key: cord-0735191-trl1yep7
authors: Fan, Xuecong; Lu, Junyu; Qiu, Miaoxi; Xiao, Xiao
title: Changes in travel behaviors and intentions during the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery period: A case study of China
date: 2022-04-28
journal: Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism
DOI: 10.1016/j.jort.2022.100522
sha: 5da2efd4a24811a2589bb03e428ece9d4a206992
doc_id: 735191
cord_uid: trl1yep7

The COVID-19 pandemic severely hit the tourism industry in China and worldwide. Chinese government adopted extensive nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to control it. COVID-19 has been well under control since April 2020 and China entered into a unique recovering period. The aim of this study is to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic changed residents' travel behaviors and intentions and investigate the theoretical factors associated with these changes during the pandemic and the recovery period. This study used a mixed-methods approach by combining quantitative surveys (N = 1,423) and qualitative interviews (N = 34). We extended the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to include other emerging factors in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as risk perception, tourist trust, and charitable attitude. Our findings show that COVID-19 changed respondents' travel preferences in different ways, for example, tend to choose natural/outdoor/uncrowded attractions over cultural/indoor/crowded attractions. Second, respondents' domestic travel behaviors and intentions were positively associated with constructs in TPB, charitable attitude to contribute to the recovery of the tourism industry, tourists' trust in domestic COVID-19 control, and awareness of destinations' promotion strategies, while domestic travel intentions were negatively associated with risk perception. Third, concerns about the international COVID-19 control and travel restrictions were the two major factors affecting residents' intentions to travel abroad. Finally, we highlighted the management implications including implementing strict preventive measures while improving the effectiveness, increasing tourists’ trust, and adopting diverse marketing and promotion strategies.

COVID-19 posed a severe impact on the world economy (Imai et al., 2020; WHO, 2020a) . In the 36 latest forecast of the International Monetary Fund, the global economy shrank by 3.5% in 2020 37 (IMF, 2021) . The tourism industry was the sector that was impacted the most by COVID-19 38 (UNWTO, 2020) . UNWTO statistics showed 100-120 million direct tourism jobs were at risk in 39 2020 and the number of international tourists fell by 74%, which resulted in a loss of US$1.3 40 trillion in export revenue (UNWTO, 2021a). GDP from Travel and Tourism in 2020 dropped by 41 23% compared to 2019 and the international traffic dropped by 67%, resulting in a loss of 264 42 million USD, and the domestic traffic dropped by 40%, resulting in a loss of 124 million USD 43 (ICAO, 2020; WTTC, 2021). Many experts and institutions predicted that international tourism 44

will not return to pre-COVID-19 levels by 2023 (IATA, 2020; UNWTO, 2021b; Walton, 2020). 45

As the first country to discover coronavirus, from January 19, 2020, China initiated a first-level 46 emergency response to this major public health emergency and strictly implemented 47 nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to contain COVID-19, including staying-at-home order, 48

wearing masks, Wuhan lock-down on January 23, 2020, restricting population movement and 49 gatherings, strict contact tracing, setting up designated hospitals for COVID-19, publicizing 50 COVID-19 prevention knowledge, dividing risk levels by counties and implementing differing 51 prevention and control measures, implementing unified national case reporting system, etc. 52 (China's Health Commission, 2020; The State Council, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c; Wuhan Municipal 53 Government, 2020; Xi, 2020; Z. . The outbreak of the COVID-19 has halted China's 54 tourism industry. During the Spring Festival (Feb. 24, 2020-Mar. 2, 2020), revenue from scenic 55 spots dropped by more than 90% (He & Peng, 2020) , losses in the accommodation industry 56 exceeded 67 billion yuan (Liu, 2020) , and 88% of catering companies' turnover decreased by 80% 57

when compared with 2019 (Zhong & Su, 2020) . 58

Due to strict NPIs, the COVID-19 has been well under control, and on Mar. 18th, for the first time 59

there were no new reported domestic cases in China (WHO, 2020b), and on April 8th, Wuhan was 60 unlocked (Xinhuanet, 2020) . Since April, Chinese residents resumed travel, and the tourism 61 industry was gradually recovering (Ma, 2020) . China has entered into a special and unique 62 recovering period that is distinct from the other countries that were still undergoing serious impact 63 from COVID-19. To help the tourism industry's recovery under the prerequisite for containing the 64 coronavirus, the Chinese government implemented a variety of NPI measures. The Ministry of to spread in other countries and more people return to China, the number of imported cases 84 continued to increase. Besides, imported cold-chain food was also creating potential risks, 85 although there was no direct evidence to prove the transmission of coronavirus from cold-chain 86 food to human beings (Xinhuanet, 2021; Zhang, 2020) . Residents still perceived imported food as 87 a potential risk because many places had positive detections of coronavirus nucleic acid on the 88 imported products or packaging (Shukun, 2020) . 89

The COVID-19 had a tremendous and unprecedented impact on the tourism industry. Several 90 scholars analyzed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the tourism industry from the 91 perspective of economic losses and provided suggestions for the recovery of the tourism industry 92 from a macro perspective ( significantly changes people's travel behaviors and willingness to travel due to high perceived 97 risks, although COVID-19 has been well under control in China. We targeted the special and 98 unique period from May 2020 to November 2020, when people resumed travel and the tourism 99 industry was gradually recovering, which is distinct from the other countries that were still 100 undergoing serious impact from COVID-19. 101

The focus of this study is to examine the theoretical factors that might influence residents' travel 102

behaviors and willingness to travel during the pandemic and the recovery period. We built this 103 study upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and extended the TPB model to include risk 104 perception, tourist trust, and charitable attitude under the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 105

factors examined in this study are based on previous literature and existing theories. The research 106 questions of this study include 1) how does the COVID-19 pandemic change Chinese residents' 107 travel behaviors and willingness to travel domestically and internationally? 2) What factors lead 108 to such changes? We used a mixed-methods approach including both quantitative survey and 109 qualitative interviews. The outcome of this study can provide a better understanding of changes in 110

Chinese residents' travel behaviors and intentions during the pandemic and could be beneficial for 111 guiding management policies and strategies for China and other countries to encourage the 112 recovery of the tourism industry from the pandemic. 113 114 2. Theoretical framework 115

To better understand what factors influence people's travel intentions and behaviors during the 116 pandemic and the recovery period, we adopted the theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework 117 that has been widely used in various behavior research (Ajzen, 2012 (Ajzen, 1991) . As indicated by TPB, intention, and 125 behaviors are influenced by three factors: attitude towards the behavior, subjective norm, and 126 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f perceived behavior control (Ajzen, 1985) . Among them, attitude towards the behavior refers to a 127 positive or negative evaluation of a particular behavior (Ajzen, 2020) . Individuals' behavior is also 128 influenced by social pressure from their social group, including family members, friends, and other 129 people they value, which is measured by subjective norm (Ajzen, 1991 ; La Barbera & Ajzen, 130 2020). Perceived behavior control refers to the ability people perform a specific behavior, which 131 could be time, money, skills, opportunities, resources, etc. (Ajzen, 2020) . Behavioral intention 132 refers to the strong will to perform a specific behavior and it is influenced by the three factors 133 aforementioned and has an influence on individuals' behaviors (Ajzen, 2012 Risk is defined as the possibility of involving exposure to danger (Reisinger & Mavondo, 2005) . 207 However, compared with the risk itself, the risk that people perceived is the factor that affects 208 people's decision-making (Bauer, 1967; Brewer et al., 2007 Also, coronavirus is easy to survive and spread at low temperatures and so there are potential risks 225

for winter outbreaks (Mallapaty, 2020) . Therefore, we hypothesized individuals' travel behaviors 226 might be affected by perceived risks associated with the COVID-19, including sporadic and 227

imported cases, and the possibility of winter outbreak. 228

Trust is a complex concept, which is considered to be related to belief, commitment, and moral 230 responsibility (Hosmer, 1995; Sztompka, 1999 travel (Maslow, 1981; Zhan, 2017) . COVID-19 is the biggest societal risk, and the shutdown of 256 many service and manufacturing sectors in early 2020 in China significantly decreased people's 257 income, which we hypothesized will directly influence people's travel behaviors and willingness 258

to travel. In addition to income, there have been researches indicating that habit persistence also 259 has a long-term impact on people's travel consumption (Kwack, 1972; Lyssiotou, 2000) . Moreover, 260

female was found to be more likely to perceive risk during travel, and middle-aged people travel 261 more often compared to other age groups (Liu, 1988; Staats et al., 2006) . Thus, because of the fear 262 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f of infection, females might travel less frequently and last shorter than males. Moreover, the fact 263 that the elderly especially those with chronic conditions infected with COVID-19 have a higher 264 mortality rate (Uhler & Shivashankar, 2020) was likely to cause the elderly afraid of traveling. 265

Based on previous literature, we build a conceptual model ( Figure 1 ) and hypothesized that travel 266 behaviors and intentions during the pandemic are affected by four dimensions, including three 267 constructs in TPB, special attitude (e.g., charitable attitude, attitude towards cumbersome health 268 checks and measures, attitude towards promotion strategy), risk perception (e.g., sporadic cases, 269

imported cases, and winter outbreaks), tourists' trust (e.g., the sense of trust towards governments' 270 control of COVID-19, vaccines, and the effectiveness of visitor management in scenic area). This 271 framework is the basis for the design of our questionnaire and interview guide, as well as the basis 272

for our data analysis. people's travel behaviors (Tian, 2006) . This study used a concurrent design strategy, where 284 quantitative and qualitative research are conducted at the same time (Jick, 1979) , and there is no 285 logical order between them given the urgent need to understand the impact of COVID-19 on 286

people's travel behaviors. Through quantitative research, we can discover the trends and the extent 287

to which different factors affect dependent variables in an objective way. Qualitative research 288

provides an understanding of the development process of events, including why they happened 289 and how they happened (Cornelissen, 2017). Quantitative research and qualitative research study 290 the same event from different perspectives and use different methods. Therefore, these multiple 291

verifications and tourism management participated in the research design process and collectively designed the 302 questionnaire. Any discrepancy among team members was discussed and resolved. In addition, we 303 asked two experts in the field of tourism management to check our questionnaire and provide us 304 feedback to resolve confusing and leading questions. Before distributing the online survey, we 305 conducted a pilot test with three participants to solicit feedback and further check the questions. 306

The social-demographic factors (e.g., gender, age, educational background, residency, income, and the 317 extent to which COVID-19 affects their household income). 318

We distributed the anonymous survey via an online survey platform, Questionnaire Star 319 (https://www.wjx.cn/), which has been widely used by many universities and research institutes in 320

China. The survey was distributed and administrated from November 12th to December 20th, 2020. 321

All respondents filled out the survey voluntarily and anonymously. We used sampling methods of 322 convenience sampling and snowball sampling to collect our data (Heckathorn & Cameron, 2017 In order to explore the change in Chinese residents' travel behaviors and the reasons for these 335 changes in detail, we made an interview guide based on the theoretical framework ( Figure 1) Recorded interviews with prior consents from the interviewees were transcribed in Chinese by 376

native Chinese speakers and imported into Nvivo 12. We developed a codebook using an iterative 377 coding process and inductive reasoning with three coders to ensure the reliability and validity of 378 coding. After the development of the codebook, two coders coded and analyzed all interview 379 manuscripts together to ensure transparency, and any discrepancies that occurred between the two 380 coders were discussed and resolved. Then, we performed a second coding process to avoid the 381 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f omission of code based on the current structure. Finally, we reviewed the transcripts again to make 382 sure that theoretical saturation had been achieved by this open coding process. Through open 383

coding, the content of the interview data was fractured and conceptualized. and we integrated them 384

to form a new theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998 When the respondents' travel plan was interrupted during the pandemic, visiting friends and 416 relatives (VFR) was the least favorite alternative recreation activity (14.6%) that the respondents 417 chose (Figure 2 ). This aligns with the fact that Chinese residents were required to follow the stay-418

at-home order, reduce gathering, and reduce unnecessary trips to go outside during the pandemic, 419

and most Chinese residents did so. one interviewee said that he tends to stay at home-stays due to low customer flows and not being 475 crowded. 476 "I might prefer homestays rather than hotels. The homestay is relatively independent and not 477 so crowded. There was a lot of news that a certain hotel has an infected person, so the entire 478 hotel was quarantined. I will try to avoid this situation." (P31) 479

Regarding preferences on types of tourism destinations in the upcoming half-year, the respondents 480 tend to choose an outdoor destination over an indoor destination, choose a natural landscape over 481 a cultural landscape, and choose an uncrowded destination over a crowded destination (Figure 3) . 482

This aligns with the fact that the risk of contracting the coronavirus in a closed environment is 18.7 483 times greater than in an open-air environment (Nishiura et al., 2020) , and the risk of spreading the 484 coronavirus in a crowded destination is obviously higher than in an uncrowded destination because 485

the social distancing is difficult to maintain in crowded destinations. However, the respondents did 486 not show a strong preference for rural to urban and familiar to unfamiliar destinations (Figure 3) . 487

What we found in the interview was that good air circulation was the main reason why people 488

were more inclined to choose natural and outdoor landscapes (n=9). The interview also revealed 489 people's strong tendency towards uncrowded destinations. 490 "I will choose more outdoor attractions because the air circulation there is better. I used to go 491 to some indoor entertainment venues, such as amusement arcades, internet cafes, and other 492 indoor places, however, I haven't gone to these places since January 2020." (P10) 493 "I would be more inclined to go to less crowded attractions. Crowded means gathering, and I 494 will be worried about being infected." (P7) 495

Past travel preferences greatly affected people's travel preferences. The qualitative data revealed 496 that people who did not like traveling in the past still chose not to travel, while others who liked 497 traveling were still more inclined to travel after the pandemic was controlled. The interview also 498 revealed that tourists' personality still influenced their travel patterns (Plog, 2001 ) that allocentric 499 tourists tend to choose unfamiliar or new attractions and psychometric tourists tend to choose 500 familiar attractions. The interview did not show that COVID-19 changed people's preference for 501 familiar attractions over unfamiliar attractions. The Internet allows tourists to obtain sufficient 502 information about scenic spots before they go, which alleviated their anxiety due to the 503 unfamiliarity with the destinations. 504 "I will definitely choose the ones I haven't visited before because I prefer to explore the 505 unknown. I will do a detailed plan rather than just go there straightly without knowing any 506

information. After the pandemic, I will pay more attention to the information related to 507

COVID-19 such as local measures and control to COVID-19, the new way to buy tickets, 508

reservation system, and so on." (P11) 509

When asked what factors should be considered when choosing a tourist destination, interviewees 510 mentioned the number of local cases (n=12; 35.3%), and the local policies related to COVID-19 511 prevention and control (n=8; 23.5%), and the degree of crowding (n=4; 11.8%). 512

In the upcoming half-year, 66.9% of the respondents were very willing or willing to travel within 513 the province of residence and 56.5% outside the province of residence, while only 32.0% were 514 very willing or willing to travel internationally. During the interview, when asked whether they 515 would like to travel abroad in the next year, concerns about the international pandemic control 516

were the main reason for unwillingness to travel abroad (n=20). 517 Building upon TPB, the majority of respondents had a positive attitude and motivation towards 521 travel after the pandemic was under control, among which 66.2% of the respondents strongly 522 agreed or agreed that they want to strengthen their relationship with family and friends through 523 travel and 63.9% agreed or strongly agreed that they want to relax themselves through travel (Table  524 2). The majority of the respondents (52.4%) strongly agreed or agreed that many people around 525 them traveled after the pandemic was under control and 43.2% strongly agreed or agreed that they 526 had extra time and energy to travel (Table 2) . 527 528 529 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f About 50.4% of the respondents showed a charitable attitude towards travel that they want to 532

contribute to the recovery of the national economy and tourism industry through travel. 533

Troublesome health checks and measures did not receive high agreement as the other three factors, 534 while 61.8% strongly agreed or agreed that the promotion strategies attracted them to travel (Table  535 3). 536 537 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f In addition to TPB, we also gauged people's risk perception towards COVID-19. We found that 540 imported cases (mean=4.09; 78.5% strongly agree or agree) and the winter break (mean=4.01; 541 78.6% strongly agree or agree) were the most worrying factors when people consider traveling 542 (Table 4) . Besides, 67.2% of respondents also showed concerns about the emergence of sporadic 543 cases in some areas (Table 4) . 544

Interviewees also expressed varying degrees of uncomfortableness, fear, and anxiety while 545

traveling. Some interviewees felt uneasy when going out (n=3), some were afraid of coronavirus 546 nucleic acid testing (n=3), some were uncomfortable with the overabundant preventive measures 547 and mandatory requirement for wearing masks during their travels (n=3), and one feared being 548 quarantined if surrounding cases were detected (n=1). Interviewees also felt anxiety and pressure, 549

for instance, when they found that the attractions were crowded (n=3), touching communal 550 facilities (n=1), or watching news related to the pandemic (n=1). Thus, they were more inclined to 551 travel to areas with fewer people (n=2) and strengthen personal protection against COVID-19 (e.g., 552

reducing the frequency of removing masks and carrying alcohol-based sanitizer) (n=2). 553 554 555 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f system made their travel more convenient and comfortable (Table 5) . 561

The qualitative data analysis complemented the survey results and reveals that most interviewees 562 (n=27; 79.4%) expressed that they felt sureness when traveling, among which 12 interviewees said 563 that there were fewer tourists in the scenic spots, 8 interviewees mentioned that the health checks 564 related to COVID-19 during their travels made them feel protected, and 5 interviewees (14.7%) 565

stated that most strangers that they met during their travels did personal protection (i.e., wearing 566 masks) which made them feel safe. 567 568 569 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f that China's COVID-19 vaccine will be available soon and most people will be vaccinated, and 580 80.3% strongly agreed or agreed that popularization of vaccination can make domestic travel safer 581 (Table 6 ). In contrast, only 46.9% of the respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the global 582 pandemic has been and will be under control and the tourism industry will return to normal in the 583 near future (Table 7) . While 62.8% believed that the popularization of vaccination will help the 584 tourism industry to recover, only 58.5% strongly agreed or agreed that many countries will develop 585 effective vaccines and vaccines will be popularized. This showed that most of the respondents did 586 not have enough trust towards COVID-19 control in other countries. 587

Through interviews, we found that the increase in people's actual travel and willingness to travel 588 domestically was related to people's trust in the Chinese domestic control of COVID-19. All 589 interviewees expressed strong trust in China's control over COVID-19. When talking about the 590 imported cases, sporadic cases, and winter outbreaks, most interviewees stated that these events 591 are reasonable (n=17; 50.0%) and believed that the same large-scale outbreak like in Wuhan will 592 not happen again due to governments' efforts (n=22; 64.7%). However, the majority of the 593 respondents (n=20; 58.8%) expressed their concerns about international COVID-19 control. 594 4.4 Factors influencing actual travel during the recovery period of pandemic 595 Note: ̂ is the estimated coefficient; significance level: * denotes significance at 0.05 level, ** denotes significance at 0.01, and *** denotes significance at 0.001; Gender: female is coded as 0, male is coded as 1, and female is used as the baseline; Education, age, and household income are ordered following Table 1 ; Statement for change in income due to COVID-19: "How much influence does the COVID-19 have on your household income?" (responses: significantly increased (1), increased (2), unchanged (3), decreased (4), and significantly decreased (5)); the notes in this table are also applicable to Table 9 and Table 10 that people care about (e.g., friends, relatives, and colleagues) played an important role in 603 influencing people's travel behaviors. Also, respondents who stated that they have extra time, 604 energy, and money to travel (perceived behavior control) were more likely to travel (p-value<0.001; 605 Table 8 ). 606

The charitable attitude was significantly positively associated with the number of travels (p-607 value=0.044; Table 8 ), which indicated that people who want to contribute to the recovery of 608

China's economy and tourism industry through their own travel were more likely to travel. Our 609 model also indicated that there was a significant negative association between attitudes towards 610 restriction on the flow of visitors and the number of travels (p-value=0.019; Table 8 ). This might 611 be because people who agreed most scenic spots imposing restrictions on the flow of visitors were 612 less motivated to travel or unable to visit due to restrictions on flow. Attitude towards the 613 promotion strategies was significantly positively associated with the number of travels (p-614 value=0.011; Table 8 ), which means that tourists who know that many scenic spots have ticket 615 discounts, discounts on products, or shopping festivals were more likely to travel more frequently. 616

This can be confirmed via interview that four interviewees said that they would be more willing 617

to go to scenic spots with discounted tickets. 618 "I live in Hubei. After the pandemic, all attractions in Hubei Province are free to the public. 619 Some people say that traveling is still dangerous now, but I do not worry about it at all. Due 620 to the free entry policy, I went to most of the attractions in Hubei Province. And all of these 621 attractions are located in the mountains and I feel quite safe." (P5) 622

In addition, males were more likely to travel than females (p-value=0.003; Table 8) because  623 females were more likely to perceive fear (Liu, 1988; Staats et al., 2006) . As expected, the 624 household income was a significant predictor (p-value<0.001; Table 8 ) for travel. The interview 625 revealed that especially for interviewees with lower income, the decline in income during 626 lockdown push them to work harder in the recovery period of the pandemic and they became more 627 cautious about traveling because they were afraid that they cannot earn their lives due to infection 628

with COVID-19. TPB can also partially predict respondents' willingness to travel within the province or outside 639 provinces in the next six months. Attitude and motivation towards travel (relaxation functionality) 640

and social norms were positively associated with willingness to travel within and outside the 641 province of residence (Table 9) . 642

Attitude towards COVID-19 measures was negatively associated with respondents' willingness to 643

travel within the province of residence (p-value=0.002; Table 9 ), which was because people who 644

perceive health checks and measures as cumbersome were less likely to travel. Similar to actual 645 travel, attitude towards the promotion strategies were positively associated with respondents' 646 willingness to travel both within and outside the province in the next six months (p-value=0.001; 647 Table 9 ). 648

There was a negative association between willingness to travel outside the province of residence 649 and perceived risk in sporadic cases (p-value<0.001; Table 9 ). This was because sporadic cases, 650 especially the emergence of asymptomatic infections, were uncontrollable, which would make 651

tourists more cautious and less likely to travel a long distance outside the province. The 652 quantitative data did not reveal a significant association between willingness to travel and 653 perceived risks in upcoming winter outbreaks. However, through the interviews, 28 interviewees 654 (82.4%) stated that their travel plans in the next six months were affected by the upcoming winter 655 risks. Among them, 14 interviewees stated that they would not travel this winter, 9 interviewees 656 said that they would avoid going to high-risk areas, and 4 interviewees stated that more detailed 657

planning would be carried out before traveling and strict protective measures would be taken. The 658

difference between quantitative and qualitative results might be because most of the interviews 659

were conducted later than the survey, which was close to the winter season when there were a few 660 winter outbreaks in Shenyang and Dalian. 661

Trust towards COVID-19 control and tourism recovery in China had a significant positive effect 662 on respondents' willingness to travel within (p-value=0.018; Table 9 ) and outside the province (p-663 value=0.002; Table 9 ), which showed that people who have more trust towards domestic COVID-664

19 control were more likely to travel in both short-and long-distance in the next half year. 665

Unsurprisingly, education and household income were significant predictors for willingness to 666 travel (Table 9 ). Younger respondents were more willing to travel outside the province (p-667 value<0.001; Table 9 ). 668 669 showed that the tourists who were aware of the information about promotion strategies and 782 activities in tourism destinations are more likely to travel. The result is in line with the findings 783 from Blake and Sinclair (2003) that sector-specific targeted subsidies were found to be the most 784 efficient means to recover an unexpected and sudden downturn in tourism demand. Tourism 785 destinations should adopt diverse marketing and promotion strategies, especially before summer 786 breaks and holidays to respond to the increasing travel demands. Besides, with the charitable 787 attitude in functioning, attractions and local government could adopt more advertising and 788 marketing to guide and attract visitors to recover the destinations' economy. Additionally, social 789 media, video-sharing social networking platforms, and official websites can be effective ways to 790 enhance tourists' awareness about promotion strategies as well as travel and safety information 791 (e.g., ticket purchase means, special health check and measures, opening hours, the average 792 number of tourists per day, etc.), which can help tourists plan their travel routes and increase their 793 sense of security. These strategies can potentially reduce the perceived risks and level of stress 794 associated with COVID-19 for a portion of the general public. 795

Interestingly, our results indicate a management dilemma regarding travel-related COVID-19 796 preventive measures in the recovery period of the pandemic. On the one hand, the COVID-19 797 preventive measures, for example, mask-wearing policy, restriction on tourist flow, health check, 798

and social distancing, etc. could make travelers feel protected. When planning a trip, interviewees 799 hope to get more information about the destination and COVID-19 prevention policies and 800 strategies. On the other hand, some interviewees expressed feelings that they did not like wearing 801 masks for a long time when traveling and some felt stressed when they experienced excessive and 802

repetitive health checks and measures in the transit region and the tourism destination. It is 803 challenging for the government and scenic spots to balance health safety and the burden of health 804 checks. On the premise of ensuring health safety, the transit and destination region could consider 805 reducing the repetitive and ineffective health check (e.g., undergoing multiple health checks in the 806 same destination), while increasing the effectiveness (e.g., more training to the health check staff 807 and increase the reliability and accuracy of infrared thermometer to measure temperatures). 808

The respondents and interviewees were confident about the domestic COVID-19 control by the 809 government and the rapid recovery of the tourism industry, while in contrast lack of trust towards 810

international COVID-19 control and international travel restrictions led to the rapid decline in the 811 number of outbound travels, which were not yet recovered as the domestic travels by the end of 812 2020. The regression model indicated that the respondents who expressed trust towards the 813 effectiveness of the vaccine were more willing to travel abroad, which showed that it is necessary 814

to propagandize the effectiveness of the vaccine and implement widespread vaccination. However, 815

interviewees still showed a negative attitude towards international travel even if being vaccinated 816 and the reasons mainly include international COVID-19 control, the international traveling 817 policies, and restrictions, and flight-related issues (e.g., limited flight, high price, and potential in-818 flight cancellation). 819

The COVID-19 pandemic could have a negative impact on the diversity, equality, inclusion, and 820 environmental sustainability of tourism. First, our findings suggested that the elderly and low-821 income respondents showed lower willingness to travel due to fear of infection and reduced 822 income, respectively, which proved that COVID-19 has violated their travel rights (Streimikiene 823 et al., 2021). In addition, for hygienic reasons and health, interviewees showed resistance to 824 public/shared goods, such as contacting public facilities and not being willing to take public 825 transportation (e.g., buses and trains), and they preferred to choose using personal goods and drive 826 private cars. Such formation and continuation of habits might lead to more waste of resources and 827 more greenhouse gas emissions even if after the pandemic is over. Moreover, a massive increase 828 in the usage of masks while traveling and even littering masks in tourism destinations can have a 829 severe physical impact on the tourism destinations. Thus, the destinations should adopt strategies 830

to collect the used masks and dispose of them properly. 831

Although this study provides many timely insights, like other empirical studies this study also has 833 limitations, which provide opportunities for future research. First, since this research is conducted 834 only with Chinese residents, future scholars could conduct more research to additionally 835 investigate how the differences in culture, politics, policies, and medical level among different 836 countries change residents' travel behaviors and intentions. Future research can also measure 837

people's travel behaviors and intention to visit different tourism destinations, such as areas with a 838 large number of COVID-19 cases or cruise ships where the risk of infection is relatively high. 839

Second, in the theoretical framework of this research, we measured attitudes in TPB from the 840 perspective of motivation. Future research could measure the influence of attitude on people's 841 travel intention in the context of pandemic from multiple perspectives, such as affective, cognitive, 842

and behavioral (Harrison, 1976 ). Third, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing, we 843 did not conduct on-site survey but conducted online surveys using convenience sampling and 844 snowball sampling, which resulted in our sample being skewed towards highly educated, female, 845 and 18 to 40 years old. Although the age, gender, and education level of our sample are similar to 846 the demographic characteristics of the domestical and outbound tourists (China Tourism Academy, 847 2020; WTCF, 2018), people over 40 years old, especially over 60 years old, and lower education 848

should be further studied to ensure the diversity and inclusive of the sample. We recommend 849

subdividing social-demographic group and travel patterns, and performing separate analyses on 850 different social groups, such as elderly, people who like to travel alone or in a group, residents of 851 areas with a large number of cases, etc. Finally, this study was conducted in a fixed period of time. 852

However, residents' travel behaviors and intentions might be drastically affected by special 853 circumstances, such as virus mutations, changes in travel and immigration policies, vaccine 854 development, and treatment improvement. Thus, we recommend that this type of research can be 855 conducted regularly (e.g., half a year) and longitudinal data can be collected to consider the change 856 of the influencing factors. 857 858 J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f

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Buy foreign goods duty-free and enjoy a discount

Tourism destinations should adopt various promotion strategies (e.g., ticket discount or free admission, shopping festivals, tax-free shopping, coupons offered by the government, etc.), while implement strict preventive measures on COVID-19 in the tourism destinations (e.g., restriction on the flow of tourists, mask-wearing policy, social distancing). Moreover, the respondents tended to choose natural/outdoor/uncrowded attractions over cultural/indoor/crowded attractions because of good air circulation and low risk perceptions about COVID-19. Promoting natural and outdoor attractions can be the first step to aid in the recovery of the whole tourism industry. The natural and outdoor attractions are more likely to be located in rural areas with relatively low density and underdeveloped economy, and such change in preference could potentially help narrow the economic gap between cities and villages

This research has been conducted through Hainan Province Academician Innovation Platform at Hainan University and supported by and Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (420QN218).