Tourism-Based Gamification as a Platform for Engagement and Co-Creation during COVID-19: Framework and Propositions

The persistent effect of COVID-19 pandemic on our lives offers novel opportunities to study gamification-based customer engagement (CE) and brand co-creation (BC) in tourism. Although CE/BC research has developed key insight, most works to date investigate CE/BC under free-market regular situations, generating a significant gap about its manifestation under less-regular situations during COVID-19 crises. Based on review, we develop a framework of tourism gamification-based CE/BC, as summarized in our set of propositions. The framework shows gamification adaptation and their respective effects on CE/BC. The framework also maps the effects of CE on brand-based co-creation, loyalty, and word-of-mouth in immediate pandemic. This chapter generates key managerial implications, involving the implementation of differing marketing (tourism) strategies/tactics to foster CE, co-creation, loyalty, and word-of-mouth during epidemic. By investigating the impacts of tourism gamification-based CE/BC during pandemic, this chapter contributes novel insight.