Open the doors to tourism or remain cautious: residents’ dilemma amidst a pandemic

Francisco José Rey-Carmona, Julia Margarita Núñez-Tabales, José Luis Durán-Román and Juan Ignacio Pulido-Fernández

Current Issues in Tourism, 2023, vol. 26, issue 5, 835-850

Abstract: During a pandemic, residents of tourism destinations face the dilemma of whether to welcome tourists to help the economy rebound or to oppose their arrival to minimize the risk of contagion. This paper examines the influence of residents’ perception of the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic and the health risks associated with tourist arrivals on their attitudes towards tourism impacts and willingness to support tourism development. To this end, a novel model is tested using structural equation modelling (SEM). The potential moderating effect of belonging to certain population groups is also analysed, namely (i) having a household member linked to the tourism sector, (ii) residing in the city centre, and (iii) belonging to a COVID-19 risk group. Perceived risk of contagion was found to be a stronger predictor of residents’ support for tourism development than perception of the economic crisis; an effect that increases notably among residents of the most popular tourist areas of the city. These empirical findings provide useful information with a view to designing destination planning strategies during and after the pandemic.

Date: 2023
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13683500.2022.2047162 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:taf:rcitxx:v:26:y:2023:i:5:p:835-850

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rcit20

DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2022.2047162

Access Statistics for this article

Current Issues in Tourism is currently edited by Jennifer Tunstall

More articles in Current Issues in Tourism from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().