Understanding the Behavioral Intentions about Holidays in the Shadow of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Application of Protection Motivation Theory

The research aims to investigate the emotional response and protective behaviors of domestic tourists’ post-pandemic period and their holiday intentions or holiday avoidance behaviors. For this reason, understanding tourist behavior during and after significant tourism crises is critical for the recovery of the tourism industry. To achieve this aim, first, we examine the effects of perceived vulnerability and perceived severity factors in the threat appraisal of domestic tourists, the effects of the response efficacy, response cost, and self-efficacy factors in the coping appraisal, and the effects of fear and hope factors as the anticipatory emotion responses regarding protection motivation. Second, we measure the effect of protection motivation on the factors of taking a vacation and avoiding a vacation, which constitute behavioral intention. This study applies the health-related protection motivation theory to explore how domestic tourists’ behavioral intentions are influenced by Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the post-pandemic period. The study includes citizens residing in Türkiye who have had at least one-holiday experience in the last five years. Online questionnaire surveys were administered to 1391 domestic tourists. In the research, in addition to testing the validity and reliability of the scales, simple linear regression analysis was used to test the model based on the hypotheses experimentally. The results show that factors have internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Response cost and hope variables are ineffective in predicting the protection motivation, and all other effect sizes (f(2)) are positive. All hypotheses have been supported. However, the response cost (β = −0.029, p > 0.05) has no effect on protection motivation, thus only one is rejected. As a result, domestic tourists would like to maintain the assurance of their health and safety during a holiday. An integrated model with protection motivation theory and different theories as theory of planned behavior should be implemented. As a result, this will provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complexity involved in the sustainable behavioral intentions in the post-COVID era.