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

Leisure tourists’ considerations regarding destinations recently experiencing safety and/or security problems
choice and their perception of Canada as a safe destination might be influenced by the factor
that we called “time elapsed from the safety incident”, which ranks in the second position in
respondents’ priority of the factors that influence them when choosing a destination. Also,
we have to take into account the fact that, with the exception of SARS, Canada has not
frequently experienced any other major safety issue and the overall image of the country has
generally been a positive one mainly due to its political and economic stability.
As far as India, Indonesia and China are concerned, most of the respondents were undecided
whether or not they will choose to visit one of these destinations in the near future, with the
“maybe” box being by far the most ticked. One of the factors that has influenced respondents’
decision might be the fact that these countries have experienced a safety issue quite recently,
and the impact of this aspect is still in their collective memory. The images of the tsunami
disaster (which affected Indonesia and some parts of India at the end of 2004) that have been
broadcasted all over the globe, or the damages caused in India in October 2005 by an earthquake
with the epicenter in the disputed region of Kashmir, together with the great loss of human
life due to the avian flu in China (2005), seem to be the main reasons for which respondents
are reluctant to visit the above mentioned countries. Another possible explanation for their
reluctance is the fact that most of the participants are of European origin, while the countries
mentioned above are long-haul destinations for the European market. Since the budget of
most of the participants is less than f12.000, they might also take into account the fact that
their budgets would not allow them to visit one of these destinations. Also, these destinations
are emerging markets in the leisure tourism industry. Therefore, most tourists might fear that
they do not offer standards equal to those of the traditional destinations.
Still, we assess that Indonesia and China have the potential for developing into productive
markets, due to their novelty value in particular for the European market. A relatively high
percentage of “yes” answers with a view to the above-mentioned countries shows that tourists
do not totally dismiss the opportunity of visiting such “exotic” destinations.
When it comes to India, things are somehow different, since the percentage of “yes” answers
was surpassed by the high percentage of “no” answers. This might be due to the fact that the
respondents took into account not only the safety factor, but might also have been influenced
by their own biases and by the overall image of the country (political and economic factors
playing a major role).
As for Japan, although it is a long-haul destination and it presents constant seismic activity,
the majority of opinions were favorable (18% of “yes” answers), mainly because Japan is
considered, as a paradox, to be a world leader in earthquake preparedness, mainly after the
Kobe quake which killed more than 5,000 people. At the same time, we may claim that Japan
is a “mature” market in the leisure and business industry, as compared to China, or Indonesia.
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