Exploring Staycation Experiences Drivers Among Millennials’ Tourists

Abstract

Globally, tourists have become more anxious to travel overseas due to increased uncertainties posed by disastrous global-scale incidents, like the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the earthquake in Turkey, or even the increased assertiveness of the People’s Republic of China on the world’s stage. The uncertainties crisis outbreak has significantly impacted on triggered important changes in tourism mobility, social behavior, consumption patterns, and leisure. As a result, people have significantly changed their long-term traveling into near-term travel decisions. Therefore, this research aims to explore the staycation motivation drivers among Malaysian vacationers in the proximity of the tourism concept. The study applies an interpretive phenomenological approach to explore post-pandemic travel behaviour. The research employs an exploratory method with initially in-depth interviews providing rich empirical data as a precursor to a survey. Data were collected via personal in-depth semi-structured interviews with Malaysian Vacationers. Thematic analysis of the transcripts was conducted to arrive at discussion themes. This study will not only shed some light on the concept of staycation, within the Malaysian context, and position this concept within the wider proximity of tourism but also frame the new dimension of domestic tourism in the country.