Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted people’s recreation routines and leisure time. The rise in infections; mortality rates; quarantine; and lockdown, have triggered adaptive anxiety-related distress including- fear of becoming infected; anxiety sensitivity; bodily vigilance; disease-related xenophobia; and the fear of coming into contact with possibly contaminated surfaces or objects (Taylor, 2019). Consequently, when governments began to relax lockdown rules in most countries, people hardly returned to their leisure and recreation routines; parks were still deserted, restaurants are empty, and malls remain scanty. The hospitality industry proves to be slow in recovering from the pandemic, partly due to the high risk of contamination at places of leisure and recreation (Shin & Kang, 2020; Zemke et al., 2015). This highlights the vulnerability of the hospitality industry as a result of the pandemic and has sparked conversations on how to expedite the recovery of the industry post-pandemic.
Some have suggested that for the industry to rapidly recover post-pandemic, practitioners should carefully consider the potential benefits of artificial intelligence (AI), social distancing, hygiene, and cleanliness (Jiang & Wen, 2020; Shin & Kang, 2020). Unfortunately, implementing AI in the service industry is capital intensive and practically inapplicable, undesirable, and unconceivable in some hospitality contexts (Ivanov & Webster, 2020). Similarly, hygiene and cleanliness are perceived by some customers as a ‘best feature’ (competitive necessity) and rarely a ‘distinctive feature’ (competitive advantage) in the hospitality industry (Xia et al., 2020). Thus, cleanliness may not be a significant differentiator and enduring customer motivator post-pandemic since the pandemic has necessitated it, and governments’ policies require it for all businesses reopening post-pandemic. The same applies generally to social distancing, while it is significant in flattening the curve (Foroudi et al., 2021); it’s in some cases insignificantly related to customer satisfaction (Rukuni & Maziriri, 2020). Thus, there is a need for hospitality businesses to adopt practices that could potentially differentiate them post-pandemic, attract customers by helping them cope better with pandemic anxieties, and at the same time comply with government policies and health-safety regulations required for all business post-pandemic.
The way service encounters are, it often requires that service employees go beyond their formal roles to provide customers with support essential to customers’ well-being (Ogunmokun et al., 2020b; Temerak et al., 2018). Consequently, certain commercial institutions do play significant roles in customers’ everyday lives, as several customers patronize some business places not just for needs satisfaction related to services or goods, but likewise for the fulfillment of other needs; like human social interaction need, emotional support, and companionship (Rosenbaum et al., 2020; Zablah et al., 2017). Customers visit commercial institutions to temporarily escape from the seclusion of their homes to involve in brief engagement with people. Scholars have examined the reasons customers visit hospitality establishments, such as fast-food restaurants (Cheang, 2002), and diners (Rosenbaum et al., 2007) sometimes go beyond consumption needs to include the need for social support from the people at these establishments, such as other customers and employees. Lucia-Palacios et al. (2018) revealed that friendly banter with sales associates does help customers ease stress and improve well-being.
Thus, this paper proposes that leveraging on this inherent characteristic of the servicescapes at places of leisure and recreation, customers may receive transformative health-related benefits. This could help customers overcome pandemic anxiety-related distress and serve as a significant differentiator in the hospitality industry post-pandemic. The therapeutic servicescapes models how service-oriented organizations can employ their restorative potential and relational resources, to assume a therapeutic role in the personal experiences and daily lives of their customers (Rosenbaum et al., 2020). Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory, this study develops and tests a model that investigates the potential relationship between therapeutic servicescapes and customers’ COVID stress, and how this is linked to customers’ revisit intention.
The findings of this study could help the hospitality industry recover quicker, post-pandemic. As it offers insight that could encourage people to return to their recreation routines, by helping them overcome pandemic anxiety-related distress via transformative services with health benefits embedded in therapeutic servicescapes. Further, as previous studies have recommended social distancing and cleanliness as keys to the quick recovery of the hospitality industry, we suggest therapeutic servicescapes; not as an alternative but as complementary. Therapeutic servicescapes come with a potential competitive advantage because social distancing and cleanliness are mandated by governments and regulatory bodies, thus would soon become satisfiers and not motivators; they may soon no longer have strategic and marketing advantages.