ABSTRACT
Language barriers have always been considered as constraints on tourists' intentions to visit an overseas destination. However, little research has focused on how learning the destination language could affect tourists' behavioral intentions. This study attempts to fill this gap by analyzing the moderating effect of Spanish language proficiency on young Chinese travelers' intentions to visit Spain. A quantitative research method was adopted involving data collection through a structured questionnaire survey. A total of 642 Chinese university students were used as the sample in this study. The relationships between motivation, perceived cultural distance, destination image, and future behavioral intention were examined using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis. The moderating effects of Spanish-language proficiency on these relationships were tested through MICOM and multi-group PLS-SEM analysis. The results show that Spanish-language proficiency could moderate four hypothesized relationships in the model. Hence, this study contributes to tourism literature by highlighting the role of potential tourists' destination-language proficiency on their future behavioral intentions. Additionally, practical implications are also provided for DMOs to attract more Chinese young travelers in the recovery process from COVID-19.