Geographical perceptions of terrorism and their influence on domestic tourists' travel intentions

Abstract

Tourism by its very nature is susceptible to various forms of risk ranging from economic to environmental and political crises. Not only does the buyer (i.e., tourist) spend his/her disposable income to buy the tourism product (or service), s/he also sees it from a subjective and experiential point of view. As such, the purchase and/or consumption of tourism products and services are associated with high uncertainty and risk as they are bought without prior testing. Consequently, tourism and tourism components are infused with risk from transportation, to food and beverage, to hotel safety and security across every scale from the individual tourist, through the businesses, to the destinations. It is in this framework that risk events (e.g., terrorism) represent a severe threat to the consumption of travel and tourism.

It has been suggested that tourist perceptions of risk influence tourist travel intentions and are a major predictor of choice of destination (Baker, 2015). In essence, it is argued that tourists avoid a destination they perceive to be of higher risk in favour of another destination which is of lower risk. However, this argument (being mainly western-centric) is limited as it approaches tourist risk perceptions and spatial decisions (with regards to risk) from a geographically-specific and international tourists’ perspective. This leaves out a broader spatial context through which tourists might approach risk or make spatial decisions (e.g., where to go) with respect to risk. Therefore, this thesis contributes to academic knowledge not only through its investigation into spatial perception in the context of tourism and risk related to terrorism but also by its conceptualisation of and empirical research into domestic tourists and terrorism. Thus, this thesis examines spatial perceptions of terrorism in the context of domestic tourists (an area that has received limited attention within tourism studies).

Fifty-two semi-structured interviews were carried out by the researcher with domestic tourists in Nigeria from January through April 2018. In keeping with the paradigmatic ideals of interpretivism, emergent themes were identified from within the qualitative data gathered, including the spatial perceptions that domestic tourists have of terrorism and its influence on their travel intentions. While in-depth interviewing was the main method of investigation, this thesis also employed a complementary implicit measurement using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to examine domestic tourists’ attitudes towards domestic tourism in relation to terrorism. This gave the researcher the opportunity to examine respondents’ self-reported attitudes towards terrorism and domestic tourism in relation to their implicit attitudes. Similarities and differences between explicit and implicit attitudes were therefore inferred.

Although the examination of subjective spatial perceptions of terrorism was the aim of this thesis, other key themes were also identified, including levels of exposure to terrorism and its influence on risk perceptions and travel intentions, and post-terror attack communication strategies people employ. While there were multiple perspectives on how terrorism was spatially perceived and approached, religion, geographical location and ethno-linguistic characteristics were voiced as critical perspectives through which terrorism was differentially spatially perceived by domestic tourists. Spatial perception of terrorism is highlighted as not only problematic for the interviewees travel intentions, but also for their feelings of safety.