The present research attempts to study various cognitive & affective factors affecting consumer attitude leading to post pandemic tourism behaviours (viz. attraction/avoidance conative behaviour) towards sustainable tourism. Attraction tourism behaviour includes resilience strategies, coping mechanisms, more concern about travel insurance, cautious travel decisions including choosing destination at a remote location surrounded by nature. Avoidance tourism behaviour consists deferring of travelling and cancellation of travel plans. The present research aims to examine the relationship between the cognitive factors such as mindful mind, perceived risk, perceived knowledge (travel and COVID-19-related) etc., affective factors such as travel fear of COVID-19, travel anxiety and behavioural intention for tourism in immediate future. Sustainability of companies is ultimately dependent on customers’ sustainability. By carefully monitoring consumers’ cognitive & affective factors, tourism companies can develop their marketing strategies so as to address the diverse coping, resilience & protection strategies of customers. Internal factors such as consumer motivation, cognitive dissonance, moral stance (moral obligation of taking care of others), consumer confusion have not been included in the present study may also impact the tourism behaviour intention. Likewise, external factors such as economic environment, security, socio-cultural environment may also be studied. Future researches may be conducted by taking these factors into consideration.

Tourism creates foreign exchange, propels regional development, provides direct support for a wide range of jobs and enterprises, and is the bedrock of many local communities. In OECD countries, tourism directly adds 4.4 percent to GDP and 21.5 percent to service exports. Several OECD countries have substantially higher percentages. The contribution of tourism in Spain is 11.8 percent to GDP and 52.3 percent to total service exports. However, these figures are 8.7% and 78.3% for Mexico, 8.6% and 47.7% in Iceland, 8% and 51.1% in Portugal and 7.4% and 22.2% in France.

In one of the virtual webinars organized by ABTA in July 2020 on “Consumer Attitudes towards sustainability post-COVID-19”, it was discussed that this pandemic has changed the way consumers think about tourism. An overwhelming 48% felt that the pandemic has made them more concerned about the environment & 40% feel more determined than ever to make sustainable travel choices. New Zealand is one of the finest examples to rethink tourism by using lockdown to create a more sustainable destination. Milan created new cycle paths in the city & Austria's Ski Resort of Ischgl is now moving away from its party reputation.

According to KPMG report 2020, 8.1% of the country’s workforce is represented by travel and tourism sector rendering into around 42.7 million jobs. Further, it is projected that 10 to 15% of jobs in the sector will be missed due to pandemic. The above mentioned employment loss is due to the devastating impact of the pandemic on the economies and healthcare systems of the largest contributor to both foreign and domestic tourism in India. China, Germany, US and UK which are among the top ten nations contributing 65 percent of foreign tourist arrivals (FTA’s) in India are also amongst the top 15 countries badly affected by the pandemic (in terms of number of cases).