Travellers’ destination choice among university students in China amid COVID-19: extending the theory of planned behaviour

Purpose Prior tourism literature neglected the negative motivational or attitudinal elements influencing individuals’ travel destination decisions. This study aims to examine relationships between animosity, ethnocentrism, attitude, subjective norm (SN), perceived behavioural control (PBC), overall image (DOI) and visit intention (DVI). Design/methodology/approach A quantitative approach was used using a survey methodology involving 402 student responses. The proposed hypotheses were empirically tested with SPSS AMOS. Findings results demonstrated that animosity ethnocentrism negatively influenced DOI DVI. positive relationship reported Additionally, SN PBC positively Ethnocentrism, also identified statistically significant differences through gender. Meanwhile, in PBC, DVI evident postgraduate students counterparts. Originality/value extends existing knowledge on how benefitted Western key stakeholders tourism.