Does expressway congestion affect tourists' intention for holiday self-drive trips?-Evidence from a mixed-methods...

Area of Science:

• Tourism Management
• Transportation Psychology
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Holiday self-drive tourism is growing, yet expressway congestion remains a significant challenge.
• Understanding tourist perceptions of congestion is crucial for managing travel behavior and satisfaction.
• Existing research lacks a systematic approach to measuring perceived expressway congestion and its impact on future travel intentions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate holiday self-drive tourists' perceptions of expressway congestion.
• To explore the mechanisms linking perceived congestion to intentions for future self-drive trips.
• To develop and validate a measurement scale for perceived expressway congestion.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods approach combining qualitative in-depth interviews and quantitative surveys.
• Grounded theory analysis to identify dimensions of perceived congestion.
• Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS for quantitative data analysis (N=414).

Main Results:

• Expressway congestion leads to negative emotions and negative word-of-mouth.
• Perceived congestion does not significantly reduce the intention for future holiday self-drive trips.
• Optimism and self-drive trip frequency moderate the relationships between congestion, emotions, and word-of-mouth.

Conclusions:

• A novel, validated scale for perceived expressway congestion was developed.
• Affective Events Theory (AET) is extended to explain tourist responses to congestion.
• Actionable insights are provided for managing expressway congestion during peak travel periods to enhance tourist experiences.