Factors Affecting the Tourists' Approach to Health and Safety Information in Reviews During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic that has been significantly affecting global economics in the last few years has strongly influenced the tourism industry. Given its up-to-now development, we can expect that it will be one of the main factors affecting the tourism industry even in the upcoming period of time. The accelerated digitalization of the field in the last decade significantly changed the consumers' position. They quickly became highly informed tourists who are exceedingly oriented in the offers. The expansion of content that the consumers jointly formed has contributed substantially to this situation, representing an essential source of sharing experience. At the same time, this information is essential for the initial purchasing stage from other customers' points of view. The flexibility of this way of communicating subsequently enhanced the development of mobile technology that modified in time and content of the tourists' consumer behavior model associated with the field of the online tourism market.

The current form of digital tourist is also connected with the ability to use such information to a greater extent, eliminating the risk connected with the choice of final destination and service itself. The significance of information has risen with the numerosity of the tourists' trips and the turnout of new destinations. Social media have been playing a significant role in this process of purchasing decisions for quite some time now. Still, the review systems also play an important role apart from social media. The digitalization of the tourism market brought in its development an incredible extent of information with which the current tourists can work. However, on the other side, it creates a large quantity of information that they have to work through in order to get relevant results. The period of last two years that was affected by the coronavirus crisis has nevertheless significantly affected not only the frequency of traveling, but it is also gradually showing in the consumers' attitude. Among the factors that recently played a significant informational role is relatively a new piece of information of medical nature that has a direct connection to the changes that affected tourism from the ongoing coronavirus crisis point of view. The question remaining is what role and significance the current consumers are assigning to this information. It is also important to investigate what factors affect their willingness to include this information in their decision-making. In this article, we are proceeding from extensive research oriented on online reputation management that took place within a study that was realized at the turn of the years 2021 and 2022.

Citation

Vasko, M., Volfova, N. and Zikova, A. (2023), "Factors Affecting the Tourists' Approach to Health and Safety Information in Reviews During the COVID-19 Pandemic", Rialti, R., Kvítková, Z. and Makovník, T. (Ed.) Online Reputation Management in Destination and Hospitality, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 131-148. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80382-375-120231007