How Tourists’ Perceived Risk Affects Behavioral Intention through Crisis Communication in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Abstract

In the post-COVID-19 era, with tourism activity beginning to revitalize, the behavioral intention of tourists has emerged as the focus of much research interest. While previous studies have suggested that tourists’ perceived risk affects behavioral intention, it has not been found that perceived risk is influenced by other factors that affect behavioral intention in the post-COVID-19 era. This study constructs a research model to understand how tourists’ perceived risk influences emotional attachment to destinations and tourists’ behavioral intention through crisis communication and NPI. Through face-to-face interviews, this study conducted a survey and collected data from 1047 tourists who visited Dadaocheng’s renowned Chinese herbal street in Taiwan and examined the causal relationships through structural equation modeling. The results indicated that an increase in perceived risk had a positive effect on crisis communication and NPI and affected tourists’ behavioral intentions through emotional attachment to the destination. This study provides an opportunity to establish an essential contribution to post-disaster crisis management, which may serve as a marketing reference for tourism operators in the post-COVID-19 era, as well as to address future pandemic challenges.