TOURISM AND VACCINE HESITANCY
Vaccine hesitancy is one of the main obstacles facing the tourism industry in its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many people are sceptical about the COVID-19 vaccine and decide not to get vaccinated. Our research aims to test the effectiveness of using travel-related incentives to overcome vaccine hesitancy. We investigate (1) whether travel-related beliefs and behaviours are associated with vaccination willingness, and (2) whether alerting people to travel-related freedoms linked to vaccination can increase vaccination willingness. Our results indicate that (1) there is a significant association between people’s international travel history, their desire to travel internationally in the future and vaccination willingness, and (2) this association cannot, however, be leveraged to further increase vaccination willingness as vaccine-related beliefs (safety and efficacy) are the primary drivers of vaccination willingness.