While studies have documented the valence (e.g., facilitation and harm) of residents’ behaviors toward tourists, research into the intensity (i.e., activeness or passiveness) for such behaviors and the corresponding matrix that could be generated by considering both of these dimensions in the context of tourism remains unexplored. This research offers a more holistic conceptualization of residents’ behaviors by generating a matrix that constitutes the framework of the Behaviours from Intergroup Affect and Stereotype (BIAS) Map. Twelve behaviors were measured and cross-culturally validated via samples from Hong Kong, Singapore, and the United States: Active Facilitation (i.e., socializing, interacting, and starting a conversation with tourists); Passive Facilitation (i.e., tolerating, accepting, and enduring tourists’ behaviors); Active Harm (i.e., mocking, threatening, and being unfriendly to tourists); and Passive Harm (i.e., resisting, refraining, and being reluctant to help tourists). This research provides implications for tourism policy makers to manage host–guest relations that could influence destination image and destination competitiveness.

Incidences of negative host-guest interactions have been frequently reported through news and social media during the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of this, the present study examines the exposure of negative information about residents on potential tourists’ evaluations of destination images. The findings show that tourists may offset negativity about residents through the concept of compensatory efforts by providing more favorable judgements to other elements of the destination (e.g. culture and environment). This study contributes by highlighting the dynamics of compensatory efforts and impression management on destination images, which are relevant for promoting destinations when travel and tourism recover from COVID-19.

Stereotyping is a dichotomy system of cognitive information processes reflecting explicit and implicit biases. While existing studies have studied tourist stereotypes with a wide range of approaches, ranging from face-to-face interviews to numerical scale ratings via self-reports, these studies measured only one type of stereotypes: explicit stereotypes, while neglecting the other: implicit stereotypes. The nature of explicit stereotypes allows individuals to access their cognitions, which could increase the chance of socially desirable responses and thus offer incomplete knowledge in tourist stereotyping. Drawing from existing literature on explicit and implicit stereotypes, this study seeks to identify implicit tourist stereotypes via implicit association test (IAT) and measure them against explicit biases from residents of four popular destinations, covering Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. This study contributes by presenting a detailed development of the IAT and demonstrates the applicability of this method for future cognitive-related studies in the tourism literature. Overall, this study provides a timely and impactful methodology for measuring tourist stereotypes, an important cognitive component that could shape residents’ attitudes toward sustainable tourism development, and harmonious host-guest relationships.