https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1110-824X
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ABSTRACT
The coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China has sparked a global epidemic, which the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency of international concern on 31st January 2020 (Beijing time). This crisis has attracted intense media attention. Recently, some media outlets inappropriately labelled the coronavirus by race, using such headlines as “Chinese virus pandemonium†and even suggesting “China kids stay home.†The biased and misleading coverage presented via Western media channels has incited anger throughout the Chinese community and has placed undue stress upon Chinese individuals living outside China. This post-published review takes a tourism-focused perspective to examine findings from a quantitative study (Rodriguez-Seijas, Stohl, Hasin, & Eaton, 2015) published in 2015 in JAMA Psychiatry. The current paper highlights the potential impacts of misleading and biased media coverage on Chinese individuals’ mental health. Specifically, this work considers perceived racial discrimination stemming from coronavirus as a public health crisis and the effects of such discrimination on individuals of Chinese heritage. Similarly imperative are pertinent effects on country image and destination image with respect to tourism marketing and tourist behaviour during times of crisis. By considering racism in the context of the coronavirus outbreak, this paper identifies potential avenues for relevant research in tourism and hospitality.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
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Notes on contributors
Jun Wen
Dr. Jun Wen is a lecturer in tourism and hospitality management in the School of Business and Law at Edith Cowan University. His current research interests lie in Chinese outbound tourism marketing, behaviours, and other related aspects.
Joshua Aston
Dr. Joshua Aston is an Associate Professor in Law at the School of Business and Law, Edith Cowan University. His current research lies in Human Rights Law and Humanitarian Law.
Xinyi Liu
Miss Xinyi Liu is currently a PhD student in the College of Tourism at Sichuan University, China. Her current research interests lie in Chinese tourist behaviour and outbound tourism marketing.
Tianyu Ying
Dr. Tianyu Ying is an Associate Professor in the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management, Zhejiang University, China. His research interests lie in the Chinese outbound tourist market, the information elements in both the demand and supply sides of the tourism system, and the sustainability issues in tourism from a social perspective. He also has a methodological interest in applying social network analysis on various topics related to travel and tourism.