Crises in the tourism industry and their effects on different generations

This Bachelor’s thesis is about crises in the tourism industry and their effect on different age generations. It is commissioned by Toiviomatkat Ltd. and the aim was to investigate does fear exist in tourists while traveling and is age a significant factor in having fear. The three age generations studied are generation Y, generation X and the Baby Boomers. The primary tourism related crisis and risk that are researched are diseases, terrorism within transportation, terrorism at destination, natural disasters, technical failures, theft, kidnapping and political disputes. The theoretical framework includes theory about crisis, particularly crisis within the tourism industry, perception of risk, information channels and behavioural patters of the three age generations examined. Methodological theory of the research is also presented. The research was conducted with an online survey, distributed via social media and email. The data was collected between October 2014 and January 2015. The questionnaire used was a mixed method of a qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative method gathered in-depth data with open-ended questions whereas the quantitative method consisted of multiple-choice questions and focused at gathering empirical and numerical data. The results reached answers to the research question, and also partially confirmed the hypothesis. Fear is existent among traveling tourists and age is a factor when having fear. According to the data, the oldest generation, Baby Boomers, is more afraid of certain crisis in the tourism industry