Abstract
The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) has led to a global panic due to its fatal nature which has harshly impacted the tourist sector and on the place reputation in general. This study aims to compare the factors that develop tourist preferences in terms of (i) what drives the favorability of tourist preferences? (ii) what relationship exists between tourist expectations, proximity, and favorable reputation? and (iii) what are the main influences of tourist preferences on hospitality system competitiveness pre and post Covid-19? By employing structural equation modeling, this study advances knowledge into the research variables’ relationships and advances reputation and marketing performance and practices in the hospitality industry.
Highlights
The magnitude and severity of the Covid-19 pandemic have dealt a heavy blow to the world travel and tourism sector, with profound economic and social repercussions (Mathieson and Wall 1982; Sigala 2020) on the entire supply chain and on the hospitality system, in particular
The aim of the study is to provide insights that will help hospitality system to understand and interpret new tourist preferences that can build new normality, based on alternative formulas to capture tourists in line with emerging market sensitivities. Considering these arguments and this new context, the current research aims to provide responses to the following queries: (i) Which factors develop tourist preferences? (ii) What drives the favorability of tourist preferences? (iii) Is there a relationship between tourist expectations, proximity, and favorable reputation? and (iv) What are the main influences of tourist preferences on hospitality system competitiveness?
The research seeks to examine preferences of tourist about factors that potentially explain expectations, proximity, and reputation and to study whether and how the tourist preferences may influence the hospitality system competitiveness in pre-Covid-19 and during and post-Covid-19 pandemic, using empirical testing of data collected on a sample of 441 tourists in Italy
Summary
The magnitude and severity of the Covid-19 pandemic have dealt a heavy blow to the world travel and tourism sector, with profound economic and social repercussions (Mathieson and Wall 1982; Sigala 2020) on the entire supply chain and on the hospitality system, in particular. The firm’s ability to collect and use information about customer needs, called market-sensing capabilities (Likoum et al 2018), has a positive influence on tourist services planning and need to be constantly increased, in order to intercept future requirements and desires of the demand This ability to sense and react to the changes of consumer needs and desires, especially linked to crisis events, updating and increasing the value offering, represents a critical factor for maintaining and increasing competitiveness of the hospitality system and the corporate reputation as well (Chun 2005; Kircova and Esen 2018; Pritchard and Wilson 2018). We formulated the last hypothesis: H4 Tourist preferences have a positive effect on hospitality system competitiveness
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