Travel risk perception and travel behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic 2020: a case study of the DACH region

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between perception of COVID-19, travel risk perception and travel behaviour among travellers in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)an important tourism market and, after Italy, the second region in Europe that was impacted by COVID-19. Data were collected at two points of time: the sample of the study in Period 1 (n = 1158) was collected at a critical point in time in the beginning of March 2020, when Italy was already massively affected by COVID-19; the sample of the study in Period 2 (n = 212) was collected two weeks later, when Europe has seen immense impacts and COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Cluster analysis was performed and defined three unique clusters in both periods with distinctive characteristics. In addition, results revealed a significant increase in risk perception of COVID-19, travel risk perception and travel behaviour over a short period of time.

COVID-19 Pandemic and Tourism: The Impact of Health Risk Perception and Intolerance of Uncertainty on Travel Intentions

“…Senbeto and Hon (2020) have stated that major health crises, such as 2003 SARS and 2015 avian flu outbreaks, seem to impact tourist behaviour more than a financial crisis, bringing anxiety and influencing travel intentions regardless of tourists' profile. Recent studies addressing the COVID-19 pandemic (Nazneen, Hong & Ud Din, 2020;Neuburger & Egger, 2020) have confirmed the previous ones and showed that tourist health risk perception has increased, affecting negatively individuals' travel intentions.…”

“…Previous studies revealed that perceived tourism risk may decrease re(visit) intention in case of natural disasters (Lehto, Douglas & Park, 2008;Chew & Jahari, 2014;Rittichainuwat, Nelson, & Rahmafitria, 2018), terrorism (Sönmez & Graefe, 1998;Floyd et al, 2004;Adeloye & Brown, 2017), and diseases (Mizrachi & Fuchs, 2016;Novelli et al 2018;Neuburger & Egger, 2020;Nazneen, Hong & Ud Din, 2020).…”

“…Several studies on tourist behaviour have found that some individual characteristics may affect travel intentions. Variables such as age (Khan, Chelliah & Ahmed,2018;Hajibaba et al, 2015;Neuburger & Egger, 2020), travel experience (Sönmez & Graefe, 1998a;Kozak et al, 2007;Polas et al, 2019), income (Sönmez & Graefe, 1998b;Floyd et al, 2004;Djeri, Armenski, Jovanović & Dragin, 2014;Li, Mengdie & Cheng, 2018) and education level were relevant predictors of travel intentions also during periods of crises.…”

“…Travel experience decreases tourist risk perception and, at the same time, positively influences travel intentions (Sönmez & Graefe, 1998a;Kozak et al, 2007;Rittichainuwat & Chakraborty, 2009;Polas et al, 2019;Neuburger & Egger, 2020). In a similar vein, past travel experience seems to provide a greater sense of safety to tourists (Reza & Samiei, 2012) and alters travel decisions more than information from external sources (Rittichainuwat & Chakraborty, 2009).…”

“…Chew and Jahari (2014) concluded that young individuals were more short-time oriented and likely to visit a post-disaster destination. While Senbeto and Hon (2020) found a greater sensitivity to the 2003 SARS outbreak among the elderly, Kozak et al (2007) and Neuburger and Egger (2020) observed that older people were less likely to change their travel plans in the face of a risk threat. By considering this rationale, we suggest that: H6.…”