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The effect of terrorism on the reputation of the tourism industry with reference to Egypt past and present

The effect of terrorism on the reputation of the tourism industry with reference to Egypt past and present
Author: Jade Lipscombe
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Abstract
The reputation of the tourism industry in regards to the current demonstrations and the past terrorist attacks such as the Luxor massacre in 1997 and the Sinai bombings in 2004.

Key Words
Terrorism, Egypt, Luxor and tourism.

Introduction
With reference to terrorism, Domboroczky, 2010 states that "the aim of terrorism is to reduce the reputation of the state and the legitimacy of the government with undermining security". (Domboroczky 2010: 361) This is a good statement as it is the reputation that influences people's decisions to travel.

Egypt is a popular holiday destination, but mainly since 1997 it has received a lot of bad publicity due to many terrorist attacks and crime in many parts of Egypt. The main terrorist attacks started in 1997 and has continued over the years till today.
The Egypt Massacre in Luxor in 1997 had a huge impact on the country which took time for it to recover. The massacre happed in the town of Luxor and BBC news stated that "more than 60 people were killed after an attack on a group of foreign tourists visiting a temple in the town of Luxor, Southern Egypt". (BBC: 2006)

This is a direct attack on international tourists, whilst making a statement of targeting them at a holy temple which would be a popular tourist attraction. Further information told us that people were arrested but no one stood trial for the attacks.(BBC: 2006) This again is a matter for tourists to consider, if no one has been targeted for the attacks, then it could be likely to happen again.

In 2004, further attacks happened in the town of Sinai leading to more deaths including tourists. A news article online states that "since 2004, Egypt saw a string of deadly bombings on the Red Sea beach resorts in the Sinai Peninsula that killed 121 people, including many tourists" (Yahoo news: 2011) This is seven years after the massacre in Luxor, just as the past will be put to the back of people's minds for most and wouldn't think of Egypt as being as much of a threat.

Do tourists still travel to these impacted destinations following these attacks?

With regards to statistics and information gathered, following the massacre 3 years on the World Travel Organisation announced a boom in arrivals. The news told us that Egypt was ranked 1st in the Middle East tourism arrivals in 2000. There were 5,150,000 arrivals in 2000 showing a +14.7% change. (WTO 2001)

According to statistics taken from a graph from Trading Economics, which displays the amount of tourist arrivals from 1995-2009, it interestingly shows that the years following the attacks, it didn't seem to influence passengers in terms of the arrival amounts decreasing. More importantly, 1997 which was the time of the Luxor Massacre, shows an increase of passengers from 1997-1998 but then a decrease of passengers in 1998-1999 which would still have been around the time the news and publicity would have been against Egypt. Also the bombings in 2004 did not show any signs of decline on passenger arrivals between 2004-2005, which is considered as a definite positive for Egypt and has since then continued to grow at a good pace. (Trading Economics 2010)

So if there was an impact then it would have only have been short-term, needless to say there could have been a lot more arrivals if this hadn't of occurred, but from what we can see, there was still a growth in arrivals. In comparison to the terrorist attacks on the U.S on September 11th which saw a longer lasting effect on airlines all over the world not only in the U.S .

One main issue for Egypt's country is the bad publicity it receives following these types of attacks. When researching on to the FCO website it stated that "there were violent confrontations between demonstrators and the police overnight on 15th March 2011 in front of the state TV and radio centre in Cairo". (FCO 2011) This type of bad publicity is the likely type that would be definite to put tourists off travelling if it is something that is currently happening and can be seen as a risk.

Bad publicity is definitely something that would hold a huge influence on the choice of travel to the destination and would make them look elsewhere. Some people save years for their holidays so they are not likely to choose somewhere that may put them at risk.

Conclusion

The current tourism receipts and information gathered does show that they haven't had a significant impact at this moment in time, this doesn't mean it will not happen in the future, but from reading various articles it shows that if terrorism does have an effect on the demand for tourism in that country, it is usually of a short-term decrease e.g. a month or so.

References

Pizam, A. (2000) Tourism and terrorism: a quantitative analysis of major terrorist acts and their impact on tourism destinations. Tourism Economics. 6 (2) 123-138.

Trading Economics (2010) International arrivals: number of arrivals in Egypt. [Online] Trading Economics online. Available from: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/egypt/international-tourism-number-of-arrivals-wb-data.html [Accessed: Thursday 21st April 2011].

World Travel Organisation. (2001) Millenium Tourism Boom 2000. [Online] WTO online. Available from: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/serv_e/results_e.doc. [Accessed: Thursday 21st April 2011]