How Does COVID-19 Risk Perception Affect Wellness Tourist Intention: Findings on Chinese Generation Z

Understanding the influencing mechanism of the COVID-19 pandemic on the public’s travel intentions is key to creating effective strategies to restore and enhance confidence in tourism. Based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), an extended model was proposed to investigate the Chinese Generation Z’s perception of risk and its effect on the consequences of behavioral process toward wellness tourism. A total of 727 respondents were surveyed by using an online questionnaire. The relationships among the perceptions of risks, three key explanatory variables (attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control) in the TPB, and wellness tourism intention were evaluated. This study verified that both the perceived health risk and the perceived psychological risk negatively impacted the wellness tourism intentions of Gen Z. Attitude is a partial mediator between subjective norms, perceived behavior control, and travel intentions, respectively. The findings are discussed from the perspective of the theoretical and managerial implications, as well as of future research directions.