Impact of psychological distance on people’s travel intention during the COVID-19 pandemic: Taking Sanya City, Hainan as example

Abstract: Since 2020, COVID-19 pandemic has not only exerted a serious influence on global tourism industry but also dampened tourists\u27 travel intention. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the factors impacting people\u27s travel intention and spur their psychological resilience in domestic tourism during post-COVID-19 crisis. This study applied a novel psychological factor (i.e. psychological distance) to tourist behavior research and employed structural equation model (SEM) to explore how psychological distance affects tourists\u27 travel intention in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological distance refers to the subjective distance of an event when it is close to or far from a perceiver, and this concept contains four dimensions: temporal, spatial, social and hypothetical distances. The results revealed that social distance and temporal distance were negatively correlated with tourists\u27 travel intention towards Sanya City, whereas spatial distance was not related to tourists\u27 travel intention. More interestingly, perceived safety played a significant mediating role in the relationship between social distance, temporal distance, spacial distance, and people\u27s intention to visit Sanya City. These findings greatly contributed to the empirical research on the relationship between psychological distance and tourists\u27 travel intention. Meanwhile, some practical strategies were provided for tourism managers and marketers to reduce people\u27s travel anxiety and encourage their participation in tourist activities in the post-pandemic era. Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; psychological distance; perceived safety; travel intention; structural equation model (SEM