Impact of Cognition and Social Trust on Forest-Based Health Tourism Intention during COVID-19

Abstract

Forest-based health tourism is an important part of health tourism, which has gradually become the internal demand of urban residents for a healthy life. However, few studies have explored the factors influencing the willingness of forest-based health tourism in the period of epidemic prevention and control. From the perspective of cognition and social trust, this study explored the impact of cognition and social trust on the forest-based health tourism intention of urban residents during COVID-19, and proposed feasible suggestions for revitalizing the development of forest-based health tourism under the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on online questionnaire data collected from 383 Chinese respondents, a binary Logistic regression model was constructed for analysis. The results showed the following. (1) Cognition of health preservation had a significant positive effect on the forest-based health tourism intention of urban residents, while epidemic prevention cognition had no significant effect. (2) Social trust played a significant role in promoting the behavioral decision of wellness tourism in forest among urban residents. Public trust and interpersonal trust had significant positive effects on the forest-based health tourism intention of urban residents. (3) Educational level and health status were the demographic factors that affected the forest-based health tourism intention of urban residents. These findings provide theoretical references for policy makers to attract tourists and realize the sustainable development of forest-based health tourism, and provide important implications for tourism marketing and destination management under the COVID-19 pandemic.