Willingness to adopt preventive measures among international travellers attending a vaccination centre during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE

To analyse international travellers' willingness to adopt preventive health measures after the reopening of international travel following the COVID-19 pandemic, and to examine whether these intentions were aligned with expert priorities and equitably distributed across socio-demographic groups.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional observational study. SITE: International Vaccination Centre of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (Spain).

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 330 adult travellers attending pre-travel consultations between May and December 2021 (73% of all eligible travellers).

INTERVENTIONS: None.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS: A structured questionnaire assessed travellers' willingness to adopt preventive measures during travel. Adoption rates were compared with relevance ratings provided by a panel of 32 public health experts. Logistic regression models examined associations between preventive intentions and socio-demographic characteristics.

RESULTS

High levels of intended adoption were observed for several preventive measures, including frequent handwashing (92%; odds 12.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] 8.1-18.3), mask use in enclosed spaces (88%; odds 7.5, 95% CI 5.3-10.4), and seeking health information about the destination (78%; odds 3.5, 95% CI 2.7-4.6). The alignment between travellers' intentions and expert priorities was strong (Pearson correlation >0.9). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed limited socio-demographic differences in preventive intentions, with education level and occupational class not significantly associated with the willingness to adopt most preventive measures.

CONCLUSIONS

Travellers reported a high willingness to adopt preventive measures after the reopening of international travel following COVID-19. Preventive intentions were strongly aligned with expert recommendations and showed minimal socio-demographic variation. These findings suggest that large-scale public health communication during the pandemic may have reached diverse traveller groups and promoted broadly equitable preventive intentions.