IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rcitxx/v25y2022i23p3747-3760.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of the pandemic: the role of ‘face masks’ in hospitality and tourism service provision

Author

Listed:
  • Prokopis Christou
  • Rodoula Savva

Abstract

This study postulates that ‘masks’ on the face of service employees during the pandemic had a deeper role to play other than shielding their own and tourists’ health. A mixed methodological approach revealed various personal, physical and psycho-social impacts of face masks in services. Contrary to other domains such as the theatre, entertainment and events industry, face masks possess a negative valence since they deprive expressions of emotions and possibilities of channelling to guests positive states. Even so, this study has proven that service providers can be extremely adoptive, resilient and very good transferors of hospitality even if masks hide probably the most welcoming aspect of the hospitality notion and powerful tool, their ‘smiles’. A hermeneutical understanding of face masks in contemporary society is provided for theoretical and practical consideration. HighlightsFace masks in tourism service provision may carry a negative valence.Tourism service providers ‘smile’ through their eyes when wearing masks.Guests receive hospitality even if employees think that masks deprive its offering.

Suggested Citation

  • Prokopis Christou & Rodoula Savva, 2022. "Impacts of the pandemic: the role of ‘face masks’ in hospitality and tourism service provision," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(23), pages 3747-3760, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:rcitxx:v:25:y:2022:i:23:p:3747-3760
    DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2021.2014793
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13683500.2021.2014793
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13683500.2021.2014793?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:rcitxx:v:25:y:2022:i:23:p:3747-3760. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rcit .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.