The Impact of Terrorism on Tourism - Term Paper Example

THE IMPACT OF TERRORISM ON TOURISM by Course Professor Institution City and state Date Abstract This paper endeavors to illustrate the effects that terrorism and their impacts have on the tourism industry. The study will also demonstrate several cases such as the overview of the term "terrorism" and explains what it means, and it will also highlight the undeniable unique link that exists between tourism and terrorism. In conclusion, the paper will then summarize the impacts of terrorism on the tourism industry and the expected outcomes of such activities in the near futures of the affected countries on their tourism industry. The Impact of Terrorism on Tourism Introduction There have been surges in the global terrorism occurring in the recent past with the world witnessing some of the major terrorist’s incidences such as the downing of the Russian plane over the Sinai Peninsula, the suicide bombing in Nigeria, Lebanon and Turkey plus the deadly assaults witnessed in Turkey. Additionally, different attacks have also been happening mostly in the Northern Africa and the Middle East. These terrorist activities are humanitarian concerns, and they have potential long-term effects on the consumer behavior. Global travel is a significant contributor to the development and economic growth with the international growth in the international tourists visits outpacing the countries overall income growth in the one out of the three years for the past 30 years. In recent past, the growth of international travel has continued to be witnessed all over the world with one billion tourists reported to have traveled all over the world in the year 2012. This marked a new record for the international tourism sector which on a general circumstance accounts for about 12 jobs and 30% of the world service exported revenue. The receipts that were taken from the international travel in the tourists sector showed that international tourism grew by approximately 4 percent in the year 2012 reaching the 1,075 billion United States dollar. This was equivalent to 4 percent increase in the global travel and tourists arrivals over the other years that only stood at 1,035 million United States dollar prior 2012. Tourism serves and as the key export industry for most of the developing countries but on the international platform, the developed and industrialized nations are the ones that benefit the most from the tourism sector. However, the common threats to the industry include the socio- economic challenges that mostly results in the crime increase but the risks occurring from the terrorist activities poses the higher alert on the security of the entire industry at large. Research evidence shows that it is the tourists and the international visitors who are at significant risks of being the victims of terror violence and property crimes in the destinations that they visit. The scholars in the tourists industry have a stand that safety on while on vacation is an expected requirement for any tourists whatsoever in the tourists destination. Therefore, it has been reported that the cities that develop an unsafe atmosphere for the safety of visitors are regularly substituted by the alternative destinations that have even higher levels of security measures. Terrorism is a mysterious and compelling phenomenon, and its relationship with tourism is complex and multifaceted. Chawla (2004) defines terrorism as an arranged and importunate plan demonstrated by a country or political group towards another country, a social or political group through acts of violence but the uncertainty of such actions persists. In reality, tourists are targeted by terrorists because they are regarded as easy targets who are ambassadors of home countries who are the symbolic representatives of their hostile governments. This type of attack has occurred for an unprecedented period, for example, the case of the Italian cruise ship that was referred to as the “Achille Lauro”. Terrorists’ objectives are categorized into two classes. The first category is when the terrorists target the tourists directly through aiming their intentions while the other category is when the terrorists target the tourists indirectly (Richardson, Gordon and Moore, 2007). This usually involves the travelers who are put on target because of their value indirect representatives of their hostile homeland countries. In reality, tourism is among the world's largest leading industries, and it is viewed as the most important economic sector in most of the countries and the small countries in particular because they rely heavily on the revenue that is generated from the industry (Terrorism's effect on U.S. tourism, 2004). In this regard, the acknowledgment t of the terrorists’ commotion in some of the tourist’s destinations can have adverse impacts on the level of business those particular visitors’ destination receives. Global travel has illustrated that economic success does not shield it from the power of international terrorism. Despite the many natural and artificial disasters impacting the flow of tourism, the dangers, and threats that are posed by terrorists towards the tourists is even more severe. Nevertheless, the fear of terrorism is not new in the minds of tourists, but it is a heightened attention, for example, the September 11th attack in the 2001 terrorist attacks witnessed in the United States of America. As a form of political expression, terrorists had been in the limelight since 6AD when the Romans had been opposed by the Jewish patriots that were arranged under the name of Zealots and initiated the terrorist campaign to drive the Romans out of the Palestine empire. Terrorism is also traced in the recent past where the world witnessed increased international terrorism in the 1960s and 1970s plus early 1980s that also started and ended with terrorism and violence. In this regard, there are effects that international terrorism poses on the flow of tourists in any tourist destination. Nevertheless, the possibilities of the significant threats imposed terrorists to the tourism sector cause even more adverse reactions. For other countries, in particular, consistent terrorism tarnishes the country's positive image and then jeopardizes the entire tourism industry. The Association of Terrorism and International Tourism Tourism and international terrorism are connected ironically through shared characteristics, for instance, both parties crosses borders, involve nationals of different countries and also uses the technologies involving either travel or communication. The relationship between international terrorists and tourism has been in existence for an unprecedented period for example during the Munich Olympic games, and the Palestinian attack on the athletes of Israel left over ten people dead and exposed the scenario to over 800 million viewers worldwide about terrorism. This incidence proved the mutual relationship between terrorism and tourism. Since the impacts of terrorism started occurring, the number of people who have been killed because of Terrorism is just as the number of individuals who have been killed by drowning in the bathtubs (Terrorism's effect on U.S. tourism, 2004). This implies that the fear generated by tourists against terrorism is not related to the level of risk. For example in the mid- 80, the decline of tourism activity decreased due to the terrorist activity that had occurred in the Irish Republican Army bombing campaign in the United Kingdom. Despite the fact that the threat of terrorism is real and due to the fact that there exist small chances of a person being affected by terrorism, the fear of the terrorists’ threats is real for today’s Tourists. Even though the terrorist' risk is very much low, the terrorist threats to the visitors are much real because they pose soft targets that are easily identified as symbols of the enemy. Additionally, the tourists’ destinations are strategically located and situated for the terrorist activities to take place. Ubavic (2015) suggests that terrorists target tourists to achieve the strategic aims because their attack on the tourists provides the terrorists with an advantage as they disrupt the tourism industry and assured publicity. In other hands, terrorists attack the tourists so as to achieve ideological goals, punish the citizens for the supporting government and enhance the claims to the political legitimacy as they make the government look weak to its citizens. Studies have been conducted by scholars who have applied sophisticated methods to ascertain the relationship that exists between terrorism and the tourists activities and most of the conclusions are pretty much related because the potential risks posed by the terrorists significantly affects the visitors. Social- Cultural and Economic Links Between Tourism and Terrorism In reality, the effect of terrorist’s activities cause political instability in a country which results in a decline or disappearance of the tourists coming to the same destination. Studies have shown that tourism demands are significantly affected by the terrorist attacks which indicate an increasing demand for the tourists counseling travel or holiday plans, especially after a tourists' attack happening in the country of interest by the visitors. Richardson, Gordon and Moore (2007) clearly demonstrated the effects of terrorism on the tourism industry, for example, the terrorist attack in Spain caused the reduction of about 140000 tourists. The terror attacks that happen at any tourist destination have a significant effect on the worldwide tourism travel industry. The attack induces substitution away from the air travel and causes a shift in the preferences by the tourists toward a specified destination. There exist different studies that suggest logical cultural and socioeconomic description of the tourism- terrorism association. In fact, visitors and the local citizens are separated by language difference and also due to economic and social gaps too. This is to say, when the local citizens who are exposed to hardships are made to co- exists with the wealthy tourists from the international platform who are with the needs of enjoying luxury, friction occurs in such like scenarios. This goes hand in hand with the suggestions of Canavan, (2016) that travel styles can be a symbol of ideological values, the political culture of the tourists, and class behavior of the tourists themselves and their mother countries as well. This, therefore, means that the tourists can be the targets of terrorist due to their tourism styles which illustrate significant assumptions where the anger that is created towards the tourist can then change into dangerous forms of acrimony. Furthermore, the friction that occurs between the visitors and the local citizens is the crushing cultures. The behaviors of visitors, for example, eating of pork in the Islamic countries, alcohol drinking, and the western dressing styles can be incongruent with the values of the local people. Tourists are thus targeted by the terrorist because they are viewed as outsiders that symbolizes the mode of neo- colonialism or as threats to their social norms, religious convictions or their traditions and culture. The relationship that exists between tourism and terrorism shows that tourism is not only the medium that is used for communication but also used as a message to the nations involved. In this regard, travel can cause socioeconomic, cultural, political or religious resentment but also deliver a real message of political ideologies. This clearly illustrates that terrorists select the tourists intentionally as the representatives of high profile who are too valuable to exploit. Possible Impacts of Terrorism on Tourism in Future Vibrant economies of the world such the United States of America are anticipated to endure terrorist ‘activities with little consequences whatsoever. In the recent past, however, the United States of America has experienced some terrorist’s activities even those that occur on its soil for example the 1998 and 2000 and the years after 2001. Nevertheless, the level of the United States economy is sufficient enough to withstand such terrorist activities. The current crimes such as the identity theft have adverse economic consequences to well-established economies more than the terrorist activities. However, terrorist activities are expected to pose serious economic challenges to the world economies be it well developed or still developing. The consequences of terrorists’ activities have started being felt for example the tragedy in Paris which has posed severe economic crises on the market. Those terrorist attacks, for instance, made the European stocks shut down as those looking for security measures increased the prices of stock and the prices of gold in particular. So what about the long- term effects of terrorism? Experts in the tourism industry claim that the terror activities would result in a reduction in consumer spending as the international travel would exacerbate the already dandling global economy. However, the effects of terrorism are not likely to happen for long, but the affected countries like France would see adverse economic effects for a short period. Experts argue that the damages of terrorism are controlled in the long run, and this is according to the chief of European and the United Kingdom economists at HIS Global Insight known as Howard Archer. This implies that the terrorist activities happen but do not last that long as the effected countries takes up the measure and implement strategies that help to prevent the damages from recurring. Therefore, International terrorism will not have any adverse effects on the tourism industry shortly. According to Archer’s analysis of what happened to Spain and the Great Britain following the terrorist attack in the years 2004 and 2005 respectively, the bombing in London killed 52 citizens and injured 700 more. However, the impacts to the nation’s economy were not adverse and in particular in the tourism industries as the government implemented measures that were meant to revive the country’s tourism industry. Conclusion The growth of the international tourism is attributed to several factors which include growth in the economy, tourist’s promotion, easing of travel restriction among others. According to the terms of the Travel and Tourism Council (2014), internal travel is expected to look extremely favorable in the next years with growth expect to increase to 4 percent yearly. Despite the promising tourism economic growth, political instability and terrorism cause challenges to the tourism industry sector. This is because the perception of terrorism activities presents travel anxiety towards the destination city and this implies that different levels of risk and understanding alongside the internal factors determine the tourist’s motivation and determination to travel globally. This means a visitor with a negative attitude towards a travel destination because of terrorist’s incidences frequently exhibits higher levels of concern about their safety which automatically results to negative results concerning the travel destination. There are also external factors that are related to terrorism such as media reports also have influences on the tourist’s perception of the destination city and decision-making process concerning the affected targets. As a result of such reports, the tourists tend to avoid the once affected destinations which impacts on the tourist demand on the tourism industry and such requirements on the tourist emerges from a terrorist attack where visitors and the local citizens are the direct targets of the terrorists are the victims of attack. References Archer, H. (2013). Howard Archer is chief European and UK economist at IHS Global Insight. [online] Cityam.com. Available at: http://www.cityam.com/profile/howard-archer [Accessed 26 Apr. 2016]. Canavan, B. (2016). Tourism culture: Nexus, characteristics, context and sustainability. Tourism Management, 53, pp.229-243. Chawla, R. (2004). Terrorism and tourism development. New Delhi: Sonali Publications. Maccarrone-Eaglen, A. (2009). An Analysis of Culture as a Tourism Commodity. Tourism Culture & Communication, 9(3), pp.151-163. Richardson, H., Gordon, P. and Moore, J. (2007). The economic costs and consequences of terrorism. Cheltenham, UK: E. Elgar. Richardson, H., Gordon, P. and Moore, J. (2007). The economic costs and consequences of terrorism. Cheltenham, UK: E. Elgar. Terrorism's effect on U.S. tourism. (2004). Washington: U.S. G.P.O. Read More