Sustainable Tourism Behaviour In the Post Pandemic Era

ABSTRACT

The present research attempts to study various cognitive & affective factors affecting consumer attitude leading to post pandemic tourism behaviours (viz. attraction/avoidance conative behaviour) towards sustainable tourism. Attraction tourism behaviour includes resilience strategies, coping mechanisms, more concern about travel insurance, cautious travel decisions including choosing destination at a remote location surrounded by nature. Avoidance tourism behaviour consists deferring of travelling and cancellation of travel plans. The present research aims to examine the relationship between the cognitive factors such as mindful mind, perceived risk, perceived knowledge (travel and COVID-19-related) etc., affective factors such as travel fear of COVID-19, travel anxiety and behavioural intention for tourism in immediate future. Sustainability of companies is ultimately dependent on customers’ sustainability. By carefully monitoring consumers’ cognitive & affective factors, tourism companies can develop their marketing strategies so as to address the diverse coping, resilience & protection strategies of customers. Internal factors such as consumer motivation, cognitive dissonance, moral stance (moral obligation of taking care of others), consumer confusion have not been included in the present study may also impact the tourism behaviour intention. Likewise, external factors such as economic environment, security, socio-cultural environment may also be studied. Future researches may be conducted by taking these factors into consideration.