Cybersecurity threats in tourism and hospitality: perspectives from tourists engaging with sharing economy services

In recent years, the number of cyber-attacks has increased significantly, affecting various business sectors, including tourism and hospitality. However, research on cybersecurity in tourism remained scarce. The current study aims at investigating cybersecurity threats from tourists’ perspectives while using sharing economy services. Using snowball sampling method and considering the ‘real experience of cybercrime’ as inclusion criterion, a total number of 14 in-depth interviews with tourists from different parts of the world were conducted online and data were analysed thematically through the lens of Protection Motivation Theory. The findings uncovered the heightened susceptibility of both tourists and sharing economy services to an array of cyber-attacks, encompassing side jacking, Point-of-sale attacks, insecure transactions, personal data breaches, phishing, etc. These multifarious threat vectors significantly complicate effective responses. In line with PMT, several themes, including threat appraisal, coping appraisal (perceived efficacy, response efficacy and response costs), self-protection and behavioural decision-making, have emerged. The results further indicate that high vulnerability attributes to tourists unfamiliarity and restricted cognizance of destination-specific elements such as regulatory framework, financial systems and technological infrastructure. Tourists’ reactions to cybercrimes exhibit variability contingent upon the typologies of threats or attacks, contextual factors, prevailing conditions and their geographic disposition during the occurrence.