earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between the risk perception, tourism image, and tourism decision making in cruise tourism, and further to propose theoretical and practical implications that will help resume cruise tourism by easing risk perception of the potential cruise tourists and improving the image of cruise tourism. An empirical analysis was performed using SPSS v.21.0 with 219 valid samples out of 225 samples collected in the survey. Frequency analysis, factor analysis, reliability analysis, and multiple regression analysis of the collected data were conducted. The study demonstrated that among the factors of risk perception, perception of physical risks and social risks had a negative impact on tourism images and tourism decision making, while the perception of financial risks and time loss risks was found to have no impact. Moreover, both emotional and cognitive images were found to have a positive influence on tourism decision making. The practical implications based on the above analysis results are suggesting that various publicity campaigns, promotional activities, cruise showcases, and training on cruise safety protocols for cruise-related personnel are needed to mitigate the risk perception level of COVID-19 felt by potential cruise tourists. This study was conducted only for those who had cruise tour experience and was conducted when the safety concerns of cruise tours were at the highest level due to the COVID-19 pandemics. Therefore, it would be also meaningful to conduct a follow-up study with the addition of cruise inexperienced potential tourists after the pandemic has stabilized and to compare them with the results of this study.