Decoding domestic tourism customers’ emotional responses to covid-19: A segmentation approach

Abstract

ABSTRACT Tourists’ emotional responses to crises have been conceived from a unitary perspective despite the potential existence of different segments of emotional reactions. Using data from 412 residents drawn from Macau, this study segments their emotional responses toward the COVID-19 pandemic, characterizes the segments by their perceived travel risk and future travel intentions. The findings reveal that there are three segments of residents’ emotional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, namely deeply depressed, depressed, and phlegmatic. The deeply depressed have strong negative sentiments toward the pandemic with the highest perceived travel risk and least desire to travel in the future. The depressed have moderate negative emotions toward the pandemic with moderate perceived travel risk and desire to travel in the future while the phlegmatic have indifferent positive and negative emotions toward the pandemic with the least perceived travel risk and highest desire to travel in the future. The implications of these findings with regard to how to restart tourism with the domestic tourism market are discussed.