Travel Intention and Avoidance Among Generation Z During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Behavioural Segmentation Study in Greece

This study examines holiday-related attitudes and heterogeneous behavioural responses among Greek Generation Z during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data originate from a broader cross-sectional survey of 2364 respondents conducted in Greece during May–July 2020; the present cohort-specific secondary analysis focuses on the 1287 Generation Z respondents, of whom 701 (54.5%) intended to take holidays and 586 (45.5%) did not. Principal component analysis was used to identify attitudinal dimensions separately for the two groups, hierarchical and k-means cluster analysis was used to derive behavioural segments, quadratic discriminant analysis was used to examine internal classification consistency, and exploratory Pearson chi-square tests were used to examine between-cluster demographic associations, with effect sizes and correction for multiple testing. Among travel-intending respondents, three factors emerged: entertainment out of the hotel, eating in the hotel, and personally organised entertainment activities; the corresponding segments were Ambivalent, Bon Viveurs, and Audacious. Among travel-avoiding respondents, the main factors concerned the perceived effectiveness of COVID-19 prevention measures, economic reasons, and other family reasons; the corresponding segments were Conscious, Provident, and Opportunists. By examining the two travel-intention groups within the same questionnaire-defined age cohort, the study identifies distinct combinations of leisure preferences, perceived safety concerns, economic constraints, and family considerations that are not separately resolved in the earlier, age-heterogeneous analyses of the parent survey. These exploratory findings concern stated intentions during the COVID-19 period rather than subsequent observed travel behaviour.