Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Figure 2
Annual percentage variation of international tourist arrivals in China, 1978–2003.
Source: China National Tourism Administration.
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xenophobia that hit China during this period had a limited impact on tourism.
After a sharp drop in bookings, airlines and hotels reported a return to normal-
ity. The lifting of travel advisories from foreign governments also helped the
industry bounce back. However, these events did not have a long-lasting negative
impact in the Chinese tourism industry; to prove it, in that year, China ranked
fifth in the world.
The September 11 terrorist attacks had a severe impact on long-haul tourism,
leading to a shift towards intraregional travel, partly compensating the loss of
American and European inbound traffic. Intraregional travel is the major kind of
travel in the East Asia and the Pacific Region, accounting for nearly 80% of total
arrivals, and was a major factor in offsetting the impact felt in the travel and
tourism industry. China was the best performing destination within this region
(with a more than 6% increase compared to the year 2000), partly because of the
close proximity to its main generating markets. For example, the Japanese out-
bound market, one of the world leaders in the field, replaced destinations in
America by China, Thailand, and Australia (WTO, 2001). Despite the fact that
China showed a robust increase in tourist arrivals over those in 2000, these events
contributed to slow down China’s growth rates.
In 2003, China again faced a severe test. Until the SARS epidemic became pub-
lic, China was one of the few countries that did not experience a decline in tourism,
even during the recent war in Iraq. Despite the good results in the beginning of the
year, figures had been significantly impacted as a result of the WHO’s travel advi-
sory for SARS affected areas in China (Ap, 2003), resulting in a 7.1 decline in total
arrivals over 2002. This was the most damaging event for the Chinese tourism
industry since the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989.