Which travel risks are more salient for destination choice? An examination of the tourist’s decision-making process

Marion Karl,Brent W Ritchie,Birgit Muskat

doi:10.1016/j.jdmm.2020.100487

Abstract

The paper examines which travel risks are more salient for tourists' destination choice. An integrated travel-decision risk typology with survey data from 835 potential tourists is developed and tested. Specifically, this paper explores the interplay of risk types, tourist attributes and destination characteristics. It examines if travel risks linked to nature, health, terrorism, criminality, political instability are more salient for tourists' destination choice, and how risk perceptions influence tourists in the key stages of the decision-making process. Results offer an important baseline for future studies in the post-COVID-19 phase. First, the integrated travel-decision risk typology distinguishes between sociodemographic, psychological and travel-related factors. It shows that past travel experience shapes risk perceptions and impacts tourists’ future destination choice. Second, the study reveals that natural hazards are not the key barrier in the early decision-making stage of the destination choice process. Third, tourist segments that are resilient to certain risks are identified. This paper concludes with implications for the tourism practice with recommendations on how to manage travel risk and decision-making behaviours in the post-COVID-19 phase.

Highlights

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have severe implications for tourists’ health risk perceptions and may change travel behaviour in the long term, as indicated by past studies on infectious diseases (Cahyanto et al, 2016; Novelli et al, 2018)
Results are presented that show how travel risk perceptions linked to risks of nature, health, terrorism, criminality, and political instability influence tourists in the key stages of the decision-making process
4.1 Perceived impact of risk perception on destination choice The results show that respondents evaluate the likelihood of changing travel intentions to their dream destinations differently depending on the risk type (Figure 2)

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have severe implications for tourists’ health risk perceptions and may change travel behaviour in the long term, as indicated by past studies on infectious diseases (Cahyanto et al, 2016; Novelli et al, 2018). For tourism marketing managers a better understanding of consumers' perceptions and responses to risk will be necessary for planning and forecasting the disaster recovery phase. It is clear that a number of risks types and consumer-related factors influence tourists’ decision-making. From the tourists’ perspective, several factors have been identified to influence decision-making in relation to risk. These factors include personality traits (Lo et al, 2011), knowledge and visit experience (Sharifpour et al, 2014) in addition to sociodemographic factors such as age and gender (Park & Reisinger, 2010; Reisinger & Mavondo, 2006)

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Conclusion