The impact of egoistic and social-altruistic values on consumers’ intention to stay at safe hotels in the COVID-19 era: a study in Spain

ABSTRACT

Currently, many individuals are willing to travel depending on the safety and hygiene measures against COVID-19 that exist throughout the trip, including the hotel stay. This is an example of the COVID-19 awareness of individuals. This COVID-19 awareness forces tourism service companies to implement increased health and safety measures and also motivates academicians and managers to improve their understanding of the customers’ safe buying behaviour in a pandemic context. Egoistic and social-altruistic values are key factors in determining pro-social behaviours, such as safe buying behaviours, however, no study examines the importance of these values in influencing such behaviours. This research aims to develop and test a model to analyse the impact of egoistic and social-altruistic values on the guests’ intentions to stay at safe hotels during the COVID-19 pandemic, integrating Theory of Planned Behavior and Value-Belief-Norm Theory. COVID-19 concern was oriented towards value, considering egoistic and social-altruistic concerns. Data were collected from 521 potential guests residing in Spain. The findings reveal that both egoistic and social-altruistic values influence the intention. However, egoistic values have a stronger impact than social-altruistic values.

KEYWORDS:

• Theory of planned behaviour
• value-belief-norm theory
• egoistic concern
• social-altruistic concern
• COVID-19
• safe hotels

Disclosure statement

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