In an age of ubiquitous internet, social media has become a key source of travel information searches and channels of digital marketing. People everywhere are continually exposed to travel information content through social media, whether intended or not. By employing the concept of accidental discovery of information, this study identified the ability of accidental discovery versus purposeful search to affect tourists’ intentions to travel and recommend. Since the younger generations both in China and globally play the role of creating and interpreting trends, this study aimed to investigate the impact of social media usage behaviors in Chinese university students on domestic travel intention. The impact of information structure in social media, including content types and content creators, was further investigated. We found that accidental discovery had a greater impact on behavioral intention than purposeful search, and photo and video content provided a greater impact than text content. Significant influences from DMOs and user comments were also identified. The findings contribute to the knowledge on information searching behavior and digital marketing strategies in destination information dissemination.

Contactless hospitality services are an expensive endeavor with an uncertain return on investment. This study explores these services from the perspective of hotel guests’ willingness to pay (WTP). To this end, 10 discrete choice experiments were conducted on 1,939 Chinese hotel guests to test a hybrid choice model. The findings indicate that hotel guests’ WTP is influenced by hotel attributes, hotel scale, customer demographics, travel-related variables, technology readiness, and health concerns. Generally, there is significant heterogeneity in the WTP for different contactless amenities, such as for contactless room entrance, contactless payment system, contactless elevator service, robotic services, a smart room, and contactless front desk services. This study contributes to the knowledge on technology implementation in the hospitality industry and the WTP for hotel amenities. Furthermore, it guides hotel practitioners to invest smartly and rationally in contactless services.

The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers’ sustainable consumption behavior. It investigated whether the perceived threat of COVID-19 increased their intention to choose a sustainable hotel brand option. It examined whether environmental concern and the perceived value of patronizing a sustainable business mediated the relationship between the perceived threat of COVID-19 and sustainable behavioral intention. Five experimental studies indicated that the pandemic contributed to elevating sustainable behavioral intention. Environmental concern and the perceived value of patronizing a sustainable business played a mediating role in the relationship between the perceived threat of COVID-19 and sustainable behavioral intention. Another important outcome was that customers showed a preference for choosing a sustainable hotel brand over a non-sustainable brand, even when the price was higher.