Domestic travel intention post COVID-19 pandemic – what matters the most to millennials?

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic associated with health fear has severely affected Malaysia’s tourism industry. The domestic tourism segment is expected to have a speedier recovery than international tourism due to travel restrictions. Accordingly, the principles of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and the government's role were utilised in investigating the Millennial’s domestic travel intention in this study. This study is a preliminary investigation in nature. It involves responses from the first 60 participants of the fieldwork being carried out for the actual research. The gathered data were analysed using the structural equation modelling (SEM) technique with SmartPLS software. The findings showed that Millennial’s Perceived Self Efficacy and (through) Government Intervention have a significant relationship with their domestic travel intention post-pandemic. Practical implications were then provided to the stakeholders in reviving Malaysia’s tourism industry.