Travellers' Risk Perceptions and Intentions to Visit African Destinations amidst COVID-19: The Case of Brands South Africa and Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

The global COVID-19 pandemic has seen a rapid decline in arrivals globally, not only due to travel restrictions, but also reduced traveller confidence given their often-tarnished reputations, the pandemic has added a unique challenge to African destinations in their bid to implement tourism recovery strategies. This study examines travellers’ risk perceptions and intentions to visit African destinations during the COVID-19 pandemic using South Africa and Zimbabwe as two competing case studies. Following a quantitative research design using an online survey, data was collected from 250 past visitors to the two countries. Firstly, results indicated a willingness to travel to Africa. Exploratory factor analysis and moderated multiple regression was used to test the effect of risk perception on brand image dimensions and revisit intentions for both countries respectively. Findings indicate that even though visitors may hold positive brand perceptions, risk perceptions weakened the relationship between specific dimensions of brand image (affective versus cognitive). However, these effects were not similar for the two countries. The study affirms that risk perceptions are country specific and highlights the importance of effective brand awareness and destination competitiveness to cushion the effects of perceived risk. Results also indicate that an increased frequency of visit increases destination familiarity which can mitigate some of the negative risk perceptions © 2022. AJHTL /Author(s) ;Open Access