TRAVEL AVOIDANCE OR ECO-FRIENDLY BEHAVIOR: INVESTIGATING THE OUTCOMES OF PANDEMIC FEAR IN THE CONTEXT OF TOURIST RESILIENCE

Purpose: This paper examines the effect of pandemic fear on travel avoidance and tourists’ intention to adopt eco-friendly behavior, focusing on the mediating role of resilience. It aims to enhance scientific knowledge by examining how pandemic fear can lead to positive environmental actions in tourism, as travel avoidance reduces people's congestion at tourist places, keeps social distance, takes care of wastage, and properly takes preemptive measures to clean places. This study also gives new directions to sustain the tourism and hospitality industry during pandemics. Method: Quantitative research method is employed to collect data from 430 participants from Pakistan through an online self-complete questionnaire. As for testing the proposed relationships, Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed. Findings: The findings show that pandemic fear significantly predicts travel avoidance and intention to adopt eco-friendly behavior. Moreover, resilience is found as the mediator that positively connects pandemic fear to eco-friendly behaviors as well as reduces travel avoidance. The study established that fear of pandemic has a strong/positive correlation with travel avoidance and intention to adopt eco-friendly behavior. Further, resilience is identified as the mediator; it is positively linked to pandemic fear and eco-friendly behavior and negatively to travel avoidance. Implications: The research shows use the role of resilience to call to support sustainable tourism practices in crises. The study has important implication for policy makers and managers of the tourism sector to consider and coordinate with them on how best to reduce the impact of perceived pandemic fear on tourism sector, and simultaneously promote sustainable eco-friendly behavior among tourists. This area of research focuses on the use of resilience in encouraging the adoption of sustainable tourism practices in emergencies. Based on the findings, serves as an important reference for policymakers and tourism managers concerning how to reduce the adverse impacts of perceived pandemic threats on tourists and promote their eco-friendly behavior.