How Tourists’ Perception Affects Travel Intention: Mechanism Pathways and Boundary Conditions

Abstract

Tourist subjectivities have an important effect on behavioral intentions. Under the background of normalization, tourism decision-making manifests primarily in tourists’ individual preferences, which has led much research to ignore the importance of other subjective factors, as well as objective environmental factors. In the COVID-19 era, tourism behavior’s social attributes have become more prominent; the effect of important others or organizations’ attitudes toward tourism behavior, as well as personal knowledge, ability, and experience in preventing and controlling tourism risks, are evident. This study integrates knowledge-attitude-behavior (KAB), Theory of Perceived Risk (TPR), Social Identity Theory (SIT), and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), along with a comprehensive framework method, to construct an integrated model exploring the impact of knowledge, identity, and perceived risk on travel intention, to analyze its pathways and effects, to resolve the issue of mechanism, to analyze the moderating effect of past travel experience, and to answer the problem of boundary conditions. It finds that knowledge, perceived risk, and identity have a significant positive impact on travel intention; travel attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control mediate the influence of knowledge, perceived risk, and identity on travel intention; these mechanism pathways do not always exist. The positive adjustment of past travel experiences shows that repeat visitors have a greater impact than newcomers and potential tourists.

The impact of the intensity of media use on potential tourists’ risk perception and travel protective behavioral intentions in COVID-19

“…This is consistent with other scholars’ research on the influence of social media on perception ( Huang et al, 2018 ; Liu M. et al, 2020 ), and also in line with research about the impact of social media on tourism intentions ( Koo et al, 2016 ; Yoo et al, 2016 ). This suggests that as individuals’ new media usage escalates, their perceived sense of epidemic risk intensifies, which in turn has the potential to spark an increased intent to enact more vigilant tourism behaviors ( Pakpour et al, 2021 ; Xie, 2021 ; Jiang et al, 2022 ).…”

Cardiovascular Health Information-seeking Intention among Malaysian Youths: A Conceptual Paper

“…Much research has been done on the impact of knowledge towards intention. Additionally, knowledge has a significant impact on travel intention (Jiang et al, 2022). Knowledge and sociodemographic could indirectly influence attitude and subjective norms, which subsequently affect intention (Fishbein & Azjen, 1975).…”

Intention to Visit Seoul: Factors Influencing Travel Abroad for Holidays

“…Determinants of travel intentions commonly include personal preferences, expectations, attitudes towards travel, perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, and past travel experiences (Jiang et al, 2022;Nguyen et al, 2023;Y. Wang et al, 2020;Yun et al, 2010).…”

“…The level of certainty towards the destination and inhibiting factors can also impact travel intentions (Yun et al, 2010). The factors like knowledge, perceived risk, identity, and psychological distance can influence intention to visit (Jiang et al, 2022). During the COVID-19 pandemic, factors such as perceived safety, health concerns, and travel restrictions have also been found to influence travel intention (Nguyen et al, 2023).…”