Post-COVID-19 tourism, habit change, and risk: understanding behavioural shifts after a global shock

This article investigates how the COVID-19 crisis, as an external and ‘macro shock’ to leisure practices, affects tourists’ travel habits. Through a qualitative study based on 46 semi-structured interviews, our data reveals five trajectories of post-COVID-19 tourists categorized by whether they are going to change their travel habits, considering both depth and frequency: the ‘stabilizers’, the ‘enlightened’, the ‘vigilants’, the ‘minimizers’ and the ‘revengers’. These trajectories also differ in their relationship with two types of risk: personal and societal risk. While the notion of revenge travel and reticent tourists have already been discussed in the literature, this study extends existing knowledge by emphasizing less explored trajectories. Our theoretical and managerial contributions not only shed light on the diversity of post-pandemic tourist behaviours, but may also help policy makers and marketers plan for other ‘macro shocks’ to tourism, such as natural disasters and political upheaval.