Travel intention to destination via virtual tour: role of perceived travel risks and behavioral

Abstract

COVID-19 has completely impacted the worldwide tourism industry. However, several tourism stakeholders have adopted technology and innovation approaches such as virtual tours in the digital platform paradigm. This study aimed to examine the perceived risk influencing Generation Z’s subjective norms, attitudes, perceived behavior control (PBC), and intention to use virtual tours. The findings showed a significant impact of perceived risk affecting attitude change, subjective norms, and PBC; though attitude and PBC led to a behavioral intention to use a virtual tour. The findings suggested that perceived risk was critical to changing attitudes and PBC with behavioral intentions traveling by virtual tour post the pandemic. Therefore, this study demonstrated that behavioral intention to use virtual tours played a crucial role in helping Generation Z access tourism destinations. This study extends the empirical knowledge of perceived risk and behavioral intention to use virtual tours by investigating Generation Z’s behavior. It can shed light on the travel intention of Generation Z to use virtual tours post a crisis in the future.

Keywords

• Perceived risk
• behavioral
• virtual tour
• Generation Z
• intention to travel
• Tourism