Protection Motivation and Travel Intention after the COVID-19 Vaccination: Fear and Risk Perception

ABSTRACT This study aimed to identify the factors influencing tourists’ travel intention following the COVID-19 vaccination program. It also examined the mediating role of fear in the context of the threat severity, vulnerability, and protection motivation pathways. Based on a quantitative method, a cross-sectional survey was employed and data were collected from 320 prospective domestic tourists through an online survey in Malaysia during the COVID-19 vaccination period. The researchers primarily adopted the protection motivation theory (PMT) model for developing a conceptual framework to empirically test the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis technique using AMOS software. The study confirmed that protection motivation is positively related to tourists’ travel intention, trust is negatively related to this intention, and perceived risk is not related to this intention. The study concludes that threat severity, threat vulnerability, fear, response efficacy, response cost, and self-efficacy affect the protection motivation of tourists. The main contribution of this study is to develop a model and confirm it through an empirical study. The findings indicate that companies should consider some of the factors identified so they can influence protection motivation and travel intention. This study extended the PMT model by integrating cognitive constructs and newly developed measurement scales.