The Bridge at the End of the World: Linking Expat’s Pandemic Fatigue, Travel FOMO, Destination Crisis Marketing, and Vaxication for “Greatest of All Trips”

Umer Zaman, Stuart J. Barnes, Saba Abbasi, Mahwish Anjam, Murat Aktan and Muddasar Ghani Khwaja
Additional contact information
Umer Zaman: Endicott College of International Studies (ECIS), Woosong University, Daejeon 34606, Korea
Stuart J. Barnes: Marketing, Operations and Systems Group, Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, 5 Barrack Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4SE, UK
Saba Abbasi: Department of Management Sciences, National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
Mahwish Anjam: College of Business Studies, Al-Ghurair University, Dubai 37374, United Arab Emirates
Murat Aktan: Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Mugla Sitki Kocman University, Muğla 88000, Turkey
Muddasar Ghani Khwaja: Departamento Académico de Ciencias de la Gestión-Sección Gestión, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, San Miguel, Lima 15088, Peru

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: The rebirth of global tourism with a massive rebound is anticipated due to an emerging touristic behavior coined as vaxication (i.e., post-vaccination travel). Despite the ongoing fatigue triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, travelers’ fear of missing out (FOMO), and destination crisis marketing (DCM) can further accelerate travelers’ momentum towards vaxication. To address this critical knowledge gap in COVID-19 tourism, the present study aimed to examine the effect of pandemic fatigue on vaxication intention for the greatest of all trips (GOAT) under the moderating influence of travel FOMO and destination crisis marketing. Drawing on data of international expatriates in the United Arab Emirates (N = 356) and using covariance-based structural equation modeling with Mplus, the findings provide new evidence supporting a positive impact of international expat’s pandemic fatigue on vaxication intention for GOAT. Interestingly, this relationship is significantly reinforced by the international expat’s travel FOMO as well as tourism destinations switching gears from ‘managing crisis’ to ‘marketing crisis’. Based on prominent theories (i.e., theory of planned behavior, cognitive load theory, and protection motivation theory) and newly developed scales (i.e., travel FOMO and destination crisis marketing), the study implications are directed towards an outpacing trajectory of global tourism return prompted by pandemic fatigue, travel FOMO, destination crisis marketing, and vaxication intention for the greatest of all trips.

Keywords: pandemic fatigue; travelers’ fear of missing out (FOMO); destination crisis marketing; post-COVID-19 tourism; vaxication intention; greatest of all trips (GOAT); international expats; theory of planned behavior; cognitive load theory; 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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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