Impact of COVID-19-related Measures on tourist Booking Behavior using the Example of Flight Package Tours

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the global tourism industry. However, when comparing the bookings made for different popular destinations in 2020 and 2019, the differences are very heterogeneous. Given this context, it is unclear whether and which COVID-19 countermeasures taken explain the heterogeneous booking behavior. In this paper, tourism-related measures are identified and analyzed with regard to flight package tour bookings from Germany, travel dates being between May and October 2020. The analysis of a comprehensive primary data set by using Fixed Effects Model methodology shows that several measures in both source and destination countries have had a significant influence on booking behavior. These include, amongst others, governmental travel warnings and quarantine regulations on return.