Exploring tourists' motivations, constraints, and negotiations regarding outdoor recreation trips during COVID-19 through a focus group study

The current COVID-19 outbreak has duly influenced tourists' psychology and subsequently their behavior and decision making to participate in outdoor activities. The purpose of this paper is to illuminate tourists' motivations, perceived constraints, and negotiation strategies to participate in outdoor recreation trips, within the current COVID-19 context. To explore and categorize motivating factors, constraints, and negotiation strategies, we employed a qualitative approach via semi-structured online focus group discussion with 16 tourists (mostly residents of Utah, United States) during late summer 2020. First, COVID-19 related restrictions and fewer opportunities to go outdoors were found to encourage outdoor recreation, for novelty-seeking and experiencing normalcy. Through content analysis, we found that tourists experience a blend of personal, social, practical, and ethical constraints. Additionally, we identified how tourists negotiate their constraints through different ways: by extensive planning and information searching, avoiding crowds, and changing leisure aspirations. Finally, we discuss theoretical and managerial implications of the study, followed by recommendations for future research. Management implications: Understanding of tourists' motivations, constraints, and negotiation strategies-relevant to outdoor recreation trips-provides several managerial implications to destination managers and marketers, as outlined below: Lack of centralized and reliable information was frequently cited as a constraint in the focus group discussions. In order to provide adequate and timely information to potential participations, we proposed a novel website template including details about information to be presented. As our study sheds light on tourists' companionship preferences, activity choice, and evaluation of a destination's COVID-related operational practices, we propose several advertising strategies and destination operational guidelines to attract tourists.