Examining reviews on hotels' measures about COVID-19 from a value cocreation and value codestruction perspective

Abstract

Purpose In the research, posts that tourists accommodated in the hotels during COVID-19 pandemic shared on TripAdvisor website about pandemic measures taken by establishments, have been analyzed within the context of value cocreation and codestruction. In addition, the study also aims to evaluate effects of posts by tourists on scores they give to the hotel, perceiving the hotel as safe, recommending and their intention to revisits. Design/methodology/approach In total, 1,119 reviews over TripAdvisor about 109 hotel establishments, which have safe hotel management certificate in Alanya, were examined, and they were coded in SPSS program with binary coding for positive and negative situations separately. For the analysis of associations between reviews about pandemic measures and the scores that tourists give to the hotel and their behavioral intentions, multiple linear regression analyses with dummy variables and Chi-square tests were utilized. Findings The study revealed that perceptions of tourists about pandemic measures have a significant effect on the scores they give to hotels, and this effect is asymmetrical in positive and negative situations. Negative perceptions cause much greater impact in terms of value codestruction than positive ones within the context of hotel evaluation and value cocreation. It has been observed that behavioral intentions of the tourist are formed and differentiated according to the characteristics of reviews. Research limitations/implications Apart from contributions to the theory and managerial implications, this study has some limitations. The biggest limitation of the research is that both value cocreation and codestruction are evaluated from the perspective of tourists. On the other hand, touristic service producers and suppliers are the one of the most important components in value cocreation and codestruction. Therefore, it is important to examine the value cocreation and codestruction initiatives of touristic service producers and suppliers in future research studies in order to offer a holistic perspective to the pandemic process. In this context, it is important to examine the pandemic measures implemented by food beverages, tour operators, travel agencies, car rentals, entertainment business and so on in future research. In addition, responsibilities of employees and customers, which are important components in the management of the pandemic process, should be evaluated in future research studies. Practical implications In the research, it has been established that tourists perform value cocreation and codestruction through their posts. In tourism establishments, formation of attitudes and behaviors of tourists for value creation on social communicational networks is possible through detection, amelioration and/or removal of factors causing value codestruction. Therefore, it is obvious that if hotel establishments concentrate on initiations about pandemic measures and compliance to measures, value cocreation attitudes and behaviors of tourists on social communicational networks will thus improve. Value cocreation attitudes and behaviors of tourists on social communicational networks are likely to have a function as an important strategical tool for supporting competitiveness and survival of the accommodation establishments. Originality/value The number of studies analyzing how value cocreation and codestruction occur on social communicational networks and the effects of these processes upon behavioral intentions of tourists is limited. With this aspect, this study is considered to fill this gap in tourism literature.

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