Emotional solidarity and destination loyalty amid the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparison of two scales

Abstract

This study examined the role that tourists' emotional solidarity with residents serves in explaining their loyalty to the destination they have visited since the COVID-19 pandemic, between May and August of 2020. In so doing, the original Emotional Solidarity Scale (ESS) and the modified ESS were utilized, where their dimensions were considered as predictors of destination loyalty. All ESS dimensions were significant predictors, but the original ESS dimensions explained greater variance in destination loyalty (36.4%) than those of the modified ESS (22.0%), and the difference was statistically meaningful. The results attest to the importance of emotional solidarity to destinations' success amid the pandemic.