Investigation of the relationship between consumers' travel preferences and coronaphobia levels during the COVID-19 pandemic

Covid-19 virus that has unexpectedly appeared in Wuhan, on December 2019 has affected the whole world rapidly and been declared as " Global Pandemic ", " Pandemic of The Century", to the public by World Health Organization (WHO) on December. The rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus all over the world has affected both all economic and commercial activities negatively and almost all countries have quarantined themselves. Because of this deadly pandemic, all countries have set certain limitations to keep the risk of contamination at minimum level. These limitations can be summarized as curfews, closure of schools, shut down of cafes and restaurants temporarily, fully or partially limitations of intercity and international transportation. Not only all the people are struggling with the virus, but also they are faced with anxiety and fear of virus contamination risk. This definition, which takes place in literature as coronafobia, has affected all people and it has been experienced even in regions without virus risk.The feeling of fear and anxiety caused by coronaphobia has affected the consumers travel behaviour. They have had to change their habits temporarily or permanently because of the anxiety of virus contamination. In the research, the relationship between the travel preferences of consumer and the level of coronaphobia has been examined. This study has been localized by Istanbul and survey has been conducted as data collecting method. The questionnaire has been completed by 501 people and determinative questions have been asked to analyse the relationship between the travel preferences and coronaphobia level during Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of the study, it was observed that there was statistically significant and positive relationships between the some travel preferences of consumers and their coronaphobia levels.