Ski – resort and regional development: profile of visitors ... - E-Journal

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Filio Lazana, Diana Draganescu, Georgiana Grama, Magdalina Yarichkova
Table No 3: Potential visits to destinations having experienced a safety issue
Moreover, people traveling for leisure purposes do not perceive these phenomena as a major
factor that influences their choice of destination; a tendency underwritten by the results of
this questionnaire: people are less influenced in their choice of a destination by the factor
called “absence of threat of natural disasters”, which ranks in the last position, out of a number
of 7 factors. Nevertheless, the general mobilization and quick response of American citizens,
authorities and media after the Hurricane Katrina – which was the costliest and one of the
deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States 2 - seems to have influenced in a positive
manner the perception of leisure tourists who have declared themselves “loyal” to this
destination, despite the serious safety issues identified.
Closely following the case of the USA, tourists possibly visiting Canada also do not seem
to be strongly influenced by safety issues. Twenty five per cent of respondents answered with
“definitely yes” and 18% with “yes”, when asked if they would choose to visit Canada as a
leisure destination, despite the fact that this country was seriously affected in 2003 by the
SARS 3 syndrome. According to different sources 4 , in 2003 the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation reported that the hotel occupancy rate in Toronto was only half the normal rate,
and that tour operators were reporting large declines in business, while most conferences and
conventions scheduled for Toronto were cancelled. And yet presently, according to our survey,
people seem not to be influenced by this safety issue that affected Canada back in 2003. Their
Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper