Safe Destination Choice Among Tourism-Product Consumers in the New Era of Tourism

Abstract

The current study assessed and demonstrated the impact of perceived knowledge and perceived susceptibility about COVID-19 on travelers’ intentions for safe destination choice in case when the COVID-19 pandemic is being controlled by crowdedness (i.e., human crowdedness and spatial crowdedness) and monetary promotions. The reliability and validity of the proposed research model were tested by using regression analysis and covariance structural equation modeling. The results revealed a significant effect of perceived knowledge and perceived susceptibility on behavioral intention. It was evidenced that increasing knowledge and susceptibility of COVID-19 is necessary. The moderating effects of human crowdedness, spatial crowdedness, and monetary promotions were also examined through SPSS Process Macro v3.5 and invariance test. In addition, differences in demographic variables (gender, age, annual income, marital status, and ethnic background) on the research model were unveiled. Lastly, both theoretical values and practical implications of this study were discussed.