Do political actions affect country image and travel intentions? The case of COVID-19

ABSTRACT

The existing literature on the intersection between tourism and politics has recognized that tourism planning and development can be a political process in which decisions are made in order to implement specific political policies and goals. However, there has been very little acknowledgment that political actions themselves can shape tourism. The current research seeks to address this gap. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as our context, we explore the potential implications of foreign aid on country image and tourists' travel intentions, we show that participants hold a more positive country image and thus are more likely to visit a country that provides aid to their own country compared to a country that is the recipient of aid provided by their own country. We also show that participants' patriotism in their own country can actually strengthen the country image and travel intentions they hold of the country that sends aid to them. The findings are among the first to show how political actions influence tourism and provide insights to managers and policy-makers in understanding how foreign aid may also influence tourism by improving their country's image.

KEYWORDS:

• Political actions
• travel intentions
• country image
• foreign aid
• COVID-19

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Following reviewer's suggestion, we conducted an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) before conducting analysis. All items were loaded on their pre-assumed dimensions.

2 The main effect remained significant after excluding co-variates (F(1,138) = 14.05, p < 0.001).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ali Gohary

Ali Gohary is a PhD Candidate of Marketing at Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Art degree in Business Administration from the Urmia University and a Master of Art degree from QIAU. His research interests focus on consumer psychology as well as services marketing. His research has been published in international journals such as Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Current Issues in Tourism, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics among others.

Aakash Shah

Aakash Shah, is a PhD Candidate of Marketing at Monash University, Australia. His research interests include word of mouth, electronic word of mouth, destination marketing, choice modelling and internal marketing. He has presented his work at international conferences and has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Annals of Tourism Research.

Eugene Y. Chan

Eugene Y. Chan is an Associate Professor of Consumer Science at Purdue University' College of Health and Human Sciences in West Lafayette, IN. Dr Chan's research has been published in top peer-reviewed outlets such as the Journal of Consumer Psychology, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Computers in Human Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Resources Conservation and Recycling.