The Impact of Covid-19 on Tourist Hotel Performance and Tourism Demand: Empirical Evidence Using Population-Based Administrative Data From Taiwan

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on tourist hotel performance and tourism demand in Taiwan. We use population-based administrative data on tourist hotels and visits with official records of COVID-19 cases to estimate the effect of the disease on the industry. Results show that a 1% increase in the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 decreased the total revenues, and the room revenues and food and beverage revenues of tourist hotels by 0.33%, 0.47% and 0.26%, respectively. Moreover, the impact of COVID-19 is heterogeneously distributed among tourist hotels of different quality. With respect to mechanism behind the negative effect of COVID-19 on tourist hotel performance, decreases in tourism demand is a driving factor. We find that a 1% increase in the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 reduces the number of tourist visits by 0.10%.

Were Culture and Heritage Important for the Resilience of Tourism in the COVID-19 Pandemic?

“…One study (Kock et al 2020) investigated in more details fear of contracting COVID-19 and found positive relations to indicators of xenophobia, ethnocentrism, crowding perceptions and attitude towards group travel. An estimate (Lee et al 2022), using data for Taiwan has shown that a 1% increase in the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 reduced the number of tourist visits by 0.1% while total revenues of the hotels decreased by 0.33%, with rather different impact, depending on the quality of the hotels.…”