Visa requirements and destination choice : integrating the theory of planned behaviour and the stimulus-organism-response model

Abstract

When tourists select an international destination to visit, the ease of obtaining a visa is seen as an important consideration. However, when the visa application process is perceived as burdensome and emotionally stressful, it can discourage tourists from participating in international tourism. Research to date has paid little attention to the relationship between visa requirements and destination choice. Another aspect that is overlooked in the literature is the influence of the visa application process on a tourist’s emotions, as well as whether the emotional responses that were triggered as a result of the visa application process influence the tourist’s intention to visit their destination of choice. Using the theory of planned behaviour and the stimulus-organism-response model, the study aimed to understand the relationships between visa requirements expectations, the emotions that were triggered as a result of the visa application process, and a tourist’s intention to visit their destination of choice. A mixed-methods sequential exploratory design was used to collect data from South Africans by means of focus groups and online self-administered questionnaires. The findings from the focus groups were used to develop and confirm some of the scales in the online questionnaire. Two additional visa requirements, not mentioned in the literature were identified. Nineteen participants took part in the focus groups, and 444 questionnaires were used in the quantitative data analysis. Structural equation modelling was used as the quantitative data analysis technique, revealing a number of significant relationships. The results differed slightly between those respondents who had applied for visas before and those who had not. For the group that had applied for visas before, certain visa requirements expectations played a moderating role in the relationship between a tourist’s perceived behavioural control towards a destination and their intention to visit a destination. For the group that had not applied for a visa before, emotions that were triggered as a result of the visa application process played a more pronounced role than for the group that had applied for a visa before. More specifically, there was a relationship between a respondent’s level of excitement and enthusiasm that was triggered as a result of the visa application process and their intention to visit a destination of choice. For this group, emotions also played a mediating role between the visa requirements expectations and the intention to visit a destination of choice. This study makes a valuable contribution by integrating the TPB and the S-O-R model to understand the influence of visa requirements on destination choice. The results should be useful in convincing policymakers to formulate less restrictive visa policies that would encourage tourists to visit their respective countries.