The influence of visitors’ self-protective behaviors on social carrying capacity in museums during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The public health restrictions put into place to control the COVID-19 pandemic have greatly affected cultural and tourism institutions. Based on normative theory, this study aims to enhance the theoretical understanding of social carrying capacity by analyzing the impact of visitors’ self-protective behaviors and tourism risk perception. A visual method experiment was conducted in museum settings, which are typical indoor cultural and tourism institutions. Results show that the social carrying capacity is significantly influenced by social distancing and mask wearing. Specifically, the visitors’ crowding norm is 0.5 m∼1 m when wearing a mask and 1 m∼1.2 m when not wearing a mask. In addition, tourism risk perception has double effects on the crowding norm; ‘self pressure’ has a positive impact, and ‘group pressure’ has a negative impact. These findings can help museums manage crowding issues as COVID-19 continues to have an impact on the world.