Risk, uncertainty and ambiguity amid Covid-19: A multi-national analysis of international travel intentions.

ABSTRACT

This study analyses how Covid-19 shapes individuals' international tourism intentions in context of bounded rationality. It provides a novel analysis of risk which is disaggregated into tolerance/aversion of and competence to manage risks across three different aspects general, domain (tourism) and situational (Covid-19). The impacts of risk are also differentiated from uncertainty and ambiguity. The empirical study is based on large samples (total = 8962) collected from the world's top five tourism source markets China, USA, Germany, UK and France. Various risk factors show significant predictive powers of individual's intentions to defer international tourism plans amid Covid-19. Uncertainty and ambiguity intolerance is shown to lead to intentions to take holidays relatively sooner rather than delaying the holiday plans.