Understanding Tourists’ Behavioral Intention and Destination Support in Post-pandemic Recovery: The Case of the Vietnamese Domestic Market

Abstract

Many countries have recently strived to accelerate the tourism recovery process by restarting their tourism industry despite the unprecedented risks of the COVID-19 crisis. Noticeably, several tourism destinations have experienced an impressive revitalization of both domestic and international tourist arrivals right after lifting all social distance restrictions. However, little is known about how a tourist destination may revive from the pandemic and to what extent tourists are willing to support a destination recovery. This study, therefore, aims to examine factors influencing the travel demand of domestic tourism and tourists’ willingness to support a destination recovery in new normal conditions. The Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling was employed to predict the structural model derived from a sample size of 695 valid questionnaires. The results indicate that there is a significant improvement in domestic tourists’ travel intention and their willingness to support the post-pandemic destination revival. It is interesting to learn that the destination health risk image is no longer a critical determinant to tourists’ travel plans, while other factors including attitude, monetary promotion, and social media significantly influence their travel intention and support of tourism destination re-opening in new normal conditions. Theoretically, this study generates important contributions to post-disaster crisis management and predicting tourists’ behavioral intentions that may influence tourism destination recovery prospects. Practically, the study also provides several important implications to rebuild the domestic tourism industry in a more resilient way against future pandemic challenges.

Investigating the Impact of Green Marketing on Stay Decisions: The Mediating Role of Green Consumer Behavior

“…The results of this study also prove that Indonesian Citizens as domestic tourists have begun to adjust their consumption habits and become more selective in choosing products and services according to their sustainability features, including deciding where to stay. In line with previous research domestic tourists nowadays have a willingness to support a local destination recovery in the post-COVID-19 Pandemic, as well as glamping as the new trend of naturebased accommodation (Duong et al, 2022;Siagian & Cahyono, 2021).…”

The Impact of Social Media Use on Chinese Tourists' Intention to Visit an Internet Celebrity City: An Application of Theory of Planned Behavior

“…Specifically, visit intention is the tendency of potential tourists to be influenced by the pull of the destination attraction or other factors (e.g. environment), and as a result, whether or not to become interested in visiting a destination [11].…”

The future of sports tourism in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic – Developing a new paradigm model

“…This syndrome is a series of mental and practical health habits to deal with COVID-19 and other similar uncertainties. It includes the risks and fears of travelling in the post-pandemic period as confirmed by Assaf et al (2022), Duong et al (2022), Li et al (2020Li et al ( , 2021 and Song et al (2022), but also other factors as inflation, recession or political instabilities. For example, despite the optimism expressed by sports tourists about their return to sport-related activities in a short time (Chersulich Tomino and Peri c, 2022), they will have to modify their behavior at sports venues even long after the virus is eradicated.…”

“…The scale of the pandemic has prompted tourism academics to consider the future, that is, the tourism industry in the post-COVID-19 period. It is expected that the number of tourists will increase after the pandemic (Abdullah, 2021;Miao et al, 2022), but travel behaviors and the intensity of recovery will depend on tourists' perceptions of risk and fear of travel (Duong et al, 2022;Isaac and Keijzer, 2021;Li et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021). Yet, the restart and full recovery of the tourism industry is not only about tourism numbers (Jeyacheya and Hampton, 2022;Lu et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2021).…”