Career resilience and professional attitudes of tourism practitioners in China under the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThis paper investigates the current psychological state of Chinese tourism practitioners and their career resilience during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It empirically examines the effects of COVID-19 on Chinese tourism practitioners' professional attitudes and their career belief in the future. The study is intended to guide enterprises and governments to design effective strategies/policies to deal with the effect of this unfavorable environment.Design/methodology/approachThe sample consists of 442 tourism practitioners in 313 tourism enterprises in China. The data were collected via a targeted online survey based on a well-structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed using statistical procedures including multilevel regression analysis.FindingsThe study results show that Chinese tourism practitioners have strong career resilience in the face of current turbulent time. After testing, the model shows that career beliefs and social support have a significant positive impact on the professional attitudes of tourism practitioners, and that career resilience has a partial mediating effect on their career beliefs, social support and professional attitude.Originality/valueThis study enriches the existing literature on career belief, social support and career resilience. It provides a new interpretation on how career belief and social support impact career resilience and thus shape tourism practitioners' professional attitudes during pandemics.