earticle

영어

This research aimed to investigate Korean visitors’ behavioral intentions towards alternative safe local destinations as opposed to China by integrating perceived physical/mental health risk perception, COVID-19 awareness of consequences, and gender roles into the original Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Data was collected from Korean outbound visitors, who recently traveled to China; then, structural equation modeling was employed for data analysis. The study findings affirmed a superior prediction power of the extended TPB. Moreover, perceived health risks and subjective norm are critical mediators in conceptual framework. In addition, the moderating role of gender was also confirmed, highlighting the tendency for male visitors to prioritize subjective norm, while female visitors often pay attention to perceived behavioral control in times of health crisis. Therefore, our result offered meaningful theoretical and practical contribution to extant literature about post-COVID-19 destination choices from a health and pro-social perspective, as well as to provide effective marketing strategies for different gender.