Resident’s Willingness to Travel Amidst Increased Post-Crisis Inbound Chinese Tourism: A Country-Of-Origin Effect Perspective

Abstract

There is a scant academic inquiry into the influence of crisis and post-crisis events on residents’ perceptions, their attitude towards international inbound tourists, and how their subsequent domestic travel behaviour is nuanced by the re-introduction of international tourists post-a-crisis. A conceptual model was developed to explore the influence of China’s post-zero-COVID-19 policy country image on host country resident behaviour. Based on an n=499 South African residents’ sample, the cross-sectional deductive study utilised partial least squares structural equation modelling to explore the proposed hypotheses. Contrary to the extant literature, China’s post-pandemic and policy country-of-origin effect positively influenced South African residents' willingness to engage in domestic tourism despite the potential influx of inbound Chinese tourists. However, there is intriguing heterogeneity in the nuances of the country-of-origin effect, stereotypes, risk perception and interventions on resident perception, and conation. The study confirms the underlying mechanisms in resident post-crisis domestic travel behaviour and contributes to the burgeoning body of knowledge.