Journal of Urban Economics and Management

Recognition and classification of perceived risks of traveling to the tourist destinations can be considered as a useful instrument for tourists-related management and planning. Hence, the current article aims at classifying the risks perceived by the foreign tourists of taking trips to Isfahan and, also, investigating the role of previous travel experiences in perception of such risks. The research population was from among the tourists who had visited Isfahan during April and March of 2012. Via random sampling, a group of 300 tourists were selected to participate in the study. To collect the required data, a questionnaire comprising 29 items was utilized to classify the perceived risks the foreign tourists had come up with when intending to travel to Isfahan. To analyze the collected data, exploratory factor analysis, t-test, and ANOVA were run. The results indicated that the very tourists had experienced four types of risks while visiting the city of Isfahan including health, cultural and social, political, and economic ones. The results also revealed that the perception of the risks between the first-time visitors to Isfahan and those who had repeated visits to the city was significantly different in terms of political, economic, and health risks in this tourist destination. However, no significant difference was observed between the first-time visitors and those who had several visits to Isfahan in terms of their perception of socio-cultural risk level in the very destination.