Linking the intrinsic and environmental constraints with PwD tourists' behavioral intentions toward a travel destination: mediating role of learned helplessness

Abstract

Purpose – The present study examines the antecedents of learned helplessness, i.e. intrinsic and environmental constraints and consequences, i.e. intention to travel and expectation in the context of people with disability (PwD) tourism context by applying the “Theory of Learned Helplessness”. Design/methodology/approach – The survey method was used to gather data from 209 physically disabled people who had visited/traveled to any tourist destination in the past twelve months. Structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze data. Findings – The findings reveal that intrinsic and environmental constraints positively influence learned helplessness. Consequently, learned helplessness negatively effects intention to travel and positively affects expectation of PWD tourist' toward a travel destination. Furthermore, learned helplessness contributed as a mediator between intrinsic constraints and intention to travel toward a tourist destination. Originality/value – Even though the body of literature on associations studied pertaining the conceptual lens of learned helplessness is widely recognized, there is dearth of literature investigating the connections between travel constraints, learned helplessness, PwDs intention and their expectation in travel destination context.

Keywords

• Travel constraints
• Learned helplessness
• PwD
• Intention to travel
• Tourism
• SEM