Travel Confidence in Troubled Times

Disasters have a strong impact on tourist mobility, however, little is known how governments’ handling of enduring crises affect travel confidence. As countries are re-entering the global race to win back international guests after COVID-19, destinations are setting aside health protection measures over economic priorities and a fast re-opening. This paper tests the importance of trust in governments on travel intentions with regards to kickstarting tourism during a pandemic. The results of two substantial empirical studies (US, N=2,180; Denmark, N=2,062) show that individuals’ willingness to travel depends on their trust in the respective destinations’ government. Our results suggest that consumers perceive a stronger economy focus as less socially responsible, and critical attitudes towards actual policy responses to the pandemic has also modified travel decisions. In particular, the incentivizing of consumption (instead of protecting lives) mitigates the perceptions of health risks and affects travellers’ trust in host destination governments significantly. Our findings also carry implications for studies of post-pandemic tourism behavior, which highlight that controversial policy responses not only seem to deteriorate destination image, but also have a fundamental impact on travel outcomes