Impact of corona virus outbreak on travellers’ behaviour: scale development and validation

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an instrument to measure the influence of coronavirus (COVID-19) on international travellers’ behaviour. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 500 respondents in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to develop and validate a multi-item scale to measure international travel behaviour post-COVID-19. The initial pool of items was validated by using exploratory factor analysis. The first-order reflective and the assessment of hierarchical factor structure were done through structural equation modelling by using SmartPLS 3. Findings Findings revealed a hierarchical three-level scale for measuring international traveller’s behaviour. The first level consists of six sub-dimensions of 19 items. These six sub-dimensions can be used as a formative measure of three dimensions of general impact, attitude and preference and cleanliness and safety. These three dimensions form the third level for the meta construct of traveller’s behaviour. Research limitations/implications The proposed scale will provide policymakers and managers with an improved understanding of the change in travellers’ behaviour due to the COVID-19 crisis or any future pandemic. Practical implications The scale can be used by the tourism and hospitality industry to access the impact of COVID-19 or any other future pandemic on traveller’s behaviour. Originality/value Since the outbreak of the novel COVID-19, almost all international travel has come to halt. A diverse measuring instrument to measure traveller’s behaviour is not available in extant literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first of its kind which has developed and validated a scale for measuring traveller’s behaviour during and post COVID-19.