Mobility Restrictions Research Articles

Beyond fear and safety: revenge travel and international tourists’ intentions in the post-crisis era

Purpose This study aims to investigate the evolving travel intentions of tourists in the aftermath of the relaxation of international mobility restrictions in 2022. It aims to understand how the concept of “revenge travel” – travelling with the intent to make up for lost time during crisis periods – impacts tourists' travel intentions in the post-crisis era. Design/methodology/approach Employing a quantitative approach, the study uses Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Data were collected through a survey of 320 respondents in 2022. This methodology enables a comprehensive understanding of travel intentions, including motivations, perceptions of destination safety and the influence of revenge travel. Findings The findings reveal that revenge travel is a significant predictor of travel intentions post-crisis. The results indicate that tourists are less concerned with health and safety and are more driven by the desire to compensate for lost travel opportunities. This shift suggests that travel intentions in the post-crisis era are not predominantly fear-induced. The study also offers insights into how these intentions can inform the recovery and sustainable planning of the tourism industry. Originality/value This paper recognises the impact of revenge travel on travel intentions following the lifting of crisis-related mobility restrictions. It provides novel insights into tourists' post-crisis travel behaviour, extending the understanding of travel motivations in extraordinary circumstances. The findings are valuable for tourism practitioners and researchers, offering guidance for future tourism development and marketing strategies within a post-crisis context.

How Do COVID-19 Job Loss and Workplace Closures Affect COVID-19 Policy Satisfaction and Conspiracy Beliefs?

The COVID-19 mobility restrictions, including workplace closures, introduced by national governments led to disruption of social and economic life including job loss. With the job loss, the victims may encounter social and economic threats which can prompt them to show less support for the government that introduced the workplace closures which led to their job loss. Thus, this study investigates whether job loss resulting from COVID-19 prompts COVID-19 anti-cohesive attitudes (dissatisfaction with government’s response to COVID-19, and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs) in Europe; and whether strictness of workplace closures moderates the first proposition. The focus is on Europe because the degree of job loss and workplace closures vary between countries. With some COVID-19 items from the round 10 data of the European Social Survey conducted between 2021 and 2023, and independent context indices, the propositions are tested using a mixed model having about 142 groups and 25000 observations. The model formula has COVID-19 anti-cohesive attitudes as the response variable, COVID-19 job loss as the predictor variable at individual level, while COVID-19 workplace closures is the context variable. The findings support the hypotheses: COVID-19 job losers (compared to COVID-19 job keepers) are about 20percent more likely to show anti-cohesive attitudes; also, COVID-19 anti-cohesive attitudes are more predominant among COVID-19 job losers where workplace closures are very strict compared to where workplace closures are low. These findings are useful for policy makers in future pandemic management. Also, scientists may find the results useful for research on socioeconomic threats, public policy and cohesive attitudes.

Asociación entre el empleo informal y los casos positivos de COVID-19 en el Perú

Objectives: To identify the association between the number of informal employees and the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Peru. Methods: Data from the Peruvian National Institute of Statistics and Informatics and the National COVID-19 database were used. Bivariate linear regression and multivariate logistic regression were performed to evaluate the number of informal employees, population density, and altitude in relation to the number of COVID-19 positive cases. Results: Bivariate analysis showed that the number of informal employees was significantly associated with the number of COVID-19 positive cases in both high and low altitude regions (p<0.001). In the multivariate analysis, it was found that the number of informal employees (p<0.001), population density (p=0.02), and altitude (p<0.001) were associated with the number of COVID-19 positive cases. Conclusions: Informal employees are common in low- and middle-income countries where there is no social security and they are economically dependent on daily wages. Their situation worsened due to social mobility restrictions, forcing them to continue working and, consequently, becoming quickly infected, further contributing as a contagion focus.

Analyzing post-COVID-19 demographic and mobility changes in Andalusia using mobile phone data

This work studies changes in the demographics of the different spatial units that make up the Andalusia region in Spain throughout the year 2021, with the aim of seeing the progressive recovery of the population after the COVID-19 pandemic. Mobile phone data from Origin–Destination matrices has been used, due to the ease of obtaining updated information quickly and constantly. A methodology has been developed to transform the number of travelers into an estimated population without biases, and an interpolation function has been used to take into account all the data available in the year 2021. Results show a direct link between the demographic changes in Andalusia and the removal of the mobility restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with an increase of non-related work mobility and a decrease of static population. Travel distances between home and work places are also affected, with an increase of long trips after the end of the mobility restrictions. In addition, different patterns have been visualized, such as the concentration of commuting in the metropolitan areas of the region during working days, the population growth in rural areas during weekends, or the population displacement to coastal areas in summer.

The impact of COVID-19 on sport hunting in Spain

ABSTRACT Sport hunting is considered a multifunctional and key activity in rural Europe, and after the first COVID-19 outbreaks in 2020, it was restrained in many countries, such as Spain. This study found that during the first year of pandemics the number of hunting licences was reduced by 9%, and hunting was overall decreased but varied among types of hunting, game species and commercial and non-commercial hunting (from 17 to 95%). COVID-19 negatively impacted hunting providers and the game meat industry, and the game bag was reduced for 80% of the species from 2019 to 2020. Mobility restrictions affected mainly hunting requiring several people and ‘non-local’ hunters. In 2021 the game bag returned partially to pre-COVID-19 levels, but the number of licences continued a sustained negative trend. In the likely event of future lockdowns, it will be useful for policy makers to consider hunting as performing essential functions, such as species and disease control, habitat management and wildlife monitoring.

Post-pandemic Recovery of Transit Ridership and Revenue in Canada

Four years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Canada’s public transit ridership and farebox revenues remain below pre-pandemic levels. Despite the lifting of mobility and assembly restrictions and significant population growth in the past two years due to an influx of immigrants, foreign students, and temporary workers, transit ridership and revenues have not recovered. The pandemic restrictions caused an 84 percent drop in ridership and farebox revenues. Despite the slow recovery, urban transit ridership in Canada is expected to reach the pre-pandemic level by 2026.

The influence of cross-border mobility on the COVID-19 epidemic in Nordic countries.

Restrictions of cross-border mobility are typically used to prevent an emerging disease from entering a country in order to slow down its spread. However, such interventions can come with a significant societal cost and should thus be based on careful analysis and quantitative understanding on their effects. To this end, we model the influence of cross-border mobility on the spread of COVID-19 during 2020 in the neighbouring Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. We investigate the immediate impact of cross-border travel on disease spread and employ counterfactual scenarios to explore the cumulative effects of introducing additional infected individuals into a population during the ongoing epidemic. Our results indicate that the effect of inter-country mobility on epidemic growth is non-negligible essentially when there is sizeable mobility from a high prevalence country or countries to a low prevalence one. Our findings underscore the critical importance of accurate data and models on both epidemic progression and travel patterns in informing decisions related to inter-country mobility restrictions.

‘Whatever we have is what we eat’: How marginalised urban populations in the Philippines and Thailand experienced their food environments, food security and diets through COVID-19

This qualitative cross-country comparative study investigated the lived experience of marginalised urban populations (unemployed, daily wage earners/street vendors, and internal/external migrants) in Manila (Philippines) and Bangkok (Thailand) on food environments, food security and diets during COVID-19. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with individuals (n = 59) in April–May 2022. Thematic analysis revealed loss of income and strict mobility restrictions (Philippines) as key drivers of dietary changes and hunger. Common narratives included financial hardship, loss of personal agency, and daily survival. Coping strategies included drawing on social networks, cash and food aid, and ‘scheming’ around restrictions. Contextualised crisis policy planning should explicitly consider the lived experience of marginalised populations for future shocks.

Impact of a Specifically Designed Model of Care in an Outpatient Coronary Angioplasty Program

Background: An outpatient model of care for percutaneous coronary procedures called Radial Lounge (RL) was designed at our center. Patients wear their own clothes throughout their stay, with no mobility restrictions and without fasting. Before and after the procedure, they remain in an armchair accompanied by a family member until discharge, without continuous monitoring, under the supervision of a nurse dedicated exclusively to this area. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the RL model of care, the same-day discharge (SDD) rate, patient experience, and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE): in-hospital mortality, overall mortality, and re-hospitalization at 30 days Methods: A retrospective observational cohort study was conducted at a cardiovascular center, including consecutively enrolled patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the RL. Results: A total of 2102 elective PCI procedures were included under the RL model. The SDD rate was 85.3% in the first year of its implementation (2018) and reached 89% in 2022. Assessing patient experience, the average score obtained through the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey was 9.61/10. The rate of MACE was not higher than that reported in the literature. Conclusion: The PCI program in the RL proved to be a safe and effective model in our experience.

ANALISIS DAMPAK PANDEMI COVID-19 TERHADAP NERACA PERDAGANGAN DI KAWASAN ASIA TAHUN 2020

This study aims to determine the extent of the impact of Pandemic Covid-19 on the trade balances of countries in the Asian Region. Furthermore, the independent variables used in the study include real exchange rates, gross domestic product, pandemic covid-19 and interaction of pandemic covid-19 with gross domestic product. Pandemic Covid-19 variable uses the number of positive confirmed cases of this virus. The dependent variable in the study is the trade balance. The data used are secondary data obtained from the World Bank, Financial Data & Economic Indicators (CEIC) and Trading Economics, covering 30 countries in the Asian Region for the period I-IV year 2020. This study uses the balanced panel data method with the fixed effect model (FEM). The research used the estimation technique of fixed effect model (FEM), which was selected based on the result of the Chow and Hausman test. The results show that Pandemic Covid-19 affects the aggregate supply side, namely production activities in a country due to mobility restrictions, so that the level of output produced will experience a decline. When the level of output in a country decreases, it will have an impact on the level of demand for goods and services demanded by people abroad. Pandemic Covid-19, real exchange rate and gross domestic product variable had a negative effect on the trade balance. If there is an increase of pandemic covid-19 cases, it will later affect on the decrease of ecport activities. Likewise, if there is an increase on gross domestic product and real exchange rate, it will later affect on the increase of import activities. This negative affect will result a deficit in trade balance.

Improving Employee Performance Effectiveness Strategy In Implementing Hybrid Working At Switching Service Companies

One of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on industries in Indonesia is the implementation of strict mobility restrictions, including in the IT industry. The increased demand for online services and information technology has driven development and innovation to create new ideas in the application of information technology across various fields, such as e-commerce, online learning, work from home (WFH), and others. This study aims to analyze the factors influencing employee performance and formulate strategies to improve employee performance effectiveness in the implementation of a hybrid work system in switching service companies. The study involves 83 samples using probability sampling techniques with simple random sampling. Data processing employs the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) method and the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method. The results show that Work Environment, Technology Infrastructure, Work Efficiency, and Intrinsic Motivation have a significant direct impact on Employee Performance, and Work Autonomy has a significant indirect impact through the Intrinsic Motivation variable on Employee Performance. However, Work Autonomy does not have a significant direct impact on Employee Performance. Several recommendations include efforts to address issues hindering performance achievement, particularly in cases where employees experience a decline in performance when the hybrid work system is implemented. To enhance employee performance, companies can take strategic steps in several crucial aspects, such as work environment, technology infrastructure, work efficiency, and intrinsic motivation.

Food and family care during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study of women's domestic workload during the first wave in Chile.

This study aimed to explore women's perceptions of domestic work related to food and family care during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Chile and its association with sociodemographic and health variables. We conducted a cross-sectional, analytical, non-probabilistic study. A sample of 2047 women answered an online self-report survey that included a Likert scale about the perception of domestic work associated with food. The survey also included an open comment section. The survey was available between May and June 2020, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and when most of the country had some degree of mobility restriction. 70.2% of participants perceived their domestic work as "regular"; being younger, having a higher educational level, caring for children or the elderly, and having worse self-perception of mental and general health status increased the chances of having a lower perception of the burden of these tasks. In comments, women declared how heavy the domestic work was, the challenges of being together with their families and of paid job requirements, and how family demands from them increased. Most women felt that their domestic work was heavier during this pandemic period: some groups of women could be at risk of being more affected by this extra workload at home. The importance of interventions and public policies with a gender perspective becomes relevant, considering the role of women in the home and the necessity to generate a social change regarding the domestic burden associated with gender.

Tungiasis among children in Kenya is associated with poor nutrition status, absenteeism, poor school performance and high impact on quality of life.

Tungiasis is a highly neglected tropical skin disease caused by the sand flea, Tunga penetrans. The flea burrows into the skin inducing a strong inflammatory response, leading to pain and mobility restrictions with potential impacts on quality of life. Few countries implement control efforts and there are few data on the impact of the disease to support policy decisions. We conducted a survey to determine the impact of tungiasis among primary school children across nine counties of Kenya. A total of 10,600 pupils aged 8 to 14 years were randomly selected from 97 primary schools and examined for tungiasis. For 81 cases and 578 randomly selected controls, anthropometric measurements were made, and school attendance and exam scores were collected from school records. Of those with tungiasis, 73 were interviewed regarding their quality of life using a tungiasis-specific instrument. Mixed effect ordered logistic and linear models were used to assess associations between disease status and impact variables. Compared to uninfected pupils, those with tungiasis had lower weight-for-age z-scores (adjusted β -0.41, 95% CI: -0.75-0.06, p = 0.020), missed more days of school the previous term (adjusted Incidence Rate Ratio: 1.49, 95% CI: 1.01-2.21, p = 0.046) and were less likely to receive a high score in mathematics (aOR 0.18, 95% CI: 0.08-0.40, p<0.001) and other subjects. Pupils with severe disease (clinical score >10) were four times more likely to experience severe pain than those with mild disease (OR 3.96, 95% CI: 1.35-11.64, p = 0.012) and a higher impact on their quality of life than those with mild disease (aOR 3.57, 95% CI: 1.17-10.8, p = 0.025) when adjusted for covariates. This study has demonstrated tungiasis has a considerable impact on children's lives and academic achievement. This indicates the need for integrated disease management for school-aged children to protect their physical and cognitive development and their future prospects.

Participatory design of a virtual reality life review therapy system for palliative care

We present a novel Virtual Reality (VR) life review therapy system. Life review therapy is an intervention used by clinical psychologists, counselors, and social workers for patients under palliative care to systematically examine various life experiences to resolve conflicts and complete life tasks. The goal of the therapy is to narrativize the patient’s life before death in order to come to terms with their mortality. Our VR life review therapy system allows therapists to perform their interventions in customized virtual spaces designed to encourage the patient to reflect and reminisce about their life experiences. Our system is also developed in response to mobility restrictions and COVID-19 pandemic-related quarantine measures that have separated patients under palliative care from family and friends, resulting in emotional and psychological distress. As VR systems related to health are increasingly being used by therapists in their interventions, it is of utmost importance that the health professionals who will be the end users of these systems are involved in the design process to create ethical healthcare technologies. In response, we initiated the participatory design and evaluation of our VR life review therapy system prototype with six clinical psychologists who have practical experience delivering life review therapy to patients in palliative care in the Hong Kong hospital system. In the study, each participant experienced the VR life review therapy system and evaluated its strengths and weaknesses through semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data gathered from these interviews was coded according to nine different categories; avatars, content design, evaluation, haptic sensations, interaction, gesturing and gaze direction, movement and navigation, non-verbal communication, soundtrack. These conceptual categories were chosen based on our analysis of common themes reported by the clinical psychologists’ experience of the system. Feedback from clinical psychologists on each of these categories was incorporated into the redesign and update of the final system. Overall, participants generally evaluated the system as feasible and effective for use with patients under palliative care, while movement and interaction were the features requiring the most improvement.

Integrating Wastewater-Based Epidemiology and Mobility Data to Predict SARS-CoV-2 Cases

Wastewater-based epidemiology has garnered considerable research interest, concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictive public health interventions and mobility limitations are measures to avert a rising case prevalence. The current study integrates WBE monitoring strategies, Google mobility data, and restriction information to assess the epidemiological development of COVID-19. Various SARIMAX models were employed to predict SARS-CoV-2 cases in Liechtenstein and two Austrian regions. This study analyzes four primary strategies for examining the progression of the pandemic waves, described as follows: 1—a univariate model based on active cases; 2—a multivariate model incorporating active cases and WBE data; 3—a multivariate model considering active cases and mobility data; and 4—a sensitivity analysis of WBE and mobility data incorporating restriction policies. Our key discovery reveals that, while WBE for SARS-CoV-2 holds immense potential for monitoring COVID-19 on a societal level, incorporating the analysis of mobility data and restriction policies enhances the precision of the trained models in predicting the state of public health during the pandemic.

Impact of pandemic mobility restrictions on kidney transplant patients' experience: lessons on quality of care.

Patient perspectives on their post-operative health are acknowledged as valuable healthcare outcomes and should be scrupulously considered when designing interventions for patient-centered healthcare. Yet, following the COVID-19 lockdown and in the absence of standardized guidelines on how to best provide virtual chronic care to kidney transplant recipients, little is known about how this unique population coped and managed to comply with public health indications during confinement. This study addresses this shortcoming by examining the experiences of patients from a tertiary hospital in Spain during the initial weeks of the lockdown decreed by the national government. Specifically, we focus our attention on the perceptions and experiences of these patients by retrieving robust qualitative and quantitative data: the former based on a thematic analysis of focus group transcripts, the latter obtained from a large-scale survey. Our findings identify opportunities for improvement in the quality of care and point to the provisions that might be made when facing future pandemics or lockdown-requiring situations. As healthcare services navigate evolving landscapes, our findings on the experience of kidney transplant recipients should enable hospital services to improve the quality of care they are able to provide to such patients during periods of restricted mobility, especially those associated with future disease emergencies, and considering that home confinement is often part of the natural course of post-operative care of these patients.

COVID-19, Internal Transitions and Vulnerable Citizens: Narratives of the Migrant Crisis in India during the Pandemic

This article illustrates how the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic led to an internal migrant crisis in India, making the country realise the presence of physical borders within itself. Through a narrative analysis of the chronicles of internal migrant workers and the migrant crisis published in print media during the first wave of COVID-19, this article elucidates how internal borders within a country became impermeable, affecting the rights and well-being of vulnerable citizens, who were labelled ‘disease carriers’. The discrimination and othering faced by migrants aggravated during this period, making them more prone to fall through the cracks of the crisis. Although mobility restrictions were important public health tools to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 infections, they undoubtedly exacerbated the pre-existing socio-economic inequities and vulnerabilities. Problematising these aspects of the migrant crisis during the pandemic, this article proposes migration policies and governance through effective public communication, inclusive decisions and human rights as a way forward.

Alleviating loneliness during COVID-19: The impact of neighbor cohesion and social connections in England

This paper investigates the role of pre-pandemic levels of social interactions in mitigating the impact of mobility restrictions, implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19, on feelings of loneliness. Using individual-level data from the U.K. Household Longitudinal Study (U.K.HLS) on ’Understanding Society,’ we analyze the relationship between loneliness and both neighborhood social cohesion and individual social networks, both before and during the pandemic. Our analysis reveals that both social cohesion in the neighborhood where people live and good social relations (i.e., having close friends) play a protective role in alleviating the adverse effects of pandemic-related restrictions on loneliness. On the contrary, we do not find evidence of benefits coming from time spent on digital social networks. This underscores the critical importance of fostering and maintaining in person social connections, even in the face of challenges posed by the pandemic.

Social and spatial disparities in individuals’ mobility response time to COVID-19: A big data analysis incorporating changepoint detection and accelerated failure time models

Although an increasing number of studies have investigated the lag time between the outbreak of COVID-19 and behavior change, few have accurately measured response times to the epidemic at the individual scale as well as their social and spatial heterogeneities. Using a large-scale, long time series dataset of individual-level mobile phone trajectories from Shenzhen, China, we compared six changepoint detection (CPD) algorithms in terms of their performance in detecting true changepoints (CPs) in time series data of individuals’ daily travel distances. We found that the kernel-based CPD method outperformed other algorithms. We thus adopted this method to calculate Shenzhen residents’ mobility response times to the outbreak of COVID-19 and further used an accelerated failure time (AFT) model to explore factors affecting response times. The results suggest that the average and median mobility response times to the outbreak in Shenzhen were 4.64 days and 4 days, respectively. Males and the elderly responded more slowly to the outbreak, while responses were faster among residents in neighborhoods with a higher percentage of highly educated, married, or employed individuals; with better regional accessibility to the city center, railway stations, or the airport; and with higher residential density. These findings can assist policymakers in determining the policy timeline and re-assessing the effectiveness and equity impact of mobility restriction policies and designing more responsive policies varying by social groups and built environment features, helping build socially-resilient neighborhoods in the post-COVID era.

Correlation the Urban Mobility and COVID-19 Case in Yogyakarta City

COVID-19 is an outbreak that spreads mainly due to human interaction. Transmission is greater when there is a potential crowd. So, the main policy in dealing with the spread of COVID-19 is to limit interactions. Interaction restrictions are carried out in various ways from social distancing to mobility restrictions. Mobility restriction means reducing the movement of the population for various purposes of movement. The less movement the number of transmissions of COVID-19 cases will also decrease. However, in various studies it turns out that this is not always the case. Reducing movement does not necessarily reduce the number of positive cases. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find the correlation between population mobility and the spreading of COVID-19 cases in Yogyakarta City. Yogyakarta is one of the cities in Indonesia that is the epicentre of COVID-19. This research uses descriptive quantitative method and correlation analysis technique. The population mobility was obtained from primary data in the form of questionnaires, while COVID-19 cases were obtained from secondary data which provided by the Municipality of Yogyakarta City. The results of the analysis show that there is no correlation between the transportation mode choice and frequency of travel, and COVID-19 spreading. However, the travel time has a positive and significant correlation with the spreading of COVID-19.