Purpose
This study aims to determine whether the consumer’s information literacy self-efficacy plays a role in their intention to resume their consumption of tourist services – specifically, hotel accommodation – in the context of the “new normal” brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative empirical study is performed on hotel accommodation consumers and a structural equation modeling analysis is used to verify the proposed relationships.
Findings
The findings reveal that the tourist’s information literacy self-efficacy – their ability to find the information they need, use it efficiently and discount fake news – positively influences their perception of hotel safety; and perceived hotel safety increases tourist intention to return to consuming hotel services.
Practical implications
The results show how the consumer’s intention to return to using hotel services can be enhanced because of their management of information, especially in a crisis context. Hotel firms must position the provision of safety information at the heart of their marketing and communications strategies, and adapt this information to the different processing capabilities of consumers.
Social implications
This study provides valuable insights into the hotel industry – a major contributor to gross domestic product and employment worldwide that is being particularly hard-hit by the COVID-19 crisis.
Originality/value
This study represents an advance in the literature as it demonstrates – as a novelty – the vital role of consumer information literacy self-efficacy in encouraging people to begin visiting hotels again in the “new normal.”
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the effect of the use of social media on the perception of brand personality and to identify its effect on customer brand engagement.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted an exploratory approach, adapting Aaker's brand personality scale (1997) to the context of cultural tourism before carrying out a quantitative study resorting to a structural equation modeling to obtain empirical evidence to identify these relationships.
Findings
The findings reveal that the use of social media has a positive effect on the perception of brand personality and that brand personality, likewise, has a positive effect on customer brand engagement.
Research limitations/implications
This study indicates that transmission of an attractive brand personality according to the desires of the public, combined with dissemination through social media, is a valid strategy to improve customer brand engagement.
Originality/value
This study represents an advance in the specialized literature on the value that consumers place on information transmitted through social media. Specifically, it sheds light on how the transmission of brand personality through social media affects customer brand engagement.
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