The adventurous tourist amidst a pandemic: Effects of personality, attitudes, and affect

Abstract

To better understand travel and hospitality consumers’ purchasing behavior amidst a worldwide emergency commonly referenced as COVID-19, the present research set out to assess the impacts of sensation-seeking, consumer affect, and risk-taking attitude on consumers’ willingness to purchase travel-related activities. A sample of 775 adult U.S. consumers were recruited with the help of a professional research consulting company. Simple and multiple regression analyses were performed for the purpose of hypotheses testing. Results demonstrate that individuals with higher sensation-seeking levels, lower negative affectivity, and who identify themselves as risk-takers are more willing to engage in various travel and commercial hospitality activities. Furthermore, sensation-seeking proves to be the most influential factor in driving consumers’ willingness to purchase amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors conclude by proposing a typology (illustrated in two different grids) of consumers based on their levels of sensation-seeking (high vs. low), affect (positive vs. negative), and risk-taking attitude (high vs. low). Theoretically, the model helps predict which consumers are most likely to engage in travel-related activities despite of the challenges posed by global pandemics.