Tourism, Security and Safety From Theory to Practice

Crime and Terrorism Basics
Table 4 demonstrates there is not only a major difference between criminal acts and
acts of terrorism, but also that there are different remedies to deal with these two
very separate social illnesses. It is incumbent upon tourism scholars and practi-
tioners to distinguish between these two social maladies and develop responses
that are appropriate to the threat. Criminal acts require well-trained police forces.
The emphasis is both on displacement (i.e., hardening the target so that the vic-
timizer goes somewhere else) and on active prevention. Dealing with crime
requires clear guidelines in which police, security professionals, legal profession-
als (such as district attorneys), and the tourism industry work together. Terrorism,
on the other hand, is more warlike in nature. Its goal is destruction through vic-
timization. It seeks publicity and mass economic destruction with the added bonus
of loss of life. Elliot M. Krammer has noted, “What is news(worthy) to the media
is a function of numbers (of people) killed or hurt” (Kramer, 2003, p. 82).
Assuming that Kramer is correct, then the media encourages mass murder by mak-
ing that story its number one news item. Crime coexists with a modern tourism
A Social Theory of Terrorism and Tourism
39
Table 3
Differences between Practical and Apocalyptic Terrorists
Practical Terrorist
Apocalyptic Terrorist
Mental state
Hopes to change a policy 
Victim of self-rage and anger
through violence
Time frame for success
This world oriented
Next world oriented
Attitude toward religion
Tends toward secularization
Tends toward religious mystical
experiences
Suicide
Rarely suicidal, not a key goal
Highly suicidal; suicide is a 
means to a greater end
Goal
Recreation of state or policy
Annihilation of the state, or
people
Willingness to use WMDs
Limited use of chemical
Biological or nuclear
Value of human life
Low
Nonexistent
Source:
Peters (2002).
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industry. Terrorism seeks to destroy modernity and thus seeks tourism’s demise.
Thus, tourism industries that face a terrorism problem require a very different set
of responses. Terrorism is war and as such cannot be rooted out with police action.
Perface nonhese is this exeplified better thn in the issue of gesm warface. Milles,
Eagleberg and Broad have noted that “the wold’s response to the growing dangers
of germ warface has faller far short of what is needed (miller at al., 2001, p. 315).
Crime and terrorism are two thirds of what may be called the triangle of vio-
lence. The third leg of this triangle is Meetings cum Demonstrations or MCDs. The
MCD phenomenon first took the tourism industry by surprise at the Seattle,
Washington, U.S. meetings of the World Trade Organization. An MCD is a planned
riot for political purposes. While MCDs rapidly generate into a multitude of crim-
inal acts, their participants often exhibit the same form of nostalgia that is typical
of terrorism (restorative) and demonstrate a practical form of terrorism similar to
acts of violence by violent groups with a specific cause. The effects of an MCD
can be devastating for a local tourism industry. Not only do visitors stay away from
the locale and a great deal of damage may be done to the locale’s property, but
often reputations can be destroyed for long periods of time.
Table 5 delineates some of the differences between domestic terrorism, protest
terrorism (MCDs), and international terrorism.
Tourism, Security and Safety: From Theory to Practice
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