Tourists’ risk perception, travel behaviour and behavioural intention during the COVID-19

Abstract

Considering the coronavirus risk, the purpose of the study is to reveal the group differences in travel risk perception, travel behaviour and behavioural intention in terms of the tourists’ sociodemographic characteristics – gender, age and past travel experience. A convenience sampling was used and members of the eligible travel groups on social media platforms were invited to respond to an online survey. A total of 160 responses were obtained from Turkey in January 2021. Exploratory factor analysis, independent samples t-tests and cross-tabulation analysis were performed to analyse the data. This study determined the differences in the risk perception of coronavirus, travel behaviour and travel intention of tourists in terms of gender and age of tourists. Although it is known that the higher the experience, the lower the risk perception, the study showed no differences associated with the past travel experience. This supposes that all tourists, regardless of their past experience, perceived the coronavirus risk in the same way as its influence has been tremendous globally. Consequently, tourism professionals should attract target markets at the appropriate time with compatible strategies regarding the sociodemographic factors.