Window to the Destination: Tourists’ Local Experience via “Online Experiences” on Airbnb Amid the Pandemic

This study aims to explore the composition of virtual guided tour experience on Airbnb and to develop a formation process of virtual guided tour experience. A case study based on the qualitative analysis was conducted with a dataset of online reviews towards an Online Experience in Beijing, China. A three-stage process of virtual guided tour experience was concluded, including experience encounter, experience evaluation, and behavioral intention. Experience encounter describes the experience composition from four dimensions: interpretation quality, host credibility, tourist-host social contact, and peer interaction; Experience evaluation is involved with benefits mainly gained from the enhanced understanding of local culture and the satisfaction attributed by the sense of telepresence; Further, behavioral intention covers both online and offline willingness to recommend or repurchase the virtual tour, or visit the destination in person after the pandemic. Theoretical and practical implications in navigating tourism recovery were discussed.

An Analysis of Tourist's Behavioural Intention in the Digital Era: Using a Modified Model of the Reasoned Action Theory

Destination management organisations currently operate in an environment where online media greatly influences travellers' decision-making. In this digital environment, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is considered an important source of information affecting tourist's behaviour and destination image formation. Destination image is also recognised as major element influencing holiday destination choice, intention to revisit a destination and the willingness to recommend it to others. The Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) in turn, offers a relevant conceptual framework to analyse tourists’ behaviour. This paper aims to (1) incorporate eWOM and destination image as exogenous variables into the TRA model, then evaluate the ability of this extension to predict tourists’ behavioural intention (2) examine both eWOM and destination image impact on intention to visit an emerging destination (3) inspect eWOM role in destination image formation (4) evaluate the ability of the TRA’s core constructs (i.e., attitude and subjective norms) to predict intention. A quantitative approach based on structural equation modelling conducted this study in order to test the extended model, by analysing data collected from 234 potential foreign tourists, selected using a convenience sampling method. Results revealed that the extended model had a good predictive ability for tourists’ intentions to visit an emerging destination. Besides, attitude, subjective norms and destination image were significant predictors of visit intention, and eWOM significantly influenced the image. The study outcomes may help to develop a more efficient and successful tourism marketing strategy.

National attitudes of medical students towards mandating the COVID-19 vaccine and its association with knowledge of the vaccine

Background With the introduction of the novel COVID-19 vaccine, public hesitancy is being experienced with many turning to healthcare professionals for advice. As future physicians, medical students play a critical role in the public’s view of the vaccine. Objectives To determine the attitude of U.S. medical students toward mandating the COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare workers and patients, as well as whether their knowledge of the vaccine plays a role in their view. Methods The authors emailed a survey link to all U.S. medical schools with request to distribute it to their medical students. The survey remained open from 02/09/2021 to 03/15/2021 and included questions to determine the attitude of the medical students toward recommending the COVID-19 vaccine, and general knowledge questions about the vaccine. Chi square, Fisher’s exact test, and linear regression were conducted to determine associations between willingness to recommend the COVID-19 vaccine and general knowledge of the vaccine. Results Among the 1,899 responses from medical students representing 151 U.S. medical schools, 57.82% approved of making the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory to healthcare workers, and 16.27% approved of making it mandatory to patients. Additionally, those who tested most knowledgeable of the vaccine were less likely to approve of making the vaccine mandatory for patients (66.67% vs. 72.70). Those that tested most knowledgeable were also more likely to personally receive the vaccine (72.35% vs 62.99%) as opposed to those that tested the least knowledgeable who were less willing to personally receive the vaccine (4.12% vs 14.17%). Conclusions The data revealed that a slight majority of medical students support a vaccine mandate toward healthcare workers while a minority of medical students support a vaccine mandate toward healthcare workers. Additionally, medical students that had relatively high knowledge of the vaccine correlated with not approving of making the vaccine mandatory for patients. However increased knowledge of the vaccine correlated with increased willingness to personally receive the vaccine.

The Legitimization Effect of Crowdfunding Success: A Consumer Perspective

Based on legitimacy and consumer inference theory, we examine when, how, and why past crowdfunding success influences the perceptions and behaviors of consumers. Across five studies (four controlled experiments and one field experiment), our findings demonstrate that a young venture’s past crowdfunding success enhances consumers’ perceptions of its cognitive legitimacy. This “legitimization effect of crowdfunding success” leads to positive outcomes with respect to purchase intentions, brand attitudes, and consumers’ willingness to recommend young ventures to others. These effects are robust across different product categories. However, our findings also reveal that these positive effects occur exclusively for young ventures, whereas they disappear or even reverse for established ones.

The influence of brand image on the selection and preference of universities of technology

The research focuses on the factors that influence student brand preferences for Universities of Technology in KwaZulu-Natal. Brand preference is a marketing indicator that reflects a brand's market position. This indicator reveals whether consumers prefer one brand in the same category over another. Developing brand preference as a long-term strategy assists in the development of brand equity, which builds a brand's popularity and market domination in comparison to competitors. The primary goals of this research were to: investigate the most influential factors, influencing student brand choices; and identify traits that students in KwaZulu-Natal consider to be critical in the choosing of a University of Technology (UoT). The study also aimed to recommend strategies to improve service delivery in Universities of Technology. An exploratory study was carried out using a quantitative research approach, wherein questionnaires were administered to 500 DUT and MUT first-year students at the KwaZulu-Natal Universities of Technology and analysed using statistical packages for social sciences (SPSS). The study found that factors, such as investments in brand awareness and brand image, and service delivery influenced participants' choice and willingness to recommend their institutions to potential students. As a result, the report proposes that UoTs prioritize branding efforts as a means of guaranteeing institutional profitability, viability, and customer relationship management.

The Impact of Tourists’ Emotional Experiences on Destination Image, Tourists’ Satisfaction and Willingness to Recommend

Today, globalization as well as the advancement of technology is narrowing the distances of nations. Vietnam has become an attractive destination of tourists due in part to its charm, natural beauty, as well as its rich history and culture. The aim of this research is to study the effects of emotional experience factors on tourists’ satisfaction and their willingness to recommend the destinations, this study follows revised Destination Emotion Scales (DES) model. The survey was carried out with 224 foreign tourists who have travelled to a few famous places in Vietnam at least one time by both online and offline method. The methodology used in our research is a quantitative method. SPSS software 20 and AMOS 21 with SEM (structural equation modelling) were used to carry out analyzing on data gathered through a survey. This research found that the emotions of joy and love as significant influences on tourists’ satisfaction and its effect on intention to recommend while exploring whether or not the emotion of positive surprise does not support this relationship. The research makes a significant contribution to tourism marketing in Vietnam because some of the empirical findings found in the study deal with aspects of tourists’ satisfaction and their willingness to recommend necessary to improve tourism.

The Willingness of Community Psychiatric Management Physicians to Preferentially Recommend Long-Acting Injections in Beijing

Background: Severe mental disorders (SMD) impose a heavy burden on individuals, society, and the country. Under the background of deinstitutionalization, more and more patients return to the community, and the community psychiatric management physicians (CPMP) play an essential role in this process. Long-acting injection (LAI) is an important way to improve compliance and reduce re-hospitalization. Some districts in Beijing have implemented the policy of free LAI. This article aims to find out the willingness of CPMP to preferentially recommend LAI and provide suggestions for follow-up promotion.Methods: All CPMP in 16 districts of Beijing were surveyed. A self-made electronic questionnaire was used to investigate the willingness to recommend LAI in priority. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and logistic regression were used to analyze the data.Results: The willingness of CPMP to preferentially recommend LAI is up to 80%. Participants aged 40–49, female, with higher self-evaluation of psychiatric management knowledge, managing patients who have used LAI in the past, and working in communities with the free LAI policy have higher willingness to recommend LAI in priority.Conclusion: CPMP in Beijing have a positive attitude toward LAI, and most of them have the willingness to recommend LAI to the patients in priority. The recommendation willingness is the basis of prescription decision-making. Therefore, the coverage of free LAI policy should be further expanded in the future to improve the recommendation willingness and thus improve the injection rate of LAI.

Patient satisfaction in China: a national survey of inpatients and outpatients

ObjectivesPatient satisfaction is an important indicator of hospital healthcare quality. Little up-to-date information of patient satisfaction in China is available. This study attempts to gain a holistic understanding of patient satisfaction in China and identify the key antecedents of patient satisfaction.DesignA cross-sectional national survey was conducted in 2018.SettingHospitals in 27 provinces and 4 municipalities in 4 regions of China.ParticipantsA random sample of 15 699 patients who visited 1304 hospitals were surveyed, with around 500 from each of the 27 provinces and 4 municipalities.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems questionnaire was used to measure patients’ overall satisfaction and willingness to recommend the hospital.ResultsWe found significant variation in overall patient satisfaction but little variation in hospital recommendation across the four broad regions. Moreover, we examined determinants of patient satisfaction and their likelihood to recommend the hospital. The overall satisfaction for inpatients and outpatients is commonly influenced by communication with doctors (inpatient: β=0.524, p<0.001; outpatient: β=0.541, p<0.001), hospital cleanness (inpatient: β=0.165, p<0.05; outpatient: β=0.144, p<0.001) and acceptable charges (inpatient: β=1.481, p<0.001; outpatient: β=1.045, p<0.001). Both inpatients and outpatients are more likely to recommend the hospital if there are communication with doctors (inpatient: OR=1.743, p<0.001; outpatient: OR=1.647, p<0.001), acceptable charges (inpatient: OR=2.660, p<0.001; outpatient: OR=2.433, p<0.001). Outpatient satisfaction and hospital recommendation are also influenced by time spent with doctors (satisfaction: β=0.301, p<0.001; recommend: OR=1.430, p<0.001) and waiting time (satisfaction: β=−0.318, p<0.001; recommend: OR=0.844, p<0.001).ConclusionsThere are regional differences of patient satisfaction in China. Patient satisfaction is influenced by a variety of hospital factors and province/municipality factors. The influencing factors of patient satisfaction may not motivate patients to recommend the hospital.