Tourism in the Middle East: Spatial Risk Perception from the Perspective of Central Europe Tourism in the Middle East: Spatial Risk Perception from the Perspective of Central Europe
Abstract
Safety and security aspects represent crucial factors influencing the choice of destination. This decision-making process, however, is not always rational but rather based on the perception of potential tourists.
Tourism in the Middle East operates in the environment of political-security risks, but the region also bears some geographic and geopolitical ideas stemming from the cultural and historical traditions. Moreover, these geopolitical perceptions are still absent in the Czech scientific milieu.
Therefore, the research attempted to analyse the perception of political-security risks for incoming tourism in the Middle East from the perspective of Czech potential tourists. The main research tool, a questionnaire, served to collect data (February/March 2016) that was analysed through descriptive statistics and statistical inference, such as ANOVA and correlation analysis.
The findings show that the Czech potential tourists do not generalise risks in the Middle East. In this regard, however, an inner circle with spill-over effect can be identified.
Surprisingly, results show a more optimistic risk perception by the respondents, than the entire states' real political-security risk. Sociodemographic characteristics, such as gender and age, play an important role in this perception.
Similarly, travel characteristics, especially psychographic type of tourist, play a crucial role in the perception of risks in the Middle East.