<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<italic><bold>Introduction.</bold></italic> Tourists traveling in the times of crisis have a higher tolerance for risk and can be called ‘crisis-resistant’. The fact that they are ready to travel even if it is burdened with additional stress and obstacles makes them a valuable market segment for hoteliers, which is worth striving for particularly in the current pandemic situation. The research aims at better understanding of contemporary ‘crisis-resistant’ tourists through in-depth analysis of electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM).
<italic><bold>Material and methods.</bold></italic> A web scrapping method was applied to acquire eWOM content posted by tourists traveling in the times of Covid-19. A total of 1239 reviews from 455 hotels were analyzed. Six hypotheses were tested with the use of T Test and Chi Square test.
<italic><bold>Results.</bold></italic> The type of travel and the month of travel did not influence the frequency of coronavirus mentions. Similarly, reviews relating to COVID-19 did not vary in score nor in frequency of managerial replies. However, mention of coronavirus influenced the length of the review and its helpfulness.
<italic><bold>Conclusions.</bold></italic> Crisis-resistant tourists treat issues related to the pandemic (including some in-hotel regulations and restrictions) as any other aspects of the hotel performance and accept them. Interestingly, those aspects do not negatively influence the total evaluation of the hotel, which may suggest that such tourists have already adapted to all the pandemic-induced burdens. At the same time, hotel managers fail to respond timely and adequately to negative comments, which seems to be of the key importance in such a situation.
</abstract>

Introduction. Tourists traveling in the times of crisis have a higher tolerance for risk and can be called ‘crisis-resistant’. The fact that they are ready to travel even if it is burdened with additional stress and obstacles makes them a valuable market segment for hoteliers, which is worth striving for particularly in the current pandemic situation. The research aims at better understanding of contemporary ‘crisis-resistant’ tourists through in-depth analysis of electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM).
Material and methods. A web scrapping method was applied to acquire eWOM content posted by tourists traveling in the times of Covid-19. A total of 1239 reviews from 455 hotels were analyzed. Six hypotheses were tested with the use of T Test and Chi Square test.
Results. The type of travel and the month of travel did not influence the frequency of coronavirus mentions. Similarly, reviews relating to COVID-19 did not vary in score nor in frequency of managerial replies. However, mention of coronavirus influenced the length of the review and its helpfulness.
Conclusions. Crisis-resistant tourists treat issues related to the pandemic (including some in-hotel regulations and restrictions) as any other aspects of the hotel performance and accept them. Interestingly, those aspects do not negatively influence the total evaluation of the hotel, which may suggest that such tourists have already adapted to all the pandemic-induced burdens. At the same time, hotel managers fail to respond timely and adequately to negative comments, which seems to be of the key importance in such a situation.

Crisis-Resistant Tourists – A Study of Hotel Online Reviews in the Times of Covid-19

Polish Journal of Sport and Tourism

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Introduction. Tourists traveling in the times of crisis have a higher tolerance for risk and can be called ‘crisis-resistant’. The fact that they are ready to...

Crisis-Resistant Tourists – A Study of Hotel Online Reviews in the Times of Covid-19

Published Online: Dec 30, 2022

Page range: 29 - 36

Received: Aug 30, 2022

Accepted: Nov 21, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pjst-2022-0024

Keywords
crisis-resistant tourists, eWOM, hotel reviews, COVID-19, TripAdvisor

© 2022 Adam Jezierski et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Crisis-Resistant Tourists – A Study of Hotel Online Reviews in the Times of Covid-19

Published Online: Dec 30, 2022

Page range: 29 - 36

Received: Aug 30, 2022

Accepted: Nov 21, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/pjst-2022-0024

Keywordscrisis-resistant tourists, eWOM, hotel reviews, COVID-19, TripAdvisor

© 2022 Adam Jezierski et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
crisis-resistant tourists, eWOM, hotel reviews, COVID-19, TripAdvisor