Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Tourists’ Travel Behaviour and Patterns

Introduction: Contrary to the past when we used to pick among destinations based on our personal preferences, we have had to ignore our preferences due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tourists’ buying behaviour and patterns may differ in the pandemic conditions.

Purpose: During the early pandemic period, filled with panic and fear, consumers shopped for pasta and toilet paper so much so that stores ran out of these consumables, and people started a fight for survival. It was extremely difficult to answer the question of when these consumers, who were shopping as if they would never get out of their homes ever again, would go on vacation as tourists again. In this chapter, it is aimed to reveal how much tourists’ choices of destination affect the number of cases and deaths caused by the pandemic.

Methodology: To understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourist destination choices, correlations between the numbers of cases and deaths in 2020 and the changes in tourist arrival numbers for the previous year were analysed.

Findings: Based on the results of the analyses, consumers generally want to participate in tourism even in pandemic conditions. Therefore, at the end of the chapter, precautions and recommendations are put forward to adapt to the pandemic process and enable the dynamism in the tourism sector to be maintained.