The Dual Purpose of In-Flight Safety Videos
In the past decade, many airlines have started to incorporate videos into their mandatory in-flight safety demonstrations. These videos not only serve as a means of educating passengers on safety procedures but also have evolved into tools for promoting tourism. National flagship airlines such as Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, and Qantas have included footage showcasing their home countries in these videos.
Researchers from the Penn State Department of Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management have studied this phenomenon and found that while these videos can effectively promote a country, they may also compromise the retention of critical safety information. This dual purpose has sparked interest in understanding how these videos impact both passenger safety and tourism marketing.
Importance of Safety Demonstrations
According to the United States National Transportation Safety Board, attentiveness during safety demonstrations is one of the most significant factors in passenger survival during aircraft accidents. To explore which safety videos are most effective, researchers examined the impact of videos containing tourism content compared to those without it.
The study was published in the Journal of Travel Research. It aimed to determine if the inclusion of local content in safety videos influenced passengers’ travel decisions and their ability to recall safety instructions.
Study Design and Findings
The researchers evaluated safety-demonstration videos from 55 nationally affiliated airlines and selected four—Nepal Airlines, Air Mauritius, Sri Lankan Airlines, and Singapore Airlines—for further analysis. Many U.S. carriers were excluded because the study focused on flagship airlines, which are more likely to be involved in national tourism promotion.
A total of 214 adults in the United States participated in the study. They watched one of the selected airline safety videos and then completed a questionnaire about what they remembered from the video. Participants who viewed videos with live-action, local images reported a positive impression of the destination country and indicated that it influenced their choice of travel destinations.
“This research was motivated by the popularity of these newer safety videos,” said Yaqi Gong, a doctoral candidate at Penn State and the study’s first author. “A ‘Lord of the Rings’-themed safety video created by Air New Zealand has been viewed over 25 million times on YouTube. It was clear that these videos were capturing attention, so we wanted to determine whether they affected people’s travel plans and their ability to recall safety information.”
Balancing Safety and Tourism Promotion
While the inclusion of local content in safety videos can enhance a country’s image and influence travel choices, the study found that it may come at a cost. Participants who watched videos with local content were 11% less likely to answer safety questions correctly. This suggests a tradeoff between engaging content and the ability to retain important safety information.
“It seems that there is a tradeoff between engaging content and remembering safety instructions,” said Bing Pan, professor at Penn State and Gong’s doctoral adviser. “Exciting local images may distract viewers from the safety messaging, leading to reduced retention of critical information.”
The researchers emphasized that the results might differ in a real-world setting, such as on an actual airplane. In the study, participants were focused on the task, but on airplanes, passengers may be more inclined to pay attention to visually appealing videos while ignoring standard safety content.
Concerns About Passenger Safety
Despite the potential benefits of incorporating local content, the study found that most participants did not accurately recall safety information, regardless of the video they watched. On average, participants correctly answered around two out of five basic, true-or-false questions about airline safety immediately after watching the video.
“This result is troubling,” said Gong. “Most people retained less than half of the critical information from the safety-demonstration videos. Everyone really needs to pay attention to safety demonstrations—whether or not those videos are engaging.”
Conclusion
The study highlights the complex relationship between in-flight safety demonstrations and tourism marketing. While local content can enhance a country’s image and influence travel decisions, it may also reduce the effectiveness of safety messaging. Researchers urge passengers to pay close attention to safety demonstrations, as they could potentially save lives.
