Whether natural or of human origin, a crisis affecting a geographic area can impinge unfavourably on the consumers’ confidence and drive their decision-making processes to discourage visiting the region or even any location whatsoever within the affected country. An appropriate management of the impression projected by a potential destination of tourism involves the provision of information to travellers. In this way, travellers’ perception of risk can be modulated through their information-searching habits. The combination of the above elements makes for a strong case in considering the drivers of risk perception as key aspects in the field of tourism marketing. In this work, we introduce and discuss the results of a study focused on the way that crises and disasters happening as early in the year 2011 as February and March drove the perception of a group of travellers in regard to the affected countries as potential summer destinations. The study was conducted among customers of a five-star hotel located in the Spanish coastal town of Vigo. We have discerned also in what ways the travellers’ sex and age, as well as the different nature of the origin of perceived risk such as crime, natural disaster, political upheaval, riots, and health- related issues, drove their impression of those countries.
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