Rationalising terror‐related risks: the case of Israeli tourists in Sinai

Abstract

Abstract Research into tourist reactions to terror requires qualitative studies that provide insight into the affective and cognitive processes that tourists experience when facing terror‐related risks. The study responds to this need by focusing on Israeli tourists who voluntarily travelled to the terror‐threatened destination of Sinai, Egypt. Applying ethnographic methods, the study identifies two major rationalisations tourists used to reduce their perceived risk: (i) inward‐oriented rationalisations that reduce the perceived risk of the destination by stressing the safety within it; and (ii) outward‐oriented rationalisations that reduce the perceived risk of the destination by emphasising the terror‐related risks, which exist elsewhere. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.