Assessment of tourist security in Quito city through importance - performance analysis

• Published in: Tourism: An International Interdisciplinary Journal Vol. 67; no. 1; p. 73
• Main Authors: Córdova Jurado, Karina, Torres Matovelle, Pablo
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Institut za turizam 29.03.2019
• Subjects: destination; Ecuador; expectations; perceptions; security; tourism
• ISSN: 1332-7461; 1849-1545

Security in tourism is one of the topics that captivate the attention of academics and practitioners in destination management. However, despite the abundant scientific literature on the subject, even this assessment is a subject little explored from an integral perspective of demand. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the tourist security in Quito with the proposal of a set of attributes and the use of the importance- performance analysis. This study incorporates the expert judgment and the survey technique, as well as a process of descriptive and bivariate analysis. The results reveal the key aspects that should be improved according to the security that the city must offer to the tourist, as well as the position of Quito compared to other destinations perceived by the demand as safer. This study expose a set of safety attributes tested in Quito that could serve as inputs for similar studies in other cities without ruling out other types of destinations. In addition, it focuses the assessment of tourism security through five perspectives: attributes, the general environment of the destination, potential risk groups, visited sites and comparative destinations, amplifying the framework of analysis in urban destinations according to their condition of inhabited spaces.