RUSSIAN AND NORTHERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES COOPERATION IN DEVELOPING ARCTIC TOURISM

The Arctic as a territory of strategic presence is in the field of close attention of many players in the geopolitical and international economic arena. The Arctic tourism development over the past 15 years is due not only to the influence of business, social and cultural factors, as well as the growing interest of consumers to get a unique experience of travel to northern tourism destinations but is also associated with the development of global economic processes and diplomatic relations, which determine successful bilateral cooperation in interdepartmental and intergovernmental level. Multilateral cooperation and the implementation of jointly adopted tourism development programs within the framework of the activities of international organizations are also of great importance. With the restrictions on international and domestic travel in two recent years, the global tourism market entered a crisis state, which affected the dynamics of tourist arrivals in the Arctic and slowed down this development. The author, drawing attention to the current bilateral and intergovernmental agreements on cooperation in tourism between Russia and the Nordic countries and the Plan of significant events in connection with Russia's chairmanship in the Arctic Council in 2021–2023 proposes to support a peaceful and friendly policy of good-neighbourliness and cooperation in matters of sustainable tourism development in the Arctic, despite the claims of the European Union for interference in Arctic affairs, which were reflected in the European Commission's Joint Communication dated October 13, 2021.

Explorative Study of Tourist Behavior in Seeking Information to Travel Planning

This study aims to explore the behavior of domestic tourists in seeking information to travel during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether there are significant differences with tourist behavior before the pandemic and what are the best strategies so that they can be helpful in tourism actors in creating and developing digital marketing strategies based on the latest information technology phenomena. This study uses a qualitative paradigm. Data collection techniques used in the study were observation, in-depth interviews, literature study, and documentation. The results of this exploratory research can then be used as a basis for the following research stage, namely descriptive analysis. Online focus group discussions and surveys were conducted to achieve the objectives of this research. Tourist behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic has changed, that tourists will always look for travel information using window shopping or online search through social media and ask personal questions (individuals) in travelling to a tourist destination. The right strategy for tourism actors in developing sustainable digital marketing includes building personal trust to tourists, implementing innovation strategies that involve guests, and mutual integration and collaboration, which are the main keys to the success of tourism actors in creating or developing sustainable digital marketing. The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented and ongoing crisis for the global tourism industry. The key to the recovery of the worldwide tourism industry will be to encourage tourism activities both domestically and internationally.

Influence of the pandemic on international tourism

The beginning of the global Covid–19 crisis in the world had a negative impact on the economies of various regions and countries, including the development of tourism as a separate branch of the national economy. International tourism experienced a serious downturn in 2020 and early 2021: due to the pandemic and lockdowns, the number of tourists dropped to 98 percent. The article analyzes the level of decline in global tourism, emerging around the world due to the Covid-19 crisis. In the course of the analysis, the author considers vulnerable areas of international tourism on the example of several associated groups. The analysis of the current state and development of international tourism used the method of partial abstraction to collect information and effectively search, group, process and summarize the necessary material. The study of the dynamics of three different economic indicators of the regions of Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Middle East using a comparative method, including the direct impact of tourism on GDP, exports and international tourism, allows to establish causal relationships and identify and mitigate the problems of international tourism. In particular, it is known that vaccination is a relevant mechanism for solving the emerging underlying problems.

Can Post-Vaccine ‘Vaxication’ Rejuvenate Global Tourism? Nexus between COVID-19 Branded Destination Safety, Travel Shaming, Incentives and the Rise of Vaxication Travel

Vaxication (i.e., post-vaccination travel) and branding destinations for COVID-19 safety have emerged as the cornerstones to fully rebound global tourism. Numerous destination brands are now stimulating tourism demand through realigned travel incentives specifically for fully vaccinated travelers. However, there is growing fear and incidents of travel shaming across destinations, especially due to the recent outbreaks of the highly contagious COVID-19 ‘delta and omicron’ variants. Addressing this critical research gap, the present study makes pioneering efforts to empirically examine the effects of COVID-19 branded destination safety (CBDS) on vaxication intentions, under the moderating influence of travel shaming and travel incentives. Drawing on study data from 560 fully-vaccinated residents from Hawaii, United States and structural equation modeling (SEM) with Mplus, the evidence suggests that the positive impact of CBDS on vaxication intention can be further strengthened by travel incentives, or weakened when travel shaming picks up more momentum. Besides the validation of newly developed scales, the study offers strategic insights based on dominant theories (e.g., theory of planned behavior and protection motivation theory) to interpret the changing tourism demand, and to transform the emerging challenges into opportunities through and beyond the pandemic.

Public Perception of Tourism Cities before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic through the Lens of User-Generated Content

The COVID-19 pandemic (coronavirus disease of 2019) sent the world into disarray and devastated the global tourism economy. In 2020 alone, the number of international tourists dropped by roughly 1.1 billion. This study examines user-generated content (UGC) on social media to elucidate the shift in people’s perceptions of popular tourism cities from before the pandemic to during the pandemic. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the cues in tourism-city-related UGC (particularly those related to the pandemic) and identifies the cues that resonate most with the public. This paper collected the data using Instagram’s application programing interface and then sorted the UGC based on content, type, time, likes, share, and comments. Between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2019, it collected a total of 207,752 pre-pandemic posts and 173,131 peri-pandemic posts. The findings reveal that, during the pandemic, the interactivity of city-related UGC dropped, and only pandemic-related keywords gained public attention. By comparison, pre-pandemic positive posts mentioned local features and contained calls to action that were generally well-received. The findings also validate that UGC effectively reflects and enhances overall public perceptions, suggesting that, in a future which is forced to co-exist with SARS-CoV-2 in the long term, it is important to understand the positive and negative influences of UGC on tourism cities.

Understanding Consumer Travel Behavior during COVID-19

Since the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide, the global tourism industry has taken a severe hit. To fully understand the impact of the pandemic on tourists’ travel behavior, an intercultural survey was carried out through a large-scale online questionnaire. This survey aims to determine whether cultural differences and different ages might play a role in tourists’ behavior during the COVID-19. Data collected from 942 respondents from mainland China and overseas through different age groups were subjected to data analysis. The results demonstrate cognition and consumer behavior differentiate culturally and significantly between different ages, which is highlighted when they choose travel modes, transportation, and companions. The implications of the study are also provided in the end.

Examining Factors Influencing COVID-19 Vaccine Tourism for International Tourists

Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on global tourism. Vaccine tourism is a novel health tourism concept, which provides an opportunity for countries with a vaccine surplus to offer medical tourism packages to entice international tourists from countries with vaccine shortages to visit for sightseeing and receive vaccine inoculations. Understanding the factors that influence people to adopt vaccine tourism is one of the strategies that could boost a country’s tourism sector and help to revive the local economy. This study aims to examine the factors influencing the intention to adopt and recommend COVID-19 vaccine tourism among young travelers. A total of 179 questionnaire surveys were collected from traveling-related social media outlets. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was performed to analyze the data. The results indicate that young tourists in Thailand are inclined to promote vaccine tourism to others. Price value appears to be the most significant influencing factor on intentions to both adopt and recommend vaccine tourism. Additionally, trust in the foreign healthcare system was positively associated with young travelers’ intention to recommend vaccine tourism to others. Theoretically, this research adds to the medical tourism literature, suggesting that, while trust is an important factor influencing the medical tourism decision, it appears to be insignificant in the context of vaccine tourism.

Africa’s Strategies to Build Supportive Business Environment for Tourism Businesses

The Travel and Tourism Competitive Index regards the business environment as one of the pillars supporting the tourism industry wellbeing. Africa has failed to stay competitive in the global tourism industry since 2007; hence studies that have the potential to positively influence the tourism policies are critical at this point. Although the importance of the business environment has been emphasised, researchers have not been keen to explore this area, especially in the African context. This study aims to create an understanding on the business environment support structures, policies and practices employed by best tourism performing African countries. Using the secondary research approach, the findings of this study shed light on the legal frameworks, taxation policies, public sector institutions, and business policies utilised by the benchmarking countries to enable a supportive business atmosphere. A comparative analysis of strategies practiced by the benchmarking countries is presented to identify the similarities and differences of the strategies implemented in the benchmarking countries.