Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Table 3
Sociodemographic and Travel Related Characteristics of the Sample
Variables
Percent of Sample
Variables
Percent of Sample
Age (years)
Usual place of residence
●
<21
11%
●
Australia
39%
●
21–30
45%
●
UK/Ireland
28%
●
31–40
9%
●
USA/Canada
6%
●
41–50
8%
●
Europe
23%
●
51–60
14%
●
Asia
1%
●
61–70
10%
●
Other
4%
●
>70
3%
Travel party
Previous visits to region
●
Alone
14%
●
None
72%
●
With spouse/partner
49%
●
One
9%
●
Family
11%
●
More than one
19%
●
Family and friends
5%
●
Friends
18%
●
Tour
3%
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majority of the sample described themselves as reasonably prepared in terms of the
information they had about dangerous wildlife before they arrived in the region,
and that 56% reported seeking further information in the region. An analysis of the
sources of information on dangerous wildlife accessed prior to their trip provides
some insight into these patterns of the findings. The most common sources were
television programs (28%), guidebooks (21%), friends (20%), and print media
articles (13%). Very few respondents used sources likely to provide accurate infor-
mation about threatening wildlife in the region.
The second part of the survey questionnaire asked visitors to answer a series of
questions about their perceptions of the risks associated with encounters with eight
target wildlife species—saltwater crocodiles, freshwater crocodiles, box jellyfish,
Irukandji, venomous snakes, poisonous spiders, sharks, and cassowaries. These
species were chosen because of operator and management concerns and media
coverage, not on some objective measure of the risk they actually pose to tourists.
The surveyed tourists were asked to rate both the likelihood of an encounter with
these target species and the seriousness of an encounter with the target species and
the results of these questions are summarized in the matrix in Figure 1. The most
noteworthy feature of this matrix is that the only species seen as likely to be
encountered in the region was the poisonous spider. There are very few poisonous
spiders in the region and spider bites requiring medical treatment are very rare
(Sutherland and Trinca, 1978).
The third section of the questionnaire asked the tourists to rate the risk of a neg-
ative encounter in the region with a crocodile (the two types were combined as
visitors made little distinction between them), marine stingers (the two types were
Tourists and Wildlife: When Encounters Go Wrong
219