TOURIST PERCEPTION TOWARDS TRAVEL RISK IN THE PHILIPPINES: BASIS FOR TRAVEL SECURITY AND SAFETY MEASURES

The world has experienced various tragic events and natural calamities. In spite of that, a transnational tourist is expected to grow continually and travelers are expected to grow numerically. Travelers are therefore becoming more concerned with safety and security throughout the duration of their international travel. Tourists go on trips to fulfill certain desires, wants, and needs. It is in their interest to reduce every single factor that might have an effect on their safety. Every risk factor perceives by travelers could be a reason for replacing a destination. The Philippines, an archipelago in the Western Pacific Ocean of more than 7, 000 islands, is well known for its natural beauty, from white sand beaches and coral reefs, to lush mountains, volcanoes, and brightly-colored rice terraces. As Anton (2012) mentioned the slogan “It's more fun in the Philippines” Every year thousands of tourist visits the country as one of their bucket list for their travel destination whether it is for business or leisure. A major determinant in a traveler's decision to visit a destination is the perception of safety and security. Series of activities may undermine these perceptions of a destination. These circumstances, individually or in a combination have a negative impact on perceptions of safety, security or desirability of a tourist destination. Risk plays a large role in the images that people hold and whether or not people intend to travel to a destination. Tourists play an important role in determining how people perceive risk. It is the possibility of meeting a danger while engaging in travels or the consciousness of security and awareness of the likelihood of damage during travel. Within this study, the researcher focuses on how the respondents perceived travel risk in a destination, the significant difference in the tourist perception as to travel risk when grouped according to local and foreign tourists and proposed travel security and safety measures and determine its acceptability. This paper aimed to investigate the tourist perception toward travel risk and proposed intervention measures to reduce the perceived travel risk in the Philippines. For the methodology of the study, the researcher adopted the descriptive method of research. It is devoted to the gathering of information about preventing the risk of the tourist while in a destination for the purpose of description and interpretation. Burns and Grove (2003) describe a research design as “a blueprint for conducting a study with maximum control over factors that may interfere with the validity of the findings”. With the sample size of fifty (50) local and fifty (50) foreign tourists from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3. The respondents were selected using the purposive sampling techniques. A researcher made survey questionnaire was used as the primary data of the study. The following statistical used were utilized frequency, percentage, weighted mean and t-test. Findings disclosed that tourists agree on travel risk in the Philippines as assessed by both local and foreign respondents. As to significant difference the statistical decision is to accept the null hypotheses. Both respondent groups found the proposed security and safety measures acceptable. It is concluded that the two groups of respondents shared the same assessment moderately agree on the tourist perception towards travel risk in the Philippines. The respondents have parallel perception regarding travel risk in the Philippines. The proposed travel security and safety measures may be adopted by the travelers. The travel and tour operators may consider the proposed travel security and safety measures as part of their orientation before traveling in the Philippines or any part of the world.