earticle

영어

This study is aimed to review exhibition visitors’ perceived risk and related variables in COVID-19 pandemic setting in which exhibition industry is under unprecedented crisis. As authentic experience of exhibition visitors come from face to face gathering in the context of specific time and place, recent arguing over the on-line or untact type of exhibition only provide only imprompt solution and are far from fundamental approach. It is necessary to verify exhibition visitors’ on-site behaviors at an exploratory level and to initiate further studies. A self-entry survey was conducted on 209 Chinese tourists who visited BUSAN BEXCO in October 2021. Regarding Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2, it was found that the perceived risk of the exhibition due to COVID-19 had a significant effect on the exhibition image, and the exhibition image partially had a significant effect on the exhibition visiting satisfaction. In verifying Hypothesis 3, exhibition visiting satisfaction effected significantly revisit intention to exhibition. perceived risk due to COVID-19 was closely related to human service image factor among the exhibition images, and only human service image factor influenced exhibition visiting satisfaction. By conducting this research, perceived risk of the exhibition due to COVID-19 was found, and possible infection from other visitors during stay develop into stigma of COVID-19 after returning to daily life. In addition, it was found that the risk of quality damage when participating in the exhibition due to the COVID-19 quarantine rules is reduced by the excellence of human services rather than the physical exhibition environment. In the similar vein, service staff’s kindness, excellence, and expertise lead to visitors’ satisfaction. The theoretical practical implications and limitations were included at the end of the paper.