The Dynamics of Crowding and Tourists’ Emotions During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Normative Approach

The outbreak of COVID-19 has changed the mobility, accessibility, and behaviors of tourists dramatically. Under the impact of COVID-19, tourists’ perception of crowding and emotions in tourism destinations are expected to change due to the uncertainty of health risks associated with visitors’ behaviors. This study conducted an onsite visitor survey at Leiqiong Global Geological Park, a highly visited nature-based tourism destination in Hainan Province, China, and aims to 1) examine tourists’ perceptions of crowding and emotions by applying the normative theory of crowding, and 2) identify factors associated with tourists’ perceived crowding and emotions. Study results identify the thresholds of perceived crowding and positive emotions based on the indicator of people per view (PPV) and indicate that mask-wearing can reduce perceived crowding and enhance tourists’ positive emotions. Results also suggest that the level of crowding and COVID-19 prevention strategies and implementation can affect tourists’ emotions in nature-based tourism destinations

Recover From Failure: Examining the Impact of Service Recovery Stages on Relationship Marketing Strategies

Purpose: Given the digital transformation of service businesses by providing online food services and the influence of online reviews on consumers’ purchasing decisions, this study examines how service recovery attributes in different stages influence relationship marketing strategies, i.e., relationship quality and customer loyalty after service failure. This study is built upon a revised service recovery cycle model by accounting for three stages and their corresponding attributes; whereon a conceptual stage model of service recovery is proposed. This conceptual stage model incorporates stages of service recovery, their respective attributes, and how they influence relationship marketing strategies. Design/methodology/approach: An online marketing company was employed for data collection in 2019, which resulted in 301 valid responses. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) was conducted with all the data to test the relationships between the constructs. The individual measurement model was tested using the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). A structural model was estimated using AMOS to test all the hypotheses. Findings: The findings demonstrate that the attributes (i.e., response speed, compensation) paired with the first two stages of service recovery can significantly influence consumer loyalty in a positive state. The findings also manifest the intermediary role that relationship quality has played in the association of service recovery and consumer loyalty, which implies that the food delivery businesses could attain a more comprehended relationship quality with consumers through active and timely compensatory service recovery consumer loyalty to the food businesses. Originality/value: This study examines how these different stages of the service recovery cycle influence the decision-making of relationship marketing strategies (i.e., relationship quality, customer loyalty) on the prerequisite of service failure. This study aspires to expand the service recovery research by objectifying a conceptual stage model of service recovery, incorporating stages’ recovery attributes and how these recovery attributes reciprocally influence relationship quality and customer loyalty

Self-assembly of noble metal nanoparticles into sub-100 nm colloidosomes with collective optical and catalytic properties.

Self-assembly at the nanoscale represents a powerful tool for creating materials with new structures and intriguing collective properties. Here, we report a novel strategy to synthesize nanoscale colloidosomes of noble metals by assembling primary metal nanoparticles at the interface of emulsion droplets formed by their capping agent. This strategy produces noble metal colloidosomes of unprecedentedly small sizes (<100 nm) in high yield and uniformity, which is highly desirable for practical applications. In addition, it enables the high tunability of the composition, producing a diversity of monometallic and bimetallic alloy colloidosomes. The colloidosomes exhibit interesting collective properties that are different from those of individual colloidal nanoparticles. Specifically, we demonstrate Au colloidosomes with well-controlled interparticle plasmon coupling and Au-Pd alloy colloidosomes with superior electrocatalytic performance, both thanks to the special structural features that arise from the assembly. We believe this strategy provides a general platform for producing a rich class of miniature colloidosomes that may have fascinating collective properties for a broad range of applications

Nanocrystals in silicon photonic crystal standing-wave cavities as spin-photon phase gates for quantum information processing

By virtue of a silicon high-Q photonic crystal nanocavity, we propose and examine theoretically interactions between a stationary electron spin qubit of a semiconductor nanocrystal and a flying photon qubit. Firstly, we introduce, derive and demonstrate for the first time the explicit conditions towards realization of a spin-photon two-qubit phase gate, and propose these interactions as a generalized quantum interface for quantum information processing. Secondly, we examine novel single-spin-induced reflections as direct evidence of intrinsic bare and dressed modes in our coupled nanocrystal-cavity system. The excellent physical integration of this silicon system provides tremendous potential for large-scale quantum information processing