Confronting
Tourism Risk in an Age of Crime and Terrorism
Dr.
Peter E. Tarlow
Tourism & More, Inc. tousm@bihs.net
One only has to read casually the newspapers or
listen to the media to realize that we live in a world that is filled with a
great deal of risk. All too often these
risks are ignored until they become crises.
Indeed, crisis management has become all too often a way of life for
government officials and leaders of major corporations. While crisis management skills are an
essential part of modern life, it should never be forgotten that crisis
management signifies a failure of good risk management. That is to say that the best way to avoid a
crisis is by having proper risk management skills. Unfortunately, many leaders
and business executives chose a psychological state of denial and thus wait
until a crisis develops rather than acting to prevent the crisis before it
happens. The reasons for this refusal to
act are many. Some business executives
have argued that risk management adds nothing to the bottom line; others argue
that they are prepared to risk the possibility of a crisis rather than pay for
the certainty of remedial actions. Lastly, others simply deny reality and do
not believe that the risk will happen to them or on their watch.
The following article is about the tourism
industry. This industry, until recently,
has chosen to ignore risks and deal with crises rather than face the risk
potentials and then seek ways to overcome them.
In fact a common assumption among travel professionals is that the less
they talk about risk the better.
To be in business is to experience risk. While
there is no way to avoid risk being aware of the various types of risks, the
cost of the risk's consequences ought to be part of every travel and tourism,
CVB and National tourism office's plans. The consequences of failure are simply
too great. A review of professional
travel conferences and meeting and event planners, however, indicates that
there is still a sizable number of professionals who believe that the less one
talk about any threat the better. Many tourism offices are driven by people in
marketing who often believe that security measures leading to the lowering of
risks are counterproductive to their bottom lines. Despite the policy of see-no-evil/
hear-no-evil on the part of many travel professionals, terrorists have often
targeted the tourism industry.
Economists
have called tourism the world's largest peacetime industry. Tourism is not only
a major "export" item for a large number of nations but also a major
provider of jobs and seat of national icons and treasures. It should not be a major shock that tourism
has become a major battle ground for terrorism and needs to be a concern for
anyone interested in defeating terrorism.
Tourism sites have often been targets for terrorists. Furthermore, rural tourism sites, such as
Here
is a very partial list of places where terrorism has been launched against the
tourism industry.
The
The
While
these locals have local populations of different religions and use different
economic systems, the one thing that these sites have in common is a successful tourism industry. Students of tourism science and its
professionals have wondered what attracts terrorism to tourism. Below are some of the reasons for this
interaction. Tourism is interconnected with transportation centers
Tourism is big business and
terrorism seeks to destroy economies
Tourism is interrelated with
multiple other industries; thus an attack out the tourism industry may also
wipe out a number of secondary industries.
Tourism is highly media
oriented and terrorism seeks publicity
Tourism must deal with people
who have no history, thus there is often no data base and it is easy for
terrorists simply to blend into the crowd
Tourism must deal with a
constant flow of new people, thus terrorists are rarely suspected.
Tourism is a nations parlor
that it is the keeper of a nation's self image, icons and history. Tourism centers
are the living museum of a nations cultural riches.
Terrorists tend to seek targets that offer at
least 3 out of these 4 possibilities and these same possibilities often exist
in the world of tourism.
1.
Potential for mass casualties
2.
Potential for mass publicity
Good Images
3.
Potential to do great economic
damage
4.
Potential to destroy an icon.
Tourism professionals are now
coming to understand that terrorists may well target multiple aspects of the
tourism industry. These include:
Airlines
Cruise Ships
Buses
Restaurants
and outdoor cafes
Major
events, sporting or cultural Institutions
Places where
people congregate
Wherever people are carefree
and happy.
The terrorist attacks in such
places as New York City, Washington, DC, Bali, and Kenya have destroyed more
than thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars in property
value. These attacks have also forced
the travel industry to deal with a major travel paradigm shift. Although, this shift in travelers mindsets
had been occurring prior to September 11, since the most recent set of
terrorist attacks, and the realization that new attacks are very possible, the
travel and tourism has reluctantly begun to adapt to a whole new mindset.
Unfortunately, many in the
travel and tourism industry were the last people to realize that this paradigm
shift was already underway. Put in its
simplest of terms; travelers no longer fear tourism security but demand
it. In the old travel industry paradigm,
security was the dark secrete.
Industry leaders rarely spoke about threats to tourists in public fearing that
such openness would scare away visitors.
The common belief was that security was a necessary
evil that one had to have, but that security added
nothing to the business bottom line.
For this reason, tourism and travel security were rarely publicized,
never mentioned in marketing campaigns, under-funded, and its practitioners
were often under-paid. The old paradigm
led to poor security at airports, hotels, restaurants and attractions. Security professionals who spoke of acts of
terrorism, bio-chemical attacks, and crime were seen as alarmist and asked to
rephrase their warnings in ways that would be acceptable for public
consumption.
The public however was
beginning to change its views. Even
prior to the September attacks, there were multiple signs that the public
concerned about and demanded good tourism security. Throughout the travel and tourism industry
anecdotal evidence began to appear that our customers were choosing locations
and venues precisely because they were safe and secure. Studies and scholarly articles noted that
security personnel were beginning to obtain some of the tourism security
training that was needed.
The new
paradigm for the travel and tourism industry is based on the fact that tourism
security is now a major part of a locations marketing strategy. Here are just a few examples of the way that
the tourism and travel industry is beginning to assimilate this paradigm
change. For example, The 2002 Olympic
Games in
Traditionally, many tourism
professionals have avoided addressing issues of tourism security and tourism
safety all together. There has been a
common feeling among these professionals that visitors will wonder if too much
security indicates that they should be afraid and that even speaking about
these subjects will frighten customers. Thus, especially in the years prior to
2001, the industry often took the position that the less said about tourism
security and safety the better.
In reality, nothing could be
further from the truth. Today's
travelers and tourists, for the most part, seek out places where there is a
sense of security and safety. Although there
is a small minority of travelers who seek out the dangerous, (in the field the
technical word that is used is "extreme allocentric
tourists") most visitors have begun to ask security questions. They want
to know what the industry is doing to protect them and how well prepared a
local industry is in case a security or safety issue should occur.
Although many disciplines make
a clear distinction between security and safety, tourism scientists and
professionals do not. Security is often
seen as protection against a person or thing that seeks to do another harm. Safety is often defined as protecting people
against unintended consequences of an involuntary nature. For example, a case of arson is a security
issue while a spontaneous fire is a safety issue. In the case of the travel and tourism
industry, both a safety and a security mishap can destroy not only a vacation
but also the industry. Furthermore there
is no such thing as total security or safety. To travel is to accept a certain
degree of risk.
Because total security and
safety are impossible goals a better term is "tourism surety." Tourism surety is the point where safety,
security, and economic viability meet.
It does not seek to eliminate all risk but rather seeks to lower the
probability that a negative event will occur.
Thus from the perspective of tourism surety, the question is not if a
negative event occurred but rather how many negative events were prevented from
occurring. Success is measured not in
cases solved (as often is the case in police work) but rather in events that
have not occurred. This paper
recognized that few industry people work according to strict academic
guidelines, thus, the terms: surety, security and safety are used here
interchangeably, although the author recognizes that the proper word is tourism
surety.
Tourism is
extremely sensitive to the differences between crime and acts of
terrorism. While both criminal
activities and terrorism can destroy a tourism industry, each is a very
different social illness and requires different solutions. Criminals have a parasitic relationship with
the tourism industry. Thus, crime of
distraction artists, such as pick-pockets or bag-snatchers do not want the
local tourism industry to die. The local
tourist is the criminal's victim and without tourism, his or her
"business" will wither and die.
On the other hand, terrorists seek the destruction of the industry. Terrorism
is the marriage of violence to political goals.
It is not a crime but an act of war.
It works by the random wounding and/or murdering of innocent victims.
The more random the violence, the more successful is the terror. Terrorists are not
in business. They are fighting an ideological and economic war against fields
such as tourism with its openness toward businesswomen's success and its
anti-xenophobic raison d'tre. Note then that tourism is open to both
acts of terrorism and acts of crime.
Crime and terrorism are different from each other. The chart below will provide some of the
differences between these two negative social events.
|
|
Crime |
Terrorism |
|
Goal |
Usually economic or social gain |
To gain publicity and
sometimes sympathy for a cause. |
|
Usual type of victim |
Person may be known to the
perpetrator or selected because he/she may yield economic gain |
Killing is a random act and
appears to be more in line with a stochastic model. Numbers may or may not be important |
|
Defenses in use |
Often reactive, reports taken |
Some pro-active devices such
as radar detectors |
|
Political ideology |
Usually none |
Robin Hood model |
|
Publicity |
Usually local and rarely
makes the international news |
Almost always is broadcast
around the world |
|
Most common forms in tourism
industry are: |
Crimes of distraction Robbery Sexual Assault |
Domestic terrorism International terrorism Bombings Potential for bio-chemical
warfare |
|
Statistical accuracy |
Often very low, in many cases
the travel and tourism industry does everything possible to hide the
information |
Almost impossible to
hide. Numbers are reported with great
accuracy and repeated often |
|
Length of negative effects on
the local tourism industry |
In most cases, it is short
term |
In most cases, it is long
term unless replaced by new positive image |
|
Recovery strategies |
New marketing plans, assumes
short-term memory of traveling public.
Probability ideals: Odds are it will not happen to you.
Hide information as best as
one can |
Showing of compassion
Need to admit the situation
and demonstrate control
Higher levels of observed
security
Highly trained (in tourism,
terrorism, and customer service) security personnel |
Furthermore, terrorists who seek to destroy a tourism industry are
well aware of many of the industry's security weaknesses. These include:
One attack can cause thousands
even in a far off place to lose their jobs.
For example, immediately after Sept. 11th it is estimated
that
A few well-placed pipe bombs
can destroy a tourism attraction.
Often terrorists and illegal
aliens merge or difficult to differentiate.
The nation-state is not a
Middle Eastern concept and thus loyalties, as the West understands them, are
often not applicable.
Terrorists may use tourism a
form of cover or of reconnaissance.
Tourism centers may become
places for terrorism money laundering
Additionally, terrorists are well aware that in
too many places
Police are often under trained
and poorly paid.
Rural areas often do not
believe that they can be victims of terrorism
Many tourism sites have few or
no risk management and crisis management plans in place.
Visitors are often not
interested in reporting unusual actions.
One of the ways that tourism industries have begun to meet the
challenges posed at it both by criminals and terrorists is by establishing
special police units to aid in the tourism industry. The most common term to describe these units
is "TOPs". TOPs
stands for tourism oriented
policing/protection services.
Students of tourism surety divide the field into six component
parts or challenges. These challenges are:
Visitor Protection. Tourism surety assumes
that security professionals and police will need to know how to protect
visitors from locals who might seek to do the them harm, from other visitors
who may be in transit for the purpose of committing crime, and less than honest
staff members. Finally, tourism surety
seeks to protect the visitor from tourism professionals who may be willing to
commit fraud or sell them a product that is defective.
Protection of
Staff. A tourism industry that does
not care about its staff (workers) cannot long survive. The second aspect of a
tourism surety program is to find ways to assure that honest staff members can
work in an environment that is crime free and not hostile. Tourism is a high-pressured industry and it
is all too easily for staff members to be abused or for tempers to flare
leading to a hostile work situation.
Site Protection. It is the responsibility
of tourism surety specialists to protect tourism sites. The term site can mean anything from a place
of lodging to an attraction site. While
in an age of terrorism there are people whose purpose it is to destroy or harm
a specific site; site protection must also take into account the careless
traveler. Often, vacationers simply forget to care for furniture, appliances or
equipment. Tourism surety then also
takes into account the needs of cleaning staffs and hotel engineers and seeks
to assure that site environment is both attractive and as secure/safe as
possible.
Ecological
Management. Closely related to and yet
distinct from site security is the protection of the area's ecology. No tourism
entity lives in a vacuum. The care of a locale's streets, lawns, and internal
environment has a major impact on tourism surety. Ecology, however, should not only be
restricted to the physical; it also involves the cultural ecology. It behooves
specialists in tourism surety to protect the cultural ecology of an area. Strong cultures tend to produce safe places.
On the other hand, when cultures tend to die, crime levels may tend to
rise. Protecting the cultural ecology
along with the physical ecology of a locale is a major preventative step that
tourism surety professionals can do to lower crime rates and to assure a safer
and more secure environment.
Economic
Protection. Tourism is a major generator
of income on both national and local levels. As such it is open to attack from
various sources. For example, terrorists may see a tourism site as an ideal
opportunity to create economic havoc. Criminals do not wish to destroy a
tourism locale, but rather view that locale as an ideal "fishing"
ground from which to harvest an abundance of riches. Tourists and visitors do not distinguish
between the treatment they are afforded by the local travel and tourism
industry and by people living and working in the community. As such, law
enforcement agents and tourism security professionals have a special role in
protecting the economic viability of a locale.
How security professionals act and the methods that they use can
reinforce the marketing department's message or undercut it.
Reputation
Protection. You only need to read the
newspaper to note that crimes and acts of terrorism against tourism entities
receive a great deal of media attention.
The classical method of simply denying that there is a problem is no
longer valid and is counter-productive to a tourism locale's best promotional
efforts. When there is a lapse in tourism security, the effect is long term. Some of the consequences to a local's
reputation include the locale's moving from upper to lower class clientele, the
need to drop prices, the general deterioration of the site, and the need for a
major marketing effort to counteract the negative reputation.
A good tourism security program
then is much more that simply hiring a few extra guards. While tourism surety programs do not promise
that nothing can or will happen, they do lessen the risk of negative events and
prepare a locale to minimize negative effects should an incident occur. Often these programs deal with such issues
as:
The realization that often
tourists react to a place not so much by the risk as by their perception of the
risk.
The understanding that a crisis
often develops when safety concerns are more prevalent among the tourists than
the professionals
Making sure that locals
understand that often visitors are ignorant of the crime statistics, and often
both Issue of liability by travel intermediaries (planners) if fail to inform
clients of potential risks.
In
an age of terrorism, tourism policing has now moved to the front lines and
faces upheavals demanding that police departments quickly adapt to new social
and political realities. Here are a few,
sometimes conflicting, sociological trends are essential in developing a TOPS
unit
The
broad dimensional role of tourism policing includes expectations of order
maintenance, law enforcement, and public service within a bureaucratic culture
of rules, regulations, and traditional values[i]. Since the second half of the twentieth
century, law enforcement agencies have had to adapt to a society in constant
flux. Thus, while each TOPs unit is constructed slightly differently, TOPs units generally have all or at least some of the
aspects listed below. These include:
Officers selection based on
personality profiles. Extroverted
officers tend to be better at TOPs duties that
introverted ones,
Officers who have college
education and are bi-lingual
Training is specific tourism
crimes, such as room invasions, crimes of distraction, and CPTED (crime
prevention through environmental design). Additionally TOPs
officers are expected to know something about the workings of the local tourism
industry, the sociological and psychological profiles of the local visitors,
and community relations
TOPs
officers should be considered an elite group and when possible receive extra
pay.
Officers should be able to
handle customer relations problems and understand and be empowered to "own
the problem."
TOPs
programs often have auxiliary personnel to supplement police units
Furthermore, TOPs
unites tend to be most successful when tourism/travel industry professionals
ask the right questions of their law enforcement agencies. Good questions to ask are:
1)
How can we work together from
an organizational perspective?
2)
What information do you, the
members of the police department, need from us that we may not be giving you?
3)
How can we be supportive of
your department throughout the year?
4)
Would you be willing to have a
PD officer sit on our planning sessions?
5)
Might we provide a scholarship
to send one of your people to the national tourism safety conference or would
you be willing to have us bring in an expert to train the department in Tourism
Oriented Policing?
6)
How can we join forces to
achieve our common goal of a safe and prosperous community?
7)
What questions would you have
liked me to ask you?
8)
Do you wish to meet with our
security people before the event? If so, when?
9)
What types of uniforms do you
use? Can we use uniforms to create a positive image?
10)
When working our events/parades
etc, how much lead-time do you need?
11)
How can we work on budgets together?
12)
Are you familiar with TOPs
training and would you like more information about it?
13)
Can we help to fund a TOPs
unit?
14)
Would you share some of the PDs problems with
us? How can we aid you?
15)
Can we develop a joint volunteer program?
Below
is a listing of some of the other tourism security practices that TOPs unites around the world use. It should be noted that successful tourism
policing depends not only on the police but also on how well the community
interacts with the police.
Make sure that the unit is
properly financed. Law enforcement
agencies state that despite the importance of tourism to their local economy,
city, state, provincial, or national governments do not provide the agencies
with the proper level of funding. There
is a common perception that governments want tourists to receive extraordinary
services within the confines of ordinary budgets. Often law enforcement agents suffer from low
morale due in part to low pay and lack of resources.
Make sure that there is enough
personnel. Police departments indicate
that increasing manpower is a major way to prevent crime. However, due to budget constraints, and often
national or federal regulations regarding compensation time, efforts by police
departments are limited.
Make sure that the media is
included in the program from the beginning.
Because the media often find stories about crime a good way to sell
newspapers or increase ratings, it is essential that the media understand the
long-term impact of this policy. When
the media are insensitive to the damage done to a community and to an agency's
morale and when only negative news items are reported both the tourism industry
and law enforcement are hurt.
Involve the community
cooperation. Security enforcement
agencies cannot completely end crime.
Instead, they must depend on the local population, and the tourism
industry in particular, to help them fight crime prior to the occurrence of an
incident. Law enforcement agencies see
prevention as their best tool.
Develop some form of accurate
and valuable statistics and standardization.
Because there is no international standardization of what is a crime
against a visitor, who a visitor is, or how records are to be kept it is hard
to measure progress. Furthermore, most
tourists are not interested in the number of arrests but rather in the
probability that nothing will happen to them while on vacation.
High police visibility. Law enforcement agencies push for law
enforcement officers to be visible. The
traveling public is better protected by police officers on foot, on horseback,
or on a bicycle rather than in a car.
Make sure that your police
officers are willing to talk to strangers.
Tourism areas need extroverted officers who understand that part of
their job is to "shmooz" with their
community's guests. These informal
conversations not only permit the police to have a better idea about what is on
the person's mind, but create the perception that the community is safe enough
for the police officer to have the time to talk with an out-of-towner.
TOPS units should participate
on tourism boards. By working with local hotel/motel associations,
tourism offices, and Chambers-of-Commerce, law enforcement agencies can develop
joint programs to stop crime before it begins.
Visible policing. Research demonstrates that there is a direct
negative correlation between the number of police on the street and the amount
of crime that takes place in a particular neighborhood.
Property inspections with
minimal safety standards. The interviews
reveal that hoteliers and owners of attractions can learn a great deal from
local law enforcement agencies. Police
are very concerned with such issues as old-fashioned numbered keys, and easy
access doorways. From the law
enforcement perspective, it may be easier to prevent a crime than to deal with
it post facto.
Personnel checks. Interviews showed that people who work with
tourists may have less than sterling backgrounds. Employee security training. All three police forces encourage security
training for anyone who works in places or areas frequented by tourists.
Police tourism training. Police, who work in tourism areas, need to be
sensitive to the special needs of the transient person. Sociologically it is known that tourists
suffer from higher than normal levels of anomie and are often "sitting
ducks" for the criminal element.
Police need to know how to comfort the tourist when he/she is a victim
of a crime and how to help tourists so that they have a lower probability of
becoming crime victims.
Tourism
Safety Brochures
Every community should have a
security brochure. Include in this
brochure basic safety features and emergency phone numbers. If you have not yet developed such a brochure
for your community, here are some tips on how to design it and some points you
may want to include in a tourism safety packet for your community.
Use bright and cheerful colors. While you want your tourists to be safe, you
also do not want them to be afraid. Use
clear and easy to read fonts placed on a background of colors that are upbeat
and encouraging. Design these guides so
as the reader receives the subtext that although caution is critical, your
community is still a safe and fun place to visit.
Teach tourist to avoid
overly-structuring their activities. Emphasize
that vacations are a time for
spontaneity. The reason for this emphasis is that criminals often go after the
predictable traveler. For example, if
someone plays tennis every day at
Teach tourists to be observant. Most
tourists simply leave their hotel/motel room without ever noticing who may be
in the area. Tourists should remember
that it is always a wise idea to take note of anyone who may be suspicious.
Advise tourists about
neighborhoods. Your out-of-town guests do
not know your community. Tourists do not
know where choke points (areas such as construction sites and busy
intersections) are located. These points
are often places where the tourist is most vulnerable. Tourists do not know what is
"ordinary" in a neighborhood or what to look for.
Encourage your visitors to
always drive with the windows rolled up and with their car doors locked. This safety tip is important for locals
who are familiar with the community; it is essential for out-of-towners.
Encourage guests to avoid
discussing their travel plans in public places. Surveillants
consider staff-personnel (and children) to be a prime source of
information. The more the criminal knows
about a particular tourist the easier it is to make that tourist a victim.
The need for law enforcement is
as old as civilization itself. From the
Bible's reporting of the world's first mass murder committed by Lemech (Genesis
Since the dawn of time policing
has developed solutions to face new challenges, TOPs
and tourism security programs are just one more way in which law enforcement is
finding ways to protect us as we change, move and create new challenges.