Hong Kong Residents' Adoption of Risk Reduction Strategies in Leisure Travel

ABSTRACT

For decades risk has been identified as a major concern for traveling. Although some recent studies focused on studying consumers' perceived travel risks, only a few prior studies literally discussed consumers' risk reduction strategies in the context of travel-related services. To fill this gap, this study aims to investigate the travel-related risk reduction strategies that Hong Kong residents adopt to strengthen their confidence during leisure travel. This study also explores if travelers of different travel-related and sociodemographic characteristics adopt different risk reduction strategies. Among different risk reduction strategies—“purchase travel insurance,” “bring extra cash,” and “search for latest information about the destination”—are the ones which Hong Kong residents are likely to adopt when they travel for leisure. Results revealed that travel-related and sociodemographic characteristics influenced travelers' likelihood to risk reduction strategies differently. Specifically, travel experience of travelers, age, and household income displayed significant differences in the likelihood of adopting most of the risk reduction strategies.

Keywords:

• Risk reduction
• leisure travel
• Hong Kong

Acknowledgments

This study was part of the annual Hong Kong residents' outbound travel survey funded by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The authors would like to thank Miss Mina Li, Research Assistant, for her assistance in this project.