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Archives of Business Research – Vol. 9, No.2

Publication Date: February 25, 2021

DOI: 10.14738/abr.92.9724.

Al Sahouly, I. (2021). Pandemic Aftershock: Revisiting Consumers’ Risk Perception Attitude and Perceived Safety towards an Audience- Centered Marketing Paradigm. Archives of Business Research, 9(2). 128-142.

Pandemic Aftershock: Revisiting Consumers’ Risk Perception

Attitude and Perceived Safety towards an Audience-Centered

Marketing Paradigm

Ibrahim Al Sahouly

School of Business, The American University in Cairo

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The purpose of this empirical research is to empirically investigate the

effect of Covid-19 crisis on Egyptians’ risk perception attitude, perceived safety

and local travel intentions inside Egypt for the aim of reaching significant

marketing insights and recommendation to benefit the tourism sector during

Covid-19 pandemic. Those marketing insights can help prepare citizens to deal

with the crisis challenges for the objective of normalizing everyday practice,

maintain productivity and help protect the stability of the community.

Design/methodology/approach: This research adopts the variables of the

Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), which provides a useful framework to

understand how individuals respond to crisis/risk. This research empirically

investigates the current insights, concerns and needs of 300 samples from the

Egyptian community for the aim of reaching a practical method of

normalization; thus, bridging what the researcher would like to call “the blind

spot” or gaps of actions between decision makers and citizens. This research

applies quantitative research method. Data were collected online. It is

significant to pinpoint that this empirical investigation adopts the Extended

Parallel Process Model (EPPM), which provides a useful framework to

understand how individuals respond to crisis/risk communication messages for

the purpose of investigating the research hypotheses; thus, this empirical study

does not aim to extend nor to present a conceptual framework for the adopted

Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM) within the Egyptian milieu.

Findings: The research findings suggest new marketing implementations for

overcoming the challenges facing the local tourism sector in Egypt due to Covid- 19 pandemic crisis, and further recommends an audience-centered paradigm in

marketing and communicating promotional messages.

Originality/value: To date, limited empirical research has investigated Egyptian

tourists’ insights for sustaining the internal tourism sector in Egypt during

normal and crisis times. This research is considered valuable to decision

makers, marketers and academics alike as it provides up- to- date marketing

insights and empirical results for the aim of normalizing the internal tourism

practices in Egypt after the pandemic shock and even during the consecutive

waves of Covid-19.

Keywords: Covid-19 pandemic; Marketing strategy; Egyptian tourism reform;

Extended Parallel Process Model; Coronavirus.

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Archives of Business Research (ABR) Vol 9, Issue 2, February-2021

INTRODUCTION

The widespread of the COVID 19 pandemic and its consecutive waves dramatically shifting the

outbreak from a public health crisis to more serious economic, social and psychological

implications. In fact, the outbreak of Covid-19 and the resultant lockdown measures in addition to

the closure of international borders have presented several challenges for key sectors such as

tourism. Currently, there is a need to produce implementation plans for the purpose of preparing

citizens to deal with post crisis challenges for the objective of normalizing everyday practice,

maintain productivity and protect the stability of the community. One of the sectors that requires

a tailored marketing strategy to maintain its sustainability is internal tourism in Egypt.

Ensuring tourists safety has become one of the Egyptian tourism industry’s initiatives during

Covid-19 pandemic. For example, in Summer 2020, many hotels have applied for and received the

‘Health and Safety Certificate’ issued by the Egyptian Tourism and Health Ministries. The

certificate guarantees for tourists that all health and safety measures according to the latest

international health and safety standards have been activated; further, the Ministry stressed on

tourists to deal only with hotels that have received the Health and Safety Certificate, which

ensures that all sterilization and disinfection precautionary measures have been taken [1].

However, during Covid-19 unprecedent global health crisis, there is a paramount importance to

draft proposals for dealing with the post crisis milieu and to reach practical methods of

normalizing life; those methods should not only be convenient to governments, but also to

citizens, specifically, Egyptian tourists, who are interested in internal tourism in their country.

Because the scale and effect of Covid-19 was unrivalled, the researcher believes that one of the

best methods to reach the current insights and intentions is through empirical investigation;

thus, bridging what the researcher would like to call “the blind spot” or gaps of actions between

decision makers and citizens.

During pandemics, tourists’ risk perceptions increases, thus negatively affect people’s intention

to travel for tourism purposes [2]. At this stage, marketing is fundamental to tourism businesses;

for example, effective marketing is largely responsible for the number and types of tourists at a

specific destination, and further presents an important catalyst in helping the tourism industries

achieve their short and long term objectives [3]. The objective of this empirical study is to

empirically investigate the effect of Covid-19 crisis on People’s risk perception attitude, perceived

safety and local travel intentions among Egyptian tourists who intend to spend their Summer

vacation internally inside Egypt during Covid-19 outbreak. The timeframe of conducting the

primary research of this research was just after the Egyptian government eased the lockdown

measures in mid-June 2020, where hotels were mandated to adhere to guidelines established by

the Chamber of Hotel Establishments, including operating at 25% capacity and other

preventative measures. Hotels must also follow government regulations, as well as guidelines

from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The findings of this research suggest new marketing implementation paradigm for overcoming

the challenges facing the local tourism sector in Egypt due to Covid-19 pandemic crisis. The

research recommends an audience-centered paradigm in marketing and communicating

promotional messages in the field of tourism in Egypt to further ensure the normalization of the

internal tourism sector in Egypt after the first wave of Covid-19 and during potential consecutive

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Al Sahouly, I. (2021). Pandemic Aftershock: Revisiting Consumers’ Risk Perception Attitude and Perceived Safety towards an Audience-Centered

Marketing Paradigm. Archives of Business Research, 9(2). 128-142.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/abr.92.9724. 130

waves of the pandemic [4]. Accordingly, this research is of paramount importance due to its

timely need and it further fills a gap in the literature as there is a shortage of specialized

marketing tourism research that focused on crisis management in Egypt. More importantly, the

findings of this research will further support the tourism marketing scope of the Egyptian

government’s Tourism Reform Programme that was launched in November 2018.

Egypt’s Tourism Reform programme known as “E-TRP” presents a wide-reaching strategy with

five pillars: institutional reform; legislative reform; promotion and marketing; infrastructure and

tourism development; and global tourism trends. The programme aims to revise and improve the

legal framework governing the industry, which has been in place since 1970. Administrative

restructuring will improve bureaucracy in the system through modernization and digitization,

supported by capacity building, which aims to enhance the skills of all those working within the

sector. This includes greater access to vocational training and improving the English- language

skills of those employed in hospitality [5].

BACKGROUND

Generally, the growing research of marketing in Egypt has covered a variety of research topics

with a relatively new areas that remain undeveloped. Accordingly, this research aims to

contribute to the existing literature by offering theoretical and practical implications for internal

tourism marketeers regarding managing the emerging crisis of Covid-19 pandemic. Limited

empirical research have covered this scope before in Egypt as research focused on various

themes such as Halal tourism, which is a type of tourism of the modern trends in tourism, which

emerged considerably in many countries including the Middle East [6]. Other research focused on

raising the competitiveness for travel and tourism industry in Egypt [7]; rebranding the touristic

hotspots in Egypt [8]; evaluating the strategic tourism performance in Egypt [9]; assessing the

role of digital applications such as Google maps for presenting cultural attractions and tourism

services [10]; using information technology for enhancing tourism sector in Egypt [11]; Assessing

the impact of economic factors on Egyptian tourism [12]; and examining the process of online

booking for tourism in Egypt [13]. Previous scopes of research reflect an obvious lack of sufficient

empirical studies that focus on the Egyptian citizen as a target of internal tourism in Egypt and on

investigating the insights of Egyptian tourists as the main consumer for local touristic sites

available in Egypt. Accordingly, the scope of this research remains undeveloped in Egypt, which

further illustrates the significance of this empirical investigation.

According to The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), Egypt’s tourism industry has

demonstrated rapid growth since the decline that followed Egypt’s 2011 revolution. In 2019

travel and tourism contributed LE 496.4bn ($30.6bn) to Egypt’s GDP, around 9.3% of the total

GDP, representing a 0.2% increase on the previous year; however, tourism growth will likely be

somewhat more subdued than anticipated as a result of the Covid-19 virus and its effects on the

sector [14].

Although the spread of the Covid-19 virus in the first half of 2020 significantly impacted tourism

worldwide, Egypt continued to invests in developing its tourism reform alongside infrastructure

investment and global promotional activities to lead the industry to success in the longer term

[15], which is in line with Egypt’s strategic Tourism Reform Programme. In fact, the new tourism

marketing strategy for Egypt, which aims to position the country as a world leader in antiquities