This research investigates the influence of Media Coverage and the perceived risks related to travel and tourism by the pandemic's time on the odds of potential outbound tourists' level of awareness. The data of 1845 individuals nested from more than 12 countries and 4 continents representing quarantined and most impacted areas in the world during the crisis phase. A multilevel model with a categorical dichotomous outcome was applied. The findings confirm that media have preeminent control on accentuating potential travellers' awareness during a crisis as the primary source of information. Besides, the physical perceived risk influences the likelihood to fall in the group of aware individuals. The research gives insights and evidence to practitioners of the tourism industry in destinations to plan and organize better with governmental authorities and provide ethical, responsible, and accurate information about the real situation and the health system's responses through their communication and information efforts during the recovery phase.

PurposeIt became a fact, and the world's countries went under confinement due to the pandemic of the Covid19. There are severe impacts on tourism with the supply chain experiencing a full pause. This research investigates the influence of governance, media coverage, crisis severity, former travel practice and Covid-19 incidences on the perceived risk related to travel and tourism during the pandemic and in cross-countries.Design/methodology/approachWe collected the data from a sample of 1845 individuals from more than 12 countries and four continents representing quarantined and most impacted areas in the world in March and April 2020. A multilevel linear model was applied to predict the perceived risk across countries as a level 2 research unit.FindingsThe finding confirms the clustering in the data with media coverage, governance and crisis growth affecting the outcome. There are cross-level interaction effects, as the growth rate of the pandemic per country and media coverage impact tourists' perception of risk. Finally, there are lower-level direct effects, with lower-level variables affecting tourists' perceived risks.Research limitations/implicationsThe survey is randomly administered online due to the nearly complete quarantine implemented in the studied areas. Besides, and considering the latter, the responses might have been subjective due to the non-containment of the crisis by the study's time, directing to possible alteration of feelings and responses from respondents. This leads to suggest a future extension of this research, similarly, post-crisis.Originality/valueThis research pinpointed the impacts of predictors, concerning the countries' level, during the crisis phase on the perceived risk. Therefore, it gives insights into professional bodies on future concerns to be considered during the recovery phase.

The tourist industry is one of the most important economic activities in Greece. The country receives over 32 million visitors per year. Greece has enjoyed increasing numbers of people and revenues from tourism, due to the unique environments that are both natural and man-made that make it a high-profile tourist destination; however, it is already clear that uncontrolled growth of the industry may bring serious environmental and social problems, leading to a decline in the quality of tourist product and services provided. According to the triple bottom line (TBL) philosophy developed by Elkington (1998), sustainable tourist development must be balanced at the same time with economic, social and environmental aims, from a microeconomic point of view, as tools to measure environmental impact. The Prokopiou-Tselentis model is an integrated assessment system for environmental management and impact estimation of a tourism destination. In this paper, we propose the implementation of the Prokopiou-Tselentis model as the economic, social and tourism situation demands data to estimate the development of tourism and its impact on the Greek islands of Cyclades.

Carrying capacity assessment has become an indispensable tool for formulating policy and strategies in the tourist industry worldwide. It is well known that Greece depends heavily on the tourist trade, as this has, in recent years, become the main economic activity in many of the Greek islands. The transformation of local economies from primary and secondary production to tertiary has, over the years, substantially altered the business environment in which such an activity takes place. Many studies have shown that the tourist product is a blend of ecological, social and economic sub-systems, operable in the area of interest. For the Greek Islands, environment, both natural and man made, plays a leading role in the sustainable development of the industry. It is the purpose of this paper to apply the principles of carrying capacity assessment to three Greek islands, differing in their tourist development, in an effort to highlight the importance of such a tool in developing long-term sustainable policies for such communities.

No abstract