Air quality and travel behavior: analyzing the impact of smog on the intentions to choose clean air destinations in Lahore, Pakistan

• Investigates how smog influences the intention to choose clean air destinations. • Examines daily life, health, and psychological perceptions of smog. • Employs structural equation modeling to identify factors driving the escape from smog. • Offers policy recommendations for sustainable urban tourism management. Smog has become an alarming issue in major urban areas suffering from climate change. The excessive amount of smog in the air affects urban tourism and makes people escape from smog-affected areas and intend to travel to clean air destinations. To explore this relationship well, this study explores factors such as daily life impact perceptions of smog, physical health impact perceptions, negative psychological feelings, and mass media influence affecting people’s willingness to escape from the smog and behavioral intentions to seek clean air destinations. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Lahore city, Pakistan, which suffers from the worst air quality. A structural equation modeling technique was used to analyze the data. The results indicate that daily life impact perceptions of smog, negative psychological feelings, and mass media influence significantly influence travelers’ behavioral intentions and willingness to seek clean air destinations. The study’s findings suggest that smog plays a dual role in tourism-related travel demand. It can strengthen the individual’s motivation to escape from areas with smog, whereas it makes clean air destinations attract visitors. Though the smog impacts on urban tourism might be negative, still, it can stimulate people to travel to green places, promoting tourism development in the neighborhood places with better air quality. Therefore, the authorities should consider enhancing the capacity of tourism management, providing alternative transportation, positive portrayal, and targeted marketing to promote tourism in areas with better air quality.