Article

Treatment of tourist safety in Brazil in the Spanish media before the Olympic Games of Rio 2016

https://doi.org/10.26441/RC16.2-2017-A1

Abstract

Safety is one of the main problems of current tourism worldwide and directly threatening the image of any destination. The media contribute to the formation of this image and provide a perception of security or insecurity. Since the perception of insecurity in Brazil has been one of its main weaknesses, the question arises of how the media influence the formation of the image before a major tourist event. A content analysis on the treatment of tourism security in Brazil was carried out for 16 months prior to the Rio'16 Olympic Games in 1,034 Spanish digital media headlines. It is confirmed an excessively alarmist/sensationalist treatment in tourist topics that are related to the image and the Olympic Games. Although in other tourism areas the news is more flat and descriptive it is noticed that stereotypes of image arise on the occasion of major tourist events.

Keywords

Brazil; content analysis; Spanish digital media; image; Olympic Games; tourist safety

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References

Jaime Álvarez de la Torre es Doctorando del Programa en Dirección y Planificación del Turismo de la Universidad de La Coruña, Departamento de Sociología, Ciencia Política y de la Administración. jaime.delatorre@udc.es, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5899-2805

Diego R. Toubes es Profesor del Área de Organización de Empresas y Marketing: Strategic Management de la Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Turismo, Universidad de Vigo. drtoubes@uvigo.es, http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7017-6659