The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic Threat on Purchase Decisions of Travel Agency Customers in Poland

Abstract Introduction. The dynamic increase in world tourism demand was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The package holidays market is one of the tourism branches affected by the crisis the most. The study aimed at identifying the direction of changes in purchase behaviors regarding package holidays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and methods. The research on tourists purchasing package holidays during the COVID-19 pandemic was quantitative and covered a nationwide online panel of respondents characterized by a representative distribution for the general population of Poles (n = 1502). At the data analysis stage, logit models of buyers’ behaviors were used. In the estimation process, GLM in R (R Core Team 2022) was applied. Results. The situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic significantly affected how tourists traveled. The conducted analysis made it possible to distinguish four segments of buyers during the pandemic and to identify factors determining the choice of one of the purchase patterns. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, a significant increase in the number of tourists who needed personal contact with sellers at brick-and-mortar travel offices was observed. Conclusions. The study presented a meaningful contribution to understanding purchase behaviors of tourists who prefer package holidays. It is one of the few studies that compared behavior patterns of holiday package buyers in the period before and during the pandemic. The knowledge of changes in package holiday purchase behaviors is essential for travel agencies to design effective marketing strategies.