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Sustainable Tourism Development and Destination Marketing in a Post-pandemic Era

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 15696

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yinghua Huang

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Guest Editor

Department of Hospitality, Tourism and Event Management, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, USA
Interests: sustainable tourism; destination marketing; consumer behaviors; big data analytics

Dr. Zach Hallab

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Guest Editor

Department of Hospitality, Recreation and Tourism, California State University—East Bay, Hayward, CA, USA
Interests: information search behavior; lifestyle and travel behavior; image; satisfaction

Prof. Dr. Lujun Su

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Guest Editor

Business School, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Interests: tourist consumption; destination social responsibility; destination management
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call for re-thinking the relationship between tourism development and sustainability. While international tourist arrivals declined by about 1 billion or 73 percent in 2020, we also witnessed how nature is healing from damages caused by overtourism and other human actions. For example, global greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 plunged by 7% from 2019, and people can see clearer skies and experience cleaner air in many cities worldwide. As this pandemic has shaped a “new normal” for us, the tourism and hospitality industries seek innovations and new methods for a greener and smarter recovery in order to build a more resilient and sustainable tourism destinations. From a managerial perspective, the pandemic is an opportunity to design specific policies and destination marketing strategies that stimulate and promote tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors and sustainable practices of tourism and hospitality industries.

Therefore, this Special Issue calls researchers to address the critical issues of rebuilding more sustainable tourism destinations and developing green marketing strategies in a post-pandemic era. These include topics such as but not limited to the following:

Ecotourism development and regenerative tourism;
Sustainable destination marketing strategies and practices;
Tourists’ pro-environmental behaviors;
Sustainable destination management and sustainability policies;
Solutions for carbon neutrality in the tourism and hospitality industries;
Technologies and innovations for sustainable tourism.

Dr. Yinghua Huang
Dr. Zach Hallab
Dr. Lujun Su
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainable tourism
pro-environmental behavior
destination management
green marketing
ecotourism
carbon neutrality

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 951 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effect of Identity Salience on Residents’ Engagement with Place Branding during and Post COVID-19 Pandemic

by Wei Han, Yuwei Tang and Jiayu Wang

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 357; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15010357 - 26 Dec 2022

Viewed by 2890

Abstract

It is critical for tourism managers and marketers to understand how to support the sustainable recovery of the industry by involving residents in tourism marketing. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the COVID-19 pandemic, as an environmental stimulus, could enhance the salience of residents’ collective identity, thereby increasing their engagement with place branding. A conceptual framework was developed to explore the role of relationship-inducing factors and non-relationship-inducing factors in activating residents’ collective identity based on the social identity salience theory of relationship marketing success. The research model was tested using data from 603 questionnaires collected from Sanya, China, during the period of a sudden COVID-19-related crisis. The findings from the statistical analyses showed significant relationships among the research variables, and the moderating role of perceived social connectedness was supported. Our findings have implications regarding how to engage residents in the tourism recovery process during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism Development and Destination Marketing in a Post-pandemic Era)

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20 pages, 906 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Does COVID-19 Risk Perception Affect Wellness Tourist Intention: Findings on Chinese Generation Z

by Chaojun Li and Xinjia Huang

Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 141; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su15010141 - 22 Dec 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2968

Abstract

Understanding the influencing mechanism of the COVID-19 pandemic on the public’s travel intentions is key to creating effective strategies to restore and enhance confidence in tourism. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), an extended model was proposed to investigate the Chinese Generation Z’s perception of risk and its effect on the consequences of behavioral process toward wellness tourism. A total of 727 respondents were surveyed by using an online questionnaire. The relationships among the perceptions of risks, three key explanatory variables (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) in the TPB, and wellness tourism intention were evaluated. This study verified that both the perceived health risk and the perceived psychological risk negatively impacted the wellness tourism intentions of Gen Z. Attitude is a partial mediator between subjective norms, perceived behavior control, and travel intentions, respectively. The findings are discussed from the perspective of the theoretical and managerial implications, as well as of future research directions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism Development and Destination Marketing in a Post-pandemic Era)

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19 pages, 972 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Assessing the Compensatory Potentiality of Hot Spring Tourism in the COVID-19 Post-Pandemic Environment

by Xinjia Huang, Yang Zhang and Chaojun Li

Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8579; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14148579 - 13 Jul 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2127

Abstract

Considering the public health crisis induced by the COVID-19 disease, hot spring tourism has attracted more people who want to compensate for this themselves and seek restoration of health. Research regarding consumer experience and their psychological restoration from compensatory travel activities is lacking. To address this gap, a conceptual model is developed that links the compensatory experience quality and the perceived restorative value. The model was assessed using a sample of 631 tourists who visited hot spring resorts in the post-pandemic environment. Our findings confirm the positive influence of the quality of compensatory experience (CEQ) on perceived restorativeness (PR). In particular, the cognitive image and affective image partially mediated the effect of CEQ on PR. These research findings provide both theoretical contributions and managerial implications on hot spring destination management and marketing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism Development and Destination Marketing in a Post-pandemic Era)

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15 pages, 440 KiB

Open AccessArticle

How Has the COVID-19 Pandemic Influenced the Tourism Behaviour of International Students in Poland?

by Julita Szlachciuk, Olena Kulykovets, Maciej Dębski, Adriana Krawczyk and Hanna Górska-Warsewicz

Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8480; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14148480 - 11 Jul 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1624

Abstract

Nearly 20 years after the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic, we are facing another COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the aim of our study was to analyse the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism behaviour of international students in Poland. We paid attention to the overall impact of the pandemic on life, travel, choice of tourist destination, tourism activity, ecotourism preference, and health and safety issues. We formulated two research questions: What areas of international student tourism behaviour were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic? What differences in travel behaviour occurred between international students from Europe and Asia? Participants were recruited from universities located in Warsaw between June and September 2020. A total of 806 questionnaires were collected, 87 of which were eliminated due to non-response. The research sample consisted of 719 people. Six factors were identified in the survey results: tourism inclination, impact on tourist destination, hygiene and accommodation, impact on life, impact on tourism, and mode of tourism. Impact on life and impact on tourism were attributed to the general impact dimension; tourism inclination and mode of tourism can be summarized as attitude and preference. Food and accommodation were assigned to hygiene and safety dimensions. In almost all aspects, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s lives was greater for Asian respondents. Asian respondents were more likely to say that they would avoid COVID-19-affected areas when choosing tourist destinations in the future, and avoid travelling to crowded large cities after COVID-19 ended. European survey participants’ responses were more moderate. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism Development and Destination Marketing in a Post-pandemic Era)

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15 pages, 1451 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Analysis of the Measurement of Symbiosis Intensity in Scenic Spots and the Influence Mechanism

by Chunxiao Xu and Hui Tang

Sustainability 2022, 14(14), 8297; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su14148297 - 07 Jul 2022

Viewed by 1437

Abstract

Scenic symbiosis, which is of great research significance, is an important way to achieve high-quality coordinated development of regional tourism. Based on the symbiosis theory, this paper defines the symbiosis intensity of scenic spots and establishes a calculation scheme. On the one hand, it measures the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of symbiosis intensity of 281 scenic spots in Hunan Province from September 2018 to December 2021. On the other hand, it uses a multiple linear regression model to quantitatively explore its influence mechanism. The results indicate that: (1) From September 2018 to December 2021, the tourism demand in Hunan Province presented fluctuations due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be divided into three stages: “slight increase before the COVID-19 pandemic”, “rapid decline during the COVID-19 pandemic”, and “slow recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic”; (2) The symbiosis intensity of scenic spots is mainly at a low, low-middle level; with Changsha City and the Western Hunan Area as dual cores, it reflects obvious “core-edge” characteristics; (3) Quality index, market attention level, connection breadth, and distance index jointly affect the symbiosis intensity of scenic spots. Among them, the quality index, market attention level, and connection breadth all have positive impacts on the symbiosis intensity, whereas the distance index has a negative impact on it. Finally, this paper discusses how to improve the symbiosis intensity of scenic spots and promote the mutual benefit and symbiosis development to provide a theoretical basis and practical reference for the promotion of the sustainable development of regional tourism. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism Development and Destination Marketing in a Post-pandemic Era)

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23 pages, 996 KiB

Open AccessArticle

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

by Umer Zaman, Murat Aktan, Mahwish Anjam, Jerome Agrusa, Muddasar Ghani Khwaja and Pablo Farías

Sustainability 2021, 13(24), 14043; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su132414043 - 20 Dec 2021

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 3441

Abstract

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. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism Development and Destination Marketing in a Post-pandemic Era)

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