The Effect of Gender on Traveling Risks Perception among Inbound Tourists who Visited Isfahan

The success of a tourism destination is depended on reinforcement of persuasive elements and elimination of factors which discourage tourists to select that destination. Tourist’s perception of risk is a disincentive factor that influences tourist’s travel intention to a destination. But it should be noted that different genders may have different perception of similar risks. That is why present study primarily aimed to classify different dimension of risks which perceived by inbound tourists who visited Isfahan and also tried to determine the role of gender in perception of different risk dimensions. The statistical population of the study is inbound tourists who visited Isfahan during April and March of 2012. A sample of 300 tourists has been selected by convenience sampling method. A self-administrated questionnaire with 29 items has been used to gathering data. The results of exploratory factor analysis identified four types of risks which have been perceived by tourists who visited Isfahan. These include health, socio-cultural, political, and economic risks. Also the results indicate that female tourists perceived more risks for traveling to Isfahan than males. Finally some of empirical suggestions have been offered.