Future Travel Intentions in Light of Risk and Uncertainty: An Extended Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

COVID-19 has affected travel and will undoubtedly impact how people view travel and future intentions to travel as we adjust to life moving forward. Understanding how people arrive at these travel intentions will be paramount for managers and planners in determining how best to reactively and proactively plan for tourism, especially considering perceived risk and uncertainty related to COVID-19. By extending the theory of planned behavior, this study aims to examine the relationship between perceived risk, perceived uncertainty, subjective norms, attitudes about future travel, and perceived behavioral control in explaining individuals’ intentions to travel in the near future. This study employed a quantitative research method, and data were gathered using an online questionnaire distributed through Qualtrics from a sample of 541 potential travelers (representing residents of 46 US states) from 23 June 2020 to 1 July 2020. Of the eight hypotheses tested, four were supported. Surprisingly, neither perceived risk nor uncertainty were significant within the model. Subjective norms significantly predicted both attitudes about traveling and perceived behavioral control. Subjective norms and perceived behavioral control, in turn, explained a moderate degree of variation in individuals’ intentions to travel. Study implications, limitations, and future research suggestions are offered. One of the main managerial implications includes the need for destinations to be proactive and focus on intentional planning for sustainable tourism.

Navigating the New Normal: The Role of Residents’ Involvement and Support in Sustainable Tourism Recovery

“…As countries consider how to recover from COVID-19, there may never be a better opportunity to reflect on how crucial residents' support for and involvement in tourism are in returning to a sense of normalcy [4][5][6]. It is improbable that tourism will be successful without the support and involvement of key stakeholders [3,7].…”

“…Various works [4,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16] have indicated that residents' perceptions of tourism and its accompanying impacts and emotional solidarity with tourists play a significant role in explaining residents' support for sustainable tourism. While several scholars [17,18] have focused on residents' support for tourism development (STD), little attention has been paid by scholars to determine residents' involvement in tourism (IT) [4,5,11,15]. However, the above factors (i.e., STD and IT) are rarely [3,4,19] examined together, and researchers barely look into whether differences exist in residents' attitudes, support for, and involvement in tourism across demographic (i.e., gender) and economic variables (i.e., professional ties to tourism) [20][21][22].…”

The role of transformational leadership and innovation adoption in restaurant performance

“…The COVID-19 pandemic has further emphasised these characteristics. Economic conditions became uncertain, and the fear of an economic recession haunted many countries (Lahindah et al, 2020), leading to the closure of many restaurants and bankruptcy filings (Abrasel, 2021;Estadão Conteúdo, 2021) as the pandemic had devastating effects on the tourism and hospitality industries (Ugurlu, Akay, & Demirel, 2023;Erul et al, 2023;Unguren & Arslan, 2022). This time of crisis leads entrepreneurs to exercise their best competencies in the management of the enterprise.…”