of the opportunities that the context of COVID-19 presents. It is time for reset not only for the tourism industry but also for tourism researchers.

There is growing recognition for the potential benefits of utilising Virtual Reality (VR) in destination marketing. Conceptual papers suggested the technology’s increased immersion, interactivity, ...

Using the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) and Actor-Network-Theory and After (After ANT), we explore how regime actors from the formal accommodation sector perceive and respond to Airbnb. We evaluate...

In the last two decades, the retail sector has experienced unprecedented upheaval, having severe implications for economic development and sustenance of traditional inner-city retail districts. In the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, this effect has been exacerbated by a series of earthquakes in 2010/2011 which destroyed much of the traditional retail precinct of the city. After extensive rebuild activity of the city’s infrastructure, the momentum of retailers returning to the inner city was initially sluggish but eventually gathered speed supported by increased international visitation. In early 2020, the return to retail normality came to an abrupt halt after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study uses spending and transaction data to analyze the compounding impact of the earthquake’s aftermath, shift to online shopping, and the retail disruption in the Christchurch central retail precinct because of COVID-19. The findings illustrate how consumers through their spending respond to different types of external shocks, altering their consumption patterns and retail mode (offline and online) to cope with an ever-changing retail landscape. Each event triggers different spending patterns that have some similarities but also stark differences, having implications for a sustainable and resilient retail industry in Christchurch. Implications for urban retail precinct development are also discussed.

usc Using the developmental theory of place attachment, this study evaluates several psychological antecedents of tourist intention to recommend a heritage site. Specifically, self-concept, motivation, positive, and negative emotions are evaluated as determinants of place attachment, tourist satisfaction and intention to recommend. We test a proposed theoretical model on a sample of 500 visitors (250 international and 250 domestic) to Su Nuraxi, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Sardinia, Italy. The results supported 11 of the 14 hypothesized relationships. Self-concept had a significant and positive relationship with tourist motivation, satisfaction and place attachment, highlighting its conceptual importance in the heritage tourism context. Tourist motivation had a significant and positive effect on positive emotions, and also exerted a positive effect on negative emotions. Visitor type moderated only the relationship between tourist motivation and negative emotions. The findings have both theoretical and managerial implications, particularly for heritage site management, marketing and destination management. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Purpose Based on social exchange theory (SET) and signaling theory (ST), this study aims to evaluate how an event’s perceived environmental certification (PEC) by residents, affect their evaluations of environmental impacts and subsequent event support (ES). The moderating role of place attachment (PA) on some of these relationships is also evaluated. Design/methodology/approach Using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), a theoretical model is tested on a sample of 450 residents who attended the 2015 Milan World Expo. Findings PEC positively affects evaluations of positive environmental impacts (PEI) but negatively affects evaluations of negative environmental impacts (NEI). PEC positively affects ES while the relationship between PEC and NEI is moderated by PA. Research limitations/implications Items used to measure PEC, PEI and NEI are not exhaustive. SET has its own limitations in explaining residents’ ES, which the authors have attempted to attenuate by using ST. Practical implications Using environmental certification as a communication tool must demonstrate to residents how it reduces negative externalities, rather than focusing only on its positive community benefits. Less well-educated residents had the lowest ES, suggesting the need to use social media to increase ES. Originality/value This study contributes to understandings of the perceptions of the benefits of event certification by residents, and how this affects their ES. PA moderates the relationship between PEC and NEI.

Grounded in conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study identifies the effect of leadership behaviors on the resilience of tourism firms and employees in Sri Lanka during the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis. The developed conceptual model links the resilient leadership behaviors of vision sharing, leadership of tasks, and management of change with employee resilience (cognitive, behavioral, and contextual) and organizational resilience (planned and adaptive). The findings highlight that resilient leadership behaviors in the early stages of the pandemic enhanced both employee and organizational resilience. The contextual and behavioral dimensions of employee resilience mediated the effect of resilient leadership behaviors on organizational resilience. The study offers suggestions for the development of organizational resilience and the specific support that may facilitate the recovery of the tourism sector from the COVID-19 crisis.

Using dynamic capabilities (DCs) and the disaster/crisis management cycle (DMC) as the theoretical lens, this study explores how different types of DCs build and sustain organizational resilience of tourism firms during COVID-19. Taking a processual view, the study advances theorization of the relationship between DCs and organizational resilience in tourism studies. A qualitative study of 30 owners and senior managers of tourism and hospitality firms in Bangladesh reveals that threats and opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic activated 10 different types of DCs (replicating, integrating, reconfiguring, creating, developing, assimilating, renewing, adaptive, innovative, and regenerative) across the pre, response (short-term) and future recovery intentions (long-term) stages. DCs activated different resilience facets (networks and relationships, leadership and culture, and change ready), highlighting the criticality of achieving planned and adaptive resilience for tourism firms during COVID-19. Response and recovery implications for tourism firms during disruptive events are suggested.

Despite a plethora of studies examining hosting experiences of Airbnb guests, the wellbeing of hosts has received limited attention. Drawing on both top-down and bottom-up theories of wellbeing, we explore the different ways in which Airbnb enhances or diminishes host wellbeing using a multidimensional lens (material, relational and subjective wellbeing). Data is collected from in-depth interviews with twenty-two Airbnb hosts. We also identify tensions and conflicts in the host-guest relationship using the three interactional hospitality domains of commercial, social and private. Through a deductive process, we find that participating in Airbnb both enhances and diminishes the material, relational and subjective aspects of wellbeing for hosts. Inductively, we find that a lack of territorial boundaries in shared accommodation contribute to conflicts that reduce wellbeing. This exemplifies a tension that exists in the private-commercial domain of network hospitality provision. We provide implications for peer-to-peer accommodation providers on developing the managerial skills of hosts, and helping hosts set realistic expectations around hosting to reduce the conflicts and tensions that arise from the intersectionality of the various Airbnb hospitality domains in such a way that the wellbeing of hosts is enhanced.