Tourists’ Intentions during COVID-19: Push and Pull Factors in Extended Theory of Planned Behaviour

Abstract

The way people travel has been entirely altered by COVID-19. Additionally, past studies reported that tourist behaviour has shifted because of the pandemic. Therefore, tourism management must identify the variables that impact tourists’ decisions to travel during COVID-19. However, the problem arises since research into tourist motivation, behaviour, and intention to travel in Southeast Asia is still scarce. In light of this issue, this study aims to bridge the gap by analysing tourists’ travel intentions during COVID-19 using the theory of planned behaviour broadened with push and pull factors. An online survey among Indonesians was employed to acquire data using judgment sampling. Three hundred sixty-one surveys were completed, and the data were analysed using the PLS-SEM technique. Based on the findings, only one variable had no significant effect on the intention to travel during COVID-19. Besides that, attitude towards a behaviour was the most potent variable affecting a tourist’s decision to travel. Thus, this study contributes both theoretically and practically.