Abstract
While protective measures in response to infectious diseases may reduce the freedom of tourists (regarding their behaviors), few studies have documented the effects of destination protective measures on the self-protective behaviors of tourists. By applying the protection motivation theory, this study examines the effects of perceived destination protective supports on the social distancing intentions of tourists during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results reveal significant relationships among perceived destination support, coping appraisal, threat appraisal, and the social distancing intentions of tourists. Moreover, two cognitive appraisals—toward the pandemic—partially mediate the relationship between perceived destination support and social distancing intention, and this mediational process is ‘intervened’ with by social norms. This has implications on whether tourist destinations apply more rigorous social distancing polices during the COVID-19 pandemic, to enhance the coping confidence behaviors of tourists, without causing anxiety and fear, and to achieve the goal of enhancing tourists’ intentions to protect themselves.
Highlights
The key questions are: (1) will the perceived destination support, regarding social distancing measures, evoke the threat assessment of traveling during the pandemic period? (2) Will perceived destination support affect the coping response of tourists? (3) How does perceived destination support affect the tourists’ self-protective behaviors, with cognitive appraisal? (4) Considering the disagreements that may arise in joint actions under different personalities and national social environments—how can social norms affect the protection motivation theory (PMT) model? This study explored the antecedents and behavioral consequences of tourists’ cognitive appraisals after the pandemic outbreak
The results indicate that both threat appraisal and coping appraisal fit better as a second-order factor, and the new construct overcrowding perception is verified by the second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)
This study finds that support measures involving social distancing in tourist destinations can effectively enhance the intentions of tourists to protect themselves in low-level and highlevel social norm groups
Summary
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) appeared in Wuhan, China, and rapidly spread throughout the world. As of March 16, 2020, the cumulative number of confirmed patients worldwide exceeded 167,000, with more than 86,000 cases confirmed outside of China [1]. Protective behaviors in response to infectious diseases will have a considerable impact on the pandemic process [2]. Some important health protective behaviors can manifest in social distancing or via a reduction in social contact between individuals, in response to the presence of disease [3]. This is useful during the COVID-19 pandemic when community transmission is believed to have occurred [4]
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