Social Distance with Tourists in U.S. Counties with the Highest Historical Numbers of Reported COVID-19 Cases

Kyle Maurice Woosnam (), Emrullah Erul, Zachary A. Russell, Sabrina Rahman, Chase Perren, Michael Lefavi and Camille Bennett
Additional contact information
Kyle Maurice Woosnam: Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Emrullah Erul: Department of Tourism Management, Izmir Katip Celebi University, Izmir 35620, Turkey
Zachary A. Russell: Recreation, Sport and Tourism Department, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
Sabrina Rahman: Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Chase Perren: Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Michael Lefavi: Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Camille Bennett: Recreation, Sport and Tourism Department, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL 61820, USA

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: With destinations steadily ‘opening back up for business’ (while COVID-19 cases are still high in many areas), there is an increasing need to consider residents. Integrating the cognitive appraisal theory and the affect theory of exchange, this work tests a structural model examining the degree to which residents’ perceptions of COVID-19 precautionary measures explain emotions directed toward visitors, and ultimately their willingness to engage in shared behaviors with tourists. Data were collected from 530 residents in 25 U.S. counties with the highest percentages of historical COVID-19 cases per population. A total of 10 of the 12 tested hypotheses were significant, contributing to 60% and 85% of the variance explained in contending and accommodating emotions, and 53% and 50% of the variance explained in engaging in less intimate–distal and more intimate–proximal behaviors with tourists. The implications highlight the complementary use of the two frameworks in explaining residents’ preference for engagement in less intimate–distal interactions with tourists.

Keywords: COVID-19 precautionary considerations; residents’ animosity; preferred precautions; perceived risk; fear of COVID-19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/8944/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/8944/ (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:15:y:2023:i:11:p:8944-:d:1161902

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 ().