From the 20 to the 23 October, 2015 the annual conference of the ATLAS – Association for Tourism and Leisure Education and Research, took place in Lisbon. The international conference aimed at discussing “Risk in Travel and Tourism: geographies, behaviours and strategies”. During the conference the different dimensions of risk in travel and tourism – individuals, businesses, destinations institutions – were considered and the different risk typologies were integrated and put into perspective. Roberta Garibaldi and Carlos Fernandes, experts for IGCAT and members of its board, participated in the conference, where Roberta presented a study on the phenomenon of home-swapping, one of the many collaborative trends born as a consequence of the spread of new forms of tourism. In order to shed light on such phenomenon, a self-administered survey of about 50 questions was launched online on the 20 of April, 2013 to all the members of Homeexchange.com network, one of the most popular home-swap organisations, by the network’s central office. The results of this study shed light on what the characteristics of the home-swappers are, in terms of what their socio-economic profiles, motivations and lifestyles are. Roberta Garibaldi successfully discussed the results of the survey during the conference, focusing in particular on how trust is built between people engaging in this form of tourism, the so-called home-swappers, and how security is provided in such a system.
