Tourist behaviour during and after times of crisis: an investigation into tourists' perceptions, attitudes, reactions and responses

This thesis investigates a tourist segment which has been created out of Ulrich Beck's Risk Society (1989, 2010). These travellers have been dubbed 'Risk Society Travellers'. The outcomes of this study introduce concepts that characterise the Risk Society Travellers. The 'Risk Society Traveller Bubble' is the main concept and contribution to knowledge. It is a multilayered bubble that encapsulates all travellers within a bubble of familiarity and therefore safety and security whilst travelling to a post crisis destination, thereby deepening our understanding of such travellers. The thesis follows Beck's arguments of a society in which everyday life is increasingly governed by risks that have become incalculable, uncompensatable, unlimited, unaccountable and, most important of all, invisible to our senses. The contention is that people live with permanent non-knowing or with the simultaneity of threats and non-knowing and cannot grasp which concerns one should have and in what situations. These problems of risk and uncertainty pose dilemmas for us all (Myth en and Walklate, 2006). The notions that have been discussed in the literature investigate the nature of the tourism experience which this study is trying to connect to crises tourism in order to gain further understanding of the people that travel to such destinations. During the current times of crisis, in which headlines of terror and catastrophes are predominant in the media, each and everyone of us still has to make choices, whether to travel and where to travel. The theoretical development in tourism suggests that catastrophes, such as terrorism and natural disasters impact negatively on tourists' perception of a destination and therefore have a negative impact on the demand for such destinations. However, tourism numbers are still rising and are forecasted to rise in the future (WTO, 2010). This thesis sheds light on the travellers within today's risk society and investigates the tourists visiting destinations post- crisis. The study therefore introduces a research framework for investigating Risk Society Travellers. By implementing the developed methodology, attributes of this segment have been identified which facilitate the further establishment of the 'theory of the Risk Society Traveller'. It may also be suggested that the theoretical development of these tourists has largely remained undeveloped. Therefore tourism concepts from the literature have been brought together in order to create an outset for investigating the Risk Society Traveller. As a culturalist interpretation, this research project therefore attempts to 'show at least a bit of the terrible, but ultimately hopeful, complexity of life in a society whose reality is often oversimplified' (Farrell, 1986). By introducing a research framework for a novel interpretation of the contemporary traveller, an original contribution to knowledge has been made. Through testing the research framework insights into what influences this segment then potentially contributes to the existing body of knowledge.