Acceptance of Life-Threatening Hazards among Young Tourists: A Stated Choice Experiment

This work analyzes the impact of potential life-threatening events at destination on the decision to undertake a leisure trip, and points out the trade-offs between such events and the attributes of a trip. Life-threatening events are a phenomenon of contemporary tourism. Even though, if they do happen, such improbable events have massive consequences, they seem to be implicitly accepted and taken into account by tourists visiting potentially risky destinations. To evaluate the acceptance of such life-threatening events, we apply a stated choice experiment and adopt an Integrated Choice and Latent Variable model. Our research framework considers four types of hazards-terrorist acts, political insurrections, natural catastrophes, and epidemics-focusing on Southeast Asia. A questionnaire was administered to university students currently living and studying in Switzerland. Results show how different hazards, their potential magnitude, and respondents' risk perception influence decisions.