Between Tourists’ Faith and Perceptions of Travel Risk: An Exploratory Study of the Israeli Haredi Community

Attempting to uncover the factors that generate risk perceptions, the literature so far has been looking primarily at sociodemographic determinants. Significantly less attention has been given to cultural constructs as possible explanatory determinants. This exploratory paper aims to show within the cultural framework how being a religious tourist shapes one’s range, characteristics, and relative importance of travel-related risk perceptions. The study used Haredi women (a community of ultraorthodox religious Jews living in Israel) as a case study and nominal group technique (NGT) embedded into a value stretch model as an integrated methodology. Results show that unlike what was initially postulated, Haredim share risk perceptions common among nonreligious tourists but they are more concerned with travel logistics and physical conditions. However, religiously induced risk perceptions are surprisingly minimal due to zero risk tolerance. Consequently, operation management issues are discussed to offer risk-reduced travel to groups with special risk perception characteristics.