The psychology of cruise service usage post COVID-19: Health management and policy implications

Abstract

The cruise industry has suffered a huge loss due to the suspension of cruise operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the industry is preparing for recovery, there is an urgent need for research on cruise consumers’ psychology, in particular, the factors influencing their intention to use cruise services after the pandemic. This study employs theories, namely, the health belief model, trust theory and attitude theory, to investigate consumers’ use intention for cruise services after the pandemic. An online survey was administered to consumers in China’s tourism industry, where 376 responses were received. Subsequently, this study employs structural equation modelling to test its theoretical model consisting of hypotheses. The results show that consumers’ trust is directly influenced by health belief constructs including perceived safety threat, outcome expectation, self-efficacy and cues to action. Next, trust exerts a direct impact on consumers’ attitude and intention to use cruise services. Moreover, this study finds full and partial mediation effects. The findings provide a series of recommendations for cruise operators and policymakers in terms of marketing strategies, service design, public communication and health measures.

Social Distancing, Health Concerns, and Digitally Empowered Consumption Behavior Under COVID-19: A Study on Livestream Shopping Technology

“…All of the items were developed based on previous research and the opinions of relevant experts and academics to ensure they were valid. Each construct was measured using four items each from the following sources: perceived susceptibility from Yuen et al (7). A five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 = "strongly disagree" to 5 = "strongly agree" was used to evaluate these items.…”

“…Researchers have frequently added other constructs to improve the explanatory power of the HBM and TPB (31), such as the trust theory. This study defines trust as consumers' confidence in using livestream shopping technology to protect themselves from contracting a disease (7), and proposes trust as a mediator between health belief constructions and customers' intention to use livestream purchasing. The present study proposes trust as a mediator between health belief constructions and customers' propensity to use livestream purchasing.…”

“…In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals' subjective feelings of personal vulnerability and risk can be understood as perceived susceptibility, whereas perceived severity reveals a person's feelings about the significance of an illness, which can lead to appropriate preventive actions (35,36). According to Yuen et al (7), a high perceived safety threat (e.g., perceived susceptibility and perceived severity) indicates a higher likelihood or more severe consequence of infection or potential financial losses, which puts consumers at risk and undermines their trust. Therefore, with online livestream shopping, consumers can reduce the threat of COVID-19 and increase their trust in the platform.…”

“…Globally, COVID-19 remains one of the most serious threats to public health despite the recent development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines (6)(7)(8). From May 24 to May 30, 2021, the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths continued to decrease, with over 3.5 million new cases and 78,000 new deaths reported globally.…”

“…This research is based on the health belief model (HBM) (18) and combines the trust theory (19) and the theory of planned behavior (TPB) (20). The HBM was chosen because it can analyze and identify potential psychological factors associated with the use of livestream shopping technology (7). For example, consumers use this technology as a way to protect themselves from contracting a disease but, when they cannot make face-to-face transactions, the degree of consumer trust in the merchant has a decisive influence on their purchase intentions (21).…”