Exploring the antecedents and consequences of political animosity: the case of millennial female tourists traveling to India

A growing body of research points to the detrimental effect of animosity on tourist attitudes and behaviours. Previous research suggests political animosity is more likely to bear long-term influence on tourism behaviour. Surprisingly, no previous work explored the relationship between political animosity, its possible antecedents and consequences. The present study attempts to contribute to the literature by investigating unexplored relationships between past travel experience, animosity, perceived cultural dissimilarity, risk perception, and behavioural intentions critical to tourism management. A concurrent mixed method design (QUAN + qual) was employed to collect data for the study. Twenty semi-structured interviews (Study A) and a questionnaire collected from 227 female millennial tourists (Study B) comprise the research design. Findings suggest that animosity is a mediating construct in the relationship between past travel experience, perceived cultural dissimilarity, perceived risk, and behavioural intentions. Conclusions are drawn and directions for future research are provided.