CUSTOMER PERCEPTIONS ABOUT THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

How did hospitality customers perceive the experience of going out during the global COVID-19 pandemic?
What concerns did they have about hospitality providers? The purpose of this paper was to clarify how
consumers perceived the pandemic and whether or not people feared infection when dining out. The first
purpose was to determine how many people went out during the pandemic, and the second aim was to determine
how they perceived the performance of the hospitality industry. To measure their perceptions, we proposed
several variables: psychological well-being, expected positive emotions, expected negative emotions, desire to
avoid, and customer satisfaction. The main objective was to investigate the correlation between the selected
variables. For the study, a questionnaire was distributed to different target groups: Adolescents, adults, and
middle-aged people. It was found that the population of Bucharest felt a need to socialize and go out during the
pandemic rather than a reluctance to do so. This study highlights the importance of anticipated perceptions and
how they influence consumers' final perceptions.