Safety and risk in tourists' destination choices - a cross-cultural study focusing on the destination Israel

如今，世界范围内恐怖袭击的增加和受恐怖主义影响的目的地越来越多，导致旅游安全和风险研究的相关性增加。目的地的安全和安保或没有严重的人身危险被视为旅游业发展的基本先决条件，也是游客决定前往某一目的地的决定性因素。然而，实际的安全和安保风险不如个人对这些风险的看法重要。一种解释是，目的地选择是一个复杂的谈判过程，一方面是游客的期望、假设或态度，另一方面是旅游报价以及目的地的具体特点。因此，在决定是否访问一个目的地时，个人的旅行经验以及游客本国的生活水平或安全和保障水平都起着重要作用。拟议的研究项目是基于目前DFG资助的研究项目，调查安全和保障对游客的目的地选择的影响，重点是目的地以色列和来源市场德国作为一个案例（SCHM 850 / 20 1）。本研究项目的继续将集中于国籍或文化背景等因素对游客目的地选择的影响，以确定不同国籍的游客在风险认知和访问风险目的地的决定方面的异同。从目前的研究项目的方法和德国游客的个人目的地选择过程的主要结果将进行调整和加强与以色列旅游业高度相关的四个客源市场。研究采用了双重方法：宏观层面的方法，旨在调查旅游流量从这些来源市场到以色列，以了解时间和空间的恐怖主义对旅游业的影响。下一步，将采用定量和定性方法的微观方法来理解旅游者个人层面的集体旅游决策。这种不同视角和方法的结合弥补了过去的研究空白，并使人们能够在风险和不确定性的背景下对目的地选择过程进行更全面的分析。该研究项目的主要进展是：1）将地理视角融入旅游决策和目的地选择过程中的安全和风险研究中：2）评估民族和文化背景对主观风险感知和个人目的地选择过程的影响因素;（3）建立一个旅游需求模型，其中包含与所调查客源市场的独特性直接相关的具体影响因素。

The rise in worldwide terror attacks and the growing number of destinations affected by terrorism, nowadays, leads to an increase in the relevance of research on safety and risk in tourism. Safety and security or the absence of severe physical risk at a destination are seen as basic prerequisites for the touristic development and decisive determinants of tourists' decisions to visit a certain destination. However, actual safety and security risks are less relevant than the individual perception of these risks. An explanation is that destination choices are complex negotiation processes of tourists' expectations, assumptions or attitudes, on the one hand, and the touristic offer as well as specific characteristics of the destinations, on the other hand. Hence, personal travel experience but also living standards or safety and security levels in tourists' home countries play important roles during the decision whether or not to visit a destination. The proposed research project is based on a current DFG funded research project that investigates the influence of safety and security on tourists' destination choices focusing on the destination Israel and source market Germany as a case example (SCHM 850 / 20 1). The continuation of this research project will concentrate on the influence of the factors nationality or cultural background on tourists' destination choices to identify similarities or differences in risk perceptions and the decision to visit a risky destination between tourists with different nationalities. The methodology and key findings about individual destination choice processes of German tourists from the current research project will be adapted and enhanced for four source markets with high relevance for the Israeli tourism industry. The research adopts a dual approach: The macro level approach aims to investigate tourism flows from these source markets to Israel in order to understand temporal and spatial impacts of terrorism on tourism. In the next step, a micro level approach using quantitative and qualitative methods will be applied to comprehend collective travel decisions on the individual level of the tourist. This combination of different perspectives and methodologies addresses past research gaps and allows a more comprehensive analysis of destination choice processes in the context of risk and uncertainty. The key developments of this research project are: 1) the integration of a geographical perspective into tourism research on safety and risk in travel decision making and destination choice processes; 2) the evaluation of the influencing factors nationality and cultural background on the subjective perception of risk and on individual destination choice processes; and 3) the development of a tourism demand model with specific influencing factors directly related to the unique characteristics of the investigated source markets.