The effect of Covid-19 on intraregional tourism of Gulf Cooperation Council countries

Little information is known about the impact of pandemic/epidemic on a tourist’s choice of destination. To fulfill this gap, Conservation of Resources Theory and Fear Appeal Theory are used. The current study aims to get first-hand information regarding people’s perception of tourism services, perception of susceptibility, perception of travel risk, and self-efficacy on travel following Covid-19 pandemic. Besides, revealing the impacts of visitors’ gender and nationality on all these dimensions. Drawing on a sample of 1,112 valid questionnaires from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, which had a domestic or international travel experience, was utilized to collect the data throughout an online survey. The data were analyzed using factor analyses, mean comparison, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney Test & Kruskal-Wallis Test to check the aim and validity of the study. The findings revealed that Covid-19 pandemic influences GCC potential tourists significantly in many ways.Finally, this paper provided some practical implications for reopening the tourism and hospitality business after the Covid-19.