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How the perception of fear of terrorism impacts on tourist behavior?

How the perception of fear of terrorism impacts on tourist behavior?
Author: Virpi Pekola
3 Commentries
The study examines how the perception of fear of terrorism impacts on the tourist behavior and what factors influence on it.

Key words: perception of fear; terrorism; tourist behavior

The death of the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011 has awakened a fear of terrorism again in the Western countries. The possible attack of the terrorist organization al Qaeda causes the certain perceptions of fear and thus impacts on the tourist behavior. The perception of fear the tourists have is mostly influenced by media. The often exaggerated reportage increases the fear and causes the unwillingness to travel. Tourists are noted to have a lack of knowledge about the terrorist events due to having the media reportage as a main source of information, and not consulting the tourism authorities to impact their decision-making. The proximity of the attack, tourists' previous traveling experience and the government authority's statements affect on the perception of fear and influence in the tourist behavior.

The majority of tourists have more perceptions of fear of human-made violations than nature-made. The most feared risks the tourists perceive of fear are to be studied terrorism as the most feared risk, war/natural disaster and kidnapping. The perception of fear of terrorism is high due to the uncertainty of the possible attacks. The target is never known in advance which keeps people in fear and the uncertainty causes the stop in the tourism industry.

Tourists' perceptions of fear were studied after the terrorist attack to New York in September 11th 2001 to be, for instance, 'travel is unsafe' and 'tourists are likely to be targets' (Sönmez and Graefe, 1998a). The perceptions are based on the previous observation where tourists have been the victims of a terrorist event. In the fear of terrorism tourists tend to avoid the big cities, and they feel that e.g. the natural areas are safer.

In particular, after the September 11th there was a perception of fear that the international travel is more risky than domestic from the tourist's point of view, and add that, travel for holiday purposes is most extensively affected by terrorist threat. The safety issues are extremely important within tourists, and in a fear of terrorism the tourists seek destinations with a safe image and alternative transportations for the airplane in a fear that the terrorist attack would take place there. In that case the destinations elsewhere benefit. The tourists are studied to consider the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands as safe destinations (Arana and Leon, 2008). When the tourists have a perception of risk, the impact is to choose alternative modes of transport and destinations. Blunk et al (2006) note that, in 2001 from September to December the air travel dropped 20%. That was due to the cancellations of the planned trips. Floyd and Pennington-Gray (2004) came to the conclusion that tourists first perceive greater risk and agree that traveling includes a risk, and that the planned destination to travel has to be safety that tourists would consider to travel there. The attacks made to the airports are studied to disturb more the tourist behavior than to the destinations made ones.

It has been noted that in a fear of terrorism or after the terrorist attack many tourists make changes or cancel their travel plans. For example, a Travel Industry of America poll found that after the September 11th 30% cancelled or rescheduled their trips. The traveling experience impacts on the tourist behavior in such a way that the tourists who do not have a lot of travel experience are more likely to cancel their trips. Due to perceptions of fear Asian travelers are more likely to change their travel plans than Western travelers (Mura, 2010). The fear also impacts in a way that tourists start avoiding certain destinations. It has noted to be the case with the European cities, for instance, London, Rome, Paris and Athens (Shaw and Williams, 2002).

The study concludes that the media's reportage has a major influence on the perception of fear of terrorism. The travel plans are thus impacted and causes the cancellations on the travel plans.

Arana J and C Leon (2008) The impact of terrorism on tourism. Annals of tourism research 35, 2, 299-315

Floyd M. and Pennington-Grey, M. (2004) Profiling risk perceptions of tourists. Annals of tourism research 31, 4, 1051-54

Sönmez, S. and Graefe, A. (1998a) Influence of Terrorism Risk on Foreign Tourism Decisions Annals of Tourism Research 25 pp. 114-144





Tourists' perception of fear of terrorism.
Author: Marija Komane
The discussion paper left very good impression. The author provided really useful examples and findings for the better understanding of the topic, as well as clear justification on the question - why terrorism is most feared risk? Undoubtedly, in terms of the natural disasters risk, tourists are not that defenseless as in case of terrorism attacks. At least, nowadays people have special equipment, which can predict the place and approximate time and level of catastrophe. Meanwhile, terrorist attacks happen absolutely spontaneously.
The idea about attacks made to the airports and its consequences - tourists' behavior towards destinations, where those are situated - was not completely developed, at least from the reader's point of view. However, that might be related to the limitation of the words suggested for the discussion paper, so would be interesting to read the whole piece of paper.
Furthermore, curious fact was stated in the discussion paper, that media mostly impacts perception of fear the tourists have. In terms of the consumer behavior, tourists decision-making is affected by the range of external determinants and except the media those include: friends' and relatives' opinions, the marketing activities of tourism and all environmental factors, like economy, political factors, technological etc. So, was interesting to find out, that in terms of the perception of fear, which obviously also impacts tourist's decision-making, media plays the vital role.
Moreover, the author provided absolutely clear answers on the main question of the research - how the perception of fear of terrorism impacts on tourist behaviour. For example, that tourists tend to avoid big cities and prefer natural areas. Truly, remembering terrorist attacks well-familiar to everyone, those happened in big cities: 9/11 in New York, Madrid bombings in 2004, London underground bombings in 2005 or Moscow underground terrorist attacks in 2010. The author further mentioned that tourists avoid even certain destinations like London, Rome, Paris and Athens. So, there arise a question, maybe tourists avoid not just big cities, but cities, which were under terrorist attacks? But this requires further research. Finally, the author also referred to the facts, that tourists' behaviour depends on different nations, stating that perception of fear mostly impacts Asians travel behaviour than Western travellers.
Overall, the author did a great job, all findings clear answer the main question. Specific examples, which were mentioned in the discussion paper, helped to understand the topic better. Finally, as was previously mentioned, still there are questions, which can be studied further.
Media coverage about political violence and impact on tourist decision to travel
Author: Meri-liis Tahmazova
The author has approached the topic grippingly, namely, stating that the media's reportage has a major influence on the perception of fear of terrorism. Extraordinary events with a high potential for catastrophe can contribute to being remembered in later travel especially if they are discussed in media for a long time (Glaesser, 2006). The author continues correctly stating that 'when tourists are noted to have a lack of knowledge about the terrorist events due to having the media reportage as a main source of information, and not consulting the tourism authorities to impact their decision-making'. Cooper et al (2008) states that the characteristics of tourism provide additional pressures in the sense that tourists often travel where there is only the image they have gleaned from the media to drive them forward on their journey. Hence, in reality the media often overestimates the happenings.
In fact, from own experience (not terrorism though, but still a crisis) the media made Estonia seem that it was in war with Russia, when the Government moved the Bronze Soldier - Soviet World War II war memorial out of the city centre to a Military Cemetery in 2007. BBC news wrote to the World about this issue that: "Russia accused Estonia of blasphemy and threatened 'serious measures' in response" (Whewell, 2008). The reality was that around 200 people were protesting against this removal and on that particular night time several buildings in the City were vandalised by youngsters. According to Page and Connell (2009) tourism is highly volatile activity which is extremely sensitive to the impact of security issues. Hence, a search illustrates that this particular media coverage worldwide has resulted in tourism in Estonia to decline remarkably (Tartu Ülikool, 2008). The author could have possibly brought those issues out where the media has produced wrong information and what happened to the tourism destinations.
It is logical that people are particular feeling unsafe to travel after the 9/11 tragedy. However, a question arises. Namely, where is the information that 'the recent death of Osama Bin Laden has awakened a fear of terrorism again in the Western countries' taken from? Has the media made decline in tourism to the Western Countries? At the same time the media was showing to the whole world how many Americans were happy and relieved about this incident. However, what about the recent calamities for example in Egypt, Tunisia, another popular tourists destinations? Maybe the author could have instead explored the recent political violence in North Africa and analysed how media decreased tourism in this part of the World.
Indeed, media has a magnificent role making people 'aware' of political violence. Nonetheless, is it correctly to assume that only media creates perception of fear of terrorism impacts on tourist behaviour? Cooper et al (2008) argues that also word of mouth plays an important role in decision making. Overall, presentation of the facts and the author's statements engage both reading and discussion. This paper gives a ground for further arguments on this complex and multifaceted problem.


Reference List:
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (2008) Estonia's view of Kremlin 'meddling' [online]. London: BBC. [Accessed 12 May 2011]. Available at: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/mobile/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7258893.stm>.
Cooper et al (2008) Tourism Principles and Practice. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Glaesser, D. (2006) Crisis Management in the tourism industry. Oxford: Butterworth- Heinemann.
Page, J. S., and Connell, J. (2009) Tourism: A Modern Synthesis. Hampshire: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Tartu Ülikool (2008) PRONKSIÖÖ MÕJU EESTI TURISMILE [online]. Tartu: TÜ. [Accessed 12 May 2011]. Available at: <http://www.lote.ut.ee/399889>.
How the perception of fear of terrorism impacts on tourist behavior?
Author: Patrik Forsstrom
The discussion paper presents a few interesting points that become relevant again due to the death of Osama Bin Laden. Will tourists continue to travel with regularity or does the impact of the media cause a decrease in air travel? The threats of new terrorist strikes in Europe can cause fear, but as mentioned in the text, 'Floyd and Pennington-Gray (2004) came to the conclusion that tourists first perceive greater risk and agree that travelling includes a risk, and that the planned destination to travel has to be safety that tourists would consider to travel there.'

Of course we do not know without up to date statistics how the death of Bin Laden affects travelling. This would be an interesting statistic to follow, but the perception seems to be that tourists tend to forget quickly. It took a terrorist attack of great measures to a highly profiled country which did not have previous experiences of terrorism (9/11) to cause fear in tourists. The author mentioned that 30 per cent of travellers cancelled or re-scheduled their flights after 9/11. Also, 'Blunk et al (2006) note that, in 2001 from September to December the air travel dropped 20%. That was due to the cancellations of the planned trips.' It has to be taken to note however, that international tourism arrivals and air travel started slowly to grow after 9/11 in all continents (UNWTO Highlights 2010), and it took a major recession in 2008 to see a decrease in tourist arrivals.

It was interesting to observe in the statistics that tourists are more likely to cancel their trips because they do not have previous travelling experience, and that Asian travellers are more likely to cancel their trips than Western travellers. The influence that the media has put on these travellers certainly has had an impact, and it shows in these statistics. By looking at these statistics it shows how important previous experience is. Western travellers are more likely to travel despite being stricken by terrorist attacks and travel with the risk of it being possible again. The big cities provide suitable targets for terrorists; therefore it is normal for Asian travellers to experience fear when travelling to London, Paris, and Rome for example.

Moreover, the problems that fear brings to tourist behaviour were brought up clearly. Due to the current possible terrorist threats it is interesting to see how much it affects air travel. The 9/11 terrorist attack certainly put a mark on the fact that tourists are targets, and brought the perception of fear back. The media is indeed the most influential source for shaping our tourist behaviour, but it seems to apply only to tourists who do lack previous travelling experience.

References:

UNWTO Highlights 2010:

http://web.efzg.hr/dok//TUR/UNWTO_Highlights%202010.pdf