Determinants of behavioural intention on virtual tourism usage among tourist in Malaysia during Covid-19 lockdown

Ever since Movement Control Order (MCO) happens on 16th March 2020 in Malaysia due to COVID-19 pandemic, millions of tourists are unable to travel abroad due to restrictions to travel outside the country. Therefore, virtual tourism is a new concept for tourists to travel virtually without receiving any risk of contracting COVID-19. The purpose of this research is to determine the behavioural intention on virtual tourism usage among tourist in Malaysia during COVID-19 lockdown. Thus, this study aims to determine the behavioural intention on virtual tourism usage among tourist in Malaysia during COVID-19 lockdown by using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Online questionnaires were used to collect responses from 300 tourists from various virtual reality forums, travel forums, and virtual reality and travel Facebook groups. Data taken from respondents are performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and perceived security of virtual tourism. Results in this research indicated that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and perceived security have positive influence towards the behavioural intention to use virtual reality among users in tourism during COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the authors believe this study will benefit those who have the intention to use virtual tourism as a second option to travel and implement virtual tourism in tourism industry as well as become a liable reference for future research study.