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Top1. Introduction
Current study is all about the anti-social factors as biased media and terrorism etc. that have influenced the tourist decision making extremely particularly when the unit of study is Kashmir valley. In Kashmir valley unprofessional media has snatched the perception of tourists and other stakeholders of tourism wrongfully and has demeaned the image of Kashmir for tourism. This resulted the diversion of tourism influx to other states of India viz, Himachal Pradesh, Uttrakhand, and Union Territory Ladakh etc. After extensive literature skimming it has been identified that anti-social factors not only change the perception of tourists but also influences the tourist decision making negatively (Bassil, et al., 2017). This study is limited to Kashmir valley and its outcome can be availed for the prosperity of destinations of same level.
Terrorism According to the US Department of Defense, the word terrorism is defined as “the intentional use of unlawful violence designed to threaten or terrorize the society or governments in the perusal of goals that are religious, political or ideological. “The presence of terrorism at a tourist destination affects tourism influx of a destination and has its grave repercussions on the destination because tourists are peace lovers and conflict haters (Shah and Wani, 2014; Gani, et al., 2021).
Biased media is a style of journalism in which stories are presented in such a way as to provoke public interest or excitement at the expense of accuracy. It is apparent from (Hunt, 2014) that biased media is also referred yellow journalism. There are different forms of biased media, however, online biased media proves more harmful than offline, because in e-biased media texts, audios, and videos hypnotize the tourists more than offline. All types of biased media are measured by the Sendex Technique that is categorized into two different means viz, Primitive level, which is based on the empirical determination of different dimensions of biased media and Developed level, which is based on preparation of index for comparative biased media activities realized through judgements (Percy And Mervin, 1960).
1.1 Tourist Decision Making (TDM)
Tourism management is all about making decisions. TDM is the most important step, in which the tourist must first “weigh each alternate” before “choosing the best alternate.” It is influenced by Terrorism and media inputs, so when media inputs are biased, decision making of tourists is highly affected. This implies that tourists are attracted with peace and get distracted by anti-social factors (Shah and Wani, 2014) means tourists fear with terrorism contents (violence, riots, killings, atrocities, kidnapping, terrorism etc.) but love peace and avoid conflict areas (Shah and Wani, 2014). Eventually it is clarified that anti-social factors have separately adverse impressions on decision making of tourists. (Bassil, et al., 2019).
This study is based on the past literature of terrorism and biased media where in at least 28 papers were selected (secondary source) and reviewed systematically based on certain important words of terrorism (atrocities, violence, riots, killings, kidnapping, terrorism etc.) and biased media (offline biased media, e-biased media, fake news, eye catching videos, fake audios, fake cosmic strips etc.). However, the Kashmir has faced sever political turmoil, terrorism and social uproar since 1989. Though the situation is conducive now, but major national level news agencies are displaying fake news about Kashmir which has jerked its tourism sector and reduced its annual tourist arrivals (Dar and Islam, 2018). Current study is an effort to study the influence of terrorism and biased media on TDM in the Valley. Moreover, the evaluation of terrorism and biased media in light of current situation of conflict from 1989 to present (Shah and Wani, 2013) in the Valley is also being studied.