Senior's travel constraint, negotiation strategy and travel intention: Examining the role of social support

Abstract

This paper explores how travel constraints influence seniors' travel decision. By including social support for travel as a moderator in the hierarchical constraint model, we examined the effects of travel constraints, social support, and negotiation strategies on seniors' travel intentions. Face-to-face questionnaire interviews were conducted with Chinese seniors. The results were in accordance with the hierarchical constraint model in general, but also revealed some interesting findings: (a) for Chinese seniors, intrapersonal constraint (health constraint, habit constraint) and interpersonal constraint played a vital role in influencing travel intentions; (b) the negative effect of structural constraint was negotiable, but the negative impacts of intrapersonal and interpersonal constraints were hard to negotiate; (c) the effects of subconstraints at the same level were heterogeneous, for example, the effects of cost constraint were insignificant, while those of time and transportation constraints were significant; (d) social support for travel had a negative moderating role on the relationship between habit constraint and negotiation but a positive moderating role on the relationship between interpersonal constraint and negotiation. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Can Senior Travelers Save Japanese Hot Springs? A Psychographic Segmentation of Visitors and Their Intention to Visit Onsen Establishments during COVID-19

“…Despite these possible health concerns, about half of all respondents displayed the intention to visit or had a neutral attitude toward visiting, which indicates a similar attitude as those of respondents in Lee and Chen's [73] study on the low impact of a perceived health risk, the bird flu, and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome on visit intention. The low intention to visit among "Indifferent Seniors" is not related to health risks but to other intrapersonal and interpersonal constraints or structural travel constraints, as listed by Chen et al [70], or an overall higher perceived financial risk due to the pandemic and worries about the future, similar to Le Serre et al [74].…”

“…Travel constraints are defined as "barriers that inhibit people's ability to travel, decrease traveling time, and frequency or cause less satisfactory travel experiences" [70]. Among studies on travel constraints, researchers have paid special attention to the senior population [51,71,72].…”

“…Among studies on travel constraints, researchers have paid special attention to the senior population [51,71,72]. It has been documented from the literature that senior travelers face a number of constraints, which can be categorized into intrapersonal constraints (such as health or mobility concerns); interpersonal constraints (for example, lack of companionship or lack of support from family members to travel); structural travel constraints (for instance, time, cost constraints and the fear of perceived travel risks) [70].…”

Travel decision making during and after the COVID-2019 pandemic: Revisiting travel constraints, gender role, and behavioral intentions

“… Koronios et al (2020) concluded that intrapersonal constraints significantly influence consumption behaviors. Similarly, this type of constraints plays a powerful role in determining travel decision making ( Karl et al, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2021 ). However, Hawkins et al (1999) argue that intrapersonal constraints may not be a major factor causing non-participation in leisure activities, and Yang et al (2022) also found that intrapersonal constraints do not directly influence travel intentions.…”

“…Specifically, it is found that prospective travelers’ intentions to travel will decrease under the negative impacts of structural constraints ( Lai et al, 2013 ; Wong and Kuo, 2021 ). Conversely, Khan et al (2019b) concluded that structural constraints have no significant relationship with travel intentions as Chen et al (2021) explained that structural constraints are negotiable. In the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic, structural constraints are arguably more salient and powerful ( Hall et al, 2020 ).…”