Gender differences in travel risk perceptions within the COVID-19 pandemic context

Resumo

Tourism literature recognizes the importance of studying gender differences on the perceptions of risk due to the impacts on travel decisions (Yang et al., 2017). The purpose of the present study is to identify the main differences in safety perceptions to travel domestically and internationally between males and females within the COVID-19 pandemic context. Based in previous studies, the present work was built on the hypothesis that women are more sensitive than men to health risks with concerns travel behavior. 

Using snowball sampling, it was possible to collect 1536 answers from respondents in 63 countries and the findings of this research, applied to the COVID-19 context, are in line with previous research: compared to men, women have a higher degree of risk perception when it comes to travel even when considering travel motivations.