Socio-Economic Factors Influencing Travel Decision-Making of Poles and Nepalis during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study aimed to present the socio-economic conditions, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their effects on travel decision-making. Data were collected in January and February 2021 using an online questionnaire survey. We compared the data on personal attributes, socio-economic factors, and organizational-related factors of 957 Polish and 181 Nepalese respondents. We found that people would like to travel, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, in both countries; however, tourism in developed countries is expected to revive earlier than in developing countries. Tourists chose natural and rustic areas for travel destinations and family members and friends as travel companions in both countries. Similarly, the use of travel agencies decreased significantly as compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic in both countries. Levels of income and travel motivation were observed to be different between the two countries. Respondents from both countries similarly believed that the overall cost of travel had increased during the pandemic. Therefore, policymakers and authorities of tourism destinations should jointly introduce discounted or subsidized packages targeting family members.

Travel Motivation during COVID-19: A Case from Nepal

“…This result is consistent with the previous literature. Roman et al [85] explored that people prefer traveling with family and friends during COVID-19 in Poland. Different scholars in different countries revealed similar results.…”

“…Thus, this survey adopted a convenience snowball sampling method for the data collection. An Internet-based questionnaire survey has been widely used in the tourism industry [70,[84][85][86], especially with COVID-19; it is helpful to avoid the restrictions and quarantine requirements [34]. Moreover, it is cost-effective and can have diversified samples in a short period [84][85][86].…”

Evaluating the potential of suburban and rural areas for tourism and recreation, including individual short-term tourism under pandemic conditions

“…When choosing a place for relaxation in a pandemic, accessibility by various means of transport is of great importance. The need to limit contact with other people meant that some residents chose individual car transport [9][10][11][12] . However, public transport, such as high-speed city rail, still plays an essential role in suburban transport.…”

“…Similar observations are provided by analysing trends from the Google search engine; when looking for vacation ideas, Poles were more likely to choose accommodation located 'close to nature' 16 . This explains the increase in popularity of agritourism and camping 3,6,11 , as well as the emergence of a new phenomenon of glamping (glamorous camping -a combination of camping with luxury) 16 . The pandemic has in uenced the development of new leisure preferences, including trends combining leisure with work and business, such as 'workation' or 'bleisure'.…”

The Tourist Attractiveness of Tokyo in the Opinion of Surveyed Tourists

“…The issue discussed is very broad and the article does not exhaust it. Tourism in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic is observing dynamic changes [51][52][53]; therefore, following them and conducting similar research, e.g., into the influence of COVID-19 on the profitability of tourist businesses (hotels, motels, guesthouses, or agritourism farms) would be justified [54,55]. It is also necessary to conduct further research due to the fact that former research rarely focused on the influence of COVID-19 on tourism.…”