Since its launch, ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Open AI based on the premises of generative pre-trained transformer autoregressive language models, has gained widespread popularity and is making significant impact on society with its unique features, such as natural language processing and contextual awareness. ChatGPT is viewed as a major disruptive innovation that is likely to revolutionize the operations in many industries including the hospitality and tourism industry. The adoption of ChatGPT will result in substantial changes throughout the hospitality and tourism industry by disrupting how customer search for information, make decisions, and how businesses produce, create, and deliver customized services and experiences. This conceptual paper provides a comprehensive discussion on generative pre-trained transformers’ (GPTs) benefits, and potential challenges and threats they pose to the hospitality and tourism industry. The feasibility of integrating GPT into different travel stages and decision-making processes is also discussed. The article concludes by proposing a potential future research agenda on using GPT in creating and delivering hospitality and tourism experiences, which can guide further advancements in the field.

Air pollution represents a major concern for the tourism industry worldwide; however, few studies have investigated the influence of smog pollution on international tourists’ behavioural intentions. Protection motivation theory was taken as the theoretical foundation of this study, and ‘perceived government support’ was integrated as a new construct into the research model. Using data collected from international tourists visiting Beijing, China, structural equation modelling was employed to identify significant variables that could predict and explain international tourists’ protective behavioural intentions. Results reveal that severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, and self-efficacy significantly and positively influenced protective behavioural intention, whereas perceived government support exerted a significant and negative effect. Among significant and positive variables, the influence of the severity of threat appraisal was largest. Based on these findings, theoretical and practical implications related to protection motivation theory are discussed in a tourism context.

The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc in Korean society since the end of 2019. Unlike prior to the pandemic, when online and offline activities were conducted side-by-side, many aspects of consumers’ daily lives are only conducted online, especially shopping and meetings. This study analysed the characteristics of consumers who have used offline shopping channels during the pandemic. In addition, participants were asked how often they will use online and offline shopping channels after society stabilizes from COVID-19 in order to analyse what determinants will be used to select either online or offline shopping channels after the pandemic. This study will contribute to provide a deeper understanding of the consumption patterns of consumers (online vs. offline) during times of deep external impact, such as a pandemic.

With the continuously increasing demand for air travel, competition among airlines has increased as well. The purpose of this study is to examine empirically the causal relationships among the perceived service quality, corporate image, customer trust, and corporate reputation of Asiana Airline in South Korea using SERVQUAL measures. An onsite survey of Korean passengers was conducted. The results of this study reveal that responsiveness and reliability of service quality significantly affect corporate image and customer trust, whereas tangibles, empathy, and assurance of service quality are not significant antecedents of corporate image and customer trust. It is also found that corporate image and customer trust significantly affect corporate reputation. Based on these findings, theoretical importance and practical implications are discussed in this paper.

An in-depth discussion of place attachment in the relationship between residents’ perceived tourism impacts and their support for tourism is still lacking. The predictor of tourism involvement in this relationship has also been underestimated and little attention has been paid to industrial heritage tourism in relation to residents’ attitudes toward tourism development. To fill this gap, we extend upon the existing studies of residents’ attitudes toward tourism with place attachment (both place identity and place dependence) and tourism involvement based on social exchange theory, attitude theory, and the theory of planned behavior. A self-administered survey was completed by 336 residents of Huangshi, a city undergoing a transition to industrial heritage tourism in China. The findings show that residents’ support for tourism is the result of a complete behavior generation process. This has gradually formed through tourism involvement, cognition, affection, and behavior intention, emphasizing the importance of participation and affective attitude in determining residents’ attitudes toward tourism. To maintain the sustainable development of industrial heritage tourism in the economic transition from an old industrial region to new sectors, local authorities should attach more importance to strengthening residents’ native emotional bonds and concentrate on how to encourage local residents to participate in tourism activities.

In the landscape of Covid-19 pandemic, people’s well-being, to some extent, can be affected through virtual reality tourism because it has the opportunity to enhance their level of well-being and destination recovery. To verify this empirically an investigation was conducted among people who used Quanjingke, the largest tourism-related virtual reality website in China, during the pandemic. The specific the aim of this paper is to prove the effectiveness of virtual reality tourism in promoting people’s subjective well-being. Hence, an integrated model with the constructs of peripheral attribute, core attribute and pivotal attribute, presence, perceived value, satisfaction, and subjective well-being was proposed and tested. The results indicate that attributes of virtual reality tourism have a positive effect on presence during virtual reality experiences, which positively influences perceived value. The values of virtual reality tourism perceived by tourists result in their satisfaction. Eventually, it was found that tourists’ subjective well-being is improved due to their satisfaction with virtual reality tourism. Practical suggestions are also provided based on the findings.