Does cultural background of tourists influence the destination choice? an empirical study with special reference to political instability

Political Instability is a complex and multidimensional term with various conceptualisations and interpretations. This paper investigates the cross-cultural differences of the perceptions of travel agents concerning the impact of political instability on tourism. To capture the impact a composite index of political instability indicators was developed and was subsequently distributed to 2000 travel agents in six major tourism generating countries. An integrated empirical framework has been developed which allows the analysis of the survey data using repeated measures ANOVA. The results of the study demonstrates the existence of significant differences on the way that travel agents perceive the impact of the various types of political instability on the tourism industry. The results might be of some interest to tourism policy makers and marketing agents. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.