Cruise Line Customers’ Responses to Risk and Crisis Communication Messages: An Application of the Risk Perception Attitude Framework

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to test cruise line customers’ responses to risk and crisis communication messages addressing health-related incidents on cruise ships. This study used norovirus infections as the context and the Risk Perception Attitude framework as the conceptual foundation. An experiment was conducted to test how communication messages affected cruise line customers’ information search behavior, safety perceptions, and cruise travel intentions. A total of 240 responses were included and analyzed. The results revealed group differences on the three outcome variables. The results also showed that safety perceptions mediated the relationship between participants’ RPAs and cruise travel intentions. Based on the findings, this study provided practical implications on how to develop effective risk and crisis communication messages. This study also highlighted the need for more empirical and theory-driven research in the area of tourism crisis communication.