Hospitality and COVID-19: a willingness to choose e-consultation owing to unemployment and home isolation

Abstract

PurposeCoronavirus disease (COVID-19) was declared as a pandemic since COVID-19's widespread outbreak and the hospitality industry has been the hardest hit due to lockdown. Consequently, hospitality workers are suffering from the negative aspects of mental health. In the event of such a crisis, this study aims to explore the link between unemployment and home isolation to the willingness to choose electronic consultation (e-consultation) by exploiting psychological ill-being and behavioural intention (BI) with marital status as a moderator.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative methodology is applied to primary data collected from 310 workers from the hospitality industry through an online survey.FindingsFindings of this study suggest that the usage of the e-consultation service can be adopted using three levels. There are valid reasons to conclude unemployment and home isolation are linked to higher rates of psychological health behaviours, which can result in stigma, loss of self-worth and increased mortality. The adverse effect is higher for single individuals than for married people.Originality/valueThe study focussed on e-consultation, BI coupled with the Fishbein scale and a classification model for the prediction of willingness to choose e-consultation with the extension of Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB).