University of East Anglia
Humanizing Hotel Brands During COVID-19 Could Encourage Tourists to Return
July 23, 2020
Hotels should build an emotional attachment with tourists when communicating during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic if they are to encourage them to return, according to new research. The study finds that crisis communication emphasizing shared emotional responses to risks enables tourists to humanize the hotel, which can subsequently create an emotional attachment. This attachment can then increase tourists’ intentions to visit once the crisis ends, which is crucial if the industry is to recover. Researchers from the Universities of East Anglia (UEA), Bath and West of England say their findings challenge the approach that domina...
Study Reveals the Emotional Journey of a Digital Detox While Travelling
August 14, 2019
New research reveals the emotional journey that tourists go on when they disconnect from technology and social media while travelling. The study, by the University of East Anglia (UEA), University of Greenwich and Auckland University of Technology (AUT), investigated how engaging in digital-free tourism impacted travellers’ holiday experiences. It involved losing access to technologies such as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, the Internet, social media and navigation tools. The researchers, who also took part in the study themselves, examined participants’ emotions before they disconnected, during their disconnection, and after they...
