Investigation of Residents' Behavior towards Tourists during COVID-19 Outbreak

Abstract

The reaction of the community towards tourists is based on their perception of costs/profits of tourism. COVID-19's outbreaks led many host to believe that costs they receive from having tourists around, outweigh the benefits and this perception in turn, negatively influenced their reaction towards tourists. The perception of cost, by the community members, in a chain sequence, leads to the perception of threat, the formation of a negative attitude and, ultimately, the occurrence of negative behavior. In line with this trend, the purpose of this study is to investigate the attitude and the reaction of community towards tourists during the outbreak of Covid-19 in Ramsar destination. Integrated threat theory was used to shape the theoretical framework. The research method was qualitative. The statistical population was the citizens of Ramsar. The sampling method was judgmental and the sample size was considered to be 21 people based on achieving theoretical saturation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and were analyzed based on content analysis and open and axial coding. the research findings presented new dimensions of host-tourist interaction in the Corona period based on the combination of theories of social exchange and integrated threat. According to the findings while general perception towards tourists was negative, some locals with emphasizing the dependency of local livelihoods on tourism, believed under certain conditions, tourists should be welcomed back to the city. In both cases, health and safety of locals should come first.

Keywords

• covid-19
• cost perception
• threat perception
• negative attitude
• negative behavior