Impact of Social Media Involvement on Brand Co-Creation During COVID-19 Outbreak in the Tourism Industry

Using protection motivation theory and service-dominant logic, this research develops a model that explores the relationships between perceived risk, fear of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) (FCV), social media involvement (SMI), brand co-creation (BCO), customer brand engagement (CBE), and revisit intention in the tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, results suggest that social media involvement positively impacts tourism-CBE. Secondly, results revealed CBE’s significant positive effect on BCO and tourists’ revisit intentions. Findings also revealed a negative moderating effect of FCV in the proposed associations. Fourth, findings showed social media’s and perceived risk’s respective indirect impacts on co-creation and revisit intention, as mediated via CBE. The model has been tested using PLS-SEM, and the empirical results contribute to the advancement of SMI, CBE, BCO, and revisit intention in tourism-destination services. This study offers key implications for tourist destinations to construct recovery tactics in surviving during outbreak/pandemic to restore tourism.