Perceptions of Risks amidst COVID-19 on the Youth’s Domestic Travel Intentions in Ghana

Abstract

Domestic tourism serves as a “mainstay” of the tourism sectors in many parts of the world, particularly in developed countries, such as China and India. With an increase in the growth of the youth globally, young travelers have unique travel intentions other than the general population. There is the need to probe on young travelers since recent findings reveal that the youth has not been affected by the crises. The aim is to examine the risks perceptions of the youth regarding domestic travel amidst the pandemic and tourist characteristics were also explored. The study integrates Roger’s protection motivation theory to address the aim of the study. Based on stratified sampling, 300 completed questionnaires were used for analyses. Findings revealed that sources of information and number of past travel experiences influence perceptions of risks amidst the COVID-19 crises. The results of this study show that physical risk does affect participants travel intentions during the pandemic. Results of this research may aid in developing interventions for promoting domestic tourism and modelling domestic travel demands; add up to the status quo of domestic travel research on COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana and for future marketing campaigns.