Travelling During Travel Bubble: Assessing the Interrelationship between Cognitive, Affective, Unique Image, and Future Revisit Intention

This research study utilises Mehrabian and Russell's Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model to explore the connections between various components of a destination image (cognitive, affective, and unique) and the intention of travellers to revisit Malaysia. A total of 402 responses were collected using purposive sampling. The Partial-Least Square-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) method was employed to examine the research model and its proposed hypotheses. The findings reveal that the cognitive and unique aspects of the destination image significantly influence the affective image. This quantitative analysis confirms that the destination image's unique and affective components significantly impact the intention to revisit. Interestingly, the cognitive image does not significantly impact the intention to revisit. The bootstrapping analysis demonstrates that the affective image mediates the relationship between the cognitive image and the intention to revisit. However, the unique image, indirectly through affective image, does not influence the intention to revisit. This study contributes to our understanding of the application of the extended SOR model by Mehrabian and Russell in the context of tourism, particularly regarding destination image dimensions in different settings, such as islands and travel bubble destinations. From a practical standpoint, the travel bubble is seen as an effective crisis management strategy employed by certain countries to stimulate their tourism industry in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers and stakeholders regarding creating a positive experience while maintaining appropriate preventive measures within the travel bubble program.