Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Terrorism and Crisis Management
Terrorist attack is therefore defined as one form of malevolent act against a govern-
ment or a country’s economic system, with an aim of disrupting the targeted country’s
social, political, and economic systems. Specific terrorist attacks on tourists have
occurred often over the past few decades (Pizam and Mansfeld, 1996). Hijackings of
commercial airplanes and cruise ships and the murder of innocent tourists have been
perpetrated often over the past several years. D’Amore and Anunza conducted one of
the earliest studies on terrorism and tourism in the mid-1980s. They reported that ter-
rorism of major events increased from 206 in 1972 to 3,010 in 1985 (D’Amore and
Anunza, 1986). Some terrorist groups specifically attack international tourists and
hotels as targets to achieve their cause or political purpose (Auerbach, 1998; Wahab,
1996; Wall, 1996). The Shining Path (
Sender Luminoso
) terrorist group in Peru delib-
erately targeted hospitality businesses and international tourists. Many international
tourists were attacked, kidnapped, and killed by this terrorist group from the mid-
1980s to the early 1990s (Ryan, 1991). The Al-Jihad terrorist group in Egypt attacked
and killed sixteen Greek tourists in front of a hotel in April 1996. Another 58 interna-
tional tourists were killed by Islamic militants at the 4,000-year-old Temple of
Hatshepsut in Luxor in late 1997 (Lancaster, 1997). The Al-Qaeda movement headed
by Osama bin Laden has been attacking US properties and American interests for the
past few years. In 1998, they attacked the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing
263 people. Such acts of terrorism had a strong negative impact on tourism (Pizam
and Smith, 2000; Tarlow, 2000).
The Al-Qaeda network, a sophisticated international terrorist organization, com-
mitted the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York
City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. The main objectives of the terrorists
were apparently to paralyze the US economy and to spread panic and chaos among
the American people. Prior to September 11, terrorist attacks involving airlines
either involved foreign planes or took place outside the United States. The use of
US planes, coupled with the attacks occurring on US sites, created a collective fear
of flying. This condition was a paramount factor in the drastic decline of tourism
in most parts of the United States immediately after the September 11 attacks.
The hotel industry was shocked and decimated by the impact of the crisis. Hotel
managers were immediately under great stress to manage the crisis and thereby
regain control of their operations. Effectively managing a crisis, through coordi-
nation of human resources, financial resources, and public relations, is vital for
any organization that has been impacted by a terrorist act. Sönmez,
Apostolopoulos, and Tarlow call for a carefully planned and implemented crisis
management strategy and policy (Sönmez, Apostolopoulos, and Tarlow, 2000).
Generally, hotel managers are trained to handle various types of crises in hotel
operations: a natural disaster such as an earthquake, a safety issue such as a hotel
fire or food poisoning, a security concern such as a robbery, or a legal charge such
as racial discrimination or sexual harassment (Barton, 1994; Brewton, 1987;
Stutts, 1990). Effective management of these crises can limit the widespread neg-
ative publicity of the property and minimize the damage to the company’s image
Washington, DC Hotels’ Response to Terrorism
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and its revenues. However, the effect of the September 11 terrorist attacks was
widespread, impacting not just a business or a destination, but the entire hospital-
ity industry and, indeed, the American way of life. In this environment, hotel man-
agers had to collectively manage the impact of these attacks on their business and
their staff while feeling the core of their own existence rocked like everyone else.
The following discussion illustrates how the Washington, DC, hospitality indus-
try collectively responded to the September 11 crisis, and conducted recovery
efforts to return business to normalcy. The actions taken by the DC hospitality
industry can be emulated by other tourism destinations when facing similar crises.