Tourist safety, expectations and willingness to pay of the mexican tourist during the COVID-19

As tourism is one of the industries most affected by the COVID-19 risk, and since it is estimated that tourism recovery is a long-term affair, with the need to work under new conditions, this paper analyzes the relationship between the safety perceived by the Mexican tourists, their expectations during travel, under the current circumstances, and their willingness to pay. This is done using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on a sample of 1113 tourists. Findings indicate that tourist safety does not significantly influence the willingness to pay (p=0.337), but it does influence tourists’ expectations (p=0.000) and, in turn, tourists’ expectations have a significant influence on their willingness to pay (p=0.000). Additionally, tourists’ expectations indirectly mediate (-0.068) the relationship between tourist safety and willingness to pay. Based on said results, we can conclude that the pandemic is an event that affects tourists’ expectations, which influences their perception of safety, in turn affecting their willingness to pay for COVID-free measures or attributes.