Merchants’ Perception Towards Tourism Development Under COVID-19 Pandemic in Iran
Investigating the Impact of Social Hospitality and Hospitable Behaviour
Resumo
This study expanded the Social Exchange Theory (SET) to elucidate factors motivating merchants in tourist destinations to operate their business despite the high risk of exposure to COVID-19. SET allows for a more comprehensive understanding of economic theory, especially when investigating human attitudes and behaviors during crises, and this study intends to measure the costs and benefits of serving tourists during the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of merchants’ hospitable behavior, and the perception of personal benefits towards attitude and support tourism development. Questionnaires were collected from 670 merchants from five tourist hotspots in five major Iranian cities and later analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (Amos).
The results confirmed that personal benefits significantly affect merchants' support for tourism development. The economic crisis and poor business conditions during the pandemic forced business owners to accept tourists despite the high risk. Social hospitality, socio-cultural benefits, and tourism contribution to the community impact merchants' attitudes towards tourism development. This study expanded the SET model and used it to elucidate how local merchants react to tourists and support tourism development despite the risk of exposure to COVID-19. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is among the first to measure individual (Social hospitality, personal benefit), social (social cost and benefit, negative interference tourism), cultural (cultural cost and benefit), and economic (tourism contribution to the community) aspects of tourism development among merchants during the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis.
Policymakers, tourism organizations, and local communities can collaborate to promote tourism recovery and sustainable development. Strategies should focus on training merchants to provide excellent tourist experiences, improving infrastructure and services, emphasizing economic benefits for merchants, and managing potential negative impacts.
