Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Interviews
Concil, Anthony. Director, Corporate Communications, IATA Asia Pacific. Interviewed
in Sydney, August 13, 2003.
King, John. CEO Tourism and Leisure, Coffs Harbour Australia. Interviewed October
2003.
Semone, Peter. Vice President of PATA. Interviewed in Sydney, May 17, 2004.
Three SE Asia Tourism Recovery Campaigns
269
H7898_Ch14.qxd 8/24/05 8:50 AM Page 269

---

H7898_Ch14.qxd 8/24/05 8:50 AM Page 270

---

271
15
The Role of Security
Information in Tourism Crisis
Management:
The Missing Link
Yoel Mansfeld
Learning Objectives
■
To understand the “risk” construct in travel behavior.
■
To understand the role of travel information in general, and security information in
particular, in shaping destination choice and travel behavior.
■
To understand the role of security and risk oriented information in crisis commu-
nication strategies.
■
To understand the role of various information sources in shaping tourists’ percep-
tion of risk.
■
To understand the concept of travel behavior sequence and its relation to tourists’
acceptable risk levels.
■
To understand the risk reduction strategy based on a security information platform
that is operated by the private and public sectors of affected countries and destinations.
Introduction
Risk-free travel is not just the aspiration of every tourist. In order to avoid, or at
least minimize, tourism crises, it is also in the tourism industry’s interest to ensure
safe trips for each and every traveler worldwide. Since September 11, 2001, this
fact is no more just a slogan or a minor travel consideration, but rather an uncom-
promising prerequisite to which each tourism destination must strictly adhere.
H7898_Ch15.qxd 8/24/05 8:50 AM Page 271

---

Since security situations and potential security hazards nowadays are not endemic
to specific countries or specific regions around the world, this prerequisite has
become more and more global in nature.
In pursuit of risk-free travel, potential tourists use information sources to facil-
itate their constructs of perceived travel risk, which they subsequently employ in
their destination choice behavior. Similarly, efforts to promote tourist products and
tourist destinations are normally accompanied by travel information that is made
available to tourists prior to their destination choice. This cross-functional role
of tourism information is quite extensively dealt with by the tourism, marketing,
and consumer behavior literature. However, the literature on the specific cross-
functional role of security information with regard to both consumers’ perception
of risk and risk management at affected tourist destinations is still very limited and
undeveloped.
Hence, the aim of this chapter is threefold: first, to discuss theoretically the
construct of risk in travel behavior and to assess the role of travel information in
mitigating risk perception; second, to critically evaluate how and to what extent
security information as a risk management tool is used or misused by the major
travel information providers; and third, to develop an alternative conceptual
framework for the effective utilization of security oriented information in the
management of security induced tourism crises.