The Impact of Institutional Trust and Self Efficacy on Travel Choices of Outbound Tourists

With the advent of the experience economy, consumers are more willing to choose services tailored to their personalized preferences, which makes the provision of customized tourism services a promising niche market. Particularly, with the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, visitors’ travel motivations and choices have become even more complicated than ever. Nevertheless, scarce attention has been paid to understanding tourists' outbound travelling decision making. Through two studies consisted of a survey (N=497) and an experiment (N=429), we find that outbound tourists' travel choices and preferences vary by intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation significantly, while self-efficacy plays a mediating role. Tourists’ trust in the institutional environment is found to significantly moderate the impact of travel motivation on traveling preferences during the pandemic. This research extends the theory of dual motivation and provides timely practical insights for destination marketers that can help the international tourism industry better respond to and recover from the crisis.