Impact of COVID-19 on the quantity of visitation to leisure tourism facilities in China: cases of Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao

ABSTRACT

Based on mobile positioning big data, this study analyzes the quantity of visitation changes of leisure tourism facilities under the impact of COVID-19, which is a direct way to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the leisure tourism industry. The quantity of visitation to the four types of leisure facilities (scenic spots, shopping services, sports services, science and cultural education services) in the three Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao) decreased by 63.06% and 44.74% respectively on the Tomb Sweeping Day and the Labor Day in 2020 compared with 2019. The biggest decreasing was in science and cultural education services, followed by scenic spots and sports services, and finally shopping services. The curve of hourly visitations to leisure facilities in 2020 shows a smooth feature, indicating that the public has reduced the risk of pandemic through peak shifting leisure. The analysis of influencing factors shows that the influence of the floor area on visitation is different in different phases. From Tomb Sweeping Day to Labour Day in 2020, the influence of area on leisure behaviour changes from negative to positive. This paper provides a technical framework for assessing the impact of crisis event, and expands the protection motivation theory.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19
• leisure population
• big data
• protection motivation theory
• leisure tourism facilities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. https://heat.qq.com/heatmap.php.

2. https://heat.qq.com/heatmap.php.

3. https://ditu.amap.com/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under [grant number 42001176], Youth Foundation of Humanities and Social Sciences of Ministry of Education under [grant number 20YJCZH241] and Youth Foundation of Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province under [grant number ZR2020QD009].

Notes on contributors

Ziyu Zhao

Ziyu Zhao works in School of Tourism and Geography Science, Qingdao University. The author is interested mainly in Geographic Profiling. His relevant achievements were published in journals such as Applied Geography. Email: [email protected]

Zexin Yuan

Zexin Yuan is a master student of School of Tourism and Geography Science, Qingdao University. His research focuses on tourist flow and tourist spatial distribution. Email: [email protected]

Shiyao Zhao

Shiyao Zhao is a master student of School of Tourism and Geography Science, Qingdao University. Her main research interests are tourism geography and big data analysis. Email: [email protected]

Xinyue Yang

Xinyue Yang is an undergraduate student of School of Tourism and Geography Science, Qingdao University. Her main research interest is tourist spatial distribution.