| Author: | Li, Jiachen |
| Title: | Understanding event attendants’ attitude toward social distancing measures and pro-social intention in outdoor events in the with-corona era |
| Advisors: | Kim, Sam (SHTM) |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Special events -- Safety measures Infection -- Prevention Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Hotel and Tourism Management |
| Pages: | x, 100 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | As the COVID-19 pandemic has brought huge threats to human health and event safety, people are highly encouraged to practice virus containment measures when attending outdoor events, especially keeping social distancing. Hence, it is essential to learn event attendants’ attitudes toward and pro-social intention for social distancing practices, yet only considered in a limited number of studies. Thus, this study aimed to provide a theoretical comprehension of event attendants’ attitudes toward social distancing measures and how their pro-social intention related was generated. By reviewing the literature, this study identified ten factors predicting pro-social intention from the theory of planned behavior (TPB), norm activation model (NAM), personal values, and perceived knowledge and threat. The ten predictors include: attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, awareness of consequences, ascribed responsibility, personal norm, self-enhancement value, self-transcendent value, knowledge of the pandemic, and perceived threat. Then, 12 hypotheses were developed accordingly and a conceptual model presenting the paths was proposed. This study conducted an online survey among those who have ever attended outdoor events in China after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The final answers from 457 respondents were considered valid for data analysis. The methods employed for data analysis specifically contained descriptive analysis, exploratory factor analysis with reliability check, and confirmatory factor analysis to examine the validity and quality of the dataset and measurement items. After that, structural equation modeling and hypothesis testing were employed to examine the paths in the proposed model and the hypotheses developed. As for the results, ten hypotheses proposed were finally accepted, and there was no effect of perceived behavioral control and self-enhancement value on activating event attendants’ pro-social intention. Meanwhile, three constructs (i.e., self-transcendent value, knowledge of the pandemic, and perceived threat) were successfully merged into the integrated framework of TPB and NAM, examining the actual effect of this extended version under the outdoor event tourism context. However, the results revealed that attitude and perceived threat negatively affect pro-social intention and awareness of consequences, which were diverse from previous findings. These results make theoretical contributions to learning the formation process of individual’s pro-social intention in event tourism context, particularly for conducting pandemic-preventive behaviors. Also, the findings provide practical implications for policymakers and event industry stakeholders in China on how to encourage event attendants to practice social distancing measures. In addition, the exploration of event attendants’ characteristics when attending outdoor events during the COVID-19 pandemic also provided practical implications to determine their preference of outdoor event attendance in the with-corona era. Also, their perceptions toward the pandemic were identified and suggested to be considered by event organizers and planners. Lastly, limitations and relevant recommendations for future study were discussed. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6856.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 1.54 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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