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The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of the acceptance of national governments’ restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic on the citizens’ safety perceptions of daily life and future plans. In particular, the aim is to examine the relationship among the citizens who belong to Generations Y and Z and who represent the future of tourism markets, as tourists and as host communities, in three important receiving countries, namely, Egypt, Portugal and Turkey.

This pilot project gathers data from three important receiving countries located on two continents involving 348 residents from Generations Y and Z. To identify the factors underlying the “acceptance of restrictions and measures” and the “Impacts of the COVID-19 threat on safety perceptions” a factor analysis was carried out. Notably, Pearson's correlation coefficient and a multiple linear regression analysis allowed to analyze the relationships between the two factors and a Kruskal–Wallis test was used to assess the influence of individuals’ country of residence.

The results reveal that in general, young generations accepted the measures and restrictions imposed by the respective governments. In addition, the present pandemic has a strong impact on their safety perception in daily lives and future plans to travel. Moreover, results prove that between the three countries there are dissimilarities showing that the countries' situation regarding COVID-19 influences those two dimensions.

This study adds to the development of studies on the impacts of health risks in tourism activity, specifically on the safety measures adopted and their impacts on local receiving communities. It shows that the current pandemic is severely affecting the daily lives and plans for the future of citizens and tourists, which is in accordance with previous studies.

The outcome of this study paves the way for policy-makers in the tourism industry because it presents experiences from Generations Y and Z members, future customers and tourist products consumers, but also from receiving communities.

The results of this study bring some light on how local communities, specifically, the younger generations, are facing this pandemic period and on the impact it has on the way they face daily life, future plans and on their level of acceptance of a sector as important as tourism.

To the knowledge, besides the relevant studies already conducted on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the tourism field, no study has yet been carried out to analyze how residents have reacted and accepted the restrictions and security measures imposed by their national governments and their impact on residents’ feelings and perceptions, daily lives and travel plans. Furthermore, the specific impacts of this crisis will have on the younger generations are yet to be analyzed.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of peacefulness in the tourists’ country of origin in their main decisions and behaviours when travelling internationally.

A sample of 600 international tourists from 49 countries was divided into five groups according to each respondent’s belonging to a country with a specific level of peacefulness, assessed by the Global Peace Index, to test differences in international travel decision and behaviour patterns.

Travel safety is a critical issue to most tourists, while the peacefulness level of travellers’ country of origin is an important key factor for understanding different travel behaviours and safety perceptions held when going on an international trip, namely, regarding involvement, risk and safety/insecurity perceptions.

This is one of the few studies investigating the impact of peacefulness in the tourist’s country of origin on travel decisions and behaviours, based on the Global Peace Index. Additionally, this study responds to the call of the Prospect Theory regarding general consumption contexts, and adds to the Experiential Consumer Perspective, here applied to tourism consumption.

This study provides guidance to destination and tourism industry managers to attract and segment their market according to tourists’ country of origin, in accordance with its respective level of peacefulness as defined by the Global Peace Index, especially in destinations more affected by terrorism, war, political turmoil, crime and other safety risks.

No published study has tested the impact of peacefulness at home on tourists’ international travel behaviours and decisions yet.

There is no industry in the world where a crisis caused by terrorism has such a strong impact as in tourism. Providing security for visitors before and during a trip can be a critical success factor for the competitiveness of a particular destination or organization or for business tourism when tourists consider multiple alternatives. Information about political instability, violence, crime or terrorist attacks could cause a substitution effect by tourists. International terrorism and tourism share some characteristics, as both cross national borders, involve citizens from different countries and use the new travel and communications technologies. In recent decades, terrorism organizations have been using tourism targets to gain global visibility. Based on a broad analysis of literature and data, the main goal of this research is to update the work of Seabra (2019) and help to analyse the main connections between terrorism and tourism, specifically by presenting the main terrorist events targeting tourism activity and destinations in the last 35 years and their main consequences for tourism industry.

Tourism, as a system, develops strategies for risk prevention and mitigation. The shock generated by the COVID-19 pandemic is different when compared with previous events because it is more intense and prone to structural changes. Tourists' perceptions condition their behaviour and decisions, with adverse results on travel and tourism consumption; and hygiene and health risks generate a cause-effect relationship on destination specificities.

From globalisation to risk perception and crisis management, in a framework where technology, communication and digital content represent undeniable importance, we are facing circumstances especially conducive to the redesign of the collective future, where the sustainability of tourism is a collective goal, arising from the right balance between the competitiveness of destinations and climate action.

Given the prospects for the next decade, health and hygiene are structural factors to be considered in decision-making processes. Thus, so the proposed approach contributes to the awareness, by the various stakeholders, of its importance and the need to implement methods and processes compatible with more inclusive and responsible tourism.

The recent COVID-19 virus outbreak, as well as many other global risks, has put the tourism industry on the brink of collapse. Even if interesting advances have been seen the light of publicity based on risk perception, no less true seems to be that the current theory is not enough to understand and describe the impacts of new global risks that may destroy the industry in question of weeks. This introductory chapter gives a snapshot on the fragile conditions we are moving today and interrogates further the future of tourism.

Since it was adopted from psychology just after the turn of twentieth century, risk perception theory has multiplied and successfully evolved in the fields of tourism research. A dearth of studies has focused on risk perception over the recent decades. We have certainly identified three clear-cut traditions: demographical school, psychological school and critical perspective. With benefits and problems each theory has shed light trying to measure the impact of global risks in the tourism and hospitality industries.

This book keeps the originality to update what has been published in the earlier decades. We are incorporating new topics to the discussion as well as new epistemologies and methodologies. Gathering different high-quality products authored by well-renowned authors coming from different countries, it lays the foundations to a new understanding of risk perception and tourism safety-security debating the next steps and the real challenges posed on the industry in a not so long near future.

The concept of risk perception in tourism has long been studied and debated, being commonly approached as a multidimensional construct. Physical risk is one of the most common dimensions of perceived risk, covering numerous tourists' concerns. Given the extent of the items included in the physical risk dimension, the study aims to overview this topic, analysing different aggregated risks, presenting a schematic representation based on an extensive literature review that a posteriori was categorized into three groups: human-made, mixed and natural. The aim was to introduce a broader and more precise understanding of the physical risks in tourism.

The twenty-first century has been characterized by the intensification of concerns related to tourism safety and security. These issues are playing an increasingly significant role over recent years, due to the increase of terrorist attacks in several countries, political instability, natural disasters, epidemics and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding tourist safety and security in the tourism context is, thus, critical to increasing the competitiveness and attractiveness of tourist destinations.

Through the bibliometric methods of performance analysis and science mapping, this study aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge on tourist safety and security at the destination.

A total of 445 records published between 1989 and 2021, covering 191 academic journals and 1,000 authors from 91 different countries, were analysed.

The main findings show that this research field has attracted a substantial and growing interest of researchers, institutions, journals and countries. Opportunities for future research are related to decision making, tourist behaviour, risk perception, tourism safety, destination image, safety engineering and sustainable development.

In the post-pandemic context, this research field can be critical to providing a set of tailored strategies to improve tourists' safe destination environment and increase tourism destinations' competitiveness and attractiveness.