Understanding Factors Influencing Canadians’ travel Knowledge during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cognitive Mediation Model

Author Bios (50 Words for each Author)

Dr. Shuyue Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Business and Tourism Department, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Canada. She received her Ph.D. in Management at the University of Guelph in 2017. Dr. Huang has broad research interests spanning the areas of tourist engagement, consumer behaviour in hospitality and tourism, sustainable tourism, destination management, tourism planning and policy, cultural tourism, cruise tourism, and scholarship of teaching and learning (SOTL).

Lena Jingen Liang is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Hospitality, Food, and Tourism Management, University of Guelph. With over 8 years working experience in the hotel industry in China as well as Canada, she is a specialist that merges academic knowledge with industrial practice by working on extensive research projects. She has engaged in academic research with various publications in top-tier journals.

Dr. Hwansuk Chris Choi is a professor in the School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management at the University of Guelph, Canada. He has worked as an active strategic marketing specialist on many tourism projects at the regional, national and international levels in various regions and counties and has had more than 25 years of research and consulting experience in policy-making, marketing, development planning and consumer behaviour in tourism-related fields. He has served as an editorial board member for five academic journals.

Abstract (150 Words)

Despite an uncertain timeline, it is believed that consumers will regain confidence, and the travel demand should rebound after restrictions are lifted. This study aims to improve Canada’s preparedness to rejuvenate the economy in public health crises by understanding how potential tourists acquire knowledge using the cognitive mediation model (CMM). We examined the impact of media motivations (i.e., surveillance gratification and anticipated interaction) in predicting two types of subjective knowledge (i.e., pandemic knowledge and travel health knowledge) through the mediation of media attention and elaboration, using structural equation modelling (SEM). Study results supported all hypotheses except for the relationships between surveillance gratification and media attention, and media attention and travel health knowledge. Elaboration had the most significant total effects in predicting the two types of knowledge. This study is among the first to apply CMM in the tourism context and provides implications for DMOs and the government to understand the mechanism of Canadians’ travel decisions influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic from the health communication perspective.

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Understanding Factors Influencing Canadians’ travel Knowledge during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Cognitive Mediation Model

Despite an uncertain timeline, it is believed that consumers will regain confidence, and the travel demand should rebound after restrictions are lifted. This study aims to improve Canada’s preparedness to rejuvenate the economy in public health crises by understanding how potential tourists acquire knowledge using the cognitive mediation model (CMM). We examined the impact of media motivations (i.e., surveillance gratification and anticipated interaction) in predicting two types of subjective knowledge (i.e., pandemic knowledge and travel health knowledge) through the mediation of media attention and elaboration, using structural equation modelling (SEM). Study results supported all hypotheses except for the relationships between surveillance gratification and media attention, and media attention and travel health knowledge. Elaboration had the most significant total effects in predicting the two types of knowledge. This study is among the first to apply CMM in the tourism context and provides implications for DMOs and the government to understand the mechanism of Canadians’ travel decisions influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic from the health communication perspective.