This paper examines the intervening effect of the subjective safety of travel and tourism activity in the relationship between country image and attribute-based travel motives. Data from an online survey of 454 international tourists were subjected to mediation analyses via Model 4 of Process Macro. The results generally indicate that the effect of country image on travel motives is significantly nuanced by the perceived safety of travel and tourism activity associated with the destination. Intriguingly, in line with the S-O-R model, the perceived safety of travel and tourism activity fully mediates the relationship between a country's functional image and the outdoor-experiential-oriented travel motives of international tourists. Thus, it underscores the practical significance of country image and subjective safety on international tourists' cognition and their subsequent conative behaviour. The fndings extend the seminal theory and advance African tourism research to travel motivation during crises. The signicant implications for African tourism practitioners and policymakers regarding tourists' travel motives amid a crisis are discussed.