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114 Alex Maritz10.Qxd ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION 103 Alex Maritz1, ShangPao Yeh2, ChichJen Shieh3 EFFECTS OF PERSONALITY TRAIT ON PERCEIVED RISK AND TRAVEL INTENTION IN TOURISM INDUSTRY Although traveling population is rapidly growing, risks are inevitable whenever there are trav el activities. For this reason, tourists' perceived risk and the enhancement of travel intention have been highly pursued objectives in tourism. Research on the relations among perceived risk, travel intention, and Revisit Intention is scarce. The research motivation is therefore induced, expecting to provide the research outcomes as the reference for the relative sectors and tourism businesses. This study aims to examine the effects of tourists' personality trait on perceived risk and tourists' perceived risk on travel intention. To verify the research objective, employees in national parks of Taiwan and tourists have been surveyed. The total of 420 copies of the questionnaire were distrib uted. After removing the invalid and incomplete responses, 274 valid copies were retrieved, repre senting the response rate of 65%. According to the research outcomes, personality trait demon strates partially significant correlations with perceived risk, perceived risk further shows partial correlations with travel intention, whereas personality trait demonstrates notable correlations with perceived risk, while perceived risk appears to moderate the effects of personality trait on travel intention. The suggestions offered are expected to benefit the tourism industry. Keywords: personality trait; perceived risk; travel intention; tourism industry. Research background. Over the last few decades of stable economic growth, national incomes have increased and the working hours have reduced, causing peo ple's lifestyles and attitudes to change. The increased standard of living and reduction in the prices for various travel options has resulted in recreational travel becoming a part of living for most people in developed countries. For example, the number of tourists traveling on weekends is continually increasing. Nevertheless, many risks are inherent in travel activities (Wang, 2010; Hsieh, 2010). The increasing traveling pop ulation represents the increasing travel risks (Tsaur, Tzeng & Wang, 2010; Yeh, 2009). There are 10 possible risks which tourists might encounter, including device risk, financial risk, health risk, physical risk, political risk, psychological risk, satisfaction risk, social risk, terrorism risk, and time risk (Chen, 2009). National research on travel safety is very scarce; most literature on risks has focused on economy, investment, or information. Research on risks in management has mostly covered climate and workplace, but is rare on the topic of personality trait. Accordingly, in the present research the effects of tourists' personality trait on per ceived risk and perceived risk on travel intention are investigated. The research out comes and resulting implications are expected to provide the relative sections or tourism business with reference or suggestion for improvement. Definition and review of literature. I. Personality trait. Gatewood & Field (1998) regarded personality trait as a con tinuous dimension (such as independence, sociability, and need for achievement) to explain the consistency of personal behaviour in different situations. Chang (2010) 1 Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship, Faculty of Business and Enterprise, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. 2 PhD, (Management), Professor, Department of Tourism, IShou University, Taiwan, ROC. 3 Professor, Department of International Business, Chang Jung Christian University, Taiwan, ROC. © Alex Maritz, ShangPao Yeh, ChichJen Shieh, 2013 104 ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION considered that personality was the unique character of a person adapting to people, oneself, external affairs, and the entire environment; such a character, with integrity and permanence, was presented on physical and mental characteristics under the interaction of individual heredity, environment, maturity, and learning. Cattell demonstrated that trait is a permanent reaction which shows consistent behaviour under distinct situations (Chang, 2010). With cluster analysis and factor analysis utilised by Cattell, the following dimensions for personality trait were obtained and adopted for this study (Huang, 2009): (1) extroversion — individuals who are identified by creative thinking, independence, action, insight into affairs, confidence, activeness, performance, preference to making friends, and outgoing; (2) conscientiousness — represents individuals who have increased concentration on objectives and work, who demonstrate responsibility and duty, pay attention to details and politeness, as well as reliability, friendliness, and association; (3) emotional sen sitivity — identified by the increased levels of anxiety, discouragement, worry, insecu rity, and uncontrollable temper. II. Perceived risk. Wang (2010) defined travel risk as the possible risks which tourists perceive in the process of travel, as a result from the provided travel servic es. The extended travel perceived risk refers to the perceived uncertainties and the possibility of negative effects upon the booking of a trip and at the travel destina tion, including the feeling, perception, notice, memory, induction, imagination, anticipation, plan, decision, problemsolving and communication (Chiang, 2009). This also includes the related touring products and services on the trip (Yeh, 2009) and at the destination. Referring to Cheng (2009), the above risks are classified into 3 categories in this study: (1) personal risk — refers to economic risks caused by death, accidents, diseases, age, or unemployment of a person; (2) property risk — refers to the changes of property value, including negotiable securities, bonds, and real estate, caused by accidents; (3) liability risk — represents the liability to pay compensation for others encountering property loss or physical hazard. III. Travel intention. Travel intention is regarded as tourists' intention to travel: purchase intention (Lu, 2009) and; purchase intention of travel products (Lee, 2009). Wu (2010) and Cheng (2009) perceive travel intention as tourists' intention of travel ing to a scenic area. In other words, travel intention can be tourists being interested in a destination and further making a tour (Lu, 2010). For the purposes of this study, the adopted definition of travel intention considers it to be a tourists' purchase inten tion of travel (Lu, 2009). Research hypothesis and method design. I. Research hypothesis and framework. (1) Research hypothesis. Liu (2011) examined the perceived risk of a group tour and found significant effects of personality trait of tourists on the perceived risk of travel. Lin, Su & Huang (2011) studied the effects of travel risk awareness of con sumers on travel decision and found the notable effects of perceived risk on travel intention. Yen (2010) further repeated the effects of personality trait on travel per ceived risk on the sample of elementary school teachers. Lee (2009) also identified significant positive effects of personality trait on attitudes to risks. Finally, Chen (2010) has suggested that distinct personality trait and perceived risk would affect the decisionmaking and behaviours of Japanese tourists. ACTUAL PROBLEMS OF ECONOMICS Vol. 2, #3, 2013 ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION 105 Accordingly, the following hypotheses have been identified for this study: H1 — personality trait shows significant correlations with perceived risk. H2 — perceived risk present notable correlations with travel intention. H3 — personality trait reveals remarkable correlations with perceived risk. H4 — perceived risk shows moderating effects on the relations between person ality trait and travel intention. (2) Research framework. By summing up the above literature, the conceptual framework for this study is drawn — Fig. 1 — to discuss the relations between per sonality trait, perceived risk, and travel intention. H3 H4 Extroversion Personal Risk H1 H2 Conscie ntiou sness Property Risk Travel Intention Emotional Liability Risk Sensitivity Figure 1. Conceptual framework II. Research subject. The total of 420 questionnaires have been distributed to the employees and tourists of the national parks of Taiwan. After removing invalid and incomplete responses, 274 valid responses have been retrieved, representing the response rate of 65%. It is worth noting here that National Park refers to the representative natural areas or humanistic historical landmarks in a country. Since the first national park — Yellowstone “national park” — was established in the USA in 1872, more than 3800 national parks have been established around the world. National parks and natural conservation were first promoted in Taiwan in 1961. After the adoption of National Park Law in 1972, the total of 8 national parks have been established, including Kenting, Yushan, Yangmingshan, Taroko, SheiPa, Kinmen, Dongsha Atoll, and Taijiang. For effectively managing and maintaining national parks and assets, National Park Management has been estab lished under the Ministry of Interior. Regarding the present study's sample of parks, Kenting National Park, Yushan National Park, Yangmingshan National Park, Taroko National Park, SheiPa National Park, Kinmen National Park, have been selected. III. Analysis. Regression analysis is used for understanding the relations among personality trait, perceived risk, and travel intention.
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