Analyzing Factors That Influence Domestic Tourist Intention Toward Indonesian Wellness Tourism During Covid-19
Pandemic
Dina Syarafina Aribah1*, Annisa Rahmani Qastharin1
1 School of Business and Management, Institute Technology of Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia
*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 August 2022 | Published: 1 September 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.55057/ijaref.2022.4.3.1
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Abstract: During Covid-19, the tourism business faced a substantial decrease. As a result, numerous studies propose that tourism actors should shift their main concern to promoting the idea of sustainable and wellness tourism, then targeting domestic tourists. However, there is still a limited number of studies that discusses this wellness tourism industry. This study aims to analyze the factors that influence their behavioral intention during the Covid-19 pandemic using the modified Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) by incorporating the health consciousness variable in order to assist tourism practitioners in developing long-term business strategies of wellness tourism opportunity. Adopting Partial Least Square-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), the research found that all TPB constructs have a significant positive influence in generating tourists intention towards wellness tourism, except the health consciousness factor. The marketing recommendations are proposed as this study benefit.
Keywords: tourism, wellness, intention, pandemic
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1. Introduction
During Covid-19 pandemic, global tourist arrivals reported to be fallen by 74% in 2020 followed by domestic tourism which also dropped dramatically (UNWTO, 2020a). This puts 100-120 million tourism-related employment in jeopardy around the world (UNWTO, 2020b).
Like other tourist destination countries, Indonesia which the tourism industry was the second- largest source of foreign exchange income after the palm industry (Menteri Pariwisata dan Ekonomi Kreatif, 2020) also experienced a significant drop in tourism demand. It is projected that Indonesian tourist industry will lose Rp 201.85 trillion from January to September 2020, putting 1.8 million employees at risk (Sun et al., 2021).
In response to this phenomenon, experts suggest that tourism industry actors should shift their focus to promoting the concept of sustainable and wellness tourism, then target domestic tourists (Dash & Sharma, 2021; Sharma et al., 2021; Sobaih et al., 2021) since people becoming more aware of their physical and mental health (Tran, 2021). People are bored and stressed because forced to stay at home during lockdowns, therefore they choose a quick, low- cost escape, preferring to seek joy and health at the same time to relieve the stress (Agustina &
Yudhistira, 2021; Li et al., 2020; Tran, 2021; Global Wellness Institute, 2021). Thus, wellness tourism is regarded as one of the best alternatives since it offers more secure travel places and educational values that are helpful to human physical, emotional, social, mental, environmental, and spiritual health (Widarini et al., 2020).
By definition, wellness tourism is a type of travel that is done to enhance one's health by visiting areas that specialize in providing accommodations, amenities, health specialists, and tourism activity programs that are similar to mental and physical recovery activities for tourists (Yanthy et al., 2015). It is a non-medical subset of health tourism that focuses only on preventing sickness and actively promoting wellness for healthy visitors (Mueller and Kaufmann, 2001).
The products and services are including spas, salons, yoga, healthy diet restaurants, exercise centers, health resorts, nature tours, and so on.
Wellness tourism is the fastest-growing and most profitable part of the tourism industry (Kurniawan, 2018; Wendri et al., 2019; Csirmaz & Pet, 2015; Yanthy et al., 2015). According to the Global Wellness Institute Report 2018, the market for wellness tourism was worth $639 billion in 2017 and is predicted to reach $919 billion by 2022, rising at a rate of 7.5% annually, which is faster than the overall global tourism (6.4 %). Then it is estimated to have generated 736 billion dollars up to 2020 when the pandemic began and is projected to increase to 1.2 trillion dollars by 2027 (Gough, 2021).
Despite the advantages, there is still lack of information on the wellness tourism industry especially in Indonesia (Kurniawan, 2018); making it difficult for tourism practitioners to develop wellness tourism. The majority of study on the wellness tourism industry discusses the supply side and primarily qualitative (Ting et al., 2021). Furthermore, domestic tourism is frequently understudied (Helble & Choe, 2020) and there is few research on tourist visit destination intention during and after the pandemic (Sánchez-Caizares et al., 2020).
Meanwhile, it is commonly understood that more expertise, data, and resources are required for both the industry and customers to make wellness services competitive and trustworthy (Csirmaz & Pet, 2015).
A few former studies of wellness tourism in Indonesia were conducted only focus on Bali as a wellness tourism destination for the foreign tourist (Agustina & Yudhistira, 2021; Utama, 2021; Meikassandra et al., 2020; Savitri & Arida, 2019; Darmawijaya et al., 2019; Yanthy et al., 2015; Putra et al., 2015), which is different from the current strategy of focusing domestic tourists. Some others discuss developing the new potential of the areas in Indonesia and other improvements in the supply-side (Kristanto & Putri, 2021; Niemah & Purwoko, 2021; Yuwono
& Astuti, 2021) instead of analyzing the customer demand.
As a niche market, the wellness industry should be customer-focused. Tourism actors must constantly examine the various segments inside and comprehend market trends to meet current demands and capitalize on the domestic tourist sector (Tran, 2021; Helble & Choe, 2020).
Thus, to assist tourism practitioners in developing long-term business strategies based on the wellness tourism opportunity, this study aims to determine the domestic tourists' intention for Indonesia wellness tourism by analyzing the factors that influence their behavioral intention during the Covid-19 pandemic using the modified Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB).
2. Literature Review
Wellness Tourism
Smith and Kelly (2006) on Tourism Recreation Research conclude that the concept of wellness is a “healthy balance of body, mind, and spirit that results in happiness”. Meanwhile, UNWTO defines tourism as “... a social, cultural, and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes.” Therefore, Global Wellness Institute defines it as “travel
associated with the pursuit of maintaining or enhancing one’s personal wellbeing”. Although it falls under the same umbrella as medical tourism, it differs because it focuses more emphasis on illness prevention, while medical tourism is traveling to get treatment (Mueller and Kaufmann, 2001).
Wellness tourism is promoted as a sort of travel or activity that exists to give a new environment in which to decrease everyday stress and to suit the needs of tourists looking to improve their health by reaching a balance between physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. The necessity for tourists to travel for wellness reasons has resulted in the creation of several services tailored to their needs. Physical health, such as exercise, nutritious food, and massage aimed at nourishing the body, as well as spiritual and emotional health, such as meditation, yoga, and other techniques learned from a professional trainer, are the bare minimum of services that a wellness tourism destination must offer in terms of services offered (Yanthy et al., 2015).
Global Wellness Institute (2020) identifies two categories of wellness travelers: main and secondary wellness travelers. Primary wellness tourists are travelers that prioritize their health as a primary motivator for traveling and selecting places. This main wellness tourist vacation package includes a lot of wellness-related things or activities such as yoga or meditation, body treatments at spas or anti-aging clinics, as well as eating healthy, gluten-free, drinking herbal medication, as well as visiting museums or historical sites, attending performances, and stopping at a craft store. While secondary wellness travelers are those who travel but still try to live a healthy lifestyle or partake in wellness activities. These tourists would typically pick a holiday destination or travel package that offers a variety of wellness activities. When traveling to certain tourist destinations, usually this group of tourists will stop at a fitness center or prioritize healthy food on the sidelines of main activities.
Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)
Since tourist behavior is a major issue in the tourism industry, many previous studies adopted the TPB, a theory that could explain people's behavior in response to their desire to learn more about this phenomenon (Jamal and Budke, 2020). The TPB is a derivation from the theory of reasoned action (TRA) that is employed in social psychology theories (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977). The fundamental variable in TRA is a person's attitude and subjective norm, which influences behavior intention and, in turn, actual behavior. The intention process is divided into two primary points: attitude toward behavior and subjective norm, while perceived behavior control is the most important aspect in non-volitional processes. In general, the stronger an individual's desire to engage in a particular behavior, the more likely that individual will engage in that behavior (Ajzen, 1991).
The hypothesis of Attitude, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioral Control have a positive relationship to Behavioral Intention on TPB has been tested and extended in tourism and consumer behavior studies (Nimri et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2010; Kim & Han, 2010). TPB has also been employed in a few research on health and wellness (Wendri et al., 2019; Hudson et al., 2017; Kim et al., 2010). Pahrudin et al. (2021) showed that the theory was successfully broadened in making the decision and the intention of tourists to visit a local destination in Indonesia post-Covid-19 on the TPB constructs.
Attitude
Attitude is an individual's overall judgment of a specific behavior. According to the theory, beliefs about the consequences of engaging in a specific action (behavioral beliefs) and the related positive or negative sentiments about the behavior's probable outcomes work together
to form an attitude (outcome evaluation) (Ajzen, 1991). The more positive someone’s judgment and they perceive the action will give beneficial consequences, the stronger the intention to do the goal behavior. In some other literature on wellness tourists’ intention, they used specific terms of perceived benefit (Anannukul, 2019) and perceived usefulness (Pu et al., 2021) which align with the concept of outcome evaluation under this variable of attitude; both have proven to give a positive effect on the intention. It aligns with the study of Wendri et al. (2019) which provides a set of attitudes that is claimed to positively contribute to the intention of tourists to enjoy wellness tourism. Additionally, it is believed that a variable attitude also has a significant favorable association with travel intention to a destination after the Covid-19 pandemic (Pahrudin et al., 2021).
Subjective Norms
Subjective norms refer to a critical evaluation of tourists' motives to do something (Song et al., 2016). Subjective norms are considered to consist of two components that operate concurrently:
an individual's ideas about how others (whom he or she thinks significant) would like him or her to act (normative beliefs) and the drive to comply with the relevant referents' opinions about the behavior (motivation to comply) (Ajzen, 1991). Several tourism researchers confirmed that there is a positive influence of subjective norms on the tourists' intentions (Nimri et al., 2020;
Hudson et al., 2017; Kim & Han, 2010).
Perceived Behavioral Control
This non-volitional dimension's addition to the existing theory considerably increased its ability to predict human behavior in a variety of contexts (Ajzen & Driver, 1991). Perceived behavioral control measures consumers' opinions of how easy or difficult it is to do a behavior and quantifies an individual's ability to complete an activity required to manage specific behaviors. This construct has two aspects: 1) Control beliefs, which indicate an individual's assessment of the presence or absence of facilitators and inhibitors of the behavior (e.g., time, money, and skills); and 2) Perceived power, which refers to an individual's assessment of the impact of these factors on facilitating or impeding the specific behavior (Ajzen, 1991). The study revealed that perceived behavioral control is perceived as the strongest variable that builds tourist intention to visit a spa (Kim et al., 2010). Perceived behavioral control also seems to be an important predictor of domestic tourists' behavioral intention toward wellness tourism in the US market (Hudson et al., 2017).
Once the current variables of the theory have been accounted for, Ajzen (1991) suggested that the TPB is essentially open to extension by integrating additional variables by adjusting existing paths to boost the explanatory power in various circumstances. The newly introduced variables must meet certain criteria, including new variables: as important causal factors in determining intention/behavior, must be conceptually independent of the existing variables, and potentially appropriate in explaining a wide range of behaviors. Numerous researchers have effectively expanded or modified the TPB by incorporating constructs considered relevant to a given context, as well as by proposing additional factors to better explain and predict consumer behavioral intention inside a TPB model (Pahrudin et al., 2021; Hudson et al., 2017;
Kim et al., 2010). Their research contributes to a greater comprehension of the TPB's theoretical mechanism and its ability to predict intention and behavior in a variety of settings.
The previous marketing researches on factors that influence the intention toward wellness tourism are incorporating a variety of variables that are different from each other, with the only significant similarity being the "health" variable on different terms which are “involvement in health” (Hudson et al., 2017), “moral obligation on health” (Wendri et al., 2019), and “health
consciousness” (Anannukul, 2019; Pu et al., 2021). Moreover, the study of Pahrudin et al (2021) also incorporates health consciousness variables in the study to explore tourist intention to visit a destination post-pandemic Covid-19 in Indonesia.
Health Consciousness
Wellness tourism academics (Bushell & Sheldon, 2009; Smith & Puczkó, 2009) contend that wellbeing tourism provides an alternative to more self-indulgent vacations for individuals already interested in health and wellness activities. In today's health and wellness industry, wellness-oriented people are known for their proactive, holistic, and alternative approaches to well-being (Mueller and Kaufmann, 2001). According to the majority of theories, health consciousness is linked to disease prevention via increasing basic behavior (Pahrudin et al., 2021). It is about people's health awareness, their attention to health issues, and ensuring their health (Piko & Keresztes, 2006). Research shows that individuals with a high level of health consciousness lead healthier lives (Gould, 1990; Jayanti & Burns, 1998; Kraft & Goodell, 1993). As a result, a tourist with a higher health consciousness level is said to have a greater intention and willingness to engage in wellness tourism.
In an effort to limit the spread of covid-19 while traveling, the tourism industry is increasingly emphasizing health awareness among tourists. Covid-19 has heightened people's health awareness, increased individual incentives to engage in physical and mental activity, and promoted a sustainable lifestyle (Tran, 2021). Numerous visitors travel to maintain a healthy lifestyle, relieve stress, avoid sickness, and boost their immunity. They become more health conscious and attempt to cultivate healthy attitudes and behaviors to protect their health (Pahrudin et al., 2021). The thesis of Anannukul (2019), which addresses the wellness tourism visit intention determinants for young tourists, has confirmed that health consciousness is favorably associated with the intention to use wellness tourism.
Therefore, below is the hypothesis built on this study:
H1: Attitude positively influences the tourists’ behavioral intention toward wellness tourism H2: Subjective norms positively influence the tourists’ behavioral intention toward wellness
tourism
H3: Perceived behavioral control positively influences the tourists’ behavioral intention toward wellness tourism
H4: Health consciousness positively influences the tourists’ behavioral intention toward wellness tourism
Figure 1 below depicts the modified TPB model proposed for this study. In specific, the modified TPB assumed that (1) the behavioral intention for wellness tourism is the main dependent variable; (2) attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control dimensions are predictors of intention; and (3) the inclusion of health consciousness adds important information as health and wellness are the primary goals pursued by tourists in wellness tourism, but were not reflected in the TPB initial constructs.
Figure 1: Conceptual Framework (Adapted from Ajzen 1988, 1991)
3. Methodology
Sampling and Data Collection
This study employs a quantitative methodology with the primary data gathered through a survey, a method for obtaining information from respondents by asking questions (Malhotra, 2010). It is conducted in a cross-sectional manner, with data collected at a single moment in time, due to the novelty of the Covid-19 pandemic and the limited time available for research.
Using Google Form, the survey is distributed to potential respondents in the form of an online questionnaire. It is chosen because it can collect data more quickly, is less expensive, and can reach a greater number of people (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016). The respondents' limitation is that they have domestically traveled at least once during a pandemic for leisure purposes and have been vaccinated 2 doses or boosters for Covid-19 (meet travel restriction). Adopting purposive sampling, the study successfully collected 299 responses during the period of May 29 to June 1, 2022.
The female respondents are dominant (169; 56.5%), but not significantly different with the total number of male respondents (130; 43.5%). Most of respondents are from Gen Z whose age 18-25 years old (143; 47.8%), followed by Gen Y (26-41 years) (85; 28.4%) and Gen X (42-57 years) (71; 23.7%). The respondents education level are varied from high school graduates (102; 34.1%), associate degree (24; 8%) bachelor degree (147; 49.2%), master degree (24; 8%), and doctoral degree (2; 0.7%).
Survey Instrument
The questionnaire is written in Bahasa to facilitate comprehension. As respondents are not anticipated to be aware of the term "wellness tourism”, the questionnaire provides a brief description of the term, activities, and services offered at wellness destinations. The first section asked respondents about socio-demography (age, gender, education level). Then it is followed by TPB variable measurements (see Table 1) that are adopted from previous research and slightly modified to adjust this study context and assessed using 7-Likert scales (1:strongly disagree to 7: strongly agree).
Table 1: Research Operational Variable
Variable Label Statement Sources
Attitude (AT)
AT_1 During Covid-19 pandemic, I believe that going on wellness tourism is a good idea.
Pahrudin et al. (2021) Ajzen (1991) AT_2
During Covid-19 pandemic, I believe that going on wellness tourism will be beneficial for my physical well-being.
AT_3
During Covid-19 pandemic, I believe that going on wellness tourism will be beneficial for my mental well-being.
AT_4
During Covid-19 pandemic, I believe that going on wellness tourism will be beneficial for my spiritual well-being.
Subjective Norms (SN)
SN_1
During Covid-19 pandemic, most people who are important to me think I should go on wellness
tourism. Nimri et al.
(2020) Kim & Han (2010) SN_2
During Covid-19 pandemic, most people who are important to me would want me to go on wellness tourism.
SN_3
During Covid-19 pandemic, people whose opinions I value would prefer that I go on wellness tourism.
Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC)
PBC_1 During Covid-19 pandemic, I am confident that if I want, I can go on wellness tourism.
Pahrudin et al. (2021) Nimri et al.
(2020) Kim et al.
(2019) Kim & Han (2010) Ajzen (1991) PBC_2 During Covid-19 pandemic, I have enough
resources (money) for going on wellness tourism.
PBC_3 During Covid-19 pandemic, I have enough time for wellness tourism.
PBC_4 During Covid-19 pandemic, I have enough opportunities for going on wellness tourism.
PBC_5 During Covid-19 pandemic, whether or not I go on wellness tourism is completely up to me.
Health Consciousness
(HC)
HC_1 During Covid-19 pandemic, I’m usually aware of my health.
Gould (1990) Michaelidou
& Hassan (2008) HC_2 During Covid-19 pandemic, I’m very self-
conscious about my health.
HC_3 During Covid-19 pandemic, I’m aware of the state of my health as I go through the day.
HC_4 During Covid-19 pandemic, I reflect about my health a lot.
HC_5 During Covid-19 pandemic, I’m alert to changes in my health.
HC_6 During Covid-19 pandemic, I take responsibility for the state of my health.
Table 1: Research Operational Variable (cont.)
Variable Label Statement Sources
Behavioral Intention (BI)
BI_1 During Covid-19 pandemic, I plan to go on wellness tourism.
Nimri et al.
(2020) Kim & Han (2010) BI_2 During Covid-19 pandemic, I am willing to go on
wellness tourism.
BI_3 During Covid-19 pandemic, I will make an effort to go on wellness tourism.
4. Data Analysis and Result
The main questionnaire data is analyzed using SmartPLS statistical software, which employs PLS-SEM to determine which factors in the modified TPB influence domestic tourist intention toward wellness tourism. This study uses a reflective measurement scale, where the indicators in each latent variable are highly correlated and interchangeable. As a result, a thorough analysis of the reliability and validity is necessary (Hair et al., 2017).
Reliability and Validity Test
Individual indicator reliability and internal consistency reliability are the subjects of the reliability test (Hair et al., 2017). For individual indicator reliability, the outer loading of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) should not be less than 0.60 (Nunnally & Bernstein, 1994).
While the internal consistency reliability test is used by the composite reliability (CR) value to determine whether a construct's set of items can independently calculate the same notion, which should be more than 0.70 (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).
For the validity test, the average variance extracted (AVE) number of each latent variable is evaluated for convergent validity, which should be 0.5 or greater (Bagozzi and Yi, 1988). The discriminant validity of each latent variable correlation is then determined using Fornell Larcker criterion and cross-loading measurement. According to Fornell and Lacker (1981), each latent variable's "square root" of AVE should be larger than the correlations among the latent variables. While the indicator's cross-loading measurement (loading on the related latent variables) should be bigger than any of the remaining latent variables' cross-loadings.
All the items and variables have passed the reliability and validity test (see Table 2, Table 3, Table 4) and the next step can proceed.
Table 2: Result of Factor Loading, CR, and AVE
Variable Items Factor Loading CR AVE
Attitude
AT_1 0.916
0.945 0.810
AT_2 0.908
AT_3 0.895
AT_4 0.881
Subjective Norms
SN_1 0.924
0.962 0.868
SN_2 0.946
SN_3 0.924
Perceived Behavioral Control
PBC_1 0.761
0.866 0.564
PBC_2 0.739
PBC_3 0.761
PBC_4 0.824
PBC_5 0.661
Table 2: Result of Factor Loading, CR, and AVE (cont.)
Variable Items Factor Loading CR AVE
Health Consciousness
HC_1 0.778
0.878 0.546
HC_2 0.777
HC_3 0.786
HC_4 0.672
HC_5 0.726
HC_6 0.686
Behavioral Intention
BI_1 0.947
0.964 0.898
BI_2 0.944
BI_3 0.953
Table 3: Fornell-Larcker Result
AT SN PBC HC BI
AT 0.900
SN 0.618 0.931
PBC 0.475 0.481 0.751
HC 0.260 0.230 0.210 0.739
BI 0.707 0.652 0.554 0.211 0.948
Table 4: Cross Loading Result
AT SN PBC HC BI
AT_1 0.916 0.609 0.448 0.22 0.681
AT_2 0.908 0.57 0.411 0.233 0.677
AT_3 0.895 0.517 0.431 0.205 0.617
AT_4 0.881 0.522 0.419 0.286 0.559
SN_1 0.556 0.924 0.455 0.226 0.588
SN_2 0.54 0.946 0.423 0.223 0.579
SN_3 0.625 0.924 0.464 0.196 0.65
PBC_1 0.519 0.416 0.761 0.173 0.501
PBC_2 0.35 0.423 0.739 0.172 0.437
PBC_3 0.296 0.296 0.761 0.135 0.366
PBC_4 0.307 0.385 0.824 0.15 0.434
PBC_5 0.251 0.238 0.661 0.157 0.292
HC_1 0.188 0.125 0.206 0.778 0.117
HC_2 0.22 0.123 0.184 0.777 0.113
HC_3 0.235 0.218 0.224 0.786 0.167
HC_4 0.192 0.205 0.115 0.672 0.233
HC_5 0.144 0.132 0.061 0.726 0.086
HC_6 0.122 0.137 0.113 0.686 0.099
BI_1 0.643 0.644 0.522 0.191 0.947
BI_2 0.695 0.6 0.522 0.17 0.944
BI_3 0.672 0.609 0.531 0.239 0.953
Path Coefficient and Hypothesis Testing
To conclude the study, bootstrapping procedure is done in SmartPLS to provide a t-statistic.
The t-values reflect the significance of the model association, which should be 1.96 or above to be considered significant. Furthermore, path coefficients around +1 indicate a strong positive association between two constructs, whereas path coefficients near -1 indicate a significant negative relationship (Hair Jr et al., 2014). Results are summarized in Table 5.
Table 5: Path Coefficient & Hypothesis Testing Structural
Path
Hypothesis Path Coefficients
t-stat p- value
Relationship Significance Result
AT → BI H1 0.433 8.296 0.000 Positive Significant Accepted SN → BI H2 0.284 4.922 0.000 Positive Significant Accepted PBC → BI H3 0.214 3.849 0.000 Positive Significant Accepted HC → BI H4 -0.012 0.285 0.776 Negative Insignificant Rejected Except for the HC → BI path, which has a route coefficient value of -0.012, all of the path coefficients (AT → BI, SN → BI, PBC → BI) are statistically significant and positively impact the endogenous variable, as seen in the table above. Meaning that he level of health consciousness among domestic tourists has a statistically insignificant impact on their intentions to wellness tourism, and the relationship tends to be negative.
It is also known that AT → BI path has the biggest path coefficient score, which means that attitude is the most influential predictor towards behavioral intention for domestic tourists to go on wellness tourism during pandemic. The value of 0.433 in the AT → BI path can be interpreted for every addition of one point in attitude would increase as much as 0.433 points in the intention of domestic tourists to go on wellness tourism.
Coefficient of Determination (R2)
R2 shows the value of how strong the exogenous latent variables moderately explains the variance in endogenous variables. It is a parameter that calculates the accuracy of the model.
BI as the only endogenous construct in this study have R2 value 0.607, which means that the four latent variables of AT, SN, PBC, and HC explain 60.7% of the variance in the BI toward wellness tourism. This value is considered moderate to substantive (Hair et al., 2017).
Discussion
Attitude proved to have a positive impact on the tourist behavioral intention toward wellness tourism and deemed as the strongest influencing, means that more positive an individual's overall judgment and they perceive that it will give beneficial consequences, the more likely the domestic tourists have intention on wellness tourism. This aligns with most of the wellness tourism research that is adopting TPB (Kim et al., 2010; Wendri et al., 2019). It also aligns with Pahrudin et al. (2021) study showing that variable attitudes are claimed to have a positive and significant association with intention to visit a destination post-pandemic of Covid-19.
While some of the studies are rejecting that there is significant positive influence of subjective norms to the behavioral intention (Pahrudin et al., 2021; Kim et al., 2010); this study, generally, supports that subjective norms have a positive impact on tourist behavioral intentions (Nimri et al., 2020; Hudson et al., 2017; Kim & Han, 2010). It implies that the important figure of the tourists has a strong effect in influencing the tourists to go on wellness tourism.
Perceived behavioral control is another important positive impacting element. It indicates that people who are confident in their ability to make decisions about wellness tourism are more likely to do so than those who lack confidence or opportunities. This finding supports and enriches the insight of studies about the correlation between perceived behavioral control and
behavioral intention in the marketing research field, specifically the tourism industry (Hudson et al. 2017; Kim et al., 2010; Pahrudin et al., 2021; Nimri et al., 2020).
Surprisingly, the statistical analysis shows that the health consciousness variable has no significant influence on domestic tourists' behavioral intention towards wellness tourism in Indonesia. This finding is similar to that of Pahrudin et al., (2021), who discovered that Indonesian domestic tourists' perceived health consciousness has no significant link and has a negative influence on their behavioral intention to visit a destination after a pandemic. On the other hand, this contradicts Anannukul's (2019) study, which found that health consciousness has a significant positive impact on tourists' intentions to visit wellness destinations. This might be because the study was conducted before the Covid-19 pandemic existed. For now, it is assumed that people with a high level of health consciousness are still afraid of taking risks to go on vacation during pandemics to avoid the contagion of the virus, even for the specific wellness tourism. This might also be connected to Kim et al. (2010)'s idea that wellness trips are positioned as remedial rather than representative of a healthy lifestyle or continuing participation in health and wellness. Thus, the higher the level of health consciousness of someone, the less the need to engage in wellness tourism. Moreover, the study context from Pu et al. (2021) which found that after Covid-19, health consciousness significantly influences both directly or through a variable is generally discussing health tourism, which consist of both wellness and medical tourism.
5. Conclusion, Recommendation, and Limitation
From the study that has been conducted, it is known that all the variables on TPB consisting of attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control have a significant positive influence on domestic tourists’ behavioral intentions toward wellness tourism during Covid-19 pandemic. However, the additional variable of health consciousness that is projected to be another influencing factor is rejected. This means that modifying the theory by incorporating health consciousness failed to make an improvement on the existing TPB in this context.
As it is known that attitude is perceived as the most influencing factor, the promotion can be focused on the benefit from going on wellness tourism to increase their positive judgment on wellness tourism, which in turn will also increase their intention toward wellness tourism.
Based on the statistics, domestic tourists agree the most at the point which wellness tourism will benefit on their mental wellbeing during the Covid-19 pandemic. This resonates with the common trend on social media where many people go to Bali for “healing”, releasing stress and anxiety once the travel restrictions are loosen; this healing trend is also happening globally.
Then, tourism practitioners should develop wellness travel packages that gives high flexibility and convenience in terms of time, price, activities, et cetera. This is related to perceived behavioral control becoming one of the influencing factors in determining tourist intention.
They can incorporate the concept of natural, eco-friendly, and close to home since it becomes the new trend of tourism in 2022 (UNWTO, 2022) and provides a wide range of destination options, as it is accepted that all the area in Indonesia is potential as a wellness tourism destination due to the richness of resources (Kurniawan, 2018). One of the examples is remote working packages for tourists near home nature destinations and providing flexible physical, mental, and spiritual activities; by that, the tourists can have more opportunity of engaging in wellness tourism while carrying out their daily activities.
Since Indonesian wellness tourism still lacks citizen awareness, tourism businesses can also offer trial promotions, giving the best experience exceeding customer expectations which are
expected will lead to good word of mouth (WOM) since the subjective norm is another influencing factor. They can endorse key opinion leaders (KOL) whom tourists trust and have a strong influence on their decision-making. Referral promotion could also be another good strategy to attract more wellness tourists.
Moreover, it is also known that the health consciousness level of respondents is relatively high.
Even though statistically it is said that the influence on tourist intention is insignificant, the correlation is negative. Therefore, the strategy is to target those whose level of health consciousness is moderate and have high-risk acceptance at first, while making sure that tourism businesses could maintain their health protocol during the tourism activities. Then they could convince more tourists that now traveling is safe by showing past tourists reviews.
Since the respondents in this study are general domestic tourists who are the potential to incorporate wellness into their next trip (do not require having been on wellness tourism before), the result of the study is based on respondents' perceptions, not their past experience while making the decision to choose wellness tourism. In other words, consumers' intentions are being studied rather than their actual conduct; while it is commonly assumed that people will overestimate their intentions to interact (Nimri et al., 2020). Moreover, because the study is based on a convenience sample, the results cannot be generalized.
For future research, it can be more explorative to reveal more factors that might influence the intention toward wellness tourism such as spiritual wellbeing. Moreover, a longitudinal study to assess the respondents who finally made trips on wellness tourism to explore the variables that influence their actual behavior as a final goal and the tourists' loyalty, as well as repurchase intention, is also favorable.
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