Biting the travel bullet: A motivated reasoning perspective on traveling during a pandemic (original) (raw)

2020, Annals of Tourism Research

Background Although airlines estimate a $113 billion loss from travel cancellations due to COVID-19 (IATA, 2020), recent reports suggest that not all tourists' travel plans were equally affected. An Indonesian market survey in February 2020 indicated that as many as 77% of travelers were not planning to cancel their holiday (JakPat, 2020), despite the country having the highest number of cases in Southeast Asia. The urgency and scale of the pandemic suggest that neither naivety nor ignorance can adequately explain this phenomenon. Thrill-seeking tourists sometimes seek out risks, but the pandemic seems an unlikely source of adrenaline. A significant gap therefore exists where literature cannot fully explain the counterintuitive behaviors of these seemingly "crisis-resistant" tourists (Hajibaba, Gretzel, Leisch, & Dolnicar, 2015). This research note reports the results of two studies and uses the theoretical lens of motivated reasoning, i.e. "wishful thinking bias" (Kunda, 1990) to unpack tourists' travel motivations during a pandemic. We found that Indonesians' travel plans during the pandemic were largely related to the Eid al-Fitr period, typically considered as the most important holiday season in Indonesia. However, celebrations were banned for 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19 (Al-Jazeera, 2020), thus situating them as "guilty pleasures" where tension exists between the desire for indulgence and beliefs about self-control (Miao, 2010). The first study was conducted in mid-February 2020 to probe the antecedents of travel intentions before Eid. The second study was conducted in late-May 2020 after Eid to further explicate the motivations of those who have indulged in celebrations despite the ban. Together, both studies provide important answers to understand tourist behaviors during a crisis that applies beyond the context of the current pandemic. Specifically, the study highlights the importance of tourists' personal agency (or lack thereof) as drivers of risky behavior, which are often taken for granted (Armitage & Christian, 2003). Theoretical framework The theory of reasoned action has been criticized for overemphasizing rational, volitional control as the driver of behavior