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.
Highlights
Two items and three items were utilized to measure quality risk (i.e., “I am concerned with the lower quality of tourism products in China after the COVID-19 pandemic ends in the near future”, “I am worried that the quality of tourism products in China will become lower after the COVID-19 pandemic ends in the near future”. and psychological risk (i.e., “The thought of traveling to China makes me feel anxious the COVID-19 pandemic may end in the near future.”, “The thought of traveling to China makes me feel psychologically uncomfortable the COVID-19 pandemic may end in the near future”, “The thought of traveling to China causes me to experience unnecessary tension the COVID-19 pandemic may end in the near future”), respectively
Our findings showed that risk perception exerted a significant influence on positive anticipated emotion (β = −0.614, p < 0.01) and negative anticipated emotion (β = 0.635, p < 0.01)
Our findings showed that risk perception exerte significant influence on positive anticipated emotion (β = −0.614, p < 0.01) and negat anticipated emotion (β = 0.635, p < 0.01)
Summary
The pathogenic influence of COVID-19 has been drastically increased since China reported the first confirmed case in late 2019 [4,5]. This virus fast became a huge threat to human health [6]. Ever since the detection of the COVID-19, this disease has considerably affected human mobility [7]. COVID-19 had a huge adverse effect on the tourism sector [1,8]. The COVID-19 characteristics of high prevalence, broad distribution, and geographical variables made this situation worse for the tourism industry [3,4,7]
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