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How does the suffering of a whole industry influence people’s attitudes toward that industry? This research is the first, across disciplines, to examine this question. The authors provide the first conceptual study and empirical test for the phenomenon called tourism solidarity. Based on seminal social psychology research, tourism solidarity is conceptualized and defined as an individual’s compassion with and support of an industry, resulting from an observation of suffering. The authors use a covariance-based structural equation model as well as a novel Bayesian estimation approach (i.e., non-parametric) to develop a reliable and easy-to-apply tourism solidarity scale and assess its role of solidarity in two consecutive empirical studies. By doing so, the authors are able to empirically demonstrate the importance of tourism solidarity for tourist behavior, and provide both tourism researchers and practitioners with a conceptual model and measurement tool to assess, quantify and actively manage solidarity toward the tourism industry.

This exploratory study adopts a multi-dimensional approach to research on how travel-related risk perceptions are formed. It looks at risk-inducing factors both from the tourist and the destination perspectives. Using predefined risk characteristics observed in the literature, the study's leading research question asked to what extent these individual risk factors influence tourists' risk perception. A sample of potential German tourists to Israel was used for this exploratory study. Each interviewee was asked to indicate his/her socio-cultural background, travel experience at different spatial levels, risk-taking personality, level of perceiving Israel as a risky destination, and willingness to travel to Israel. Results show that accumulated travel experience does have a bearing on German tourists' willingness to travel to destinations that carry a high risk image but does not affect the perceived level of risk. Using the concept of geo-familiarity, the study discovered that risk perception may not only be developed on a country destination level but may be different based on spatial perception of risk. Based on these results, the study draws several risk-management and marketing strategies.

The paper examines which travel risks are more salient for tourists' destination choice. We develop and test an integrated travel decision risk typology with survey data from 835 potential tourists. Specifically, we explore the interplay of risk types, tourist attributes and destination characteristics. We examine if travel risks linked to nature, health, terrorism, criminality, political instability are more salient for tourists' destination choice - and how risk perceptions influence tourist’s in the key stages of the decision-making process. Results offer an important baseline for future studies in the post-COVID-19 phase. First, our integrated travel decision risk typology distinguishes between sociodemographic, psychological and travel-related factors. We show that past travel experience shapes risk perceptions and impacts tourists' future destination choice. Second, we reveal that natural disasters are not the key barrier in the early decision-making stage of the destination choice process. Third, we identify tourist segments that are resilient to certain risks. We conclude with implications for the tourism practice with recommendations on how to manage travel risk and decision-making behaviours in the (post-)COVID-19 phase.