The outbreak of COVID-19 has offered a painful lesson to the stakeholders of the travel and hospitality industry. To speed up the recovery of the industry, practitioners need to better understand the factors that influence potential travelers’ evaluation of infection risk when traveling abroad. Hence, this study proposes time orientation (future and present orientations) as a robust determining factor. Analyzing 614 pre-pandemic and 606 mid-pandemic survey responses, this study consistently found that future and present orientations positively predict the evaluation of infection risk because of the highly perceived value of cleanliness. The presence of the pandemic amplifies the positive prediction of present orientation on the evaluation of infection risk. These findings extend the literature of time orientation by revealing its influence on travel risk and the psychological mechanisms behind it. Meaningful implications are provided for travel operators to identify the potential travelers.