In the COVID-19 outbreak context, some industries were seriously affected, and the T&T (travel and tourism) industry is unarguably one of those industries. As the world is slowly moving towards a recovery stage, T&T is lagging in the recovery process, mainly because of people’s perception of safety and a new, more cautious behavior when buying products that are not essential for survival, such as T&T products. In order to discover sustainable recovery paths for the industry and the real impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on consumer perceptions and purchasing behavior, the current quantitative research was developed on the basis of two different representative samples in two different moments: May 2020 and December 2020, with a focus on Romania’s population. The main results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced travel patterns and habits regarding philological and economic factors. Psychological factors, primarily the fear of contamination, impact travelers’ willingness to travel and the conditions and preferences for vacation destinations. At least in the medium term, people will avoid traveling in large groups and being in crowded places. Hygiene and health conditions in the host destination can represent essential factors in travel decisions. Confronted with a cautious clientele, tourism businesses (such as transport, accommodation, and catering) should further enhance their hygiene conditions to restore confidence. Moreover, communication is essential in these challenging times to tackle travelers’ fear and concerns.
The current era has brought about major changes in the way people connect to each other, and social media is a major pillar of this change. In this new communication and connecting environment, companies are under pressure to constantly adapt and become present on platforms where their customers are while being sustainable and profitable in the long run. On the other hand, traditional marketing research challenges have led to the expansion of new research approaches like neuromarketing as a means to gather the most accurate data ever from customers. When referring to how we can use neuromarketing research within the social media context, the current paper aims to fill a gap in the current literature: Using neuromarketing research in social media while taking into consideration both companies' purposes and customers' sought-after benefits. This aim is achieved through two pieces of research that shed light on a model where these purposes are matched with the corresponding benefits, showing the degree of acceptability of four major neuromarketing applications. This model is a stepping stone towards discovering how social media neuromarketing research can be a pillar of sustainable business communication as part of the broader perspective of sustainability in terms of business growth.
Consumption has lately been under the microscope facing pressure from all stakeholders as principles of sustainability have gained more popularity. In this context, a new sustainable consumer model was born, referring to major shifts in buying and consumption habits. Nevertheless, these shifts were lagging as consumers resisted change in the comfort of old habits. This comfort was shaken up by the COVID-19 outbreak that forced us to rethink every aspect of our lives. Therefore, this crisis context seems the perfect opportunity to shift towards the sustainable consumer model. People’s openness towards embracing new consumption habits was evaluated in a quantitative study where data was collected in two different moments: May 2020 and December 2020. Major results of our research show that people’s lives were dominated in 2020 by uncertainty, especially when referring to their financial situation. Further on, consumers have already started to bring major shifts in their consumption habits because of this uncertainty. Among the most important shifts, there were more prudent purchase decisions, rising interest for discounted prices, increased likelihood of buying local and enhanced preference in buy fresh products instead of processed or semi-processed ones.
Considering the imperative need for sustainable urban development, this article argues for increased citizen participation in the decision-making process, as it generates better outcomes (due to a wider range of perspectives) and also makes people better citizens, as they will be partially responsible for the results. One major dimension of urban areas’ which needs a sustainable development is represented by parks, which can be directly associated to citizens’ quality of life (QoL). Thus, we have conducted direct research (face-to-face interviews) of park visitors in order to analyze the perceived impact of green areas on their quality of life. From all the QoL dimensions, we have selected six which are directly linked to park visits—health (mental and physical), social interaction, education and culture, family life, freedom, and connection with nature—in order to determine the perceived degree of association between them, as well as the specific activities done in the park that impact those six dimensions. The research results were used to develop a conceptual model which links quality of life to park visits, a model that can and should be used by public authorities in order to build a collaborative process for urban sustainable development.
City life has become the norm for most of the global population and building sustainable cities is a growing trend, together with an increased focus on healthier lifestyles in urban settings. Given this framework, the concept of ‘rurbanization’ is gaining momentum as more and more people are interested in bringing natural green spaces within the urban setting. For this purpose, a research (online survey on a sample of 500 respondents) was developed to discover youths’ perceptions on what a sustainable city means, their perspectives on the urbanization problems, and willingness to take action towards improving the green aspects of their urban life. Results revealed that sustainable life perception vary a lot across the young generation, but opinions on what are the city life issues tend to converge to similar points, such as air quality, disconnection with nature, greenhouse effect, urban heat islands, and water quality. When it comes to rurbanization solutions for a greener urban life, young people lean more towards individual solutions, be it an easy and short-term one, such as endowing their home with more green plants, or a more drastic one, such as moving altogether from the city area towards greener locations. Results were also used in designing a conceptual model for actions towards rurbanization.
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