Domestic and European leisure travel intentions: assessing the role of push motivations, destination safety, travel risk, safety concerns and social risk

Risk is fundamental in the choice, evaluation, and behaviour of tourists, consequently understanding tourists’ shifting preferences toward a destination is imperative in the post-COVID era. Thus, this study aims to examine the impact of push motivations on the intention to travel to a European and domestic destination, analyse the interrelated effects between components of risk perception, test the moderating effect of risk perception and investigate the influence of gender and educational level. Based on 1315 tourists and using structural equation modelling, it was possible to find that (1) the motivation to relax and acquire knowledge, and the perception of the destination as safe are predictors of domestic travel; (2) the motivation to acquire knowledge and the risk perception as similar between European and domestic trips positively influence the intention to travel to European destination; (3) travel risk and, indirectly, safety concerns and social risk are deterrent factors of travel intentions; (4) risk perception doesn’t affect the reason why people travel; and (5) gender doesn’t affect travel motivation, intentions or risk perception, but education level enhances the negative effect of social risk. Mostly, this study adds to the literature by detailing how different motivations and risk perceptions affect travel intentions.