Author(s)

Hu Feng ¹, Li Yanying ², Liao Qiao ², Jin Yijie ²

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Business, Taizhou University, Taizhou, 318000, China
² College of Economics and Management, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, 321004, China

Corresponding Author

Hu Feng

ABSTRACT

Previous literature has shown that tourists prefer travel products that allow for social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, existing studies generally work on this topic from a mesoscopic perspective, and little research focuses on the micro-level changes in specific tourist preferences during the crisis. To address this gap, this study uses text mining techniques to investigate the changes in the mentions of Wuzhen Town's attributes in online reviews during different stages of the pandemic's development. The findings show that tourists have consistently shown increased interest in specific attributes of Wuzhen, such as experience, service, and boat rides, while some night attributes, such as B&B, bar, and light, have shown temporal attention unique to the pandemic period. Based on the cocooning and evolution theory, this paper further discusses the evolving tourist' demands across epidemics and puts forward suggestions for the tourism industry to effectively respond to pandemics.
 

KEYWORDS

COVID-19 Pandemic; Wuzhen; Tourist Demands; Tourist Reviews; Text Analysis

CITE THIS PAPER

Hu Feng, Li Yanying, Liao Qiao, Jin Yijie, Research on the Evolving Tourists' Demands across the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of the Wuzhen Town. Tourism Management and Technology Economy (2024) Vol. 7: 16-22. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/tmte.2024.070103.

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