Facilitators and Reducers of Korean Travelers’ Avoidance/Hesitation Behaviors toward China in the Case of COVID-19

Abstract

Given that little is known about overseas travelers’ responses and behaviors toward China after the outbreak of COVID-19, this study aimed to uncover risk perception factors and investigate its role in Korean travelers’ avoidance/hesitation behaviors toward China as an international tourism destination in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic. To explore the relationship with risk perception, anticipated emotion and avoidance/hesitation behavior, a quantitative method along with an online survey was employed. This focus was on Korean tourists who had traveled to China at least once. Findings revealed that risk perception and negative anticipated emotion are vital facilitators of avoidance/hesitation behaviors, and that positive anticipated emotion reduces such behaviors. The efficacy of a higher-order structure of risk perception, which encompasses six dimensions, was also demonstrated. In addition, destination attachment lowered the influence of risk perception on the formation of avoidance/hesitation behaviors. Overall, our results will help tourism researchers and practitioners understand what factors drive and reduce international travelers’ avoidance/hesitation behaviors toward China in the post-pandemic world. Implications for theory and practice are offered.

Extension of Goal-Directed Behavior Model for Post-Pandemic Korean Travel Intentions to Alternative Local Destinations: Perceived Risk and Knowledge

“…The measurement items for study constructs were developed on the basis of the extant literature [10,13,18,24,32,51,[65][66][67]. Multi-item measures along with a 7-point scale were utilized for all research variables of this study.…”

“…Although these two models have repeatedly demonstrated their efficacy in various studies, they inarguably neglected some vital constructs affecting human behaviors, such as emotion and habits [18,19,24], hindering the accuracy of human behavior explication, and leaving a persistent theoretical gap that the adaptation of MGB could fulfill. Specifically, MGB, despite bearing high resemblance to TRA and TPB characteristics, emerges as a novel and more improved framework by incorporating three additional conceptual pillars, i.e., desire, past behavior and anticipated emotion [13], under the core belief that a particular behavior always is elicited in order for a goal or purpose to be accomplished. As such, the MGB model encompasses the highest number of predicting variables and constructs, i.e., motivational (desire), volitional (attitude towards behavior and subjective norm), nonvolitional (perceived behavioral control), emotional (positive and negative anticipated emotion), and habitual (frequency of past behaviors) [18,19], culminating such an intricate yet parsimonious model.…”

“…In the current climate in which the entire world is affected by COVID-19, locking down the world for almost one-third of a decade and causing millions of casualties, the significance of perceived risk in tourism is in fact bolstered and overwhelmingly profound [42,[53][54][55][56]. In a study by Han et al [13], investigating the drivers of Korean tourists' avoidance behavior towards traveling to China amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, perceived risk is categorized into 6 key variables, i.e., human crowding risk, spatial crowding risk, quality risk, psychological risk, health and safety risk, and lastly financial risk. However, for Zhu et al [56], who analyzed the influence of perceived risks of COVID-19 on tourist's approach behavior towards local rural tourism in China, this perception of risk is explained by 6 manifest variables: physical risk (e.g., natural catastrophes, public security), equipment risk (e.g., public infrastructure, hygiene and tourism facilities), cost risk (e.g., time and money concerns), psychological risk (e.g., stress and anxiety), social risk (e.g., family and peer opinions) and performance risk (e.g., food and beverage, natural landscapes).…”

“…Another key reason for the suffering of Korean domestic tourism is that 35% of tourists in Korea were not locals but in fact, Chinese travelers, accounting for 8.1 million tourists in Korea in 2016 [12], who however, are currently in strict national quarantine under the de facto international travel ban. Henceforth, from the tourism management perspective, it is urgently essential to secure the Korean tourism industry from the pandemic crisis, and the design of local destinations in Korea that domestic travelers appeal to as a safer and more comfortable alternative to visiting China/other countries is therefore of utmost significance for the strategic development of the industry in the foreseeable future [13].…”

“…Since risk perception is critical in explicating international tourist behaviors [10], understanding the types of risk that Korean travelers perceive when traveling abroad in the post-pandemic era is essential to gain a deeper insight about the Korean tourist decision-making process and behaviors [16,17]. Yet, little empirical research has assessed the possible effect of perceived risk and knowledge pertinent to COVID-19 on a socio-psychology theoretical framework (i.e., goal-directed behavior framework) [18][19][20], which is vital in travelers' decision formation [13]. Particularly, the linkages between perceived risk, perceived knowledge, and the dimensions within the goal-directed behavior framework (i.e., volitional, nonvolitional, emotional, and motivational dimensions) have not been unearthed.…”