Can Post-Vaccine ‘Vaxication’ Rejuvenate Global Tourism? Nexus between COVID-19 Branded Destination Safety, Travel Shaming, Incentives and the Rise of Vaxication Travel

Vaxication (i.e., post-vaccination travel) and branding destinations for COVID-19 safety have emerged as the cornerstones to fully rebound global tourism. Numerous destination brands are now stimulating tourism demand through realigned travel incentives specifically for fully vaccinated travelers. H...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sustainability 2021-12, Vol.13 (24), p.14043
Main Authors: Zaman, Umer, Aktan, Murat, Anjam, Mahwish, Agrusa, Jerome, Khwaja, Muddasar Ghani, Farías, Pablo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Brand image
Brand loyalty
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 vaccines
Disease transmission
Immunization
Medical research
Motivation
Multivariate statistical analysis
Pandemics
Quarantine
Safety
Social distancing
Sustainability
Theory of planned behavior
Tourism
Travel
Vaccination
Vaccines
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Summary:Vaxication (i.e., post-vaccination travel) and branding destinations for COVID-19 safety have emerged as the cornerstones to fully rebound global tourism. Numerous destination brands are now stimulating tourism demand through realigned travel incentives specifically for fully vaccinated travelers. However, there is growing fear and incidents of travel shaming across destinations, especially due to the recent outbreaks of the highly contagious COVID-19 ‘delta and omicron’ variants. Addressing this critical research gap, the present study makes pioneering efforts to empirically examine the effects of COVID-19 branded destination safety (CBDS) on vaxication intentions, under the moderating influence of travel shaming and travel incentives. Drawing on study data from 560 fully-vaccinated residents from Hawaii, United States and structural equation modeling (SEM) with Mplus, the evidence suggests that the positive impact of CBDS on vaxication intention can be further strengthened by travel incentives, or weakened when travel shaming picks up more momentum. Besides the validation of newly developed scales, the study offers strategic insights based on dominant theories (e.g., theory of planned behavior and protection motivation theory) to interpret the changing tourism demand, and to transform the emerging challenges into opportunities through and beyond the pandemic.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su132414043