The relationship between destination image and destination safety during technological and social changes COVID-19 pandemic

doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122488

Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Volume 191, June 2023, 122488

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2023.122488 Get rights and content

Highlights

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The study aimed to assess the link between safety perceptions and destination image.
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Results revealed that a decrease in health safety concerns was associated with improving the destination image.
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Perceived safety is a prominent factor for most tourist visitors and for the tourism sector.
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Selected CEE countries in the study had good tourism infrastructure during pandemics.
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All these findings enrich the literature on destination image.

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the relationship between safety perceptions and destination image in the Central European region during the technological and social environment change brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study sample consisted of respondents from three Central European countries, namely, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. The quantile regression analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the image of the destination and its perceived safety. The results showed that concerns about the safety of the tourism environment could be negatively associated with the image of the infrastructure in Hungary and Slovakia, with value for money in the three countries, and with images of enjoyment in Slovakia. Higher levels of destination safety may be associated with a more positive destination image, with health, facilities and services being the most important dimensions of perceived safety, because of the pandemic. This study contributes to the knowledge of the concept of destination images and the development of tourism.

Keywords

Tourism management

Destination image

Safety

Perception

Domestic tourists

Central European countries

Data availability

Data will be made available on request.

Cited by (0)

Prof. Beata Gavurova, Ph.D. works as professor and researcher at the Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin. She focuses in her research work on issues of measurement and performance management in various sectors, process management and process optimisation, strategic and performance benchmarking. Her dominant research area is the development and testing in the management and performance measurement, the evaluation of methodologies and the preparation of an application platform for innovative management and performance measurement. She participates in the preparation of strategic documents and action plans in the ministries, such as: National Strategy for Regional Development of the Slovak Republic, Agenda 2030, Strategy for Sustainable Tourism in the Slovak Republic until 2020, Debarrierisation Strategy of the Slovak Republic, and others.

Marinko Skare is Professor of Economics, Economic Research Journal Editor in Chief, Rector of Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Member of Editorial Board of several international journals, Department Economics and Tourism “Dr. Mijo Mirković” in Pula, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula. He served as Assistant Dean for Education, Faculty of Economics &Tourism, Pula, Assistant Dean for International Cooperation, Faculty of Economics & Tourism, Pula, Main and Team Researcher on several scientific projects, Former Dean of the Faculty of Economics & Tourism, Pula and Former Vice President for International Cooperation, Juraj Dobrila University of Pula. He has published several books and many scientific papers about economic growth, welfare economics and poverty, human capital economics in transition, economic philosophy and monetary economics.

Prof. Jaroslav Belas, PhD. works as professor at the Faculty of Management and Economics, Tomas Bata University in Zlin. He is a renowned expert in commercial banking and risk management of SMEs who worked in the banking sector of Slovakia from 1993 to 2001. In academic field, he worked at the University of Economics in Bratislava and the Pan European University in Bratislava. Prof. Belas, PhD. currently works at Tomas Bata University in Zlin, Faculty of Management and Economics. He is an author of 9 monographs; the results of the research activities have been output through 90 various scientific works that had been published in prestigious journals. Prof. Belas, PhD. is also a member of the Scientific Council of Pan European University in Bratislava and the Scientific Council of George Žilina publisher in Slovakia. At presence, he manages 3 scientific projects.

Martin Rigelsky, PhD., currently works at the Faculty of Management and Business of the University of Prešov in Prešov. His scientific activities include, in particular, research in the field of economics with a focus on public health and tourism. He deals secondarily with marketing and customer behavior.

Viera Ivankova, PhD., currently works at the Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies of the Technical University in Košice. In her scientific and research activities, she focuses mainly on the environment, tourism, health aspects, especially in the economic context of the investigation.

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