Tourism Policy - Literature review Example

Name: University: Instructor Date: Tourism Introduction Tourism, crime as well as terrorism seem, in a number of respects, to profoundly reflect disagreeing world views. According to O'Connor and Stafford (351), tourism entails freedom of travel and movement, and also is a moderately useful means of distributing cultural practices and ideas. On the other hand, terrorist and criminal movements have diverse combinations of ethnic, nationalist as well as religious motives, but scores of them are engaged with resisting what they believe to be subjugation by others in addition to the infliction of foreign culture or rule (Korstanje and Clayton 9). A number of them like Taliban, Islamic State, and Boko Haram openly disallow the western way of life on which the majority of modern tourism is rooted. Tourism as well signifies a soft but fiscally priceless target, and so tourists are always the victims in some mass‐murders, in countries like Somalia and Egypt (Korstanje and Clayton 10). Furthermore, in a number of nations, particularly the Islamic States they see tourists’ mobility, comfortable circumstances as well as consumption as immoral and corrupt. The essay seeks to justify that tourism and crime are inextricably linked, to explain why this connection exist, and what policy options are available for combating crime and/or terrorism. The essay will further explain if tourism policy alone can control the problem. Discussion Korstanje and Clayton (8) argue that random terrorism could be aimed at the defenceless and innocent tourists, for the reasons such as killing them will graphically reveal the government’s inability to defend its civilians. Subsequently, these killings assist to generate revolt, panic and fright amongst the civilians, and the permutation of irritation, revolt, panic and misery ultimately compels the government to give in to all or some of the terrorists’ demands. Essentially there are two commonalities that exist between tourism and terrorism: first as mentioned in Korstanje and Clayton study, the same process of technological advancement as well as globalization and diffusion supporting the growth of the tourism industry across the world has enabled terrorists to proselytise, sign up, coach, fundraise, systematize, and move to their targets. On the other hand, Korstanje and Clayton (11) mention that tourism depends a great deal, particularly, on secure, low-priced, and resourceful mass‐transport. Taking the example of 9/11, one of the implications that for many was more shocking, was that the similar formation of secure, low-priced, resourceful mass‐transport as well offered al‐Qaeda the opportunity to hit on the world’s superpower, and its severity was far greater than ever before. Additionally, the tactic that fortified this contemporary type of terrorism was as per Korstanje and Clayton (11) not refined from prehistoric Islamic teachings, but from contemporary training methods, approaches as well as online downloads from sites like YouTube; hence, changing the artefacts of western technological advancement into weapons in opposition to the Western Countries. Secondly, both tourism as well as terrorism depends on management of the media; the generation and handling of perceptions as well as beliefs. Therefore, as mentioned by Boxill (26), media management is vital to the tourism and travel industry. In this regard, it is imperative to convince clients that a certain destination or experience is enviable, and that the company’s airline or hotel provides an improved service as compared to that of the competitions, so as to make certain the long-lasting flow of profits. Akin to tourism industry, media management is as well vital to terrorist groups, who endeavour to collapse their numerically‐advanced adversaries and prove to them their inability to win. For instance, al‐Qaeda desired for highly‐noticeable mass killings, somewhat to realize the most wanted impact not in favour of the Western countries, but as well to partially make sure the long-lasting flow of recruits as well as funds. Based on the first commonality; subsequent to 9/11, Korstanje and Clayton (11) posit that scores of governments implemented tougher policies so as to strengthen as well as control security at their borders, somewhat as a consequence of the panic that terrorists could go into the nation. Terrorism threats do not only surface from radicalized groups like Taliban, but also from home‐grown terrorists, who equally present threats to tourism (Biscop and Andersson 36). Therefore the actual threat could not be terrorists, but ideas that are maligned, which can now disseminate without restraint through the internet; thus, making it impractical to prevent them at national borders. As argued by Boxill (27), political instigated aggression at the moment operates akin to a virus, and this has heavily impacted travel and tourism industry. Based on the second commonality; Korstanje and Clayton (11) posits that key terrorist occurrences have both a symbolic connotation as well as real impact. For that reason there is an ideas’ war, and the streets war, as both sides seek to enforce their understanding of events. For instance, the 9/11 terrorists attacks are some of the modern examples. However, there is a lengthy history of propaganda unpleasant to deceive the foe or dent their self-confidence, and puts great efforts to have power over the sequence of events that will shape the opinion of the world, like that between Hamas and Israelites, each desiring to appear as the victim and the other as the antagonist. Therefore, the effects of a terrorist attack to a certain extent rely on both experience as well as the context. For instance, the worldwide dismay brought about by 9/11 casted a shadow over the majority of other terrorist occurrences, albeit the fact that score of persons have lost their lives in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The fright brought about by 9/11 incident was moderately because of the expression that the world's superpower was at risk to terrorism just like anyone else, and this clouded the boundaries between secure, wealthy countries and defenceless, poor countries. Correspondingly, the majority of terrorist occurrences in Europe lack the similar era‐defining effect as 9/11, which according to Korstanje and Clayton (12) almost certainly reveals that European countries have been handling terror campaign for years, and that scores of United States civilians believed war was something that occurred elsewhere. For that reason, tourism security entails both the understanding of the real security circumstances on the ground as well as media security events coverage. According to Boxill (28), this connotes that debates of tourism security, particularly in developing countries have to be associated with worries over national security issues. The inability of these countries to understand this truth has resulted in a state wherein they have coerced to use lots of money to implement a security framework which heightens tourists’ security whilst maintaining the locals’ insecurity. For instance, Boxill (28) claims that there is an increased presence of security in Jamaica’s areas of tourism, and this has resulted in high rates of alleged nationwide insecurity, particularly amongst poor communities. This has made the country’s tourism sector to turn out to be an enclave, apparently detached from the broader community. This circumstance as per Sönmez, Apostolopoulos and Tarlow (14) makes governments unable to perceive security of tourists as a vital dimension of nationwide security. Specifically, most developing countries fail to understand that country’s insecurity is linked to tourism insecurity, and the two are closely intertwined. Therefore, unsuccessful policies to curb this menace connotes that when violence goes bang in any country, with the exception of those caught in the middle, the tourism sector is one of the early victims. For example, the clash in Kingston that occurred between the gunmen and the security forces during the saga of Christopher Coke exemplifies how an exceedingly localized as well as supposedly detached event can negatively have an effect on the tourism sector. Luckily, tourism industry is a somewhat resilient, such that the demand fall sharply subsequent to an act of terrorism or crucial criminal incident, but will recover fairly faster. This can be evidenced from Korstanje and Clayton (9) study in Egypt as well as Bali, where they established that the tourism industry was extremely negatively and seriously impacted, but improved astonishingly quickly. Thus, making the conclusion that tourism industry is still very flexible. Yet, as indicated by Clayton and Boxill (98) policies to mitigate terrorism attacks are weak and cannot overcome the challenge, so future policy should not be rooted in assumption of rapid recovery as well as resilience. Therefore, governments therefore must be proactive in expecting the challenges, and in strategizing and outing the policies into practice to promote rapid recovery, in the tourism industry. Clayton and Boxill (99) stress that good decision-making as well as planning can ease emergency planning as well as the pace of recovery subsequent to an act of terrorism. For that reason, countries having stronger decision making and planning mechanisms, practices and traditions are characteristically much more resilient as compared to those without. For instance, Japan tourists fell by almost 50% in the three months after the 2011 tsunami, earthquake, as well as nuclear crisis, and tourists spending dropped by almost 47% (McCurry). However, the tourist begun increasing to some extent after some months, but until now the numbers is lower than the median levels. Therefore, criminal activities and terrorism akin to natural disasters result in reduced number of arrivals, and unless the country’s tourism sector put in place policies to alleviate the situation has decided such as offering free airfares to tourists and assuring their security, then there is high chance the tourism sector can collapse. Even though the existing policies cannot single-handedly control terrorism and criminal activities, they can help revive the tourist industry as fast as possible after the terrorist attacks. It is imperative to consider that decreasing crime, enhancing security as well as protecting civilians together with the tourists in a similar way are not just issues associated with the effectiveness of the state security system. Eventually, this discussion is as well on the subject of life quality issues; that is the economic strength of the country, the quality of governance, as well as social structure nature. According to Boxill (27), the combination of richness with poverty as well as crime instinctive in the tourism paradigm of developing countries is potentially unstable, and probably to develop into more unstable hereafter. Therefore, Clayton and Boxill (99) suggested that the tourism industry have to do more to boost the people’s development in the industry such job creation and taking part in community development activities. Basically, protection from the effects of criminal activities and terrorism can take place at diverse levels. As a measure to these effects, tourists can change their choice of destination; alter their travelling behaviour; or for those still ready to push on with their travel plans, obtain information on risks brought about by terrorist attacks, heavy crime, and political unrest, and health risks (Sönmez, Apostolopoulos and Tarlow 17). For tourists who choose to travel in spite of risks are given advice by a range of sources (such as government advisories, travel magazines, or Internet) to steer clear of displaying their affluence, to always remain discreet, to change day after day routines during long-lasting business outings, as well as to use economy class rather than first class given that hostage takers or terrorists are well-known for preferring first class because of rich people in it. Furthermore, if the prospective travelling expenditure seems to overshadow the benefits, then tourism polices indicate that the tourist should stay home (Sönmez, Apostolopoulos and Tarlow 17). Sadly, for destinations overwhelmed with violence, terror attacks or political chaos, the way out is far more multifaceted; thus, making it hard for tourism policy to single-handedly control the problem Conclusion In conclusion, it has been argued that when the tourism industry endures negative occurrences brought about by natural disasters, then greater industry and public tolerance as well as understanding are invoked. However, terrorism and criminal activities mostly trigger public intimidation and outrage; thus negatively impacting the tourism industry. All aspects of national security should be seen as being intimately linked to tourism security. Nationwide developmental setbacks as well as real security setbacks must be seen as possibly challenging for tourism security as well as development. Hopelessly, terrorism is improbable to fade away, and their chance that technology will advance it to highly-sophisticated levels, which will allow for new forms of networking across the globe; thus, accelerating the diffusion of malevolence ideas, that will hugely impact tourism sector. Work Cited Biscop, Sven and Jan Joel Andersson. The EU and the European Security Strategy: Forging a Global Europe. New York: Routledge, 2007. Boxill, Ian. "Linking tourism security to national security A brief comment on the implications of the Christopher Coke Saga." Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes 4.1 (2012): 26-31. Clayton, Anthony and Ian Boxill. "Conclusions: tourism, crime and terrorism: what are the risks, challenges and policy options?" Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes 4.1 (2012): 98-100. Korstanje, Maximiliano E. and Anthony Clayton. "Tourism and terrorism: conflicts and commonalities." Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes 4.1 (2012): 8 - 25. McCurry, Justin. Japan offers free return flights to revive tourism after Fukishima disaster. 12 October 2011. September 19 2014. . O'Connor, Noe͏̈lle and Mary Rose Stafford. "The impact of global terrorism on Ireland's tourism industry: an industry perspective." Tourism and hospitality research 8.4 (2008): 351 - 363. Sönmez, Sevil F., Yiorgos Apostolopoulos and Peter Tarlow. "Tourism in Crisis: Managing the Effects of Terrorism." Journal of Travel Research 38.1 (1999): 13-18. Read More

For instance, al‐Qaeda desired for highly‐noticeable mass killings, somewhat to realize the most wanted impact not in favour of the Western countries, but as well to partially make sure the long-lasting flow of recruits as well as funds. Based on the first commonality; subsequent to 9/11, Korstanje and Clayton (11) posit that scores of governments implemented tougher policies so as to strengthen as well as control security at their borders, somewhat as a consequence of the panic that terrorists could go into the nation.

Terrorism threats do not only surface from radicalized groups like Taliban, but also from home‐grown terrorists, who equally present threats to tourism (Biscop and Andersson 36). Therefore the actual threat could not be terrorists, but ideas that are maligned, which can now disseminate without restraint through the internet; thus, making it impractical to prevent them at national borders. As argued by Boxill (27), political instigated aggression at the moment operates akin to a virus, and this has heavily impacted travel and tourism industry.

Based on the second commonality; Korstanje and Clayton (11) posits that key terrorist occurrences have both a symbolic connotation as well as real impact. For that reason there is an ideas’ war, and the streets war, as both sides seek to enforce their understanding of events. For instance, the 9/11 terrorists attacks are some of the modern examples. However, there is a lengthy history of propaganda unpleasant to deceive the foe or dent their self-confidence, and puts great efforts to have power over the sequence of events that will shape the opinion of the world, like that between Hamas and Israelites, each desiring to appear as the victim and the other as the antagonist.

Therefore, the effects of a terrorist attack to a certain extent rely on both experience as well as the context. For instance, the worldwide dismay brought about by 9/11 casted a shadow over the majority of other terrorist occurrences, albeit the fact that score of persons have lost their lives in countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The fright brought about by 9/11 incident was moderately because of the expression that the world's superpower was at risk to terrorism just like anyone else, and this clouded the boundaries between secure, wealthy countries and defenceless, poor countries.

Correspondingly, the majority of terrorist occurrences in Europe lack the similar era‐defining effect as 9/11, which according to Korstanje and Clayton (12) almost certainly reveals that European countries have been handling terror campaign for years, and that scores of United States civilians believed war was something that occurred elsewhere. For that reason, tourism security entails both the understanding of the real security circumstances on the ground as well as media security events coverage.

According to Boxill (28), this connotes that debates of tourism security, particularly in developing countries have to be associated with worries over national security issues. The inability of these countries to understand this truth has resulted in a state wherein they have coerced to use lots of money to implement a security framework which heightens tourists’ security whilst maintaining the locals’ insecurity. For instance, Boxill (28) claims that there is an increased presence of security in Jamaica’s areas of tourism, and this has resulted in high rates of alleged nationwide insecurity, particularly amongst poor communities.

This has made the country’s tourism sector to turn out to be an enclave, apparently detached from the broader community. This circumstance as per Sönmez, Apostolopoulos and Tarlow (14) makes governments unable to perceive security of tourists as a vital dimension of nationwide security. Specifically, most developing countries fail to understand that country’s insecurity is linked to tourism insecurity, and the two are closely intertwined. Therefore, unsuccessful policies to curb this menace connotes that when violence goes bang in any country, with the exception of those caught in the middle, the tourism sector is one of the early victims.

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