Leaving one’s home can at times be hazardous, especially when unexpected occurrences take place. Simultaneously, the scale of human mobility is growing. No wonder that tourism has become more vulnerable (Seabra, Reis & Abrantes 2020). Global activity has grown, and so have the number and geographical range of terrorism attacks during periods. Inherent to this development is the growth of risk for individual travelers (Beck 1999). Tourists who relate a place to risk will be influenced in their destination and travel behavior (Reichel, Fuchs, & Uriely 2007; Adeloyde & Brown 2017; Ritchie & Jiang, 2019). In parallel to risk expansion comes an increasing awareness and attention to risk, (Cui, Liu, Chang, Duan and Li 2016). Yet the understanding of risk in tourism research is fragmented. This is astonishing, as one could argue that the concept of risk is inherent in the concept of travel (Williams & Balàz 2015).

This contribution studies tourists’ argumentations about risk and safety. How do tourists consider these terms in relation to their journeys? How do they argue about what these terms mean to them, and how terrorism influences their way of travel? This contribution aims to ascertain risk, and ultimately safety, in relation to terrorist attacks in tourism. This is beneficial because literature exhibits a high level of uncertainty, both regarding the interpretation of terms, and managerial actions on the spot.

We have accomplished semi-structured interviews with people who consider themselves common travellers. We asked about people’s views on risk, safety and terrorism. We have been concerned to look beyond travelling patterns, with the intention to understand shared, basic assumptions behind people’s travelling habits. The qualitative approach is motivated by our aim to understand people’s reasoning about their attitudes. There are overwhelming results based on quantitative methods in previous research and this study does not intend to question them. Instead, this is a study in which qualitative interviews can contribute to explaining the previous results based on both qualitative and quantitative results, and to take them a step further. The empirical data consists of eight interviews with people living in Sweden.

The study asserts that the feelings of risk and safety are narrowly related. Travelling together with a trusted person is of importance for decreasing the feeling of risk, and for simultaneously increasing the feeling of safety. Fellow travelers who are calm in agitated situations, who preferably know the place, and who can offer help when needed, are major actors when it comes to keeping cool during the journey. But twitchy companions will achieve the opposite when they transfer their nervousness. Thus choosing a travel companion is a delicate mission for vacationers. In addition, not only fellow travelers are important, but friends and family at home, too. The reasons for omitting risky situations may not be the own life in the first place, but the fact that there is someone waiting for you at home. The birth of one’s own children constitutes a turning point in people’s risk perception, where risk is seen as something less desirable than before. Also age per se is influencing this.
People’s views on sites and countries differed between the interviewees. However there was a close relation to either cultural attitudes towards women, segregation of people or democratic traditions. The main reasons for not immediately visiting a place after a terrorists attack is not fear, but i) what could be described as respect for the people living there, ii) inconvenience because of supposed delays, and iii) that the stay not will be as they would like to when visiting a city in sorrow.

Terrorism is not understood as a major threat during travel; this study achieved nuanced results in this issue. Put simply, terrorism is not in participants’ minds when thinking aout their own safety. Terrorism exists, but doe not influence people’s travel behaviors. In contrast, the interviewees do not consider travelling to places that are related to terrorism, war, or political instability. The most prevalent result in this study is that the perception of risk and safety is strongly interrelated. Rather than being related to risk, terrorism is linked to matters of inconvenience and respect.

In conjunction to earlier research studies pointing at disparate or contradicting results, this research contributes with its emphasis on complexity. Results implicate that research would benefit from amplifying the relationships between risk and safety; risk and place; risk and safety in relation to tourist behaviour before and during travel. One limitation is for sure the close geographical focus on merely Swedish participants in this study, which is why further case studies from other parts of the worls are called for.

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