An overview of tourism risk perception

Abstract

In recent years, people pay more and more attention to travel safety and travel risks. Tourism risk perception is a quantitative assessment of tourism security. Destination risk perception of tourists directly affects tourists purchase intention. The asymmetry of the objective existence of tourist safety information and the subjective perception of tourists determines that tourists are extremely sensitive to travel risks. The inevitability of tourism risks requests that tourists have a certain level knowledge of destination environment. This study aimed to systematically review existing researches of tourism risk perception. The study shows: (1) Tourism risk perception includes three views, which were subjective feelings, objective evaluation and the cognition of exceeding the threshold portion of the negative consequences or negative impact that may occur during travel. (2) The subjective factors of tourism risk perception were the physical characteristics and psychological processes. The objective factors include physical risk, economic risk, equipment risk, social risk, psychological risk, time risk and opportunity loss. (3) The multi-dimensional model and the two-factor model were the two main types of risk perception assessment models. The survey (with interviews) and mathematical statistical analysis were the main research methods. Besides, this article highlights three points. (1) There is a certain critical value for travel risk perception of tourists; (2) cognitive ability is an important factor affecting the level of tourists objective risk perception; and (3) quantitative assessment of tourism risk perception level is helpful to the tourism decision making and destination management.