Beyond Travel Decisions: How Travel Intention Shapes Student Mental Health Through Social and Behavioral Pathways

This paper examines how the travel intention of students is correlated with their mental health, in terms of stress reduction and psychological wellbeing. The study employs a combined model that integrates the Theory of Planned Behavior and Stress Recovery Theory to determine the role of travel intention. Travel self-efficacy, the pressure of social influence, the value of the travel experience, the perception of affordability, and the attitude towards tourism determines travel intention, leading to stress reduction and psychological wellbeing of students. The paper examines the mediating capacities of travel involvement and social connectedness and the moderating capacities of nature connectedness and travel frequency. Semi-structured interviews with 15 university students and a survey among 604 students in various universities in Bangladesh were used to collect data. Hypotheses were tested using PLS-SEM. Findings indicate that travel intention enhances psychological wellbeing and reduces stress, and travel involvement and social connectedness are important mediators. These relations are mediated by nature connectedness and frequency of travel, which increases the restorative effect of travel. The results indicate that tourism could be a viable approach to student mental health promotion, which has both practical and theoretical consequences on university policy and future tourism psychological studies.