Crisis-led transformation or no transformation at all? A multifaceted inquiry towards destination recovery
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18778/0867-5856.33.1.12Keywords:
destination recovery, COVID-19, crisis, transformation, stakeholdersAbstract
Though there has been an upward rise in the number of publications on COVID-19, tourism and hospitality, researchers have turned a blind eye towards conducting a multifaceted stakeholder assessment of its impact on a given destination and the possible effects of recent developments on the destination’s recovery. To address the latent gap, this study first attempts to assess the impact of COVID-19 on various aspects of a destination’s businesses, workforce and the local community. Taking into consideration the recent pharmaceutical developments and ease in travel restrictions, it then explores the effects of such an intervention on the destinations’ recovery process. 142 valid questionnaires were collected from employees of travel agents, tour operators, transport operators and hotels in the northern part of India. Subsequently, PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation modeling) was applied using SmartPLS to test the proposed hypotheses. Through two individual studies in September 2020 and November 2021 i.e. at different stages of the pandemic, this study not only offers insights into the current status of destination recovery but also tests the validity and applicability of recent publications, their proposed recommendations and future practices. Recovery at a destination was found to be a result of the recovery of its businesses, workforce and community. These factors also had positive and negative impacts on each other. The article further suggests the low transformational ability of the pandemic in the context of tourism and hospitality. It is amongst the first few studies to have carried out a temporal assessment of stakeholders for an investigation into the pandemic’s impact on destinations in addition to their recovery.
Downloads
References
Abbas, J., Mubeen, R., Iorember, P.T., Raza, S., Mamirkulova, G. (2021). Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on tourism: Transformational potential and implications for a sustainable recovery of the travel and leisure industry. Current Research in Behavioral Sciences, 2, Article 100033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crbeha.2021.100033
Google Scholar
Bao, J., Sun, J. (2006). A contrastive study on the difference in community participation in tourism between China and the West. Acta Geographica Sinica, 61(4), 401–413. http://www.geog.com.cn/EN/Y2006/V61/I4/401
Google Scholar
Bhargava, Y., Chandra, J. (2021, November 20). People willing to travel further away, plan longer holidays. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/people-willing-to-travelfurther-away-plan-longer-holidays/article37597371.ece
Google Scholar
Britton, S. (1991). Tourism, capital, and place: Towards a critical geography of tourism. Environment & Planning D: Society & Space, 9(4), 451–478. https://doi.org/10.1068/d090451
Google Scholar
Brouder, P. (2020). Reset redux: Possible evolutionary pathways towards the transformation of tourism in a COVID-19 world. Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 22(3: Visions of Travel and Tourism after the Global COVID-19 Transformation of 2020), 484–490. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1760928
Google Scholar
Cadwallader, S., Jarvis, C.B., Bitner, M.J., Ostrom, A.L. (2010). Frontline employee motivation to participate in service innovation implementation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 38(2), 219–239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-009-0151-3
Google Scholar
Chell, E., Pittaway, L. (1998). A study of entrepreneurship in the restaurant and café industry: Exploratory work using the critical incident technique as a methodology: Prize-winning Paper from the IAHMS Conference at Sheffield Hallam University, England, November 1997. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 17(1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0278-4319(98)00006-1
Google Scholar
Chen, G., Huang, S. (Sam), Bao, J. (2016). The multiple logics of tourism development in China. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 24(12), 1655–1673. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2016.1178754
Google Scholar
Chin, W.W. (1998). Commentary: Issues and opinion on structural equation modeling. MIS Quarterly, 22(1), 7–16. https://www.jstor.org/stable/249674
Google Scholar
Chong, K.L., Io, M.-U. (2021). Tour guiding or tour misleading? Multifaceted approach in assessing the standards of cultural tour guiding in Bali island. e-Review of Tourism Research, 18(4), 525–546. https://ertr-ojs-tamu.tdl.org/ertr/article/view/383
Google Scholar
Das, K.N. (2021, October 21). India celebrates 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses with song and dance. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-celebrates-1-bln-covid-19-vaccine-doses-with-song-film-2021-10-21/
Google Scholar
Dogra, J., Karri, V.R.S. (2021). Prominence of organic image in tourist destinations: Indian leisure tourism narrative. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 15(4), 565–579. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCTHR-06-2020-0133
Google Scholar
Farmaki, A. (2021). Memory and forgetfulness in tourism crisis research. Tourism Management, 83, Article 104210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104210
Google Scholar
Foo, L.P., Chin, M.Y., Tan, K.L., Phuah, K.T. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on tourism industry in Malaysia. Current Issues in Tourism, 24(19: COVID-19 and Tourism), 2735–2739. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1777951
Google Scholar
Fornell, C., Larcker, D.F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104
Google Scholar
Gani, A., Singh, R., Najar, A.H. (2021). Rebuilding tourist destinations from crisis: a comparative study of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, India. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 13(3), 437–454. https://doi.org/10.1108/WHATT-01-2021-0018
Google Scholar
Gavron, R., Cowling, M., Holtham, G., Westall, A. (1998). The entrepreneurial society. London: Institute for Public Policy Research.
Google Scholar
Girden, E.R. (2001). Evaluating research articles: From start to finish (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks (CA): Sage Publications.
Google Scholar
Goodwin, H. (2002). Local community involvement in tourism around national parks: Opportunities and constraints. Current Issues in Tourism, 5(3–4), 338–360. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500208667928
Google Scholar
Gopalakrishnan, B.N., Peters, R., Vanzetti, D. (2020). COVID-19 and tourism: Assessing the economic consequences. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ditcinf2020d3_en.pdf
Google Scholar
Gursoy, D., Chi, C.G., Dyer, P. (2010). Locals’ attitudes toward mass and alternative tourism: The case of Sunshine Coast, Australia. Journal of Travel Research, 49(3), 381–394. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287509346853
Google Scholar
Hair, J.F., Black, W.C., Babin, B.J., Anderson, R.E., Tatham, R.L. (2006). Multivariate data analysis. New Delhi: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Google Scholar
Hall, C.M. (2005). Rural wine and food tourism cluster and network development. In D.R. Hall, I. Kirkpatrick, M. Mitchell (Eds.), Rural tourism and sustainable business (pp. 149–164). Bristol, Blue Ridge Summit: Channel View Publications. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781845410131-012
Google Scholar
Hall, C.M., Scott, D., Gössling, S. (2020). Pandemics, transformations and tourism: Be careful what you wish for. Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 22(3: Visions of Travel and Tourism after the Global COVID-19 Transformation of 2020), 577–598. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1759131
Google Scholar
Haywood, K.M. (2020). A post COVID-19 future – tourism reimagined and re-enabled. Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 22(3: Visions of Travel and Tourism after the Global COVID-19 Transformation of 2020), 599–609. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1762120
Google Scholar
Hope, C.A., Muhlemann, A.P. (1998). Total quality, human resource management and tourism. Tourism Economics, 4(4), 367–386. https://doi.org/10.1177/135481669800400405
Google Scholar
Ioannides, D., Gyimóthy, S. (2020). The COVID-19 crisis as an opportunity for escaping the unsustainable global tourism path. Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 22(3: Visions of Travel and Tourism after the Global COVID-19 Transformation of 2020), 624–632. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1763445
Google Scholar
Jaipuria, S., Parida, R., Ray, P. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on tourism sector in India. Tourism Recreation Research, 46(2), 245–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1846971
Google Scholar
Johns, N., Mattsson, J. (2005). Destination development through entrepreneurship: A comparison of two cases. Tourism Management, 26(4), 605–616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2004.02.017
Google Scholar
Kaiser, H.F. (1974). An index of factorial simplicity. Psychometrika, 39(1), 31–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02291575
Google Scholar
Kokkranikal, J., Morrison, A. (2002). Entrepreneurship and sustainable tourism: The houseboats of Kerala. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 4(1), 7–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/146735840200400102
Google Scholar
Kozak, M., Rimmington, M. (1998). Benchmarking: Destination attractiveness and small hospitality business performance. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 10(5), 184–188. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596119810227767
Google Scholar
Kuščer, K., Eichelberger, S., Peters, M. (2021). Tourism organizations’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: An investigation of the lockdown period. Current Issues in Tourism, 25(2: COVID-19 and Tourism), 247–260. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.1928010
Google Scholar
Lacher, R.G., Nepal, S.K. (2010). Dependency and development in northern Thailand. Annals of Tourism Research, 37(4), 947–968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2010.03.005
Google Scholar
Lew, A.A., Cheer, J.M., Haywood, M., Brouder, P., Salazar, N.B. (2020). Visions of travel and tourism after the global COVID-19 transformation of 2020. Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 22(3: Visions of Travel and Tourism after the Global COVID-19 Transformation of 2020), 455–466. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1770326
Google Scholar
Li, W. (2006). Community decisionmaking participation in development. Annals of Tourism Research, 33(1), 132–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2005.07.003
Google Scholar
Luo, X., Bao, J. (2019). Exploring the impacts of tourism on the livelihoods of local poor: The role of local government and major investors. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 27(3), 344–359. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2019.1578362
Google Scholar
MacCarthy, M. (2021). Using Dialectic Thematic Analysis in dark tourism: Combining deductive and inductive reasoning in a modular method. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 48, 468–478. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.08.001
Google Scholar
Malhotra, N.K., Ulgado, F.M., Agarwal, J., Shainesh, G., Wu, L. (2004). Dimensions of service quality in developed and developing economies: Multi-country cross-cultural comparisons. International Marketing Review, 22(3), 256–278. https://doi.org/10.1108/02651330510602204
Google Scholar
Manhas, P.S., Singh, R., Fodor, G., Berghauer, S., Mir, M.A., David, L.D. (2021). Examination of impact of responsible tourism practices on quality of life of destination communities. GeoJournal of Tourism and Geosites, 36(2), 688–697. https://doi.org/10.30892/gtg.362spl17-699
Google Scholar
Mottiar, Z., Tucker, H. (2007). Webs of power: Multiple ownership in tourism destinations. Current Issues in Tourism, 10(4), 279–295.
Google Scholar
National Council of Applied Economics Research. (2021). India and the coronavirus pandemic: Economic losses for households engaged in tourism and policies for recovery. https://www.ncaer.org/wpcontent/uploads/2022/09/1634198477Report-Tourism-Corona-Study.pdf
Google Scholar
Nejati, M., Mohamed, B., Omar, S.I. (2014). Locals’ perceptions towards the impacts of tourism and the importance of local engagement: A comparative study of two islands in Malaysia. Tourism, 62(2), 135–146. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/32600518.pdf
Google Scholar
Nunnally, J. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Google Scholar
O’Cass, A., Sok, P. (2015). An exploratory study into managing value creation in tourism service firms: Understanding value creation phases at the intersection of the tourism service firm and their customers. Tourism Management, 51, 186–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2015.05.024
Google Scholar
Orîndaru, A., Popescu, M.-F., Alexoaei, A.P., Căescu, Ș.-C., Florescu, M.S., Orzan, A.-O. (2021). Tourism in a post-COVID-19 era: Sustainable strategies for industry’s recovery. Sustainability, 13(12), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126781
Google Scholar
Peng, J., Xiao, H. (2018). How does smog influence domestic tourism in China? A case study of Beijing. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 23(12), 1115–1128. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2018.1527776
Google Scholar
Phartiyal, S., Pal, A. (2021, May 1). India’s daily COVID-19 cases pass 400,000 for first time as second wave worsens. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/india-postsrecord-daily-rise-COVID-19-cases-401993-2021-05-01/
Google Scholar
Quinn, U., Larmour, R., McQuillan, N. (1992). The small firm in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.1108/09596119210007929
Google Scholar
Roe, D., Urquhart, P. (2004). Pro-poor tourism: Harnessing the world’s largest industry for the world’s poor; turning the rhetoric into action for sustainable development and poverty reduction. In T. Bigg (Ed.), Survival for a small planet: The sustainable development agenda (pp. 309–325). London: Routledge.
Google Scholar
Ryan, T., Mottiar, Z., Quinn, B. (2012). The dynamic role of entrepreneurs in destination development. Tourism Planning and Development, 9(2), 119–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2011.630747
Google Scholar
Sharma, G.D., Thomas, A., Paul, J. (2021). Reviving tourism industry post-COVID-19: A resilience-based framework. Tourism Management Perspectives, 37, Article 100786. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2020.100786
Google Scholar
Sharpley, R., Forster, G. (2003). The implications of hotel employee attitudes for the development of quality tourism: The case of Cyprus. Tourism Management, 24(6), 687–697. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5177(03)00044-X
Google Scholar
Sigala, M. (2020). Tourism and COVID-19: Impacts and implications for advancing and resetting industry and research. Journal of Business Research, 117, 312–321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.015
Google Scholar
Škare, M., Soriano, D.R., Porada-Rochoń, M. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on the travel and tourism industry. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 163, Article 120469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120469
Google Scholar
Tajeddini, K. (2010). Effect of customer orientation and entrepreneurial orientation on innovativeness: Evidence from the hotel industry in Switzerland. Tourism Management, 31(2), 221–231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2009.02.013
Google Scholar
Thomas, R., Shaw, G., Page, S.J. (2011). Understanding small firms in tourism: A perspective on research trends and challenges. Tourism Management, 32(5), 963–976. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2011.02.003
Google Scholar
Vanzetti, D., Peters, R. (2021). COVID-19 and tourism – an update: Assessing the economic consequences. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/ditcinf2021d3_en_0.pdf
Google Scholar
Wanhill, S. (2000). Small and medium tourism enterprises. Annals of Tourism Research, 27(1), 132–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383(99)00072-9
Google Scholar
Welsh, J., White, J. (1981, July). A small business is not a little big business. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/1981/07/a-small-business-is-not-a-little-big-business
Google Scholar
Witt, C., Muhlemann, A. (1994). The implementation of total quality management in tourism: Some guidelines. Tourism Management, 15(6), 416–424. https://doi.org/10.1016/0261-5177(94)90062-0
Google Scholar
World Bank. (n.d.). Labor force, total – India. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TOTL.IN?locations=IN
Google Scholar
Downloads
Published
Versions
- 2023-09-08 (2)
- 2023-06-26 (1)
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
