Assessing the Traveling Risks Perceived by South African Travelers during Pandemic Outbreaks: The Case of COVID-19

Abstract

The unprecedented global health crisis caused by COVID-19 is undoubtedly having a major impact on international tourism for two reasons. While the imposed travel restrictions have discouraged people from traveling, travelers are struggling with growing anxiety in coping with the new travel environment. We address the changing risk perceptions of travelers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our primary objective is to identify and weigh significant emerging travel risks and develop a Risk Score Index to measure destination performance and strategic interventions for South African travelers. In this case, we used MACBETH and web-Delphi to construct that index with the help of 32 experts in the field. We found that the risks perceived by tourists are multifaceted and encompass categories, such as additional costs, exchange rates, and reimbursement-related factors. These three criteria are most important to the general perception of travel risk. We applied the developed risk assessment index to five destinations to assess their performance relative to the identified risks. The UK was the best-performing country.

The Portuguese Public Hospitals Performance Evolution before and during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic (2017–2022)

“…This result suggests that changes in performance should be interpreted in the light of internal structure (poor preparedness, staff burnout, hysteria, among others). As the World Health Organization has already decreed the pandemic's end, it is important that healthcare providers and governments prepare themselves for likely future pandemics, by following the best practices (benchmarks) and designing reliable contingency plans [104][105][106].…”

The Influence of Influencer Marketing on the Consumers’ Desire to Travel in the Post-Pandemic Era: The Mediation Effect of Influencer Fitness of Destination

“…The desire to travel includes different aspects, such as the location, atmosphere, and consumers' perception [35]. The location aspect depends on the country's perceived risk [20,36]. The atmosphere aspect involves what emotions the visitors feel when they visit the place.…”

“…Other research carried out on social media's effect on consumer desire to travel focuses on content and postings on social media, without the involvement of influencers [7,8]. In addition, there are few studies investigating consumer behavioural changes on the topic of travelling due to the pandemic [6,36]. Pachucki et al [6] presented changes in people's thoughts towards their travel decisions through social media engagement in consumers' reactions to destination preference by examining terms of likes, comments, and shares as the pandemic unfolded.…”

“…However, the causal mechanism of the bandwagon effect was not determined as it seems to be the result of an interaction of various factors. Plank et al [36] include those who travelled internationally in the past five years as subjects to demonstrate changes in people's mindsets on perceived risks since the outbreak of COVID-19 and how the pandemic affected tourism. Consumers may consider the perceived risk of travelling under the influence of the pandemic.…”

“…When consumers identify that the influencer's content is sponsor-generated or overly commercialized, scepticism about the authenticity of their content may harm the influencer's credibility [23,41]. As the focus of this study is on influencer marketing, other constructs, such as perceived risks and consumer satisfaction, that would paint a more holistic picture of the changes in consumer desire to travel cannot be considered here [31,32,36]. These constructs will be considered to be added to the research framework in the future.…”