The Impact of COVID-19 Vaccine Passport on Air Travelers’ Booking Decision and Companies’ Financial Value

The ongoing debate about vaccine passport policies for dealing with COVID-19 has necessitated analyzing its effectiveness in the airline and tourism industry. This study was purposed to analyze how vaccine passports are evaluated by multiple stakeholders, such as airline investors and passengers for leisure/vacation purposes. The findings of the first study show that the implementation of vaccine passports is positively evaluated by airline investors. The results of the second study highlight the role of vaccine passports in reducing perceived health risks, which is integral to leisure travelers’ decision making. This study offers a theoretical lens to understand the value of vaccine passports and provides guidance for airline companies and tourism marketers in deciding whether to implement a vaccine passport policy.

Social Media Marketing Strategy for a Leisure Hotel Using Digital Customer Experience Journey Approach: A Study on Innside by Melia Yogyakarta

Innside by Melia Yogyakarta is a 4-star business and leisure hotel owned by PT. Saraswanti Indoland Development. In 2018-2019, Innside by Melia Yogyakarta experienced a relatively rapid increase in revenue. However, the Directors of PT Saraswanti Indoland Development are still not satisfied with the hotel's current performance. To improve hotel performance, the target market will be focused on leisure travelers. However, the social media platform owned by Innside by Melia Yogyakarta, which will attract leisure travelers, also does not have a good performance. To overcome this issue, several analyzes and findings are conducted. External analysis is determined by PESTEL and Competitor Analysis. Internal analysis is determined by VRIO and Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP). Then, a survey was carried out to find out the preferences of leisure travelers. The survey was made based on the customer experience's digital journey while staying at Innside by Melia Yogyakarta and hotels in the Yogyakarta. There are six stages of the customer experience journey: the awareness/inspiration stage; research/consideration stage; decision-making stage; preparation stage; in-hotel experience stage; and loyalty advocacy stage. The survey results were processed quantitatively and analyzed descriptively. Based on the survey results, the root of the problem lies in customers' low awareness/inspiration towards Innside by Melia Yogyakarta's social media. The solution to this problem is sought by using the Repositioning and New Wave Marketing strategy to create a horizontal marketing system on Innside by Melia Yogyakarta's social media. Each alternative solution is systematically compiled on the customer journey map. then recommendations for social media content were made to implement the formulated strategy.

The Effects of COVID-19 Risk Perception on Travel Intention: Evidence From Chinese Travelers

This study attempts to assess the relationship between risk perception, risk knowledge, and travel intentions of Chinese leisure travelers during the COVID-19 pandemic in the framework of social contagion and risk communication theories by analyzing a sample of 1,209 travelers through structural equation modeling (SEM) and path analysis. We used the process macro of Hayes to analyze the moderation effects of age, gender, and education between risk perception, media and interpersonal communication, and risk knowledge. It was found that travelers were more concerned about self-efficacy than severity. Risk perception of travelers predicts the information-seeking process of tourists. This process helps travelers to accumulate risk information that influences their travel intentions. Travelers give more importance to interpersonal (contagion) communication in making a traveling decision. Demographic factors influence traveling decision-making; women travelers were found to be more risk resilient than men. Young travelers seek information at low- and old travelers at high-risk levels. Marketing implications also provided.

COVID-19 and Extremeness Aversion: The Role of Safety Seeking in Travel Decision Making

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.

Self-Service Technologies (SSTs)—The Next Frontier in Service Excellence: Implications for Tourism Industry

This research aims to understand how self-service technologies (SSTs) can bring about service excellence for tourists by the moderated mediating effect of satisfaction and tourist types, from the customer’s perspective. The study draws on survey data from 627 tourists from North Cyprus, Turkey, Italy, United States, and Germany who had experience using SSTs during their travel period for either leisure or business. The utility theory, Lancaster’s consumer theory, and random utility theory form the basis of this research’s theoretical framework. This study is the first attempt that examines the SSTs’ characteristics as antecedents of service excellence from the customer point of view in tourism literature. Moreover, this research enhances knowledge by integrating the concept of service excellence and SSTs’ characteristics into the abovementioned theories. The results revealed that service excellence could be provided for customers through SSTs, which this service excellence drives through the characteristics of SSTs. The result of moderated mediation tests on the relationship between SSTs’ characteristics and service excellence revealed that tourist types moderate the mediating effect of SSTs satisfaction for functionality, enjoyment, security/privacy, convenience, and customization. Meaning the mentioned constructs are more influential for business travelers than leisure travelers. Limitations, practical and theoretical implications are also discussed.

Glamping after the coronavirus pandemic

Glamping is an increasingly popular and accessible modern form of camping. To address current and future impacts of COVID-19 on glamping, 2926 active leisure travelers in the US and Canada were surveyed. Respondents were asked about post-COVID-19 glamping trip plans and hotel/resort trip plans for comparison. Independent variables of interest include 2019 accommodation experiences, 2020 accommodation plans prior to COVID-19, and socio-demographics. Results indicate more active leisure travelers have plans to take glamping trips (45.9%) after COVID-19 when permissible than hotel/resort trips (24.7%). The results highlight that the broad accessibility of glamping make it a viable leisure travel alternative during and after the pandemic.

Spending the night with strangers while traveling? Examining the antecedents of shared room booking through Airbnb

Purpose This study aims to examine the motivating factors that influence intentions to book shared rooms through Airbnb as well as the moderating effects of past experience and gender. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzed data from 214 leisure travelers who had previously stayed in shared rooms through Airbnb and 207 participants who had not yet experienced Airbnb. A covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) technique was performed to test the significance of attitude, subjective norms, extroverted personality, perceived risk and perceived price. Furthermore, the study explored past experience and gender as moderators. Findings The results suggest that attitude, subjective norms and perceived risk significantly impacted intentions to book shared rooms through Airbnb. However, perceived price was not a significant determinant. In addition, this study verified that past experience and gender moderated the relationship between important referents and attitude/booking intentions. Practical implications This study gives Airbnb hosts a better understanding of travelers who choose Airbnb’s shared rooms. In addition, hosts who offer shared rooms can implement marketing strategies and complementary activities to not only reduce the risk of booking shared rooms but also attract more travelers. Originality/value While previous studies examined Airbnb as one homogeneous type of accommodation, this study focused on Airbnb’s shared rooms. A clearer understanding of consumers who intend to book Airbnb’s shared rooms will enable hosts to develop effective marketing strategies.

The Effects of Holiday Leisure Travel on Subjective Well-Being: The Moderating Role of Experience Sharing

Despite growing interest in experience sharing among leisure travelers, there is still limited research concerning the role of travel experience sharing on leisure traveler’s life satisfaction. The main objective of this research is to test the moderation effects of experience sharing during and after leisure travel on the bottom-up spillover process of tourists’ leisure travel satisfaction–life satisfaction hierarchy. The positive effect of holiday trip motivation fulfillment on overall holiday trip satisfaction is hypothesized to be amplified by on-site experience sharing (e.g., uploading holiday pictures or videos to social media platforms while traveling). Also, the positive effect of holiday trip satisfaction on holiday travelers’ subjective well-being is hypothesized to be amplified by posttrip experience sharing (e.g., publishing blog posts or travel reports online post trip). We used data from a large-scale social survey in Germany (N = 2,198) and the results confirmed the hypotheses. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Examining key hotel attributes for guest sleep and overall satisfaction

Introduction Despite the fact that hotels provide a venue for sleeping, there is surprisingly little research that has explored sleep among hotel guests. The aim of this study is to identify the relationship between hotel attributes (e.g., light in the guestroom, bed linens), guest sleep, and overall guest satisfaction. Methods Cross-sectional survey data were obtained from frequent business and leisure travelers (N = 609). Guest sleep satisfaction and overall guest satisfaction were measured on 5-point Likert scales. Participants were asked to report the extent to which hotel attributes (e.g., “Room too light or too dark”) related to their sleep on a scale from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). We used ordinal logistic regression to predict guest sleep and hotel satisfaction using hotel attributes as predictors while controlling for age, sex, and relationship status. Results Hotel guest sleep did not differ between business and leisure travelers. Hotel guest sleep was inversely associated with “uncomfortable bed linen,” “uncomfortable pillows,” and “sound from the air conditioning unit or heater.” Regression revealed that sleep satisfaction was a strong predictor of overall hotel satisfaction. Conclusions Our study suggests that guest sleep is be a critical component of the guest satisfaction equation. Importantly, our study illuminated the hotel attributes that offer the biggest contribution to hotel guest sleep and the specific steps for improving guest sleep.