Effect of Perceived Risk and Travel Motivation on Tourists’ Decisions in a Crisis Context: A Domestic Tourist Perspective

The significance of tourists’ perceived risk and travel push motivation as need-driven factors has not been extensively examined within a crisis context. This study aims to evaluate their combined effect on tourists’ attitudes and behaviors, focusing on travel satisfaction and travel willingness. The study used Maslow's theory of needs as the underpinning theory, survey data collected from a sample of 278 domestic tourists in Vietnam, and the partial least squares structural equation modeling for data analysis. The results showed that perceived risk negatively affected tourists’ travel satisfaction during the pandemic, but it did not influence their travel willingness after the pandemic. In contrast, travel push motivation had a positive impact on tourists’ travel satisfaction and their willingness to travel postpandemic. Perceived risk had a greater effect on tourists’ satisfaction compared to travel push motivation. This result implies that domestic tourists would be more concerned about safety needs (a lower order need) while traveling in this particular pandemic context. However, travel push motivation (a higher order need) is more powerful in encouraging tourists to travel. Based on the results obtained, several implications are suggested for destination managers to attract and satisfy tourists in the context of a crisis.