Knowledge is limited about how the 2009 H1N1 pandemic impacted potential international tourists’ decision-making although it is assumed that tourists’ apprehension of contracting 2009 H1N1 while traveling affected the tourism industry negatively. To the authors’ awareness, this is the first trial which focused on improving predictions of international tourists’ travel intention and decision-making using an extended model of the MGB. In specific, this approach included the perception of 2009 H1N1 and the personal NPI for 2009 H1N1. The EMGB incorporated the construct of desire as a mediator which considered volitional factors (attitude and subjective norm), non-volitional factors (perceived behavioral control, the perception of 2009 H1N1, and the NPI for 2009 H1N1), emotional factors (positive anticipated emotion and negative anticipated emotion), and the frequency of past behavior. Also, including both the perception of 2009 H1N1 and personal NPI in the EMGB were supported by the model’s increased power in predicting potential tourists’ intention to travel internationally. However, it did influence international travel intentions indirectly through personal NPI. This Korean data suggests that the perception of 2009 H1N1 did not constrain the desire for international travel among potential tourists as they had some adaptive behavior in mind which lowered the infection threat to a level acceptable to them. In effect, personal NPI are an adaptive behavior which reinforce the desire that supports their behavioral intention.

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