COVID-19 and Tourism: Analyzing the Effects of COVID-19 Statistics and Media Coverage on Attitudes toward Tourism

Maksim Godovykh, Jorge Ridderstaat, Carissa Baker and Alan Fyall
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Maksim Godovykh: Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32819, USA
Jorge Ridderstaat: Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32819, USA
Carissa Baker: Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32819, USA
Alan Fyall: Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32819, USA

Forecasting, 2021, vol. 3, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: COVID-19 has significantly influenced tourism, including tourists’ and residents’ attitudes toward tourism. At the same time, attitudes and consumer confidence are important for economic recovery in the tourism sector. This study explores the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s attitudes toward tourism by analyzing time-series data on the number of COVID-19 positive cases, vaccinations, news sentiment, a total number of daily mentions of tourism, and the share of voice for positive and negative sentiment toward tourism. The applied data analysis techniques include descriptive analysis, visual representation of data, data decomposition into trend and cycle components, unit root tests, Granger causality test, and multiple time series regression. The results demonstrate that the COVID-19 statistics and media coverage have significant effects on interest in tourism in general, as well as the positive and negative sentiment toward tourism. The results contribute to knowledge and practice by describing the effects of the disease statistics on attitudes toward tourism, introducing social media sentiment analysis as an opportunity to measure positive and negative sentiment toward tourism, and providing recommendations for government authorities, destination management organizations, and tourism providers.

Keywords: tourism; attitudes; COVID-19; sentiment analysis; time-series analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A1 B4 C0 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C8 M0 Q2 Q3 Q4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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