Abstract
The current COVID-19 pandemic, and the related social distancing policies adopted in many countries, are deeply affecting consumers’ perceptions towards crowding. This study tries to understand in particular if the perceived human and spatial crowding might increase consumers’ health risk, with an impact on intentions to buy, and if corporate reputation can reduce such impact. As tourism and hospitality is one the sectors most susceptible to the current COVID-19 health crisis, we focus our empirical study on the cruise industry. The empirical study was conducted on a sample of cruise passengers using a structured questionnaire submitted online. Overall, 447 individuals’ responses were used for understanding such relationships by performing a regression model. The results indicate that both human and spatial crowding seem to influence people’s perceived health risk, while corporate reputation does not seem to reduce such deterring impact. The study presents several managerial implications for different service industries, as in the cruise package the customer can find many different services, from restaurant to shopping. The results, in fact, may be useful for better understanding how to cope with COVID-19.
Highlights
The current COVID-19 pandemic, and the related social distancing policies adopted in many countries, are deeply affecting consumers’ perceptions towards crowding
It is well known that tourism and hospitability activities can increase the risk of getting COVID-19, facilitating the spread of the virus
Extant literature is focused on the impact on the behavioral intentions, while the relationship between crowding perceptions and the perceived risk during the COVID-19 pandemic is still an unexplored topic both in the strategic management field and in the marketing studies, notwithstanding crowding is one of the principal risk factor
Summary
The current COVID-19 pandemic, and the related social distancing policies adopted in many countries, are deeply affecting consumers’ perceptions towards crowding. Governments at a global level have imposed social distancing to slow down the transmission and spread of the coronavirus, which is referred to a wide portfolio of prevention activities (e.g. voluntary or mandatory self-quarantine, smart working, service at a distance) (Tuzovic et al, 2020). With these social distancing policies, people have been encouraged to avoid mass gatherings. Densely crowded places (e.g. schools, universities, government offices, libraries, museums, and factories) have been closed at the peak of the outbreak Taking in account these premises, the present COVID-19 pandemic stimulates the interest about crowding and its impact on the perceived health risk
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