Mona Fairuz Ramli, Maria Abdul Rahman, Nagwan AlQershi
The outbreak in 2020 of the pandemic COVID-19 has affected not only the health of populations but also economies worldwide. Unprecedented global travel restrictions and movement control orders have severely disrupted global tourism and the global economy overall. This study examines how COVID-19 is affecting tourists’ travel behaviour and their preferences in the pandemic recovery phase, with emphasis on Kinabalu Mountain National Park in Sabah, Malaysia. It investigates the direct relationships between Motivation (MV), Demographic Characteristics (DC) and Destination Image (DI) and Revisit Intention (RI), and the moderating role of Perceived Risk (PR) on the relationship between these variables and RI. Results show that all variables have a significant relationship with RI, and PR moderates the relationships between RI and MV, DI and PR, but not DC. The findings offer important insights for owners and managers of tourism firms, researchers and policymakers. Tourism firms should also be encouraged to improve MV, DC, DI and PR to improve RI.