Passport to Peace
Country risk is part and parcel of tourism. Its importance depends on the geographic region in question, depending on political, social, health instability, as well as the type of travel. In the last few years, bloody attacks by terrorist cells around the world (e.g. the recent killings at the Bardo Museum in Tunis) have focused media attention on the need to provide tourists with information and protection, and have pushed national and international institution to intervene in risk/emergency management operations.
On the other hand, the destinations affected, characterized by young democracies and frail economies, see in tourism an essential engine of growth, a strategic instrument to improve international reputation, and attract foreign currency and investment, contributing to the region's economic development.
However, sometimes local stakeholders see in the tourist industry a profit reserve for foreign corporations, and use tourism as an area of conflict rather than exchange with foreign travelers, in order to attract the attention of global media to their plight. It's conversely essential that tourism become a passport to peace, and the actors involved promote fertile interchange, rather than sterile neocolonialism, thus avoiding to pave the way to radical movements that breed on hatred and resentment.
Various initiatives have been launched by the United Nations World Tourism Organization to promote the balanced development of the industry, the peaceful encounter between different cultures, and the prosperity of resident communities. In particular, it's worth mentioning the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, ratified by the General Assembly in 1999.
Going back to terrorism, the choice of targets such as planes (Lockerbie), ships (Achille Lauro), trains, buses, or tourism infrastructures, such as hotels, museums, or archeology sites (think about recent destruction wrought on ancient statues and temples) is far from being random: to the contrary, it aims to seed chaos and induce local and foreign governments to scale back their commitments. Every terrorist attack causes shock and indignation in public opinion, followed by a change in demand with adverse economic consequences for the destinations involved: regions that are perceived as unstable are substituted by new destinations, which re-orient investment and development. In the Mediterranean, Italy's summer tourism has often benefited from the instability affecting other competitors in the area. Airlines and cruises are often forced to refund packages to departing tourists, or rebook them on other destinations that are considered safer, sometimes incurring heavy losses in the process.
Luckily, however, it's also true that once the terrorist threat is removed and conflict abates, tourism goes back to its earlier levels with relative rapidity, and cities like Mombasa, Bali, Sharm el-Sheikh, but also New York (Twin Towers), Madrid (Atocha), or London and Paris, now attract the same number of tourists as before the terrorist attacks, if not more. The UNWTO has estimated the in the two-year period following the attacks, there is a 50-90% drop, but then tourism bounces back to levels prevalent before the attacks.
Summing up, the resilience of tourism and the rapidity of its recovery make it a sector able to lead economic growth and development even in vulnerable societies emerging out of difficult predicaments, such as the fledgling democracies born from the Arab Spring, since tourists soon forget the tragic images associated with murderous attacks and come back to visit. â—†