The words Terrorism and Tourism rhymes, so are the impact of each on the other. The impact of terrorism on the tourism sector is a major concern all over the world. Even as governments try to regain confidence and rebuild peace and natural environment in the affected destination, tourists seem to be warier in choosing those destinations.
Interestingly, the trend is not noticeable when it comes to going to places which were affected by natural disasters.
While the direct costs of terrorist attacks are a huge loss of life, destruction of property and bulk cancellations in hotel and flight bookings, the indirect costs include fall in trade, unemployment, decrease in tourist footfalls and an overall reduction in tourism activities. Research shows that it takes approximately 13 months for a tourist destination to recover from a terrorist attack.
The other side of the coin is the fact that travellers don’t stop travelling but chose more secure destinations leading to revenue loss in the affected destination. Travellers rate security as the most important variable while choosing their holiday destination. The increase in footfalls in beach resorts located in Spain, Portugal and Greece and a decrease of visitors to Tunisia and Egypt following several terrorist attacks are fine examples of such instances. This shift in demand also has an impact on tourism companies and all other allied services related to the tourism industry.
The attack on Easter this year was the deadliest in Sri Lanka since the end of the decades-long civil war that crippled the country’s economy. The attack brings into focus various measures that the Sri Lankan Tourism Board needs to take in order to ensure the safety of tourists during terror attacks. It outlines strategic plans to rebuild tourism stakeholder confidence to ensure the recovery of the tourism industry that supports one in 10 families in Sri Lanka.
Soon after the tragic incident, with an objective to outline strategic framework, several high-level cross-industry working sessions, which includes both public and private sector stakeholders, have been conducted. The Sri Lankan Tourism Industry got underway with an action plan to minimise the financial impact of cancellations and to maintain and rebuild the country brand and manage the long term impact of the attack.
The outpouring of love, support and solidarity from around the globe made Sri Lanka resilient to restore the world’s faith in this beautiful island’s hospitality.
Even though the term crisis is very large and complex and can’t be defined globally, governments should establish crisis recovery strategies that would quickly help recover tourist destinations from a crisis situation as in the case of natural disasters. Managing media and adverse tourists’ reactions to the disaster will help in stemming the drop in footfalls to the destination.
Tourism India extends all support to Sri Lankan Tourism and our Industry partners on its path to a quick recovery.
Rajani. A
Executive Editor
