Transcending psychological unease with coveted home-state travel: The role of homesickness, regret, and place attachment

What happens when a tourist is stranded at a destination and prevented from returning home? We refer to such an individual as the “castaway tourist,” who is experiencing the above situation due to border/city lockdown or other extenuating circumstances. This inquiry builds upon control theory to unpack a homesickness remedy process under severe environmental duress. It draws on a multiwave design with data from three periods to identify a process in which castaway tourists experience psychological uneasiness, leading to travel homesickness and regret. Findings further reveal that place attachment moderates the relationships between COVID worries and subsequent homesickness and travel regret. Together, this study presents a timely examination of homesickness-induced tourism attributed to mega crises. It brings nuanced insights into the literature by introducing the notion of castaway tourists, while uncovering how adverse travel circumstances could turn into motivational forces that promote future home-province/state travel opportunities in turbulent times.