Effect of Tourists’ Personality on Responsible Decision-Making During COVID-19 and Beyond

Perceived risk associated with COVID-19 has challenged the tourists’ choice to select the destinations and approach decision-making. It has influenced the tourists to reflect on their choice and decisions, keeping in view the moral responsibility towards the safety of the local community and the environment at large. We expect that this change in decision-making and behaviour would be conditional on the type of personality a tourist has. In this context, by employing personality characteristics (allocentric, mid-centric, and psycho-centric), this study proposes a conceptual framework on tourist decision-making that causes responsible tourism. This study proposes some relationships based on a conceptual framework. Following psychographic tourist personality type and the utilizations of transformative learning theory, the proposed framework relates tourist’s perceived risk of COVID-19 (physical, psychological, social, financial and functional) and subsequent attitudes towards responsible decision-making and responsible tourism. Moreover, that relationship would be dependent on the tourist personality and perceived constraints (intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural). The proposed relationship demonstrates that the COVID-19’s risks transform the way tourists decide and travel. It makes tourists responsible for other’s safety and environment. Moreover, considering the role of personality, the more an individual is psycho-centric (than the allocentric and mid-centric) in their choices and decisions and the more the structural constraints are there, the more they would be employing responsible decision-making while travelling post-pandemic. It would, in turn, contribute towards responsible tourism. The originality of the chapter lies in proposing a comprehensive decision-making framework as a reaction to perceived risk of novel COVID-19. Understanding of individual characteristics (i.e., personality and perceived constraints) provide a platform for the tourism sector to respond to responsible decisions in making tourism healthy and sustainable for the coming future.