Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
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Item The Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown: An Exploratory Study of New Zealand Home Occupants(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2025-10-23) Rasheed EO; Tamang I; Onyeizu-Rasheed E; Vishnu P; Mohsin Shahzad WThe COVID-19 pandemic imposed unprecedented restrictions on movement and daily life, testing the resilience and adaptability of existing housing stock, as families worldwide were forced to adapt their homes into multifunctional environments. In New Zealand, where lockdowns were among the most stringent globally, homes rapidly transformed into workplaces, schools, gyms, and places of refuge. Little is known about how these adaptations affected the sustainability of homes and occupants’ well-being, particularly in the context of future crises. This study examined the economic, environmental, and psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on New Zealand households. A questionnaire survey was conducted, and a quantitative analysis method was employed using survey data from 92 valid responses from New Zealand respondents who experienced lockdowns in various types of housing. To find important patterns and connections, descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were conducted. Findings revealed that economic factors had the strongest influence on respondents’ perceived experience during the COVID-19 lockdown, with households reporting increased electricity and water use but reduced fuel costs. Environmental factors were also significant, with respondents noting the importance of fresh air, sunlight, acoustic privacy, and more spacious rooms, alongside the critical need for a dedicated workspace. Psychosocial effects included higher distraction levels, monotony, and heightened concern for health. Group differences highlighted the influence of age and the number of bedrooms on the perceived experience of lockdown. This pilot work offers a New Zealand perspective on the intersection of the pandemic with the sustainability of homes. The practical implications of this study highlight the need for sustainable housing retrofits, hybrid work policies that support ergonomic and acoustically adequate home offices, and demographic-sensitive interventions to enhance resilience and occupant well-being in future crises.Item COVID-19 Lockdown in New Zealand: Perceived Stress and Wellbeing among International Health Students Who Were Essential Frontline Workers(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-08-06) Jagroop-Dearing A; Leonard G; Shahid SM; van Dulm O; Dong Z; Gorriz JM; Zhang YThis study examined the stresses and wellbeing of international postgraduate health and nursing students at a tertiary education institute in New Zealand who were mainly essential frontline healthcare workers during the COVID-19 lockdown. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected by purposeful sampling (n = 43). The study utilised a cross-sectional survey, along with the Short Form of Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), adapted for the COVID-19 lockdown, and followed by semi-structured individual interviews. This study is the first in New Zealand to demonstrate that, with a mean PSS-10 score of 21.7 (±7.1), international health students experienced higher than optimal levels of stress, with supporting qualitative data identifying four themes for the sources of stress: (1) familial relationships, (2) essential work, (3) finances, and (4) study. However, these students coped because of the extensive support provided by their education institute and employers. These students played a critical role in the pandemic’s response and made a significant public health contribution by working in the frontline of the COVID-19 outbreak. Considering the global shortage of healthcare workers and understanding the key challenges, means of coping and support provisions, as we have here, offer insights for building and maintaining a resilient and resourceful health workforce through international health and nursing students in New Zealand and elsewhere.Item The Impacts of the COVID-19 Traffic Light System on Staff in Tertiary Education in New Zealand(MDPI, Basel, Switzerland, 2024-01) Taylor L-A; Reid J; Jagroop-Dearing A; Liu XThe global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic demanded a swift transition in the usual educational mode of delivery from face to face to online. New Zealand established “a traffic light system” after initial COVID-19 lockdowns, and educational delivery adapted accordingly at a tertiary education provider in Te Pūkenga, Eastern Institute of Technology. This study investigates the ramifications of the traffic light system on this institute’s staff, employing semi-structured interviews and an inductive semantic thematic analysis. The findings reveal a universal impact on staff, characterized by an augmented workload attributed to students’ absences and illnesses. This led to increased support demands of staff for their students’ academic progression. Anxiety, stress, and guilt emerged as prevalent emotions linked to student support. Despite the staff adapting to the mandates, a notable challenge arose from the discord between educational and industry directives, causing confusion among the students. While the study indicates staff resilience in navigating the traffic light changes, it underscores the imperative of recognizing the toll on their wellbeing. The research calls for a proactive consideration of future challenges, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding the mental and emotional health of tertiary education staff amidst potential uncertainties in educational delivery.Item Call for emergency action to restore dietary diversity and protect global food systems in times of COVID-19 and beyond: Results from a cross-sectional study in 38 countries(Elsevier Ltd, 2023-11-07) Hoteit M; Hoteit R; Aljawaldeh A; Van Royen K; Pabian S; Decorte P; Cuykx I; Teunissen L; De Backer C; Bergheim I; Staltner R; Devine A; Sambell R; Wallace R; Allehdan SS; Alalwan TA; Al-Mannai MA; Ouvrein G; Poels K; Vandebosch H; Maldoy K; Matthys C; Smits T; Vrinten J; DeSmet A; Teughels N; Geuens M; Vermeir I; Proesmans V; Hudders L; De Barcellos MD; Ostermann C; Brock AL; Favieiro C; Trizotto R; Stangherlin I; Mafra AL; Correa Varella MA; Valentova JV; Fisher ML; MacEacheron M; White K; Habib R; Dobson DS; Schnettler B; Orellana L; Miranda-Zapata E; Wen-Yu Chang A; Jiao W; Liu MT; Grunert KG; Christensen RN; Reisch L; Janssen M; Abril-Ulloa V; Encalada L; Kamel I; Vainio A; Niva M; Salmivaara L; Mäkelä J; Torkkeli K; Mai R; Risch PK; Altsitsiadis E; Stamos A; Antronikidis A; Henchion M; McCarthy S; McCarthy M; Micalizzi A; Schulz PJ; Farinosi M; Komatsu H; Tanaka N; Kubota H; Tayyem R; Al-Awwad NJ; Al-Bayyari N; Ibrahim MO; Hammouh F; Dashti S; Dashti B; Alkharaif D; Alshatti A; Al Mazedi M; Mansour R; Naim E; Mortada H; Gutierrez Gomez YY; Geyskens K; Goukens C; Roy R; Egli V; Te Morenga L; Waly M; Qasrawi R; Hamdan M; Sier RA; Al Halawa DA; Agha H; Liria Domínguez MR; Palomares L; Wasowicz G; Bawadi H; Tayyem R; Othman M; Pakari J; Abu Farha A; Abu-El-Ruz R; Petrescu DC; Petrescu Mag RM; Arion F; Vesa SC; Alkhalaf MM; Bookari K; Arrish J; Rahim Z; Kheng R; Ngqangashe Y; Mchiza ZJ-R; Gonzalez-Gross M; Pantoja-Arévalo L; Gesteiro E; Ríos Y; Yiga P; Ogwok P; Ocen D; Bamuwamye M; Al Sabbah H; Taha Z; Ismail LC; Aldhaheri A; Pineda E; Miraldo M; Holford DL; Van den Bulck HBackground: The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the global food system, sending shockwaves across countries' societies and economy. This has presented formidable challenges to sustaining a healthy and resilient lifestyle. The objective of this study is to examine the food consumption patterns and assess diet diversity indicators, primarily focusing on the food consumption score (FCS), among households in 38 countries both before and during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional study with 37 207 participants (mean age: 36.70 ± 14.79, with 77 % women) was conducted in 38 countries through an online survey administered between April and June 2020. The study utilized a pre-tested food frequency questionnaire to explore food consumption patterns both before and during the COVID-19 periods. Additionally, the study computed Food Consumption Score (FCS) as a proxy indicator for assessing the dietary diversity of households. Findings: This quantification of global, regional and national dietary diversity across 38 countries showed an increment in the consumption of all food groups but a drop in the intake of vegetables and in the dietary diversity. The household's food consumption scores indicating dietary diversity varied across regions. It decreased in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, including Lebanon (p < 0.001) and increased in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries including Bahrain (p = 0.003), Egypt (p < 0.001) and United Arab Emirates (p = 0.013). A decline in the household's dietary diversity was observed in Australia (p < 0.001), in South Africa including Uganda (p < 0.001), in Europe including Belgium (p < 0.001), Denmark (p = 0.002), Finland (p < 0.001) and Netherland (p = 0.027) and in South America including Ecuador (p < 0.001), Brazil (p < 0.001), Mexico (p < 0.0001) and Peru (p < 0.001). Middle and older ages [OR = 1.2; 95 % CI = [1.125–1.426] [OR = 2.5; 95 % CI = [1.951–3.064], being a woman [OR = 1.2; 95 % CI = [1.117–1.367], having a high education (p < 0.001), and showing amelioration in food-related behaviors [OR = 1.4; 95 % CI = [1.292–1.709] were all linked to having a higher dietary diversity. Conclusion: The minor to moderate changes in food consumption patterns observed across the 38 countries within relatively short time frames could become lasting, leading to a significant and prolonged reduction in dietary diversity, as demonstrated by our findings.Item Panic buying and consumption displacement during COVID-19: Evidence from New Zealand(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-06-01) Hall CM; Fieger P; Prayag G; Dyason D; Morley BPanic buying and hoarding behavior is a significant component of crisis- and disasterrelated consumption displacement that has received considerable attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding such purchasing and stockpiling behavior provides critical information for government, disaster managers and the retail sector, as well as policy makers to adjust crisis response strategies and to better understand disaster management, including preparedness and response strategies. This study examines consumer purchasing behavior, retail spending and transactional data for different retail sectors between January 2017 and December 2020 using data for the greater Christchurch region in New Zealand. Once COVID-19-related panic buying began, overall spending increased sharply in anticipation of lockdowns. Transactional spending increased and subsided only slowly to a level higher than pre lockdown. The magnitude of the panic buying event far exceeded historical seasonal patterns of consumer spending outside of Christmas, Easter and Black Friday, although daily spending levels were comparable to such consumption events. The results of the study highlight the importance of comparing panic buying to other events in terms of purchasing motivations and also considering that so-called panic buying may contribute to greater individual and household resilience. The volume of sales alone is not adequate to define panic buying. Instead, the extent of divergence from the normal daily spending value per retail transaction of a given population provides a much more accurate characteristic of panic buying.Item Pandemics, tourism and global change: a rapid assessment of COVID-19(Taylor and Francis Group, 2021-01-02) Gössling S; Scott D; Hall CMThe novel coronavirus (COVID-19) is challenging the world. With no vaccine and limited medical capacity to treat the disease, nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI) are the main strategy to contain the pandemic. Unprecedented global travel restrictions and stay-at-home orders are causing the most severe disruption of the global economy since World War II. With international travel bans affecting over 90% of the world population and wide-spread restrictions on public gatherings and community mobility, tourism largely ceased in March 2020. Early evidence on impacts on air travel, cruises, and accommodations have been devastating. While highly uncertain, early projections from UNWTO for 2020 suggest international arrivals could decline by 20 to 30% relative to 2019. Tourism is especially susceptible to measures to counteract pandemics because of restricted mobility and social distancing. The paper compares the impacts of COVID-19 to previous epidemic/pandemics and other types of global crises and explores how the pandemic may change society, the economy, and tourism. It discusses why COVID-19 is an analogue to the ongoing climate crisis, and why there is a need to question the volume growth tourism model advocated by UNWTO, ICAO, CLIA, WTTC and other tourism organizations.Item The Triple Blow Effect: Retailing in an Era of Disasters and Pandemics—The Case of Christchurch, New Zealand(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2022-02-04) Dyason D; Fieger P; Prayag G; Hall CM; Verdaguer CC; Frago LIn the last two decades, the retail sector has experienced unprecedented upheaval, having severe implications for economic development and sustenance of traditional inner-city retail dis-tricts. In the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, this effect has been exacerbated by a series of earthquakes in 2010/2011 which destroyed much of the traditional retail precinct of the city. After exten-sive rebuild activity of the city’s infrastructure, the momentum of retailers returning to the inner city was initially sluggish but eventually gathered speed supported by increased international vis-itation. In early 2020, the return to retail normality came to an abrupt halt after the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study uses spending and transaction data to analyze the compounding impact of the earthquake’s aftermath, shift to online shopping, and the retail disruption in the Christchurch central retail precinct because of COVID-19. The findings illustrate how consumers through their spending respond to different types of external shocks, altering their consumption patterns and retail mode (offline and online) to cope with an ever-changing retail landscape. Each event triggers different spending patterns that have some similarities but also stark differences, having implications for a sustainable and resilient retail industry in Christchurch. Implications for urban retail precinct development are also discussed.Item Exploring CBD Retail Performance, Recovery and Resilience of a Smart City Following COVID-19(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2023-05-19) Fieger P; Prayag G; Dyason D; Rice J; Hall CM; Basbas SThe city of Christchurch, New Zealand, incurred significant damage due to a series of earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. The city had, by the late 2010s, regained economic and social normalcy after a sustained period of rebuilding and economic recovery. Through the concerted rebuilding effort, a modern central business district (CBD) with redesigned infrastructure and amenities was developed. The Christchurch rebuild was underpinned by a commitment of urban planners to an open and connected city, including the use of innovative technologies to gather, use and share data. As was the case elsewhere, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about significant disruptions to social and economic life in Christchurch. Border closures, lockdowns, trading limitations and other restrictions on movement led to changes in traditional consumer behaviors and affected the retail sector’s resilience. In this study, we used CBD pedestrian traffic data gathered from various locations to predict changes in retail spending and identify recovery implications through the lens of retail resilience. We found that the COVID-19 pandemic and its related lockdowns have driven a substantive change in the behavioral patterns of city users. The implications for resilient retail, sustainable policy and further research are explored.Item Factors affecting pandemic biosecurity behaviors of international travelers: Moderating roles of gender, age, and travel frequency(MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-11-08) Kim MJ; Hall CM; Bonn M; Witlox FResearch undertaken during the COVID‐19 pandemic has identified a number of significant factors that affect international travelers’ biosecurity behavior. Tourists’ age and gender as well as travel frequency have been found to have significant impacts on consumers’ non‐pharmaceutical intervention practices. However, despite the importance of age, gender, and travel frequency, such studies have overlooked international tourists’ values, attitudes, interventions, and behaviors relevant to biosecurity during a pandemic. In order to bridge this gap, the purposes of this study are to build and test a conceptually comprehensive framework on the relationships between values, attitudes, interventions, and behaviors, along with the moderating effects of age, gender, and travel frequency. To meet the study objectives, a digital survey was administered during 1–5 September 2020, which generated n = 386 total useable responses. Data were analyzed using the partial least squares approach. The results revealed that tourists’ values have the greatest effect on their attitudes toward COVID‐19 biosecurity for travel, which in turn positively influences interventions and behaviors. Interventions also have a significant impact on travelers’ COVID‐19 biosecurity behavior. This study expands the theoretical understanding of biosecurity and pandemic behavior. The findings of this research also provide significant insights to the literature as well as stakeholders, such as governments, health organizations, international health and tourism agencies, and destinations, with respect to managing international travel biosecurity measures.Item Destination image during the COVID-19 pandemic and future travel behavior: The moderating role of past experience(Elsevier Ltd, 2021-09-01) Rasoolimanesh SM; Seyfi S; Rastegar R; Hall CMThis study investigates the effects of cognitive destination image shaped by media during the COVID-19 pandemic on willingness to support and post-pandemic travel intention. Drawing upon the concept of cognitive destination image and through an online self-administered survey, the effects of four factors including trust, crisis management, healthcare system, and solidarity on travel behavioral intention are compared based on tourists’ prior experience of a given destination. To achieve this aim, ten countries with different coping strategies, numbers of positive cases and mortality rate were studied. A total number of 518 useable questionnaires were collected from the prospect international tourists who followed news related to COVID-19 for one of the selected countries and plan to travel in the future. Partial least squares – structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis were used to test the model and hypotheses. The results showed the high predictive power of the model on post COVID-19 travel behavioral intention. The findings revealed the strong and positive effects of trust and healthcare system on behavioral intention of respondents without past experience to visit a destination, whereas the effect of solidarity on behavioral intention was identified much stronger for the prospect tourists with past experience of visiting a destination. This research provides unique theoretical contributions by investigating the effects of trust, crisis management, healthcare system, and solidarity shaped by media during COVID-19 outbreak as the components of cognitive destination image on future behavioral intention across past experience of visiting a destination. This study also provides insights on post-crisis recovery factors affecting travel behavioral intention and demand.