Tourism, Terrorism and Security

The tourism industry has evolved and matured steadily over recent years. Today, tourism is not only as a leading industry but also a consolidated commercial activity worldwide. The turn of the century accelerated some global risks, which placed the tourism industry in jeopardy. Ranging from natural disasters to terrorism, policy-makers devoted considerable attention to the risk perception theory and its potential applications to protect destinations' images. In so doing, scholars adopted an economic-based paradigm, which focused on the commercial nature of tourism as a benefactor of local economies while terrorists were depicted as the enemies of democracy. It has been observed that terrorists often target foreign tourists as a proxy to damage the democratic institutions they view them as representing, presenting the question: are tourists cultural ambassadors of their respective societies? On this basis, one might speculate that tourism is somewhat more complex or sophisticated than a service industry. In these terms, this book centers not only on a debate about the nature of tourism - which is considered as a rite of passage - but also on modern terrorism. Chapters explore the current limitations of the specialized literature to frame an all-encompassing model to help our understanding of tourism security today.