Responding to Visitor Density Pre and Post COVID-19 Outbreak: The Impact of Personality Type on Perceived Crowdedness, Feeling of Being Comfortable, and Anticipated Experience

Humeyra Dogru-Dastan, Svetlana Stepchenkova and Andrei P. Kirilenko
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Humeyra Dogru-Dastan: Department of Tourism Management, Faculty of Business, Dokuz Eylul University, Buca 35390, Turkey
Svetlana Stepchenkova: Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Andrei P. Kirilenko: Department of Tourism, Hospitality and Event Management, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 7, 1-22

Abstract: The study set out to determine whether tourists’ response to human density at destinations changed after the COVID-19 outbreak and, thus, gain insight into whether tourist flows will be sustained in the post-COVID-19 environment. An experimental design with the photo-elicitation technique embedded into an online survey was employed. The two-phase data collection allowed an examination of respondents’ reactions to the same experimental stimuli (images depicting different levels of density) before and after the outbreak. The effect of COVID-19 on the relationship between density and the outcome variables of perceptions of crowdedness, the feeling of being comfortable, and the anticipated experience was small and registered at the medium density level only. The effects of personality profiles on those relationships depend on the tourist density level. The personality profile also moderates the effect of COVID-19 on study variables, mostly at the medium-density level. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords: big five personality profile; COVID-19; crowdedness; density; tourist experience; photo elicitation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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