Global risks and tourism industry in Turkey

Abstract

This study applies the World Economic Forum’s global risk report methodology at a country and industry specific level to understand how the national as well as the industry contexts and conditions affect perceptions of the global risks, using the case of tourism industry in Turkey. Data was collected from a sample of respondents involved in tourism industry through an online questionnaire. Findings shows that significant variances exist between the perceived likelihoods and impacts of global risks and their ranks at the global and the country/industry levels. These findings demonstrate that for country level actors at specific industries such as tourism the global risks can be viewed and evaluated differently. Particularly, the global economic risks and the global geopolitical risks are perceived by the respondents to be more likely to occur and have more impacts compared to the global environmental and technological risks. Subsequently, the rankings of the risks and the top five risks are also very different between the global and the country/industry specific levels. Considering the importance of tourism for the global and national economies, it is important that global risks are analyzed and monitored at national and regional levels. This will provide policy and decision makers with more information to manage the risks and tourism industry based on the interrelationships that exist between the global risks and the tourism.