Travel-at-home: Paradoxical effects of a pandemic threat on domestic tourism

This study introduces the evolutionary concept of assortative sociality and explores how it moderates pandemic anxiety effects on attitudes towards tourism and travel decisions. Based on a large-scale online survey (N = 4630) conducted in three European countries, we demonstrate that COVID-19 anxiety triggered assortative sociality, which reflects both xenophobic and ethnocentric traits. This changes perceptions of domestic and international travel attractiveness, and further leads to travel choices prioritizing domestic destinations. At the same time, xenophobic and ethnocentric traits also affected citizen attitudes towards supporting the domestic tourism industry ‒ an industry that accommodates foreigners. In conclusion, the paper discusses the seemingly paradoxical effects of a pandemic threat on domestic versus international tourism.