TRAVEL BEHAVIOR IN TROUBLED TIMES: THE ROLE OF CONSUMER SELF-CONFIDENCE

The international travel and tourism industry has experienced the negative impact of a variety of both human-caused and natural disasters and events or threats which appear to have increased in frequency and severity in recent years. The impact of these risks on travel consumers has been significant. An understanding of how travelers react to these risks is therefore of particular interest to tourism marketers. This study investigates whether traveler self-confidence ameliorates the reaction to a variety of adverse events. A scale for measuring consumer self-confidence when purchasing consumer products was tested and the results indicate that the scale functions well in terms of measuring consumer travel self-confidence. The study also found significant associations between this self-confidence measure and various measures of travel behavior in response to the influence of adverse events.