Does travel desire influence COVID-19 vaccination intentions?

Since the economic recovery heavily depends on the population attaining herd immunity against the virus through the vaccination programme, understanding the factors that improve people’s intentions to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is critically important for the hospitality and tourism industry. This research investigates whether travel desire can moderate the relationship between attitude toward COVID-19 vaccines and COVID-19 vaccination intentions. The proposed model was tested utilizing two sets of data collected from a total of 1,341 adults. The results of the study show that subjective norms and perceived risk are strong predictors of attitude toward COVID-19 vaccines. The effects of subjective norms and perceived vaccination risk on COVID-19 vaccination intentions are partially mediated by attitude toward COVID-19 vaccines. The findings show that the higher the travel desire individuals have, the stronger the effects of their attitude toward COVID-19 vaccines on COVID-19 vaccination intentions are.