An assessment of tourists’ risk perceptions visiting conflict zones: A study of the Kashmir Valley

Abstract

The notion of a tourist destination risk perception study has gained considerable prominence over the past decade. The issue of safety and security for some destinations has become a major apprehension for policy makers and legislators as well as for marketing and business people. These concerns are magnified in the case of destinations that are under perpetual threat and affected by geo-political unrest and acts of terror. For such volatile destinations, assessment and understanding of tourist risk perception might assist in the formulation of marketing strategies that will consider the various dimensions of risk perceptions and that will mitigate some of the psychological barriers to travel. Therefore, it is important to know the multi- dimensional risk perception of domestic tourists towards destinations like Kashmir and to understand the impact of identified dimensions of perceived risk on overall risk perception. A quantitative method has been adopted in this study and the final outcomes are an extension in the conceptual framework of risk.

Keywords

• risk
• safety
• security
• crises
• kashmir
• india