Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Tourism Management,
14, 173–183.
Santana, G. (2001). Globalization, safety and national security, in S. Wahab and
C. Cooper (eds.), 
Tourism in the Age of Globalization
. London: Routledge,
pp. 213–241.
Santana, G. (2003). Crisis management and tourism: Beyond the rhetoric. 
Journal of
Travel and Tourism Marketing,
15(4), 299–321.
Sharpley, R., and Sharpley, J. (1995). Travel advice—Security or politics? in 
Security
and Risks in Travel and Tourism. Proceedings of the Talk at the Top Conference,
Mid-
Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden, 168–182.
Sherman, L.W., Gartin, P., and Beurger, M. (1989). Hot spots of predatory crime:
Routine activities and the criminology of place. 
Criminology,
27(1), 27–56.
Smith, G. (1999). Towards a United States policy on traveler safety and security:
1980–2000. 
Journal of Travel Research,
38(1), 62–65.
Sönmez, S. F., and Graefe, A. R. (1998a). Determining future travel behavior from past
travel experiences and perceptions of risk and safety. 
Journal of Travel Research,
37(2), 171–177.
Sönmez, S. F., and Graefe, A. R. (1998b). Influence of terrorism risk on foreign tourism
decisions. 
Annals of Tourism Research,
25(1), 112–144.
Sönmez, S. F., Apostolopoulos, Y., and Tarlow, P. (1999). Tourism in crisis: Managing
the effects of terrorism. 
Journal of Travel Research,
38(1), 13–21.
Sonmez, S. F. (1994). An exploratory analysis of the influence of personal factors on
international vacation decisions within the context of terrorism and/or political insta-
bility risk. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State
University.
Sonmez, S. F. (1998). Tourism, terrorism, and political instability. 
Annals of Tourism
Research,
25(2), 416–456.
Steene, A. (1999). Risk management within tourism and travel. 
Turizam,
47(1), 13–18.
Tarlow, P. E., and Santana, G. (2002). Providing safety for tourists: A study of a selected
sample of tourist destinations in the United States and Brazil. 
Journal of Travel
Research,
40, 424–431.
Tsaur, S. H., Tzeng, G. H., and Wanf, K. C. (1997). Evaluating tourist risks from fuzzy
perspectives. 
Annals of Tourism Research,
24(4), 796–812.
Walmsley, D. J., Boskovic, R. M., and Pigram, J. J. (1983). Tourism and crime: An
Australian perspective. 
Journal of Leisure Research,
13(2), 136–155.
Wilks, J., and Page, S. J. (eds.) (2003). 
Managing Tourist Health and Safety in the New
Millennium
. Oxford, UK: Pergamon.
World Tourism Organization (1991). 
Recommended Measures for Tourism Safety
.
Madrid: World Tourism Organization.
Tourism, Security and Safety: From Theory to Practice
26
H7898_Ch01.qxd 8/24/05 8:03 AM Page 26

---

World Tourism Organization (1995). 
Best Practice Manual on Traveler Safety
. Madrid:
World Tourism Organization.
World Tourism Organization (1997). 
Tourist, Safety and Security: Practical Measures
for Destinations,
2nd ed. Madrid: World Tourism Organization.
World Tourism Organization (2003). 
Safety and Security in Tourism: Partnerships and
Practical Guidelines for Destinations
. Madrid: World Tourism Organization.
Toward a Theory of Tourism Security
27
H7898_Ch01.qxd 8/24/05 8:03 AM Page 27

---

H7898_Ch01.qxd 8/24/05 8:03 AM Page 28

---

I
Tourism, Terrorism,
and Civil Unrest
Issues
Yoel Mansfeld and Abraham Pizam
Terrorism and civil unrest have been the cause of
numerous tourism crises since the beginning of
modern tourism in the late 1950s. While civil unrest
is more confined to specific destinations and the fre-
quency is relatively low, terrorism has evolved into a
major global concern for the tourism industry,
tourists, and for hosting communities. In all cases
the major concern is when these events take place at
tourist destinations or in very close proximity, thus
damaging the image, infrastructure, and competi-
tiveness of the destination.
The relationship between civil unrest and terrorism
on the one hand, and tourism on the other, has had
H7898_Ch02.qxd 8/24/05 8:03 AM Page 29

---

Tourism, Security and Safety: From Theory to Practice
30
various manifestations. In some cases, as often happened with the IRA terror activity
in the UK or with the ETA separatist group in Spain, terrorist groups use threats to hit
tourism facilities and/or tourists as a means to achieve their goals. If such threats make
their way through to reach the media, they could negatively affect a given destination
without even reaching the stage of actual on-the-ground operation. Occasionally, when
civil unrest and terrorism do take place, the declared targets are simply economic or
strategic ones, yet hitting them does have negative impacts on tourism. This was the
case in the September 11 attack in 2001 in the United States and the civil unrest events
of the Chiapas in Mexico in 1994. In both cases, tourism was badly affected, access to
various tourism attractions was temporarily denied due to security and safety reasons,
and local communities faced various levels of short-term economic hardship.
The most detrimental effect that civil unrest, especially terrorism, has on
tourism is when the violent activity directly targets it. Some examples are Bolivia
in 2003; Spain with the ETA group since 1995; in Egypt on several occasions, but
mainly in the attack on tourists in Luxor 1997; and on the Hilton Taba Hotel in the
north tip of the Sinai peninsula in 2004. In all these instances, the image of such
destinations is severely damaged and the recovery process takes much longer.
Moreover, when security events such as terror and civil unrest are directly aimed
at tourism, both public and private tourism sectors need to exert the most demand-
ing concerted efforts to reactivate tourist flows.
In this first section of the book, the above relationships and their impact on
tourism are discussed on both a theoretical and a case-study level. The first chap-
ter, by Peter Tarlow, provides a theoretical discussion on the roots and characteris-
tics of the relationship between terrorism and tourism, and examines the reasons
why terrorism often selects tourism targets to pursue its political-ideological inter-
ests. This chapter also deals with how the tourism industry has been transformed
since September 11, 2001, in order to adjust itself to the reality that at least in the
foreseeable future it will continue to be a prime target for terrorist organizations
on a global scale. His main conclusions are that:
■
The tourism industry must undergo a paradigm shift and accept the fact that ter-
rorism will regard tourism as a target in the future and thus the industry must pre-
pare for it.
■
Tourists will place more and more emphasis on choosing safe destinations in their
destination-choice process.
■
In its paradigm shift the tourism industry has to incorporate safety, security, and
economic viability considerations into one entity.
■
The provision of good security has to be regarded as part of the overall service
quality offered by the tourism industry.
The second chapter, by Aliza Fleischer and Steven Buccola, focuses on the eco-
nomic ramifications of war and terrorism using the Arab-Israeli conflict and its
reflection on Israel’s hotel sector from the late 1980s to 1990. Using a supply and
demand model of the Israeli lodging sector, the chapter evaluates the impact of
hostility on management’s price response to demand shifts. It also assesses the
international and domestic markets’ reaction to security incidents in terms of price
elasticity and level of sensitivity to regional warfare and terror. By doing so, this
chapter shines a very interesting light on the complexity of handling the negative
effects of violence on a specific tourism sector that caters to both domestic and
international markets. Fleischer and Buccola’s main conclusions are that:
H7898_Ch02.qxd 8/24/05 8:03 AM Page 30

---

■
The use of a supply and demand model of a nation’s accommodation sector is an
efficient research tool to evaluate management price response to demand shifts as
a result of security incidents.
■
A price discrimination model might be a better vehicle for assessing the impacts of
security incidents than a supply and demand model. This is mainly true in cases
where such a strategy is used to differentiate between international and domestic
markets.
Finally, the impact of civil unrest on tourism destinations is dealt with in a chap-
ter by Brian King and Tracy Berno, who discuss the handling of two tourism crises
in the wake of the coups d’état in 1987 and 2000 in Fiji, and the ensuing recovery
efforts of the tourism sector. The comparative analysis of the two civil unrest
events, and their impact on the tourism industry, characterizes in a comprehensive
and multidimensional manner the nature of the impact that political and social
unrest events have on tourism. Although the case study depicts these impacts on
Fiji, it can be seen as an insightful reflection on many other developing countries
that developed high levels of economic dependency on foreign tourists’ willing-
ness to spend their holidays in their resorts and tourism destinations. Moreover, the
analysis of the recovery processes, and the measures taken by the various Fiji
tourism stakeholders confronting the evolving tourism crises, sheds light on the
relative importance of crisis communication and travel advisories provided by the
generating countries to secure the safety of their traveling citizens. King and
Berno’s main conclusions are that:
■
When well-structured and carefully planned strategies are employed to confront
tourism crises they provide tangible positive results.
■
Concerted efforts by both private and public tourism stakeholders yield positive
results and boost recovery from security induced tourism crises.
■
When the tourist product is attractive enough and there exists a strong captive mar-
ket for the affected destination, recovery is almost guaranteed and can be attained
within a short period of time.
Tourism, Terrorism, and Civil Unrest Issues
31
H7898_Ch02.qxd 8/24/05 8:03 AM Page 31

---

H7898_Ch02.qxd 8/24/05 8:03 AM Page 32

---

33