Predictors of Changes in Travel Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Tourists' Personalities.

Cezar Morar,Tamara Jovanovic,Tin Lukić,Biljana Basarin,Alena Gessert,Aleksandar Valjarević,Miroslav Vujičić,Liudmyla Niemets,Alina Stoica,Marius Drugas,Vasile Grama,Alexandru Tiba,Marius Stupariu

doi:10.3390/ijerph182111169

Abstract

This study investigates travel behavior and psychosocial factors that influence it during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a cross-sectional study, using an online survey, we examined changes in travel behavior and preferences after lifting travel restrictions, and how these changes were influenced by exposure to COVID-19, COVID-19 travel-related risk and severity, personality, fear of travel, coping, and self-efficacy appraisals in the Romanian population. Our results showed that participants traveled less in the pandemic year than the year before—especially group and foreign travel—yet more participants reported individual traveling in their home county during the pandemic period. Distinct types of exposure to COVID-19 risk, as well as cognitive and affective factors, were related to travel behavior and preferences. However, fun-seeking personality was the only major predictor of travel intention, while fear of travel was the only predictor of travel avoidance. Instead, people traveled more cautiously when they perceived more risk of infection at the destination, and had higher levels of fear of travel, but also a high sense of efficacy in controlling the infection and problem-solving capacity. The results suggest that specific information about COVID-19, coping mechanisms, fear of travel, and neuropsychological personality traits may affect travel behavior in the pandemic period.

Highlights

Since little research has examined individuals’ psychological responses and coping mechanisms in a pandemic travel context, we aim to investigate individual psychological and personality variables involved in travel behavior, preferences, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
Vital for reinvigorating tourism during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about how various types of exposure to COVID-19, risk perceptions, psychological reactions, and neuropsychological personality traits predict travel behavior and preferences during pandemics. To fill this knowledge gap, this study aims to explore selfreported changes in travel behaviors and preferences in relation to psychological reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic and neuropsychological personality traits
We found that fear of travel independently predicts travel avoidance and cautious travel after lifting the travel restrictions

Summary

Introduction

Life on Earth represents a chain of 4 billion years of fragile and interconnected evolutionary processes. Humans are part of this miracle, and travel is an intrinsic part of the lengthy process of human evolution. Travel shaped the land and changed the Earth’s living sculpture, constituting a stepping stone of humankind’s ingenuity and continuous adaptation to newer and further natural environments. Travel is about progress and civilization; since the beginning, it was part of human nature, as the instinct of preservation or curiosity was the main prehistoric travel motivation. Explorers, scientists, and cultured people traveled further, conquering more and more space and opening new horizons. The influx of Greek travelers to holy places such as Dodona or Delphi led to

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