Risk, safety and security among visitors to Istanbul

Abstract

Discourses concerning risk have become increasingly popular among tourism academics. While these cover a wide range of safety and security concerns, there is rather less of a focus on risk from conventional crime than on terrorist threats. In contrast, criminologists have written extensively about the actual and perceived risk of crime. Both tourism academics and criminologists have addressed the question of who is most concerned about crime, but in each case this analysis has focused on questioning people at one point in time. This paper differs in that it compares the perceptions of risk of those arriving on a visit to Istanbul with perceptions of safety among a similar sample of those returning from their trip. In the former case, we consider tourists' perceptions of risk prior to their arrival. In the latter case, their perceptions of safety after their trip, and the consequences of this for future visits, a key concern within the tourism industry.