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

Umer Zaman, Murat Aktan, Mahwish Anjam, Jerome Agrusa, Muddasar Ghani Khwaja and Pablo Farías
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Umer Zaman: Endicott College of International Studies (ECIS), Woosong University, Daejeon 34606, Korea
Murat Aktan: Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Muǧla Sitki Kocman University, Muǧla 88000, Turkey
Mahwish Anjam: College of Business Studies, Al-Ghurair University, Dubai 37374, United Arab Emirates
Jerome Agrusa: School of Travel Industry Management, Shidler College of Business, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Muddasar Ghani Khwaja: Departamento Académico de Ciencias de la Gestión-Sección Gestión, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, San Miguel, Lima 15088, Peru
Pablo Farías: Departamento de Administración, Facultad de Economía y Negocios, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8330015, Chile

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-23

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: vaxication; COVID-19 branded destination safety; travel shaming; travel incentives; global sustainable tourism; theory of planned behavior; protection motivation theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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