The Emotional Paradox of Travel: Exploring Adaptive and Maladaptive Coping in Post-Crisis Tourism

Crises impact consumer travel behavior, yet research mainly focuses on cognitive responses, overlooking travelers’ emotional reactions. Therefore, we aim to address this gap by analyzing post-crisis proximal travel behavior through the lens of Cognitive Appraisal Theory. We utilize a dual-process model to understand the contrasting roles of positive (travel craving) and negative (travel fear) emotions in shaping an individual’s travel and coping behaviors. We follow a mixed-methods approach, wherein Study 1 quantitatively examines the relationships between goal congruence, cognitive appraisals, emotional responses, coping strategies (both adaptive and maladaptive), and travel intentions through a survey of 576 Indian travelers. Furthermore, Study 2 employs a qualitative methodology to strengthen the findings through in-depth interviews. The results indicate that travel fear suppresses travel intentions through adaptive coping, while simultaneously, travel craving promotes travel intentions through maladaptive coping. Hence, this study contributes to the travel research domain by integrating emotional appraisal and investigating the underexplored role of positive emotions in crisis contexts.