Motivation Factors Driving Travel Intention in the Controlled Pandemic Context: Perspectives from Malaysian and Taiwanese Travellers

Abstract

Travelling is considered one of the best ways to escape one’s day-to-day routine activities. Tourists’ travel is driven by several motivational factors, which lead them to plan or continue on a travel trip. However, since the emergence of COVID-19, travelling has become a major issue for the whole travel industry. The recent spread of Omicron makes most post-pandemic studies futile. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of motivation factors that affect tourists’ travel intention in the controlled pandemic context. The mediating role of perceived value and the moderating role of perceived travel risk were examined as well. The Stimulus-Organism-Response (S-O-R) theory was adopted as the theoretical foundation of the research framework. A quantitative online survey was used to collect data from 388 Malaysian and Taiwanese travelers. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to analyse the data. The results show that escape, kinship, and people are direct and indirect motivation factors that influence tourists’ intention to travel via perceived value. Notably travel risk indicated no moderating effect. The results of this study provide useful insights into tourists’ post-pandemic behaviour that offer practical implications for Asian business.