Chapter 3: Assessing the Psychological Impact of the Pandemic Narrative in the Media on Hospitality Consumption Mood

This chapter aims to assess the psychological impact of pandemic narrative in the media on hospitality consumption mood. A theoretical model is proposed for the ontogenesis of consumption mood which discusses the role of four affects – scarcity, empathy, trauma and inconvenience – in reshaping the types of hospitality experiences consumers' desire and argues that significant rethinking is necessary to meet these challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major damage to the world economy and has the vulnerability of the hospitality industry to disruptions in global connectivity. Between January and May 2020, the disruption to global mobility cost the global tourism industry an estimated US$ 320 billion UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) (2020), and tourist numbers fell by 300 million – a 56% drop on the same period in 2019 (Guevara, 2020; Hoisington, 2020; Jiang & Wen, 2020; Wen, Kozak, Yang, & Liu, 2020). As the hospitality industry face the grim reality of a total collapse (Courtney, 2020). UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Palliatively has stressed the importance of restarting tourism and hospitality sectors ‘as soon as it is safe to do so’ (UNWTO, 2020). Several scholars (Carnevale & Hatak, 2020; Sharma, Leung, Kingshott, Davcik, & Cardinali, 2020; Sheth, 2020; Sigala, 2020; Woodside, 2020) have already identified the severe impact of COVID-19 on global markets. We share the sense of urgency expressed in these papers, but also argue that overcoming the physical and regulatory obstacles is only part of the solution: responding to the psychological impact brought about by exposure to the pandemic narrative also represents a long-term challenge for the global hospitality industry.