Real Bounce Forward: Experimental Evidence on Destination Crisis Marketing, Destination Trust, e-WOM and Global Expat’s Willingness to Travel during and after COVID-19

Murat Aktan, Umer Zaman, Pablo Farías, Syed Hassan Raza and Emenyeonu C. Ogadimma
Additional contact information
Murat Aktan: Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Muǧla 88000, Turkey
Umer Zaman: Endicott College of International Studies (ECIS), Woosong University, Daejeon 34606, Korea
Pablo Farías: Departamento de Administración, Facultad de Economía y Negocios, Universidad de Chile, Santiago 8330015, Chile
Syed Hassan Raza: Department of Communication Studies, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 66000, Pakistan
Emenyeonu C. Ogadimma: College of Communication, University of Sharjah, Sharjah P.O. Box 27272, United Arab Emirates

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: The nexus of global tourism, disasters and sustainability have always been triggered by numerous crises, e.g., political unrest, wars, and pandemics. However, there is still fragmented research on destination crisis marketing, and its impact on willingness to travel remains largely unknown. To address this critical research gap, the present study used an experimental research design by framing destination crisis marketing campaigns (2 × 2 frames including DCM implemented versus DCM not implemented) and electronic word of mouth (2 × 2 frames including positive e-Wom versus negative e-Wom) to examine their impact on destination trust and global expat’s willingness to travel. Based on the experimental settings of global expats ( N = 232; representing over 10 nationalities) with four framing groups (Group 1 to Group 4, configured in frames as ± DCM and ± e-Wom), the new evidence suggests that global expats who are provoked by positive crisis marketing campaigns and positive e-Wom (Group 4) have higher levels of destination trust than those who are exposed to either negative crisis marketing scenario and/or negative e-Wom (i.e., Group 1 to Group 3). The findings also revealed that global expat’s willingness to travel is significantly influenced by destination crisis marketing campaigns and e-Wom. Interestingly, for all framing groups (Group 1 to Group 4), the effects of destination crisis marketing and e-WOM on expat’s willingness to travel, was significantly mediated by destination trust. Utilizing prominent theories (i.e., signal theory, image repair theory and trust transfer theory), the study implications highlighted that crisis marketing and positive e-Wom could serve as the cornerstones for destinations to stay relevant, regenerate sustainable practices, as well as create new opportunities out of a crisis.

Keywords: destination crisis marketing; destination trust; e-WOM; willingness to travel; sustainable tourism; experimental design; framing; signal theory; image repair theory; trust transfer theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1111/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/3/1111/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:3:p:1111-:d:728094

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().