Strengthening information-seeking behavior toward international destinations among young travelers in Vietnam after the pandemic

Abstract

This study examines how psychological and external factors, including perceived uncertainty, resilience, value-added attribute, mass-media coverage, and travel constraints, affect perceived arousal, and lead to the behavior of seeking information about international destinations of young travelers. The study underlines the use of the protection motivation theory and is supported by the theory of reasoned action to explore the perspectives of seeking behavior in the tourism sector. In addition, perceived arousal mediates the relationship between these variables and the information-seeking behavior of travelers. This study was conducted in Vietnam during the post-Covid pandemic, using quantitative and convenience sampling methods to collect data from 256 valid respondents. Structural equation modeling will be used to examine the extent to which the six factors above are connected to the outcome variable (information-seeking behavior). The findings reveal the impact of resilience and media coverage on perceived arousal among tourists and then positively significant to their seeking behavior. Finally, this study is empirically valuable to contribute important literature to the tourism industry and Destination Marketing Organizations, especially concerning the post-pandemic recovery.

Keywords

• information-seeking behavior
• mass-media coverage
• perceived uncertainty
• resilience
• travel constraints
• value-added attribute