IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/transa/v166y2022icp218-233.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Travel satisfaction and travel well-being: Which is more related to travel choice behaviour in the post COVID-19 pandemic? Evidence from public transport travellers in Xi’an, China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Yucheng
  • Gao, Yanan

Abstract

The spread of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has decreased the willingness to choose public transport where travellers are more likely to be infected due to intensive passenger flow, in which case it is hard to attract passenger volume if the subjective well-being of travellers is not improved. However, the traditional measurement of travel evaluation may be not applicable to the context of the pandemic and it is necessary to analyse the changes in the internal mechanisms of travel well-being to avoid the loss of passengers. Based on structural equation modelling, this paper explored the internal relationship between the constructs of travel well-being and emphasised the significance of taking psychological factors into consideration in the post COVID-19 pandemic. The results show that travel satisfaction with the anti-pandemic related service quality of public transport is related to overall travel well-being, which can be used as a key part of well-being measurement scale design in the future. The results also indicate that, due to negative mood on the affective level induced by COVID-19, travel satisfaction on the cognitive level is not directly but indirectly related to travel choice behaviour through overall travel well-being. Compared to travel satisfaction, travel well-being is more extensive and covers travel satisfaction to some extent. Therefore, instead of studying travel satisfaction simply, taking travel well-being as the dependent variable to identify shortages existing in public transport will provide a more accurate perspective for policymakers in the post COVID-19 pandemic.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Yucheng & Gao, Yanan, 2022. "Travel satisfaction and travel well-being: Which is more related to travel choice behaviour in the post COVID-19 pandemic? Evidence from public transport travellers in Xi’an, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 218-233.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:166:y:2022:i:c:p:218-233
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2022.10.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965856422002610
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tra.2022.10.003?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yanan Gao & Soora Rasouli & Harry Timmermans & Yuanqing Wang, 2020. "Prevalence of alternative processing rules in the formation of daily travel satisfaction in the context multi-trip, multi-stage, multi-attribute travel experiences," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 1199-1221, June.
    2. van Wee, Bert & Witlox, Frank, 2021. "COVID-19 and its long-term effects on activity participation and travel behaviour: A multiperspective view," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    3. Cecilia Bergstad & Amelie Gamble & Tommy Gärling & Olle Hagman & Merritt Polk & Dick Ettema & Margareta Friman & Lars Olsson, 2011. "Subjective well-being related to satisfaction with daily travel," Transportation, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 1-15, January.
    4. Lades, Leonhard K. & Kelly, Andrew & Kelleher, Luke, 2020. "Why is active travel more satisfying than motorized travel? Evidence from Dublin," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 318-333.
    5. Esmailpour, Javad & Aghabayk, Kayvan & Abrari Vajari, Mohammad & De Gruyter, Chris, 2020. "Importance – Performance Analysis (IPA) of bus service attributes: A case study in a developing country," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 129-150.
    6. Eriksson, Lars & Friman, Margareta & Gärling, Tommy, 2013. "Perceived attributes of bus and car mediating satisfaction with the work commute," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 87-96.
    7. Huyen T. K. Le & Andre L. Carrel, 2021. "Happy today, satisfied tomorrow: emotion—satisfaction dynamics in a multi-week transit user smartphone survey," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(1), pages 45-66, February.
    8. Luan, Siliang & Yang, Qingfang & Jiang, Zhongtai & Wang, Wei, 2021. "Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on individual's travel mode choice in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 271-280.
    9. Mandhani, Jyoti & Nayak, Jogendra Kumar & Parida, Manoranjan, 2020. "Interrelationships among service quality factors of Metro Rail Transit System: An integrated Bayesian networks and PLS-SEM approach," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 320-336.
    10. Páez, Antonio & Whalen, Kate, 2010. "Enjoyment of commute: A comparison of different transportation modes," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(7), pages 537-549, August.
    11. Estelle van Tonder & Daniël Johannes Petzer, 2018. "The interrelationships between relationship marketing constructs and customer engagement dimensions," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(13-14), pages 948-973, October.
    12. Rebecca Brough & Matthew Freedman & David C. Phillips, 2021. "Understanding socioeconomic disparities in travel behavior during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 753-774, September.
    13. Jonas De Vos & Tim Schwanen & Veronique Van Acker & Frank Witlox, 2013. "Travel and Subjective Well-Being: A Focus on Findings, Methods and Future Research Needs," Transport Reviews, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 421-442, July.
    14. Eisenmann, Christine & Nobis, Claudia & Kolarova, Viktoriya & Lenz, Barbara & Winkler, Christian, 2021. "Transport mode use during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Germany: The car became more important, public transport lost ground," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 60-67.
    15. Astrachan, Claudia Binz & Patel, Vijay K. & Wanzenried, Gabrielle, 2014. "A comparative study of CB-SEM and PLS-SEM for theory development in family firm research," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 116-128.
    16. So Young Lee & Yoon Hi Sung & Dongwon Choi & Dong Hoo Kim, 2021. "Surviving a Crisis: How Crisis Type and Psychological Distance Can Inform Corporate Crisis Responses," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(4), pages 795-811, February.
    17. John Yardley & Robert Rice, 1991. "The relationship between mood and subjective well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 101-111, February.
    18. Kim, Junghwa & Schmöcker, Jan-Dirk & Nakamura, Toshiyuki & Uno, Nobuhiro & Iwamoto, Takenori, 2020. "Integrated impacts of public transport travel and travel satisfaction on quality of life of older people," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 15-27.
    19. Lai, Wen-Tai & Chen, Ching-Fu, 2011. "Behavioral intentions of public transit passengers--The roles of service quality, perceived value, satisfaction and involvement," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 318-325, March.
    20. Nilashi, Mehrbakhsh & Abumalloh, Rabab Ali & Minaei-Bidgoli, Behrouz & Abdu Zogaan, Waleed & Alhargan, Ashwaq & Mohd, Saidatulakmal & Syed Azhar, Sharifah Nurlaili Farhana & Asadi, Shahla & Samad, Sar, 2022. "Revealing travellers’ satisfaction during COVID-19 outbreak: Moderating role of service quality," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    21. Abenoza, Roberto F. & Cats, Oded & Susilo, Yusak O., 2017. "Travel satisfaction with public transport: Determinants, user classes, regional disparities and their evolution," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 64-84.
    22. Gatta, Valerio & Marcucci, Edoardo, 2007. "Quality and public transport service contracts," European Transport \ Trasporti Europei, ISTIEE, Institute for the Study of Transport within the European Economic Integration, issue 36, pages 92-106.
    23. Zhu, Jing & Fan, Yingling, 2018. "Daily travel behavior and emotional well-being: Effects of trip mode, duration, purpose, and companionship," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 360-373.
    24. Zhang, Chunqin & Liu, Yong & Lu, Weite & Xiao, Guangnian, 2019. "Evaluating passenger satisfaction index based on PLS-SEM model: Evidence from Chinese public transport service," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 149-164.
    25. Pan, Yu & He, Sylvia Y., 2022. "Analyzing COVID-19’s impact on the travel mobility of various social groups in China’s Greater Bay Area via mobile phone big data," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 263-281.
    26. Vella-Brodrick, Dianne A. & Stanley, Janet, 2013. "The significance of transport mobility in predicting well-being," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 236-242.
    27. Dong, Hongming & Ma, Shoufeng & Jia, Ning & Tian, Junfang, 2021. "Understanding public transport satisfaction in post COVID-19 pandemic," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 81-88.
    28. Lars Olsson & Tommy Gärling & Dick Ettema & Margareta Friman & Satoshi Fujii, 2013. "Happiness and Satisfaction with Work Commute," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 111(1), pages 255-263, March.
    29. Zhang, Chunqin & Juan, Zhicai & Lu, Weite & Xiao, Guangnian, 2016. "Do the organizational forms affect passenger satisfaction? Evidence from Chinese public transport service," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 129-148.
    30. Adam Przybylowski & Sandra Stelmak & Michal Suchanek, 2021. "Mobility Behaviour in View of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic—Public Transport Users in Gdansk Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, January.
    31. Luo, Shuli & He, Sylvia Y., 2021. "Understanding gender difference in perceptions toward transit services across space and time: A social media mining approach," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 63-73.
    32. Friman, Margareta & Gärling, Tommy & Ettema, Dick & Olsson, Lars E., 2017. "How does travel affect emotional well-being and life satisfaction?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 170-180.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Purim Srisawat & Wuyi Zhang & Kassara Sukpatch & Wachira Wichitphongsa, 2023. "Tourist Behavior and Sustainable Tourism Policy Planning in the COVID-19 Era: Insights from Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-21, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sun, Shichao & Yao, Yukun & Xu, Lingyu & He, Xuan & Duan, Zhengyu, 2022. "The use of E-moped increases commute satisfaction and subjective well-being: Evidence from Shanghai, China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 60-73.
    2. Wang, Fenglong & Mao, Zidan & Wang, Donggen, 2020. "Residential relocation and travel satisfaction change: An empirical study in Beijing, China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 341-353.
    3. Guan, Xiaodong & Wang, Donggen, 2024. "Examining the roles of transport captivity and travel dissonance in travel satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    4. Lades, Leonhard K. & Kelly, Andrew & Kelleher, Luke, 2020. "Why is active travel more satisfying than motorized travel? Evidence from Dublin," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 318-333.
    5. Ingvardson, Jesper Bláfoss & Nielsen, Otto Anker, 2019. "The relationship between norms, satisfaction and public transport use: A comparison across six European cities using structural equation modelling," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 37-57.
    6. De Vos, Jonas & Witlox, Frank, 2017. "Travel satisfaction revisited. On the pivotal role of travel satisfaction in conceptualising a travel behaviour process," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 364-373.
    7. Zhu, Jing & Fan, Yingling, 2018. "Daily travel behavior and emotional well-being: Effects of trip mode, duration, purpose, and companionship," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 360-373.
    8. Van Acker, Veronique & Ho, Loan & Mulley, Corinne, 2021. "“Satisfaction lies in the effort”. Is Gandhi’s quote also true for satisfaction with commuting?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 214-227.
    9. Li, Shengxiao (Alex) & Guan, Xiaodong & Wang, Donggen, 2022. "How do constrained car ownership and car use influence travel and life satisfaction?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 155(C), pages 202-218.
    10. Dong Wei & Xiaoshu Cao & Miaomiao Wang, 2019. "What Determines the Psychological Well-Being during Commute in Xi’an: The Role of Built Environment, Travel Attitude, and Travel Characteristics," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-21, March.
    11. Barbora Mazúrová & Ján Kollár & Gabriela Nedelová, 2021. "Travel Mode of Commuting in Context of Subjective Well-Being—Experience from Slovakia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-17, March.
    12. Gao, Yanan & Rasouli, Soora & Timmermans, Harry & Wang, Yuanqing, 2018. "Trip stage satisfaction of public transport users: A reference-based model incorporating trip attributes, perceived service quality, psychological disposition and difference tolerance," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 759-775.
    13. Esmailpour, Javad & Aghabayk, Kayvan & Aghajanzadeh, Mohammad & De Gruyter, Chris, 2022. "Has COVID-19 changed our loyalty towards public transport? Understanding the moderating role of the pandemic in the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 80-103.
    14. Echeverría, Lucía & Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto, 2021. "Carpooling: User profiles and well-being," Nülan. Deposited Documents 3568, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Centro de Documentación.
    15. Ye, Runing & De Vos, Jonas & Ma, Liang, 2020. "Analysing the association of dissonance between actual and ideal commute time and commute satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 47-60.
    16. Echeverría, Lucía & Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto, 2022. "Green mobility and well-being," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    17. Ghadir Pourhashem & Christina Georgouli & Eva Malichová & Milan Straka & Tatiana Kováčiková, 2024. "Factors influencing the perceived value of travel time in European urban areas," Transportation, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 1525-1545, August.
    18. De Vos, Jonas, 2018. "Do people travel with their preferred travel mode? Analysing the extent of travel mode dissonance and its effect on travel satisfaction," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 261-274.
    19. Ni, Anning & Zhang, Chunqin & Hu, Yuting & Lu, Weite & Li, Hongwei, 2020. "Influence mechanism of the corporate image on passenger satisfaction with public transport in China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 54-65.
    20. Yanan Gao & Soora Rasouli & Harry Timmermans & Yuanqing Wang, 2020. "Prevalence of alternative processing rules in the formation of daily travel satisfaction in the context multi-trip, multi-stage, multi-attribute travel experiences," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 1199-1221, June.

    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:eee:transa:v:166:y:2022:i:c:p:218-233. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/547/description#description .

    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.