Antalya’s tourist security: A gap analysis of expectations vs perceptions

Abstract

The tourism industry strongly contributes to the gross domestic product of many countries. An important aspect of the tourism industry is the security of tourists and its connection to the overall tourism security of a country or tourist location. It is essential to identify vulnerable areas and require security improvements within the tourism industry. This study aims to identify security gaps in the Mediterranean city of Antalya from a tourist perspective. Tourists have been classified in this study as leisure tourists, business tourists, and special event tourists. The research identified expectations and perceptions gaps in the transportation sector, accommodation sector, airports, and public places of Antalya. Data was collected from a sample size of 551 tourists residing in 34 different countries in Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Findings show gaps exist specifically in the levels of security of buses, hotels, airports, shopping malls, restaurants, tourist sites, and beaches of Antalya. The research also assessed the influence of tourists’ purpose of travel and country of residence on their expectations and perceptions of security in Antalya. The study ultimately identified gaps concerning the security of tourists visiting Antalya, and future studies can explore the issues related to these tourism industry’s components in which gaps exist.

The criticality of tourism development, economic complexity, and country security on ecological footprint

“…Considering that COVID-19’s impacts, new travel experiences, and the pressure to have safe and secure tourism will continue to appear in the coming years (WTTC, 2020 ), one vital element of a country’s tourism industry is security (Ghaderi et al, 2017 ). Thus, a flourishing traveler’s destination should guarantee security for both holiday and business trips (Terrah et al, 2020 ). Fourie et al ( 2020 ) present that travelers prefer traveling to nations with comparable ranks of security that exist in their own country, but this relation shows an asymmetric pattern.…”

The Criticality of Tourism Development, Economic Complexity, and Country Security on Ecological Footprint

“…Considering that COVID-19, new travel experiences, and the pressure to have safe and secure tourism will continue to mount in the coming years (WTTC, 2020), 2 a vital element of a country's tourism industry is security (Ghaderi et al, 2017). Thus, a flourishing traveler's destination should guarantee the security of travelers when on their holiday or business trips (Terrah et al, 2020). Fourie et al (2020) present that travelers prefer traveling to nations with comparable ranks of security that exist in their own country, but this relation shows an asymmetric pattern.…”