Tourists' engagement and willingness to pay behavior during COVID-19: an assessment of antecedents, consequences and intermediate relationships

Abstract

PurposeThis study identifies antecedents and consequences of destination brand engagement (DBE) that have redefined the tourists' behavior during the COVID-19 outbreak. Specifically, it assesses the impact of social media interaction and destination authenticity on DBE and DBE's effect on tourists' willingness to pay (WTP). Further, it examines the mediating role of affective attitude and the moderating role of perceived risk between the associations of DBE and WTP.Design/methodology/approachSurvey data were collected from 436 respondents through a structured questionnaire from selected tourism destinations in India. Structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) is employed to empirically examine the formulated hypotheses. Besides, hierarchical second-order confirmatory factor analysis is also deployed to analyze certain constructs as higher-order factors.FindingsSocial media interaction and destination authenticity elevate DBE, and DBE enhances affective attitude and WTP. Affective attitude mediates the relationship between DBE and WTP. Hence, the association between tourists' engagement and spending behavior becomes crucial under elevated affective attitude conditions. Finally, perceived risk during the pandemic dampens the association between DBE and WTP.Practical implicationsThe findings may provide newer insights to the tourism companies, marketers and policymakers to create targeted strategies to minimize the risk perception and improve engagement levels of the tourists, which can yield economic returns in the long run.Originality/valueBased on the cues from protection motivation theory (PMT), this study develops a DBE framework and identifies the factors affecting its sustenance in the pandemic hit tourism sector. Further, suggesting implications to ensure safety measures in the tourism industry that may assist in establishing economic resilience.

An Investigation Between Nostalgic Value Resonance and Destination Brand Engagement in Rural Tourism

“…Thus, it can be explained that tourists are satisfied with Destination Brand Engagement. This is in accordance with the research conducted [30,[40][41][42][43][44][45] shows the result that Destination Brand Engagement has a significant effect on revisit intention (See Figure 1). H4: Destination Brand Engagement have a positive effect on revisit intention.…”

“…Destination Brand Engagement is a marketing activity to promote a positive image of a tourist destination in order to influence consumer decisions to visit it [13]. According Kumar et al [30] Destination Brand Engagement is basically an activity process to show a product from a particular destination that has uniqueness that is seen and assessed from the perspective of the market or tourists according to the attractiveness they perceive of the tourism product and reveals that destination brand is often associated with a positioning strategy. Customer brand engagement improves customer behavioral intentions and favorable attitudes in the marketing domain [31][32][33] establishing the concept's strategic importance.…”

Can online travel agencies contribute to the recovery of the tourism activity after a health crisis?

“…Similarly, future scenarios cannot be discounted (Ivanova et al, 2021;Li et al, 2022;Magno and Cassia, 2022). Further, the COVID-19 pandemic generated conditions that allowed the sector to identify actions and strategies that can contribute to achieving greater resilience (Kumar et al, 2022;Li et al, 2022).…”

The role of health and safety protocols and brand awareness for the recovery of hotel activity following a health crisis

“…After the global pandemic generated by COVID-19, the tourism sector needs to rethink changes in its actions and strategies that will contribute to achieving a more resilient sector and make it better prepared to combat the effects that crises with similar characteristics may trigger (Kumar et al , 2022; Li et al , 2022). This is a position that also affects the hotel industry, given that it too must identify strategies and mechanisms that contribute to helping the sector recover activity (Sampaio et al , 2022).…”

“…This came to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic when such measures were an initial response to the crisis. As restrictions eased and tourism markets reopened, understanding the importance of the use of health and safety measures to the positive positioning in the market became important for the tourism industry and related hotel sector (Kumar et al , 2022). And, from a market perspective, in looking to the future, understanding the role of health and safety mechanisms that can be maintained voluntarily by hotels, gives insight into ways that adopting such protocols, leads to a more positive evaluation of the hotel offer which is then converted into an intention to visit (Kement et al , 2022).…”