Measuring the Perception of Travel Security ? Comparative Analysis of Students in Two Different Fields: Tourism and Security

The aim of the research was to determine how students/respondents perceive security on their travels in Europe. The respondents belong to two different study programmes, one focusing on the field of security (Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor) and the other on the field of tourism (Higher Vocational School for Catering and Tourism). Our main presumption was that students of the two institutions developed a different attitude towards travel security since their studies focus on two substantively different academic-professional fields. We examined their attitude towards security factors such as: security climate, self-protection and collective security. In our research we included a sample of 100 students/respondents. We used an instrument in the form of a questionnaire for the quantitative measurement of responses on a 5-point Likert scale. To portray the results of the research we also used various statistical indicators in the computer programme SPSS such as: arithmetic mean, Man-Whitney test, frequency distribution of responses, where independent variables are displayed. The findings suggest that the students/respondents attitude towards safety and their expectations on individual elements of all three security factors differ in the two target groups. The expectations of students/respondents of FCJS regarding the implementation and provision of security are higher compared to students/respondents of HVC. Respondents have different experience with security on their travels, as the number of travels varies quite substantially between students. Both institutions can use the results of the research in the evaluation processes of their study programmes. On the basis of the results of the research it is substantiated that the field and content of study have an impact on the students' attitude to elements of security while travelling. The findings are intended to all researchers in the field of security and tourism, as well as designers of study programmes of these two study fields.