Tourist destination residents’ attitudes towards tourism during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Empowering local residents is important for the sustainability of tourist destinations. This study assessed the reactions of residents in tourist destinations towards tourism during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Models were constructed using variables of place attachment, distinctiveness, positive impact, negative impact, and attitude towards supporting tourism; the effects of COVID-19 were also included. The results demonstrate that residents understand that tourism is important for their region and wish to support it. A dilemma arose for respondents between accepting tourists to aid the recovery of the economy and personal fears that interacting with tourists would raise their possibility of infection. As implications for tourist destination managers, such as governments and destination management organizations, local residents’ concerns must be understood and managed accordingly. The destination managers should consider how to accept tourists during and after the pandemic with residents, and empower residents in this process. Communication with residents during the COVID-19 pandemic is important as this might affect their attitude towards tourism after the pandemic.

KEYWORDS:

• Residents’ attitude
• place attachment
• positive and negative impacts
• COVID-19 pandemic
• tourism dilemma

Acknowledgements

The author appreciates the comments from anonymous reviewers. This research was supported by the Hospitality Management Program at Hitotsubashi University.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Zhu and Deng (2020) defined ‘knowledge of pneumonia’ as knowledge regarding infections caused by COVID-19. COVID-19 was initially considered in terms of its effects on the lungs (‘unknown pneumonia’), but we now know it has many other effects. In this paper, ‘knowledge of pneumonia’ was modified and cited as ‘knowledge of COVID-19’.