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

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Filio Lazana, Diana Draganescu, Georgiana Grama, Magdalina Yarichkova
both male and female respondents to visit that destination. People have a tendency to forget,
after a certain time, upsetting incidents, or have a memory of such an incident, which is not
so strong as to deter them from visiting the place. A good example supporting this view are
the results that we registered for USA (Table No 4) when asking respondents to state if they
would chose to visit this destination in the near future.
Word of mouth advertising (30%), brand name suppliers (25%) and the knowledge of local
language (24%) – a reason chosen mainly by those with a university degree or higher – were
relatively less convincing for the participants. Concerning brand name suppliers, in today’s
“networked” world, where many consumers browse and book vacations online, what makes
a company stand out from the crowd is the value of its brand and what that brand says to
existing and potential customers. Consumers tend to book at the same hotel or with the same
chain time and time again because they value the brand and the level of service, reliability
and quality that comes with it (Kyriakidis & Viles, 2006).
Only five of the 158 respondents were not convinced by any of the 9 reasons proposed. These
are mostly Greek males, 26-44 years old with an annual income greater than f12.000.
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The need for safety and a secure environment is definitely the conditio sine qua non for the
existence and the development of tourism at a destination.
Recent history has made people realize that no part of the world is immune to terrorist attacks.
It can be concluded that nowadays, apart from the need to travel to a destination with good
sanitation and medical conditions, security factors play a major role when choosing a destination.
“As world tension mounts, the demand for risk management increases”. 6
The inference to be drawn from the above study findings is that, when choosing a destination,
security factors are prevalent in travelers’ minds as compared to safety factors. The absence
of natural disasters ranks on the last position out of 7 factors influencing the choice of
destination. According to the research findings, the factors which most influence the choice
of a destination are the absence of fanatic or terrorist groups, absence of terrorist attacks and
political stability. Furthermore, the key factor in the process of choosing a destination is “the
time elapsed” since the incident has occurred. Nevertheless, the uncertainty in the minds of
tourists, as well as the actual damage to a destination, may delay the recovery stage.
A solution to be implemented would be for the tourism industry to advance the recovery stage
for any afflicted destination, by dispersing factual information locally and internationally,
thus bringing visitors back to the affected area, when it comes to rebuilding the image of the
destination after a safety and/or security incident has occurred.
Tourism Today - Fall 2007 - Full Paper