TITLE:
Perceptions of Risks amidst COVID-19 on the Youth’s Domestic Travel Intentions in Ghana
AUTHORS:
Clare Teroviel Tergu, Jinkai Li, Hind Azougagh, Anthony Webster Tenya, Reginald Jeff Maddy, Reinhard Acquah-Sampson, Jin Zhang
KEYWORDS:
Perceptions of Risk, Domestic Travel, Youth, COVID-19, Ghana
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.4,
April
21,
2022
ABSTRACT: Domestic
tourism serves as a “mainstay” of the tourism sectors in many parts of the
world, particularly in developed countries, such as China and India. With an
increase in the growth of the youth globally, young travelers have unique
travel intentions other than the general population. There is the need to probe
on young travelers since recent findings reveal that the youth has not been
affected by the crises. The aim is to examine the risks perceptions of the
youth regarding domestic travel amidst the pandemic and tourist characteristics
were also explored. The study integrates Roger’s protection motivation theory
to address the aim of the study. Based on stratified sampling, 300 completed
questionnaires were used for analyses. Findings revealed that sources of information
and number of past travel experiences influence perceptions of risks amidst the
COVID-19 crises. The results of this study show that physical risk does affect
participants travel intentions during the pandemic. Results of this research
may aid in developing interventions for promoting domestic tourism and
modelling domestic travel demands; add up to the status quo of domestic travel
research on COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana and for future marketing campaigns.