THE IMPACT OF PANDEMIC ON YOUTH TRAVEL PREFERENCES – AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The pandemic has significantly affected international tourism and in order to reach the level of travel recorded in 2019, a series of measures and strategies are needed that take into account the new perspective of tourists on travel. In this context, the primary purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the effect that COVID-19 has on travel activity preferences, subdividing the young tourists, and most important, how their travel behaviors changed following the pandemic. A questionnaire-based survey has been conducted on consumers of tourist services aged 18-29 years of various nationalities. The key topics investigated were the travel motivations, the criteria according to which they choose the destinations, the type of tourist destination chosen, the average length of stay and activities they prefer to do while traveling. It was analyzed if these preferences changed during the pandemics and among Romanian and foreign young tourists. As young tourists represent a significant segment of international tourism, it was considered that is important for the managers to know how consumers’ behaviors and preferences changed, so they can adapt to them in an effort to reach the pre-pandemic levels of activity. Article history: Received 26 August 2022; Revised 15 September 2022; Accepted 23 September 2022; Available online 25 October 2022; Available print 25 November 2022. JEL Classification: Z30, L83

Keywords

• travel, youth, COVID-19 pandemic, behavior.