After the Epidemic Is Eliminated: Tourism Intention and Behavior and Sustainable Development Strategy of Regional Tourism

Dear Colleagues,

Due to the global impact of the COVID-19 virus epidemic during 2019–2022, overall global economic development has been hit, and the tourism industry of various countries is also facing serious difficulties. This problem has resulted in the reduction in human willingness to engage in leisure or tourism, and changes in tourism awareness, attitudes, and behaviors. Tourism companies have also changed their operational decisions in an attempt to reduce costs by reducing manpower, resources, or facilities, hoping to survive the plight of the epidemic.

Although the WHO announced on 11 May 2023 that the "Public Emergency of International Concern" has ended, COVID-19 no longer poses a threat. The public also seems to have begun to accept new life behavior patterns after the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. Countries are also actively promoting marketing strategies related to local leisure or tourism activities in an attempt to reinject economy and vitality into cities or rural areas.

However, people have increased their sensitivity to the travel environment due to the epidemic, changed their existing travel or leisure awareness, attitudes and behaviors, and revised their personal consumption intentions and activity behavior patterns. In addition, the tourism industry has also changed its operation strategy due to the impact of the epidemic. As a result, the current operation strategy and manpower allocation have not yet been properly prepared. In addition, the world is currently facing global climate anomalies at the same time. Advocate green and low-carbon behaviors in an attempt to address the problems caused by climate change. Governments or scenic spot management centers around the world are also carrying out reforms at the same time, changing the management measures of landscape and recreational facilities, expecting to obtain carbon reduction and sustainable benefits. These changes or reforms may cause people to face a shortage of manpower, changes in travel planning, reduction in facilities and service content, and decline in consumer service quality even after people start to restart their travel intentions and behaviors. This creates a gap between tourists' travel expectations and experience, which affects people's travel intentions and behaviors again, interferes with expected itinerary planning, and affects consumption expectations and actual experience. We believe that this may lead to changes in the regional tourism structure, interfere with local government tourism decision-making, change corporate operation and management strategies, affect existing tourism itineraries, and affect tourists' consumption intentions and behaviors. Ultimately, the tourism economic benefits of local governments and enterprises are unbalanced, and the public's sense of positive tourism experience decreases, which cannot promote the sustainability of regional tourism.

Therefore, we believe that it is necessary to find out the problems existing in the current regional tourism, put forward improvement strategies, create a goal of benefiting the government, enterprises, and the public, and realize the sustainable development of regional tourism. In this Special Issue, we welcome original research articles and reviews. Areas of study may include (but are not limited to) the following:

1. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the current regional tourism behavior and model will affect the sustainable development strategy of rural and urban economies.
2. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the current tourism characteristics of ethnic minorities in the region will affect the sustainable development strategies of rural and urban areas.
3. After the outbreak of the epidemic, the current regional sports tourism activities and sustainable development strategies for industrial development.
4. In response to changes in regional tourism patterns, sustainable development strategies for tourism or leisure enterprises and organizations.
5. In response to changes in regional tourism patterns, sustainable development strategies for public tourism, leisure or consumption intentions, attitudes, and behaviors.
6. In response to changes in regional tourism patterns, the response measures for human resource management of tourism or leisure enterprises.
7. After the opening of the epidemic, the sustainable development influence of smart tourism on the change of regional tourism patterns.

Therefore, we expect and invite scholars in tourism, leisure activities, and other related fields to provide innovative manuscripts based on the above themes. We welcome scholars who are interested in the topic of the Special Issue to discuss together, especially those who use mixed research methods or interdisciplinary scholars to participate in the discussion on this topic. We believe that this will help to explore the current plight of regional tourism, so as to find solutions and provide a track for regional tourism to resume sustainable development.

We look forward to receiving your contributions. 

Prof. Dr. Chin-Hsien Hsu
Dr. Hsiao-Hsien Lin
Guest Editors

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• green tourism
• low-carbon tourism
• food and cultural tourism
• smart tourism
• sports tourism
• tourism intention
• consumer behavior
• rural sustainable economy
• human resource management
• corporate social responsibility