Do motivation and destination image affect tourist revisit intention to kinabalu national park during covid-19 pandemic recoveryphase?

ABSTRACT

The recent Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has caused significantdisruptions to the Malaysian tourism sector. The pandemic originated from Wuhan, China, and ithas spread throughout the world and caused respiratory illness with symptoms such as cough, fever, and difficulty in breathing. To prevent the spreading of this pandemic, numerous countries, including Malaysia,have enforced a lockdown approach to stop the chain of infection of spreading this new disease. The government-ordered lockdowns haveaffected the lives of the citizens, and at the same time, created economic collapse unemployment situation. The travel restrictions imposed by the Malaysian government to control the spreading of COVID-19 outbreak has caused Malaysia to lose at least 60 per cent of the tourism business by the end of 2020. To recover the tourism industry, the government has gradually opened tourist attractions to the public. However, with the uncertainty in the environment, visitors tend to be cautious in deciding to visit the attractions.Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of motivationand image of destination on revisit intention during the post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery phase. Theresults from this study showed that the R square value of revisit intention was valued at 30.1%. This study provides scholars and practitioners with empirical evidence of revisit intention that contributes to the ecotourism industry. This study building on the Southeast Asian region (non-western country), and, this study extends the literature in the tourism market context and specifically, has implications for ecotourism, specifically national parks. © 2020 Ubiquity Press. All rights reserved.