IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/rcitxx/v28y2025i10p1595-1610.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From shutdown to reopening: unpacking the determinants of tourism business reopening in the face of adversity

Author

Listed:
  • Yanan Lin
  • Stephen X. Zhang
  • Song Lin
  • Weiqi Dai

Abstract

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its associated lockdowns put many tourism businesses on hold. Although these lockdowns have been lifted, not all tourism entrepreneurs reopened their businesses. While prior research has extensively explored the post-pandemic recovery of tourism businesses, there has been relatively limited attention given to the determinants of tourism entrepreneurs to reopen their businesses post-crisis. Drawing on upper echelons theory, this paper explores the role of tourism entrepreneurs’ age in driving the decision to reopen their businesses in the face of adversity. Empirical evidence from a two-wave multi-informant survey involving 134 entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized tourism enterprises in China reveals that older entrepreneurs were more likely to reopen their businesses after the lockdowns were lifted. This relationship is even more pronounced for entrepreneurs who perceive less uncertainty or exhibit higher optimism. This paper represents one of the pioneering attempts to uncover the individual-level heterogeneity in determinants of tourism business reopening against the backdrop of adversity – a crucial foundation for understanding business recovery processes. It offers valuable insights that can assist small and medium-sized tourism enterprises to enhance their preparedness and responsiveness to probable future crises.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanan Lin & Stephen X. Zhang & Song Lin & Weiqi Dai, 2025. "From shutdown to reopening: unpacking the determinants of tourism business reopening in the face of adversity," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(10), pages 1595-1610, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:rcitxx:v:28:y:2025:i:10:p:1595-1610
    DOI: 10.1080/13683500.2024.2345174
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13683500.2024.2345174
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13683500.2024.2345174?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.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:rcitxx:v:28:y:2025:i:10:p:1595-1610. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/rcit .

    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.