Effect of Perception of COVID-19 Crisis Management on Destination Image and Intention to Visit

Abstract

Tourism has been one of the most dynamically developing sectors of the world economy in recent years, yet the emergence of the COVID-19 virus crisis has led to a recession in the industry, making managing this crisis essential. Thus, the study was conducted to examine the effect of the perception of COVID-19 crisis management on destination brand image and, ultimately, the intention to select a tourist destination, and carried out by explaining the role of brand personality and tourists' attitudes towards the destination. This research used the descriptive approach and quantitative data collection with applied purpose. Tehran was the spatial domain of the study, with all those (domestic and foreign) visiting Tehran as tourists from July 2020 to April 2021 as the population of the study. The Available Sampling Method was used and the data collection tool was a questionnaire. Finally, 768 complete questionnaires were collected and the hypotheses were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) in AMOS and SPSS. The results revealed that although cities and tourist destinations are lifeless elements, tourists often consider them to have personality and human characteristics. The results showed that COVID-19 crisis management positively and significantly affected the destination image and ultimately the intention to visit the destination. Ultimately, some suggestions were made that could be used as a route for tourism destinations to tackle the crisis of tourist attraction in the post-COVID-19 period.