Page 8 - Destination Risk and Resilience Manual-Namibia

OVERVIEW

Figure 1: Destination Resilience Enables a tourism destination to Absorb Disruptions and then adapt and transform to Reach its
Full Potential Sustainably

Disasters
hazards & risks Destination Sustainable
impacting resilience tourism
tourism

Whereas hazards deal with concrete possibilities, risk tination largely depends on the perceived image that
perception concerns itself with the extent of aware- tourists have of the present reality as well as the future.
ness of a specific issue and its consequences on one’s
close environment (Genc, 2018), especially an individ- Hence, hazards and any negative perceptions are likely
ual’s interpretation of a potential risk and the proba- to result in a reduction in tourists visiting the destina-
bility of hazard occurrence, regardless of the quantum tion area. This, by implication, means that less income
of the perceived threat. The selection of a destination is likely to be generated along the tourism value chain,
is therefore based, not only on the price and image of much to the detriment of tourism stakeholders and
the respective destination but also on personal safety the development of the tourism destination. For a
which is largely perceived in relation to the respective destination such as Namibia, it is therefore imperative
destination (Weidemann, 2009). Risk perception, there- to identify and profile the different hazards and chal-
fore, has an impact on the image of the destination. lenges that are relevant to the country’s tourism and to
This is primarily because the success of a tourist des- understand their impact on the sector.

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