Why Customers Return After a Crisis: An Affect–Appraisal–Motivation Model in a Travel‐Service Context

ABSTRACT Organizations emerging from disruptive crises face a demand‐side recovery problem: restoring operations does not ensure that customers will resume patronage. This study develops and tests an affect–appraisal–motivation model of post‐crisis customer return. It examines how crisis‐related negative affect is associated with customers’ recovery image, perceived health vulnerability, re‐engagement motivation, and intention to resume consumption. The model is tested in travel services, a high‐contact and discretionary service context in which residual vulnerability is especially salient, using survey data from 350 consumers in India and partial least squares structural equation modeling. The results show that crisis‐related negative affect is positively associated with recovery image and re‐engagement motivation. Recovery image is positively associated with perceived vulnerability and motivation, perceived vulnerability is positively associated with motivation, and motivation is strongly associated with customer return intention. The indirect paths are also significant. The findings suggest that post‐crisis customer return does not necessarily require perceived vulnerability to disappear: customers may remain concerned while becoming motivated to re‐engage. For managers, demand recovery therefore requires both credible assurance signals and renewed articulation of the value of returning. Travel provides empirical context and the theoretical focus is the broader business problem of restoring customer patronage after crisis.