Risk perception and visit intention on Olympic destination: Symmetric and asymmetric approaches

Abstract

Tourists’ risk perceptions have been studied extensively in tourism literature and are considered an important factor influencing destination choice. However, despite the extensive research, many earlier studies using symmetric approaches have not adequately succeeded in addressing the contrarian case – high visit intention despite having negative perceptions. Therefore, this study utilised both symmetric and asymmetric approaches to address the effects of tourists’ perceptions (i.e. risk perception, image, and attitude) and demographic factors on their visit intention. While the symmetric approach showed that Zika-related perceptions did not have an impact on destination visits, in the asymmetric approach, these same perceptions significantly influenced both high and low visit intentions. This study contributes to the existing knowledge of risk perceptions by highlighting the differences between the two methodological approaches. Destination marketers could utilise these findings to develop both mass marketing and target marketing strategies.