Is Reciprocity Contagious? Exploring the Role of Gratitude in Residents5 Perception of Tourists and Tourism

Is Reciprocity Contagious? Exploring the Role of Gratitude in Residents5 Perception of Tourists and Tourism

Gratitude is one most prevalent emotion during the pandemic. However, the concept of gratitude and its basis in generalized reciprocity have mainly been ignored in tourism research for a long time. Upon identifying a lack of research on the altruism relationship between residents and tourists driven by gratitude, and the change in residents ’ attitude towards tourists and tourism after the pandemic, this study adopted generalized reciprocity theory and emotional solidarity theory to examine the role of gratitude in resident perceptions of tourists and tourism after pandemic outbreak. An analysis of proposed model with 550 residents of Wuhan, China revealed that the role of gratitude in improving both residents ’ emotional solidarity with tourists and their attitude towards tourism development. The results show that emotional solidarity partially mediates gratitude and attitude changes towards tourism. The study reveals the role of gratitude to change their attitudes of tourists and tourism, and also supports the applicability of the gratitude mechanism and generalized reciprocity theory in tourism.