Domestic Tourism in COVID-19 Era: Travel Choice in Himalayas Correlates to Geographic Origin and Age

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent has created recession in the tourism industry on the global scale impacting the livelihood of the millions of people worldwide. Speedy recovery of the tourism industry is essential to ensure the development progress do not retard drastically due to this pandemic. As the world is severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and international tourism will take quite a bit longer time to recover, domestic tourism could be a way forward for the recuperation of the industry. Therefore, this article aims to understand the potential of domestic tourism to keep the momentum of tourism development, after the pandemic situation gets over. Data on general characteristics of the respondents and their attitude towards travel after restrictions are over were collected using online survey. Descriptive and regression analyses were used to understand the relationship between travel decisions and respondents’ attributes. The travel decision was found significantly related to the age and geographic origin of the respondents indicating those who are less susceptible to infection are willing to travel sooner than other. Study indicates the expansion of tourism demand in relatively less popular destinations and diversified tourism products which might pose both the challenges and opportunities for tourism industry in post-COVID-19 situation. The findings of our study are expected to help in planning the post-pandemic recovery of the tourism industry in the country.