Is holiday a risky decision?

Is holiday a risky decision? Risk perceptions and terrorism.

Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to point out the main risks and risks perceptions of tourists. It is considered mainly around the issue of terrorism attacks.

Key words:
Risk perceptions, Safety, Terrorism, Travel risk, Tourism.


Introduction

Everyone needs to feel safe today whether at home or away. As tourists we need to be sure that our holiday destination is safe for us to travel to. But is it possible to be sure in today's world of terrorist attacks, wars, political instability, natural disasters and other potential hazards, threats and risks which are impossible to predict? These can be things like illness, injury, road traffic accident, theft or even murder. Those hazards can meet us when we are at home, on the way to work or shop but as tourists we are more susceptible to some of them.


Why do we need to feel safe?

As early as in the 1943 Maslow has developed a hierarchy of needs, placing safety as the fundamental and most important need in human life. Sonmez and Graefe (1998) say that tourists expect to be protected by government and the tourism industry. However tourists are responsible for their own decisions and actions on holiday. When thinking about holiday and risk associated with it, tourists may change their decision on holiday destination. Henderson (2003) divides risks into two categories which are natural or man made disasters. Page and Connell (2006) Lepp and Gibson (2003) state that threat of terrorism is now in the top ten most important tourism issues in the world for tourists and tourism industry as a whole.

Terrorism and tourism.

Terrorism is a low probability risk but has serious impact on tourism (Sonmez and Graefe 1998). But when did it all start? Lepp and Gibson (2003) identify Munich Olympic Games in 1972 as a first terrorist attack which was associated with tourism. TV audience of around 800 million viewers seen that eleven people were dead as a result of attack. From this time international tourists are aware of the relationship between tourism and terrorism. Mansfeld and Pizam (2005) argue that relationship between tourism and safety issues has gained substantial interest since the September 11, 2001 events in the USA. Given their nature, the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 in US introduced a global "fear factor" (Blake and Sinclair 2003; Rhodes et al, 2007; Burns 2007) resulting in a decline in travel to long haul destinations (Arana and Leon 2008). As people began opting for travel closer to home, the airline industry entered a state of severe crisis and colossal profit losses.

Sackett and Botterill (2006) are also saying that terrorist attacks of September 11th stopped air travel to and within the United States of America. There were no flights for couple days at all. It certainly shows that terrorist attacks affect us as travellers. Arana and Leon (2008) state that while tourists shift away from destination affected by terror event other destinations upgrade on their attractiveness and image. That was the case after Sept 11 terrorist attacks in USA. Tourists shifted to the competing destinations of the USA in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands.

Risks waiting for tourists.

Cooper et al (1998) divide tourism products risks into economic risk, physical risk, performance risk and psychological risk. But important question is to ask ourselves if there is high likelihood of their occurrence, whether they are avoidable and how significant would be the consequences.

Jenkin (2006) and Burns (2007) explain that perceptions of risk are based on number factors such as voluntariness of exposure, the dread associated with the hazard and the extent to which the risk can be controlled. These things are important for tourists when assessing holiday destination as safe or not.

Lepp and Gibson (2003) suggest that tourists feel safer in familiar environments, when new environments carry greater risk. Arana and Leon (2008) state that tourism decisions are made for destinations with tranquil and peaceful social environment. Study by Sackett and Botterill (2006) is showing that as tourists we put away the thought that there will be terrorist attack on our holiday as we need vacation. So is it that we see risks where we want to see? It seems to be the case here.

Perceived risks.

Cooper et al (1998) and Jenkin (2006) are arguing that individuals perceive risks differently depending on their age, income and experience Lepp and Gibson (2003) add gender and nationality. Sackett and Botterill (2006) are stating that travel patterns are not necessarily dependent on perceptions of international travel risk. Terrorist attack and medium to long-term perceptions depend on previous travel experience, media reporting, government advice and proximity to the attack.

According to Henderson (2003) terrorist attacks on New York and Washington in 2001 and the fears generated were exaggerated by extensive publicity which has heightened the perceptions of risk. By doing that they have damaged tourism as tourists avoid areas associated with danger. Hall (2010) also identifies important role which media serve in enhancing the perceptions to the crisis events.


Conclusion

Risk perception is dependent on number of factors. Our holiday can be safe but unless we did a good research on holiday destination and planned our trip ahead it won't be. What is more we need to be careful and watch the environment around us all the time.






References:

Jenkin C. M. (2006) [online] "Risk Perception and Terrorism: Applying the Psychometric Paradigm." Homeland Security Affairs, Vol. 2, No. 2 [Accessed on: 20th April 2011], Available online: http://www.hsaj.org/?article=2.2.6

Lepp A. and Gibson H. (2003). "Tourist Roles, Perceived Risk and International Tourism", Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 606-624.

Sackett H. and Botterill D. (2006), "Perceptions of International Travel Risk: An Exploratory Study of the Influence of Proximity to Terrorist Attack", e-Review of Tourism Research, Vol. 4, No.2, Available from: http://ertr.tamu.edu/

The author of this discussion paper has written in great detail the significant risks that tourists have to consider when travelling abroad and all is not as simple as first perceived. It was mentioned that tourists are responsible for their own decisions and actions on holiday, an argument could be; are tourists really responsible for their own decisions as certain risks do not enable tourists to act as freely as they used to. In terms of tourists actions; they may have to take extra precautions regarding their accommodation to ensure that personal belongings and passports are kept safe, this may not be an action tourists would like to take, however because of certain threats tourists feel like they have to do so.

The author quite rightly pointed out the two different categories of risks that effect tourist decision making process in terms of which destination would be less affected by the threat and dangers of potential hazards. It would be interesting to know whether tourists would be more willing to travel to destinations that were more risky in terms of natural disasters happening i.e. a tsunami or man-made risks where it could be more political in destinations such as Jordan.

Moreover, it can be said that the scenes of 9/11 have undoubtedly caused negative impacts upon people's judgement to whether the risk is too great to board an aircraft to countries such as America, which has enabled tourists to vote with their feet and are now moving to other 'safer' countries. However a question could be asked that if these newer destinations are attracting large numbers of tourists, it could only be a matter of time before they see actions of terrorism in these newer locations such as turkey and Dubai. Over the past few years such destinations have accommodated increasing large tourist numbers and if tourists were to experience terrorism or threats in that destination, would they consider returning, taking into consideration the risks that could be repeated.

The author expressed that tourists asses a destination before considering if it is safe or not to travel, here we could ask to what degree tourists would be able to measure if a destination was too risky or not and would the risks change if the traveller was independent compared to travelling with large numbers of friends or family. It was mentioned that at some point there may be a time when the thought of terrorism, threat or risk becomes too great and tourists decide that they prefer to say in their own country where they feel safer.
The author made a made a very good point saying that we see risks where we want to see, therefore it could be mentioned that there must be certain factors that remind tourists about possible risks that could take place, for example; long hours of airport security checks which constantly remind tourists of the possible terrorists attack that have previously happened.

Overall, there appears to be many factors that the author has been able to address and has stated the main points involving the risks, combined with the motivations and perceptions of tourist's willingness to travel to destination that could oppose potential dangers. however it could of included an argument of why the main risks affect tourists behaviour and how it is effecting there holiday experience.