Tourists’ Travel Motivations During Crises: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study seeks to explore tourists’ travel motivation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study presents findings from an online questionnaire sent to 166 tourists in various regions, including Europe, America, Australasia, Asia and Africa. This study identified seven travel motivators but found that the COVID-19 vaccine and guaranteed refund schemes are the prime motivators of future travel in all regions. Most younger participants consider the vaccine a prime motivator for post-COVID-19 travel. Although not as significant, hygiene is also identified as a travel motivator and is appreciated more by females than males. Moreover, the majority of participants in the age group (20–29 years old), those living with dependents and relatively low-income earners (income <$20,000), identified discounts on accommodation and travel as travel motivators. Understanding what may motivate tourists to travel is essential as it would help government agencies, travel agents, tourism marketers, transport systems and hospitality services cope with the current crisis more effectively. Additionally, this study summarises recovery strategies used to manage previous health crises as reported in the literature. This summary can be used as a toolkit or guide to managing health crises by practitioners and policymakers. Therefore, this study provides timely information about a recent and fatal crisis and can thus serve as part of the knowledge base in crisis planning.