Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition 
373
USING RESPONSE STYLES TO NATURAL HAZARDS AS A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING 
TRAVEL AND TERRORISM 
Wesley S. Roehl 
National Laboratory for Tourism & 
e
Commerce 
School of Tourism & Hospitality Management 
Temple University, USA 
Clark Hu 
National Laboratory for Tourism & 
e
Commerce 
School of Tourism & Hospitality Management 
Temple University, USA 
and 
Neha Singh 
National Laboratory for Tourism & 
e
Commerce 
School of Tourism & Hospitality Management 
Temple University, USA 
ABSTRACT 
Response styles influence the perceptions of a hazard, whether natural or human induced. Peoples’ 
responses to hazards vary at multiple levels and are related to emotional, social and economic factors. Reviewing 
and learning from the literature on response styles to hazards, this paper developed a framework to study the 
response of travelers to terrorism as a hazard. A mental mapping approach was used to identify response strategies 
among a sample of 558 travelers. Travelers adopting four different strategies: denial, acceptance, mitigation, and 
loss reduction were identified. Travelers using different response strategies behaved differently when it came to 
canceling travel, changing travel behaviors, and in their reported levels of anxiety. The results confirm the utility 
and generalizability of using the hazards framework in a tourism context.
Keywords
: Response styles; Hazards; Terrorism; Tourism; Content analysis; Mental models