Tourists’ Experiences During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Plateau State, Nigeria: An Empirical Evaluation Using Chaos Theory

Abstract

The safety of tourists’ health when visiting any tourism business is critical in tourism management and development. By using chaos theory, this study aimed to understand how 408 tourists in Plateau State, Nigeria, behaved toward tourism-related businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Completed and retrieved responses were analyzed descriptively using an inductive method, following a pragmatic approach. The findings of this investigation are consistent with chaos theory. Results from our survey indicate that 93% of tourists took precautions. This suggests that in an otherwise random and chaotic period of the tourism crisis, self-organization brought order and new stability. With a mean score of 40%, safety and hygiene were ranked as the two main influencing factors that changed tourists’ actual behaviour during the pandemic. The alteration in behaviour might be attributed to tourists’ awareness of their risk of catching the COVID-19 virus when visiting tourist attractions. Empirical evidence shows that non-interactive restriction techniques had a significant impact on tourist behaviour. Thus, the impact of the pandemic on tourists’ protective behaviour continues to play a part in tourists’ behaviour during and after the pandemic, implying that the chaos theory approach might be used as a crisis management tool in the tourism industry.