Travel Decision-Making: From the Vantage Point of Perceived Risk and Information Preferences

Abstract Characteristics of services in tourism make for a complex travel decision-making process full of intransparency and high financial and personal risk and uncertainty. Tourists therefore can be expected to search for variate information from different sources in order to reduce perceived risk. Risk perception and information search can be considered important factors influencing travel decision-making. This paper tries to investigate various aspects of perceived risk and information search through empirical analysis based on a survey among Austrian residents carried out in May 1996 in Austria.