Virtual reality (VR) is an advanced technology that has a significant impact on tourism and travel worldwide. Drawing on the social cognitive theory (SCT) and theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the current paper examined the effect of consumers’ travel fear due to pandemics, wars, and terrorism (TFPWT), their concern about the environmental impact of touristic travel (EITT), and technology anxiety (TA) on their behavioural intention to use VR in tourism and consequently on their willingness to pay premium and electronic word-of-mouth (EWoM). It also analysed the moderating role of venturesomeness. A number of 522 questionnaires from Gen-Y and Gen-Z consumers in Egypt and the covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) were used to test the model. The findings showed that consumers’ travel fear and their concern regarding the environmental impact of travel have a significant and positive effect on their behavioural intention to use VR in tourism. On contrary, consumers’ behavioural intention is significantly and negatively influenced by TA. Consumers’ behavioural intention has a significant and positive impact on their willingness to pay premium and EWoM. No significant moderating effect is reported regarding venturesomeness. The research holds significant implications for both theory and practice.

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The influences of COVID-19 on dining activities varied from a country to country. The influences included a wide array of impacts, starting from the complete shutdown of restaurants dining-in to only adopt strict new norms to re-open. Researchers around the globe afforded trials to explore customers' post COVID-19 preferences. The theory of planned behaviour (TPB) pointed to existing differences between people, afforded a justification for this, and pointed to the necessity of differentiation between nations during pandemics and the lavish increase in health risks. This added importance to this research, as it investigated new geographical areas, and compared between two countries, i.e., Jordan and Egypt. These two countries were selected, as they were considered as examples for key tourism destinations in the middle east, they host two of the seven wonders of the world, and there was no evidence that previous research tried to bridge this gap of knowledge in this geographical area. The research aimed to investigate the influences of geographical boundaries on customers' dining preferences and its related health practices with an implication on Egypt & Jordan in the post COVID-19 world. This aim was achieved via answering research questions. Stratified and snowballing sampling technics were used to generate 411 valid online survey forms. Statistical tools were used to analyze the collected data. A list of recommendations was developed for restaurateurs to help in handling the customer's preferences in the post COVID-19 era. The research findings will help in understanding dining industry customers' priorities, perceptions, and intentions. It also will contribute in developing restauranteurs performance to attract customers, and to handle their fears at different geographical regions.