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The purpose of this paper is to explore the applicability of technology acceptance model (TAM) to explain the widespread acceptance and usage of social media (SM) for travel purposes by Indian outbound leisure travellers during their travel cycle.

The study has adopted a qualitative approach involving in-depth interviews of 30 respondents, who had taken at least one international vacation in the last 12 months. Content analysis was used to arrive at the conclusion.

Findings of the study are used to develop a conceptual model which upholds the validity of the TAM with perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) as determinants of SM usage. The model has been extended to include perceived trust (PT) and social capital (SC) as important constructs to explain the travellers’ use of SM. Disposition readiness (DR) of the user towards SM was found to have an effect on all the four constructs.

Theoretically, this study suggests a modification to the existing TAM, which shows a unidirectional effect of PU and PEU on attitude. This study suggests that the effect would be bi-directional where the attitude (DR) of the traveller towards SM usage will affect PU and PEU. Furthermore, this study extends the TAM to include PT and SC as important constructs to explain SM usage by travellers. This study provides valuable insights into the hospitality and tourism sector which might help in further segmentation of travellers leading to more customised service offerings.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it highlights the emergence of Generation Z and the interface of its members with the tourism system. Second, by way of a theoretical model, the paper provides a more holistic approach to understanding Generation Z travel experiences in which the emphasis is shifted from the destination to the traveller. This is in keeping with the trend which lays more emphasis on people rather than landscape.

This is qualitative research founded on an interpretive (constructivist) paradigm. Selecting Generation Z as the subject locates this study under generational theory and assumes prima facie a socially constructed reality. The paper is based on research conducted in New Zealand aimed at understanding the travel experiences of inbound Generation Z travellers. Data were collected from 12 semi-structured interviews lasting about 30 min each and from 5 blogs. Nvivo 11 programme was used in analysing data and developing themes. Core categories and related themes were generated forming building blocks of a theoretical model.

Findings revealed interplay of multiple factors in Generation Z’s travel experiences at a destination. The factors are global in nature, destination centric and those which are immediate or proximate to the individual. To fully grasp the notion of experience requires the gestalt of the three as well as pre-trip, during-trip and post-trip factors.

The impact of significant events upon participants is assumed. A specific analysis of the events and the magnitude of their influence on the individual participants may be necessary.

Destination marketers tend to concentrate on psychological aspects to appeal to the traveller. The focus, in this case, is creating an attractive image in the mind of travellers to get them to come to the destination. This research suggests shifting the focus to understanding the evolving traveller.

Governments and tourism purveyors may require an ever-increasing budget to map out strategies to meet the continuously morphing needs of the future traveller. The constantly evolving global environment necessitates greater flexibility in institutional framework with less bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Generation Z is a relatively new entrant into the tourism market which makes this research relevant and timely. The paucity of academic literature on a generation which is contemporaneously in its “highly influenceable” period of life and entering adulthood in an increasingly changing world is further credence for this research. A more holistic theoretical model to understanding Generation Z travel experience is proposed.

This study attempts to answer how values and holiday preferences were shaped by the pandemic, how travellers view the future of tourism and how they are willing to contribute to potential changes. Furthermore, it examines the impact of socio-structural background factors, basic values and holiday preferences, and pandemic-related factors on the views of post-pandemic tourism.

A longitudinal online survey was conducted in which 155 frequent travellers were interviewed both before and during the pandemic about their values and holiday preferences, attitudes towards travelling during the pandemic, and their prospective views regarding tourism.

The findings revealed that values remained rather stable, but nature experiences, heritage tourism and beach offers gained more relevance when it came to holiday preferences. Concerning travellers’ expectations of future tourism, environmental concern was ranked higher than economic profit. However, those striving for self-direction, stimulation and city tourism offers stated to be less willing to restrict their travel behaviour in the future.

Although our study is just based on a convenience sample, the authors were still able to address notable research gaps. First, because a longitudinal design was selected, it was possible to investigate any potential transitions in basic values and travel style and trace these changes back to the pandemic. Second, thanks to a sophisticated online survey, all concepts could be measured with well-developed scales, which increased the quality of the measurements and led to stable results. Third, young travellers can be considered proponents of future travel styles. Their way of acting and thinking about future tourism could significantly impact the prospective direction of tourism.

This study makes a valuable contribution to changing holiday preferences and provides useful insights for the tourism industry about travellers’ willingness to change their travel behaviour.

Since this study primarily considers human values and socio-structural factors, the findings are of particular interest from a sociological perspective and are also interpreted from this viewpoint.

This study is one of only a few longitudinal studies focusing on holiday preferences and shifting values during COVID-19 and attempting to detect crucial drivers of potential tourism transformations in terms of perceptions from the demand side.

This study aims to examine how cruise ship dinescapes, as a specific type of organized and staged service environment, influence customers’ attitudes, on-board behaviour, satisfaction and behavioural intentions.

Data was collected using a cross-sectional survey from 552 passengers on-board one of the big cruise ships with a Caribbean itinerary.

Cruise ship dinescape, as an on-board food experience platform, is built on three dimensions: restaurant atmospherics, interactions with other guests and restaurant staff. The findings show how these dimensions influence passengers’ emotional experiences and quality perceptions. The results also show how travellers’ cruise ship dinescape satisfaction affect their overall vacation satisfaction and future travel behaviour.

The findings imply that cruise companies should pay extra attention to organised food service environments like dinescapes staged for passengers. Through these scapes cruise companies may provide favourable platforms enabling dining satisfaction, but also social interaction and co-creation of memorable experiences.

This study builds a comprehensive model in cruise ship context, which links dinescape experiences to overall cruise ship dining experiences and dining behaviour mediated by emotional and perceived quality outcomes with further consequences.

This paper discusses plausible future scenarios for small and medium tourism enterprises (SMTEs) in the “sun, sea and sand” destination of the Canary Islands (Spain) and assesses to what extent they are prepared to adjust to market changes and technological developments in the light of both sudden disruptions and long-term shocks.

A scenario analysis was made based upon expert interviews, leading to a 2 × 2 scenario matrix.

Although regional, national and European strategies advocate digital transformation as a step towards building resilience and towards a more sustainable future, this study identifies two major uncertainties that can put that transformation at risk: a change of the traditional “sun, sand and sea” visitor to a more conscious, individual and inquisitive traveller or “Promad”, and the business culture of SMTEs.

Resilience for sudden and for slow-paced disruptions poses different challenges for SMTEs. Their next step in the digital transformation must take them form marketing and sales-oriented e-business to growing interconnectivity and innovation across supply chains.

A market change towards the “Promad” type of traveller causes at least a temporary mismatch of demand and supply. As many SMTEs miss either the knowledge or the resources to invest in digital transformation, the process will depend on support and coordination at destination level.

The study identifies, with the example of the Canary Islands, the difficulties for destinations and individual businesses in making the envisioned transition of mass tourism to more competitive forms of tourism with a smaller ecological footprint.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse factors influencing the propensity to share travel experiences in social media during a trip, across a sample of Millennial and Generation Z consumers in three different countries.

An online survey was sent to consumers between 16 and 30 years in Sweden, UK and India. Structural equation modelling and multigroup analysis was conducted to compare results between countries and generations.

Young travellers’ need for uniqueness (NFU) and opinion leadership (OL) with regard to travel tends to increase their propensity to share travel experiences in social media during a trip. Reflected appraisal of self is strongly related to NFU and OL and may therefore indirectly influence the propensity to share. Some differences were found between generations and countries.

Future research could consider comparisons between travellers from younger and older generations. The hypotheses formulated in this study could be tested in other countries. Further adaptions or extensions of existing NFU scales to fit in the travel and tourism context are suggested.

Millennial and Gen Z consumers will constitute an increasing part of travellers and visitors in the future. Through a better understanding of their behaviour, tourism managers can design strategies to engage them and increase electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).

This study contributes by addressing the lack of research on “self”-related drivers of eWOM in general social media during the trip, and by providing an international perspective through cross-cultural comparisons.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the robotic restaurant experience of travellers around the world and understand the components of robotic restaurant experience.

Travellers who had experienced a robotic restaurant were purposefully selected as a sample group for the study. As the robotic restaurants are limited around the world, multiple case study method has been chosen to gather richer data. A user-generated content technique which is a form of qualitative case study method has been benefited to gather data from travellers’ reviews.

The results reveal a model of components of robotic restaurant experience that include six main themes: attraction for kids, robotic system, memorable experience, ambience related attributes, food related attributes (economic value and gastronomic aspects) and deficiencies (in robotic system, in ambience related attributes and in food related attributes).

This paper is one of the first to investigate the robotic restaurant experience of travellers around the world. Moreover, it contributes to the research on restaurant experience and offers a model of components of the robotic restaurant experience.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the best hostel practices and trends, and to evaluate and discuss how they are keeping up with the present demand created by the Millennials market.

Methodological approach is based on two complementary qualitative methods: ethnographic participant observation and netnography. Portuguese hostels are the target of this study, as they are considered some of the best in the world. First, a fieldwork was conducted in three top-rated hostels in Lisbon, aiming to immerse in hostel’s environment. Then, 300 online reviews were analysed to identify what customers value the most in those services. Data interpretation was done through a content analysis crossing supply-demand perspectives.

Results indicate that, while staying in a hostel, the Millennials want to: meet people, engage in activities and events, have local experiences, feel comfortable/at home, get good value for money and enjoy the convenience. In return, hostels play an important role in hospitality industry by pleasing the Millennials, by offering: central location, an interactive atmosphere, functional facilities, well-planned design and decoration, a set of activities and events and personal treatment.

This paper is one of the few to describe Millennials’ travel behaviour towards hostels’ services.

This study aims to analyse the factors that caused Indian tourists to avoid travelling abroad because of the recent outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. It will also identify the relationship between the perceived risk of travelling and the probability of travel evading in India owing to COVID-19.

This study used an online structured questionnaire to collect data from Indian tourists to study six independent variables linked with their behavioural intentions (travel evading). The health belief model was used to examine tourist behaviour.

The results revealed a positive correlation between the perceived risk associated with COVID-19 and travel avoidance. Familiarity with COVID-19 was positively correlated with travel evading behaviours.

This study will assist stakeholders from around the world to adequately identify and thoroughly plan for logistical problems associated with travel such as travel insurance and pre-travel booking expenses to reduce travel evading behaviour and promote travel.

While a few studies have been conducted related to pandemics (Ebola, MERS-CoV, SARS), there is a paucity of literature that examines the factors which influence tourists’ travel evading behaviour owing to COVID-19. Moreover, most of the previous literature on pandemics is concentrated on American and European countries, whereas studies on the Indian sub-continent are very scarce. This study will fill this gap and will identify the factors which influence tourists in India to evade travel in response to COVID-19.

This study aims to explore customer personality traits as an antecedent of customer citizenship behaviour which positively facilitates service providers.

This study follows the positivism research paradigm. Hence, primary data were collected from 250 homestay visitors who stayed at five selected homestays located at Mirissa homestay zone, Sri Lanka.

The present study's findings reveal that “agreeableness,” “extraversion” and “conscientiousness” personality traits promote customer citizenship behaviour. Furthermore, the openness to “experience” trait identified to have a statistically insignificant relationship with CCB and neuroticism recorded a positive impact on the relationship between CCB and personality, contrary to the existing literature.

This study comprehensively explains how service providers should arrange their service facilities to increase customer willingness to perform citizenship behaviour, which helps develop their services.

Previous research has investigated that customer personality in terms of prosocial and proactive nature impacts CCBs. In contrast, the effect of Big Five personality traits on CCB is highlighted in this study.