Untitled

510 risk, perceived
ing a plan to reduce the level of political, economic
and/or physical risk. Assessments identify the de
minimis risk, meaning those risks that are so
negligible that nothing need be done to control
them, so that resources can be focused on the
major hazards.
Tourism facilities are often vulnerable to environmental
hazards. Locations along coastlines, in
the mountains, along rivers and lakes, in wooded
areas and so on may increase the danger from
hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fire and other
disasters. Assessing the risk requires examination
of 100-year and 500-year flood levels, hurricane
cycles, seismic activity estimates and other predictions
of the occurrence and intensity of disasters.
Political risk is assessed in terms of the history of
political instability, judgements concerning the
level of government support for the industry, and
other factors that may change over time as the
political situation in the nation changes. Of
particular importance is the capacity of tourism
businesses and governments to protect tourists and
residents from natural disasters and political
threats.
See also: emergency management
Further reading
Drabek, T. �1994) `Risk perceptions of tourist
business managers,' The Environmental Professional
16: 327±41. �Examines how tourism executives
interpret risk and act to reduce threats to their
facilities and customers.)
Kunreuther, H., and Slovic, P. �1996) Challenges of
Risk Assessment and Management, Thousand Oaks,
CA, Sage Publications. �Provides a comprehensive
guide to risk analysis and suggests ways for
firms to reduce risk.)
risk, perceived
WILLIAM L. WAUGH, USA
Perceived risk includes the anticipated hazard,
natural or social occasions, which is always greater
for risk-averse than for risk-taking tourists. On
the supply side, it refers to currency uncertainty
perceived by international operators, political and
economic instability for foreign investors, default
risk for creditors and stock return volatility for
shareholders, which is composed of market-related
systematic risks and firm-specific unsystematic
risks.
rite of passage
ZHENG GU, USA
Rites of passage or transition rites are anthropological
terms for rites where a person is
transferred from one status into another, like in
initiation rites and puberty rites, or for rites that are
enacted when crossing the boundaries between the
profane and the sacred or the natural and the
supernatural, as in secularisation, rites of desacralisation
and rites of purification. In transition rites,
the ritual subjects go through phases that are
called preliminal, liminal and postliminal �see
liminality). The first is the normal profane state
of being, the second is sacred, anomalous,
abnormal and dangerous, and the third is the
normal state of things to which the ritual subject
re-enters after the transition. The liminal is a state
and a process in the transition phase during which
the ritual subjects pass a cultural area or zone that
has minimal attributes of the states preceding or
following the liminal, and where the norms and
sanctions of the society do not necessarily apply.
Graburn �1989) has shown how tourism can be
understood as a journey to the sacred in an analogy
with transition rites.
The stage in tourism that resembles the liminal
in rites of passage could be called the liminoid or
quasiliminal. This is produced and consumed by
individuals while the liminal is believed by the
members of society to be of divine origin and is to
its nature anonymous. The liminoid is also
fragmentary compared to the liminal. Often,
elements of the liminal have been separated from
the whole to act individually in specialised fields
like art. In art, popular culture, entertainment and
tourism products that promise to remove the
consumer from the everyday experience are made
for consumption by individuals and groups. They
promise a transition into a stage that resembles the
liminal for a limited time span. This liminal stage