United States

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented in scope. Health-protective behavior and protection against health-risks becomes increasingly important for domestic and international travelers. This paper proposes to tourism planners and stakeholders a comprehensive model to apply to tourism and hospitality research in health-related situations. We combine an extended Health Belief Model (HBM) with animosity research to explain domestic and international travel intentions of experienced travelers. Risk avoidance, self-efficacy in applying protective behavior, perceived severity of COVID-19 and animosity towards China are included in the model.

Design/Methodology/Approach

An online questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 256 international tourists in April 2020.SmartPLS was employed to explore the validity, fit of the proposed research model, andhypothesized paths.

Findings

Findings show that risk avoidance influences willingness to travel domestically and internationally. Animosity increases risk avoidance. Self-efficacy, perceived severity and animosity only partially explain willingness to travel.

Originality/value

Animosity towards Chinese travelers and Chinese travel destinations has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study proposes a model designed to provide a broader conceptualization of travel behavior during a pandemic to explain the possible consequences on both domestic and international travel.

Limitations/Implications

The sample is predominantly young, female and university educated. Thus, results may not be generalizable to the general public. Practitioners benefit from the findings. Actions to protect travelers have to be implemented and marketed in order to attract tourism. Easy to implement measures are especially important for domestic travelers.

TOUR 2021

The future of travel: The COVID-19 effects in travel intention based on psychometric variables

covid-19; animosity; risk avoidance; travel

Dear Delegates, 

On behalf of the organizing committee at UCF Rosen College of Hospitality Management and Elsevier, I have the greatest pleasure to welcome you to the **6th World Research Summit for Tourism and Hospitality: Resilience, Adaptability, and Innovation.** 

Though we cannot host you this year owing to Covid-19 at our beautiful resort-like campus in Orlando, Florida, we believe this virtual and live-streamed conference will provide an interactive, dynamic, and shared international platform for global academics and practitioners to discuss how to enhance research applications and knowledge management through resilience, adaptability, digital intelligence, innovation, and smart knowledge in bringing our industry and research back to normal. This summit particularly offers unique opportunities to unfold and embrace various repercussions of COVID-19 pandemic with various stakeholders, including academic researchers, industry professionals, and government officials, through dialogues on how to better utilize research outputs for the benefits of the industry, in a resilient, intelligent and innovative way. 

I hope you will agree that we have put together a wonderful program including keynote speeches, panel discussions, concurrent presentations, poster sessions, and best paper recognition and award ceremony. We hope you will take advantage of these activities and engage yourself with great learning and sharing opportunities during the two days of the Summit. Thank you for joining us and we look forward to our discussions! 

Sincerely, 
Dr. Youcheng Wang 
Dean and Preeminent Chair Professor

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One vital job behavior that hospitality organizations should support is helping behavior, as it represents employees’ proactive and reactive responses to the needs of their colleagues (Hwang et al., 2021) and plays a critical role in various service aspects (e.g., Zou et al., 2015; Kim et al., 2018; Özduran and Tanova, 2017). However, there is a paucity of research on how to support employees to engage in helping behavior. Thus, the aim of this study is to increase the understanding of how an employee’s living a calling and cooperative organizational culture impact their workplace well-being, and ultimately their helping behavior toward coworkers. The sample was collected from US hospitality employees using an MTurk panel. Partial Least Squares structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis were used to explain the proposed model. Results revealed that living a calling and cooperative organizational culture positively influenced both workplace well-being and helping behavior, respectively, and workplace well-being positively influenced helping behavior. Additionally, cooperative organizational culture and workplace well-being were significant mediators between living a calling and helping behavior. Cooperative organizational culture was vital for female employees to engage in helping behavior, while the impact of workplace well-being on helping behavior was more important for male employees. This study advances the understanding of employee’s helping behavior by unveiling new motivators (i.e., living a calling, cooperative organization culture, workplace well-being) and extends the understanding of organizational support theory and social identity theory. The study also demonstrates that gender has a significant influence on helping behaviors. Hospitality managers will benefit from this research by understanding the importance of employee’s social identifications and the necessary supportive workplace environment to elevate employee’s well-being and their helping behavior toward coworkers, a critical aspect to increase competitive advantage for organizational success.

The effect of cooperative organizational culture and gender on helping behavior

Perceived supervisor support (PSS) has been repeatedly linked to positive outcomes for employees and recent researchers have examined PSS’s ability to buffer the effects of negative workplace experiences (Ng & Sorensen, 2008; Patzelt et al., 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, popular press articles have emphasized the high prevalence of customer mistreatment in the hospitality sector. The present study sought to examine whether PSS would buffer the negative impacts of mistreatment anxiety on job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and mental health.

125 U.S. adults currently employed in the hospitality industry completed an online survey in Spring 2021. Self-report scales were used to measure the constructs of interest. The sample was primarily Caucasian (87.9%) and female (61.3%), and the majority (96.3%) worked in theme parks.

The anticipated relationships were tested with hierarchical linear regression. Mistreatment anxiety and PSS were mean-centered, then entered at step 1. A multiplicative interaction term was entered into step 2. A non-significant R2 change (ΔR2= 0.00, p = n.s.) indicated that the addition of the interaction term did not significantly improve prediction of job satisfaction. However, the interaction term did predict life satisfaction (b=0.06, p<.05) and mental health (b=0.06, p<.01). Further examination of the nature of these interactions confirmed the anticipated buffering effects.

The findings suggest that, for hospitality workers, the negative effects of anticipated mistreatment on mental health and life satisfaction can be buffered by supportive supervision. Considering the high levels of mistreatment anxiety experienced by faced by hospitality employees in this sample (M=5.20, SD=1.80, range=1-7), it is critical that hospitality supervisors provide their employees with the support they need. This finding contributes to a rich body of literature demonstrating the importance of supportive supervision.

Hospitality workers’ experiences with mistreatment anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic

Currently, the number of countries dealing with lack of qualified workforce is on the rise. On the opposite direction of that trend, the number of refugees continues increasing worldwide. These individuals have diverse experience and, in this conjecture, emerge as a workforce opportunity. The main question of this study is “Why the integration of refugees, under the lens of diversity, could become a value proposition for companies in the food and beverage sector?” To answer the question, this research draws on UNHCR Global Trends Report (2020), the National Committee for Refugees (CONARE), and UNHCR’s Socioeconomic Profile of Refugees in Brazil’s (2019) data. Information regarding refugees and their importance as qualified workforce was sought in the reports. According to UNHCR Global Trends Report (2020), until the end of 2019, 79.5 million people were forced to leave their home countries for several reasons. These displacements reached more than 1% of humankind and nearly doubled in the last 10 years. According to CONARE data, the presence of refugees is dramatically increasing in Brazil. Based on CONARE’s Plenary Decisions Interactive Platform, until 2021, Brazil welcomed 71.820 asylum requests. These requests came from 107 nationalities. According to UNHCR’s Refugees Socioeconomic Profile (2019), these refugees have a high linguistic and educational capital, above Brazilian average. According to the survey, among the 487 refugees interviewed, 6.37% speak 4 languages or more, 37.99% speak 3 languages, 45.17% speak 2 languages, and only 10.47% speak only one. By observing the level of education, the survey points out that 34.4% have higher education. Therefore, the data shows that these individuals are of interest for working in food and beverage establishments. The details of this study and their validation will be conducted through empirical research in 2022.

The integration of refugees in food and beverage establishments in Brazil – A documental analysis

In light of increasing globalization, intercultural competencies are playing an important role in people’s ability to perform effectively in workplaces characterized by culturally diverse group interaction.Emotional intelligence (EI), or the intelligent use of emotions, is being recognized as a significant factor at work, and it can be enhancedthrough proper EI training interventions.Cultural intelligence (CQ) is defined aspeople’s success when adjusting to another culture in the workplace, and has the ability to leverage differences by bridging cultural differences in the international hospitality industry when dealing with customers from various backgrounds. It is crucial for professionals in the tourism industry to have both cultural and emotional intelligences in order to interact with others constructively and effectively.Although evidence for the relationship between EI and cultural adjustment is supported, there has been no investigation of the relationship between them among tour guides, who act as intermediaries between tourists from different countries or cultural backgrounds and an unfamiliar environment. In addition,research has identified that the competencies of EI can be learned and enhanced through proper training techniques. Once learned, the abilities of both EI and CQ can be improved, which in turn allows an individual to become more confident in appropriately and effectively completing tasks.Therefore, the purpose of study is to investigate how tour guides’ CQ is influenced by EI.Due to the generous support of the Taiwan Tourist Guide Association, a total of 482 individuals who completed all items were included for analysis. The obtained results through SEM indicated thatCQ andEI were positively correlated; tour guides with higherEIlevels reported having moreCQ abilities.The results are consistent with previous research showing these relationships for other settings. Based on the findings, the managerial implications and suggestions are proposed for the tour guides.

The relationship between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Cultural Intelligence (CQ): An examination among Tour Guides

The purpose of this study is to clarify the role of human resource training programs in tourism implemented in collaboration with universities and governmental organizations, such as the local federation. In Japan, approximately 70% of hospitality companies are small and mid-size enterprises without large labor budgets. Therefore, OJT and Off-JT implemented by each company is limited, making human resource training programs provided in collaboration with local governments and local tourism educations essential. In this study, we evaluated the Ishikawa Tourism Creation School organized by the Ishikawa Prefecture Tourism Federation as a case study. The program, supervised by the Japan Advanced Institution of Science and Technology, JAIST, started in 2016. The goal is to revitalize the local region and grow the tourism business by developing human resources involved in the tourism industry. The main participants in this program are hospitality industry workers and small business owners, with a wide range of age groups and various professions. Their objective was to network with other participants to improve their abilities, generate new business opportunities and enhance their knowledge of tourism, which will help them to create new ideas. The qualitative data was gathered from semi-structured interviews of participants of the program which proved that the knowledge gained in the program helped them with their routine work and encouraged innovation. Apparently, the program played a role as an additional education to human resources development training within the enterprise and education provided by educational institutions, such as universities. The program is a good example of cross-boundary learning, meaning the program has the function of community of practice. Furthermore, it has proved to have a positive influence on the career development of people working in the hospitality industry.

A study on human resource development programs in tourism: Case of Ishikawa, Japan

The hotel sector is vulnerable to sex trafficking given its ease of access to buyers, ability to pay in cash, and maximum privacy for guests. Sex trafficking may occur with victims who are compelled to provide commercial sex through force, fraud, or coercion. An estimated 80% of all human trafficking arrests occur in or around hotels. Major global hotel brands are accused of profiting from sex trafficking, which suffered severe losses and long-term brand damage. The goals of the study are a) to investigate the barriers and opportunities of counter sex trafficking in the hotel sector. b) to suggest the optimal strategy of counter sex trafficking for the hospitality practitioners. The study utilized qualitative data of 30 interviews with hotel managers in the United States to address the following research questions: a) What are the current policies in place in the hotel sector to prevent sex trafficking? b) What are the stakeholders that are involved in counter sex trafficking in the hotel sector? c) What barriers and opportunities are there for hospitality practitioners to fight against sex trafficking? Through thematic coding and analysis, the findings indicate four pillars in the proposed hotel anti-trafficking actions framework: an inclusive climate that empowers and nurtures “thinking employees”; constant awareness promotions through pre-shifts and signage; collaborations with local law enforcement and external partners; resources and budgeting for advanced detection technologies. This study is significant because it evaluates the vulnerabilities of the hotel sector to trafficking crimes, accesses the effectiveness of anti-trafficking measures, and identifies key factors to executing anti-trafficking policies at hotels.

No room for trafficking: Investigating sex trafficking SOPs in the hotel sector

Tourism Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises (MSMEs) have been forced to shut down with limited opportunities of reopening and contributing to the tourism sector. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Future Tourism Project seeks to enable the digitization of MSMEs in the Eastern Caribbean to allow these businesses to shift and capture new and emerging markets in the tourism industry. The Future Tourism Project has been implemented by The University of the West Indies, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and the UNDP.

A training needs assessment was conducted to capture the training areas most needed by MSMEs in the Eastern Caribbean and to develop curriculum to digitally transform these businesses. Two hundred and sixty (260) businesses responded to questions relating to the characteristics of the businesses, preferences of training times and modular structure, priority short courses and priority aspects of business operations, and relevant subject matters given the recovery of tourism businesses from the global pandemic, and demographic information about the respondent. The survey was conducted online using a database of 900 businesses that signed up to an Open Call across the ten (10) Eastern Caribbean countries.



Figure 1 First Priority Short Course





The results show that marketing, financial planning and digital technologies are three (3) first priority areas of training (Figure 1). Statistically significant results were received based on K-Wallis tests for groups of respondents based on the length in business. Financial planning was important for businesses 3 years and less and business planning was important for businesses 4-9 years in business. These findings contribute to understanding the capacity building needs of tourism MSMEs that contribute to tourism management and development.

Training needs assessment of tourism MSMEs in the Eastern Caribbean

Ensuring the welfare of the resıdents in tourıst destinations are of paramount importance for the tourism service providers and responsible government authorities. Hence, the local communities retain significant measures of control over the tourıst destinations in which they reside. Economic, social and cultural exchanges between tourists and such communities often determines the attractiveness of tourist destinations. However, the Covid-19 pandemic may have caused significant psychological and behavioural changes among those communities. For instance, the fear of getting infected with diseases from tourists a major concern for resıdents in tourıst destinations. On the contrary, positive attitudes from the residents toward tourists are essential for the revival hospitality and tourism sector from in the post-Covid-19 era. This study aims to empirically investigate the roles of xenophobia, fear of getting infected, economic commitments, perceived risk, and emotional solidarity on the in the attitude of the resıdents in tourıst destinations. Cross-sectional data is being collected from field studies in Antalya, a popular Mediterranean Destinations in Southern Turkey. At the completion, this study may offer important insights about engaging local communities in tourist destinations to the hospitality and tourism service providers and concerned government authorities. Further, this study is potentially a significant addition to the literature on residents' involvement at tourist destinations.

Impact of the Covıd-19 Pandemic on the resıdents in tourıst destinations: Evidence from coastal Turkey

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are responsible for more than seventy-five percent of the hotel ownership structure in the USA. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all REITs markets were severely affected. Mandatory lockdowns and mobility restrictions affected several businesses, especially in the service sectors. Unsurprisingly, the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on hotel REITs were devastating due to the unpredictability of revenues and cash flows, directly impacting managerial decisions on how to adapt REITs' capital structure quickly. Understand the risks associated with the capital structure decision and how these determinants are affected by crises, catastrophes, and unprecedented extreme situations that can abruptly affect the revenue and cash flow generation is crucial not only to REIT managers but especially for regulators, lawmakers, and all real estate sector stakeholders impacted by unexpected market volatility. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand the moderating effects of COVID-19 on hotel REITs' capital structure determinants. This paper used quarterly hotel REIT financial data of the 18 most representative U.S. H-REITs from January 2015 through December 2020, which does not include other financial crises or extreme lockdown situations other than the COVID-19 pandemic. Collecting a panel data of 472 observations, this study found robust empirical evidence that confirms COVID-19 moderates the relationships between hotel REITs' capital structure and its determinants. Adapting constructs from the Pecking Order Theory (POT) and Trade-off Theory (TOT), this study found that hotel REITs profitability and size significantly impacted their capital structure only during the pandemic; hotel REITs growth potential is a significant determinant before and during the pandemic, and hotel REITs tangibility of assets and interest coverage did not impact their capital structure nor before, nor during the crisis. The results, theoretical contributions, and managerial implications were deeply explored in the final section.

The moderating effects of covid-19 on hotel real estate investment trusts' capital structure determinants

Introduction: Saudi Arabia began welcoming international tourists in 2018. Before that, Saudi Arabia was known only for religious tourism. However, there is little to no research conducted in Saudi Arabia regarding tourism, international tourists, or tourists’ overall satisfaction.

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the social and economic impact on domestic and international tourists after visiting the Western Region of Saudi Arabia.

Methods: This research employed an online quantitative questionnaire to measure the dependent and independent variables of the research. The dependent variables including tourists’ satisfaction, revisit intention, and eWOM. The independent variables include social media exposure, expectations, and understanding of the local culture, quality of tourism service, rapport, and economic expenditures. The chosen sample included domestic travelers who are visiting from other regions of Saudi Arabia and international travelers who are visiting from other countries.

Results: Results indicate that tourists who experienced high-quality services and products are more satisfied with their decision to visit the western region. Moreover, domestic and international tourists who had researched the culture of Saudi Arabia and are generally interested in knowing more about its culture, are more satisfied with their visit to the Western region. Survey results also indicate that tourists who had positive social interaction with locals and employees are more satisfied with their decision to visit the Western region. Additionally, tourists who had lower expectations of the Western region are more satisfied with their decision to visit the region than tourists who had higher expectations. Lastly, tourists who spent less are more satisfied.

Implications: Results of the research can aid hoteliers and event managers to assess their current level of services presented to customers and work alongside businesses to improve them and exceed visitors’ expectations.

The future of travel: The COVID-19 effects in travel intention based on psychometric variables

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The effect of cooperative organizational culture and gender on helping behavior

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