Studies investigating the influence of social media on destination choice are in an exploratory stage. Essentially, social media disseminates word of mouth electronically, unlike traditional word of mouth. However, within tourism, evidence has suggested that both terms may be used interchangeably. In this article, five points of difference suggest that electronic word of mouth is to be treated as a unique entity. The distinctive characteristics of electronic word of mouth are little known source-receiver relationships, channel variety and presentation of contents, opportunities for information solicitation, message retention capabilities, and content provider motivations for disclosure. Three considerations for destination management organizations are creating opportunities for past visitors to narrate memorable tourism experiences, involving industry partners to build relevant destination images and greater engagement with social media. This conceptual article advances the understanding of electronic word of mouth in presenting distinctive credibility profiles toward a proposed influence on destination image and choice.

While social media receive considerable scholarly attention, studies reveal mixed outcomes in relation to its influence on tourists’ destination choices. There is nonetheless a persistent perception that social media has a fundamental influence on destination choice. However, those studies that do find a social media influence are in contexts where tourists are predisposed to be influenced (the contexts were selected due to social media presence or influence). These studies also have limitations in terms of social media types, tourists and destinations. This research responds to the challenges and explores social media influence across diverse destination choice contexts. Through face-to-face interviews conducted with 39 Australian tourist decision-makers, the findings reveal that social media influence is only apparent when specific context-conditions are co-present. Instead, most destination choice contexts are likely to result in low levels of social media influence. The findings advance theory by identifying three contextual dimensions for social media influence: level of social media engagement; destination novelty or familiarity; and complexity of the planning decision. This research importantly demonstrates the need to illuminate context when conceptualising social media influence on tourists’ destination choices. Practically, destinations should utilise social media to demonstrate ease of visit planning.

Blockchain technologies are predicted to substantially transform the tourism industry. At present, cryptocurrencies are the most advanced application of public blockchains that promise benefits such as a universal means of payment and minimal fees through the removal of intermediaries. In the tourism industry, though many tourism vendors have been accepting cryptocurrencies and the potential of using cryptocurrencies in travel-related consumption has been intensively documented, existing knowledge about travellers’ intention to use cryptocurrencies for payment purposes is limited. Traditional models do not account for the idiosyncrasies of cryptocurrencies and are therefore less appropriate to foster the understanding of travellers’ adoption of travel-related payments. To fill this knowledge gap, an exploratory study was conducted with 161 travellers from the Asia-Pacific region who have previously consumed travel-related services with cryptocurrencies. Their previous usage experiences are analysed and reported. Through harnessing the correspondence analysis, several technological contingency factors were identified, as well as positive and negative perceptual antecedents. Additionally, their levels of satisfaction and intention to re-use the technology in future trips were investigated. Based on these findings, several propositions are suggested for guiding future research on travellers’ cryptocurrency adoption in the travel and tourism contexts.

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, some hotels have introduced a new service model called contactless service. This paper unpacks this new hospitality landscape through a random sample of 510 valid responses collected at a smart hotel in Taiwan in June 2020 and discusses the emergent insights through Multiple Linear Regression (MLR). The findings revealed that (1) Sense experience (SE), feel experience (FE), and relate experience (RE) were all positively impacting information sharing (IS); (2) Sense experience (SE) and feel experience (FE) positively affected satisfaction (CS). The positive adjustment of the relationship between the sense experience (SE) and the related experience (RE) for information sharing (IS) is regulated by the outbreak event disruption (ED). Intelligence operation (IO) is a significant mediating effect among five-sense experiences, customer satisfaction, and information sharing. This paper analyzes empirical data and provides insights that illuminate the nuances of customer experiences with contactless hospitality service.

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented challenges to tourism due to the global nature of its pandemic effect. Health pandemics, such as the COVID-19, are some of the various types of crises that confront the tourism industry. While academic attention has been devoted to the management of crises, very little is known about the use of medical tourism as a panacea for destination recovery. Drawing from interviews conducted with 17 medical tourists to Iran, this research note provides nuanced cues to suggest how tourist sentiments and medical tourism destination image can be valuable tools to aid in post-crisis recovery strategies.