Counter Terror Gazette

Terror in the Skies: the impact on tourism on the ground

15 Feb 2011

‘There is a growing perception of the world as a more risky place to live and travel (Fischoff, Nightingale and Ianotta 2001) and this perception could have serious implications for tourism.’ (Reisinger and Mavondo 2005)

Tourism is always susceptible to terrorism (as well as other threats such as disease, wars, civil unrest etc.) It can strike anywhere and at any time, indiscriminately. Tourists either change their travel plans, especially with regard to the mode of transport or the destination or may not travel at all if they perceive the threat of terrorism on their planned trip. The results of a questionnaire (by Alsarayreh, Jawabreh and Helalat 2010) about how tourists make their travel decisions indicated that terrorism, as well as political conflicts and political instability, have a strong negative influence on the destination selection and tourism activities. The threat of terrorism is consequently an important consideration for policy and it is in the public interest of countries to protect themselves and their tourism industries as a change in the types of tourists and the fluctuations in numbers could represent a substantial economic danger. Dirk Reiser evaluates the impact of terrorism on the tourism industry and provides an insight into the way in which Australia, in particular, has responded to the threat.

Terrorism can be defined in many different ways depending on particular political and cultural contexts. It is a ‘feeling or reaction to that which provokes fear of a person, object or thing’ (Zournazi 2007). The US Department of State defines it as ‘premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against civilians and unarmed military personnel by sub-national groups’, and international terrorism involves ‘citizens or the territory of more than one. 

Tourism and Travel post-9/11

What appears to be universally accepted is that the perception of terrorism changed globally since the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States. It changed infrastructure and security issues in the tourism industry, the psychology of travel and the way in which people see the world. The attacks led to a dramatic overhaul of airline and airport security such as putting people on watch lists, having sky marshals on flights, strengthened cockpit doors, subjecting people to pat-downs, disallowing any sharp items in the hand luggage and increased use of biometric data for identification. Additional measures have subsequently been introduced after new attempts to blow up airplanes, including the scanning of shoes or limiting the amount of liquids allowed in hand luggage after a plot was discovered to mix different liquids on the plane to produce liquid explosives. In the immediate hours after this plot was discovered an automated alert went out to airports around the world and, for a short time, the British authorities did not allow any hand luggage into the cabin except the bare essentials (e.g. wallets, keys and travel documents). More recently, an attempt to blow-up a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day 2009 by an individual with explosives concealed in his underwear, raised the question of whether the instalment of more explosive detecting screening equipment such as body scanners would be beneficial. Through 2010, such devices became more commonly deployed.MORE ONLINE