ABSTRACT
Health information technology has been widely implemented to ensure travel safety in the current normalization stage of COVID-19. However, levels of public trust and acceptance toward health QR codes are low in many countries, impeding tourism recovery after the outbreak. Thus, this study aims to explore the psychological mechanisms underpinning tourist trust, confidence, and behaviors toward traveling with health QR codes. Using a quota sampling, 1089 respondents were collected across mainland China. Results identify that tourists’ trust in health QR codes is affected by knowledge, perceived efficacy, privacy risk, and security. People’s trust in digital health applications can boost travel confidence and increase acceptance of tracing technology and travel intention after the pandemic. Practical implications for developing policies and strategies to encourage travel are provided.
摘要
新冠疫情常态化阶段, 健康信息技术被广泛用来保障游客的出行安全。然而, 许多国家居民对健康码技术的信任和接受程度较低, 阻碍了后疫情时代的旅游业复苏。故此, 本研究旨在探讨游客在疫情旅游期间使用健康码的内在心理机制, 剖析了健康信息技术信任与旅游信心及行为之间的关系。本研究采用配额取样的方式在中国大陆共收集了1089份问卷。数据分析结果显示, 游客对健康码的信任受到知识, 感知效能, 隐私风险和数据安全性因素的影响。游客对健康信息技术的信任可以增强旅游信心, 并提高其对疫情时代使用此类健康追踪技术的接受度和出游意愿。此外, 本研究针对促进后疫情旅游提出了相关的政策和战略建议。
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and crucial comments that helped improve the article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Impact statement
Given the low acceptance of ‘digital health pass’ among the nations, understanding how to build public’s trust and increase mass adoption of health digital pass is particularly important in pandemic travel. This study’s results can help authorities establish effective policies to improve the public’s cooperative and responsible travel behaviours after the outbreak. China is one the first countries that effectively prevents and controls the pandemic by adopting innovative technologies, especially the health QR codes. As the most significant tourist source country, findings from this study can offer insights and recommendations for many other countries. Further, the study can provide helpful information on the policy-making for mutual recognition mechanism of the international health QR codes.
Supplementary material
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/19388160.2022.2087817
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Notes on contributors
Danni Zheng
Danni Zheng is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Tourism at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. She received her Ph.D. degree and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Business at The University of Queensland, Australia. Her research interests include sociopsychology of tourism, community wellbeing, crisis tourism management, tourists’ prosocial behaviors, and creative tourism development (E-mail: [email protected]).
Shasha Liu
Shasha Liu is a postdoctoral research fellow in Antai College of Economics and Management at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in the School of Business at The University of Queensland, Australia. Her research interests include decision-making, marketing, tourism technology, and tourist experiences (E-mail: [email protected]).
Wei Lu
Wei Lu is a Director of AI and Marketing Research Center in Antai College of Economics and Management at Jiao Tong University, China. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Fudan University in 1996. His research interests include marketing management, consumer behavior, decision-making, and the application of artificial intelligence in marketing and service. He has published over 80 academic papers in major journals (E-mail: [email protected]).