How COVID-19 Impacts Chinese Travelers’ Mobility Decision-Making Processes: A Bayesian Network Model

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has a multi-faceted impact on the mobility of travelers. Current research has not yet explained the internal mechanisms of travelers’ mobility changes during the pandemic. The Bayesian network is considered to be an effective method to describe the causality between the factors and output of a system. Thus, this paper established a Bayesian network model to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on Chinese travelers’ mobility decision–making processes. The model for the traveler mobility decision-making process is built on both a qualitative and quantitative analysis of travelers’ self-narration articles. Results show that official information, traffic information, family structure, and social interaction networks are the key factors affecting Chinese travelers’ mobility.