Impact of Terrorism and Political Instability on Tourism Development (Term Paper Sample)

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Impact of Terrorism and political instability on tourism development
Abstract
Tourism is not only the largest but is also the fastest growing industries worldwide. It is also major economic driver in many countries. It is believed that the industry represents approximately 7% of the worldwide exports of goods and services (Phakdisoth & Kim, 2007). Consequently, its development has outpaced the growth of economic output as measured in Gross Domestic Product. The industry has increased on average 1.3 times faster than GDP on a worldwide basis. Therefore, the development of the tourism industry in a destination frequently brings with it benefits that include employment, foreign exchange receipts and income. It is therefore often associated with economic advantage. The industry has also been identified as a means of improving the development potential of underdeveloped regions. It also improves the standard of living in local communities. Consequently, the construction and maintenance of tourist facilities and services are important in terms of both economic growth and development. However, this important industry has been affected by political instability and the threat of terrorism. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of political instability and terrorism on tourism. The paper shall analyse some case studies on how political instability and tourism have affected the tourism industry. The paper recommends that, countries should provide adequate security to tourists in areas that are prone to terrorist attacks. The paper also recommends that in order to enhance development in the tourism industry, there is need for political stability and tolerance.
Keywords: tourism; political violence; instability; terrorism; human rights violations
Impact of political instability and terrorism on tourism
Political instability can be defined as a situation in which conditions and mechanisms of governance and rule are challenged as to their political legitimacy by elements operating from outside of the normal operations of the political system. Terrorism on the other hand refers to the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political, social or economic aims (Strickland, 2007). It can also mean pre-meditated, politically motivated violence that is perpetrated against civilians and unarmed military personnel by subnational groups with the intention of influencing an audience. War and terrorism are two forms of political instability that originates from long-term disputes and may create enduring barriers to international tourism.
Political instability and terrorism can have great effects on tourism. Similarly, stability is a prerequisite for a thriving tourism industry. Tourism industry is very delicate in nature and instabilities such as war and terrorism usually result in sheer declines of tourist flows.Politically unstable countries often suffer from high unemployment rates due to difficulties with cash flow (Seddighi, Nuttall & Theocharous, 2001). They also have problems with funding and supply and therefore, it is usually difficult for these countries to build strong infrastructures that can easily attract tourists.
A brief literature review
Studies that investigate the relationship between political instability and terrorism on the tourism industry are broadly categorised into two-quantitative and qualitative. Clements & Georgiou (2008) broadly highlighted a comprehensive case study list that explored the aforementioned relationship. However, the existing quantitative literature is scarce in the examination of the impact of terrorism and political instability on tourism. The present paper focuses on, in this section, the studies that quantify the impact of political instability and terrorism on tourists’ inflow besides the duration of such impact both in the Middle East and at the global level.
One of the earliest attempts that estimated the impact of political instability and terrorism on tourism was made by Casado (1997). The focus of the study was on Spain during the 1988-1970 period. Using the Vector Auto-regression methodology on the monthly data capturing the number of tourists visiting Spain and comparing the number of attacks from terrorists, they realized that while terrorism affects tourism, the reverse is not true. Another study conducted by Sönmez (1998)projected the impact of international terrorists on the domestic tourism in Greece, Italy and Australia during the 1974-1988 period. The study concluded that terrorism and political instability reduces tourism and economic development in affected countries and consequently, negatively affect neighbouring countries. Theocharous (2010) demonstrated the negative consequences of international terrorism in the tourism industries of countries such as Turkey, Nepal and Bangladesh. In addition, the study projected that Foreign Tourism Arrival in India and Nepal sharply declined after the second month in an event of terror attack but begin rising six months afterwards. Moreover, Yap & Saha (2013), found that terrorists’ activities in Italy had a great negative impact on tourism over the 1995-997 period.
While, most scholars concur that terrorism impact negatively on the economic development of various countries, Phakdisoth & Kim (2007) confirms that the tourism economies are vulnerable to political violence. For instance, despite the civil war in Iraq and consequently, the global tension concerning Iran’s nuclear plan and the numerous travel advisories by the United States, very little has been done to dampen terrorism in the aforesaid country. As a result travel advisories in 2013 led to a drop in revenue collection from the tourism sector of Iran by 50% (Ubavic, 2015).
However, the flow of tourists is not entirely vulnerable to political violence since some areas that have been rocked by war and violence have alternative market niches that include post-war reconstruction contracts, aid workers and journalists to sustain tourist service demands (Seddighi, Nuttall & Theocharous, 2001).. A case in point is Jordan that has received considerable foreign tourism arrival growth despite the 2004 US war on Iraq (Ubavic, 2015). From the reviewed literature, it can be concluded that several scholars confirm that terrorism and political instability negatively impact on the tourism industry of a country. However, the impact’s duration may vary depending on the magnitude of the terror but later subsides within a two year period.
Isolated case studies
The present paper focuses on the impact of political instability and terrorism in three countries. That is, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. The tourism industry in the Middle East plays a significant role in the overall development of the continent. In 2009, the tourism industry accrued 6.8% of the international tourists consequently fetching 65.3 billion US dollars in revenue that accounts for 3.5% of the Gross Domestic Product of the region (Seddighi, Nuttall & Theocharous, 2001). The foreseeable countries are endowed with large natural, cultural and historical resources that attract tourism across the globe. The 2007 report published by the Foresight and Global Futures estimated the numbers of tourists in the above-mentioned regions at 150million by 2010 up from the 2009s 61 million (Tang & Abosedra, 2014). However, the arrival of tourists in the Middle East has been intrinsically conditioned by a geo-political context, security considerations and stability perceptions in the region. Therefore, there is need to account for the above factors when establishing how they affect the tourism industry (Seddighi, Nuttall & Theocharous, 2001). The three countries mentioned accounts for approximately 17 million of the projected 61 million foreign tourists in North Africa and the Middle East. Egypt for example, is one of the most significant destination of tourists in Africa. For Jordan and Lebanon with limited natural resources, tourism is the key driver towards economic growth and income generation. The tourism in Lebanon is very significant for the regional economy and further represented 33% of the GDP of the country by 2010 (Seddighi, Theocharous & Nuttall, 2002). Time and again, the three countries have faced terror attacks and various forms of political instability hereby affecting employment in the tourism industry. Due to terror attacks and political instability, there shall be a decrease in the net trend flow of tourists, stochastic fluctuations and seasonal dependencies.
Terrorist motives on the tourism industry.
Most scholars in the tourism industry argue that an understanding of the motive of terrorists may explain the relationship between tourism and terrorism (Steiner, 2007). As such, most social scholars seek to clarify the motive behind activities of terrorists that concern destination of tourists. Presently, there lacks consensus on the explanation of the objectives of terrorists, however, most agree that the terrorists gain a lot when they target tourists. In their influential document on tourism and terrorism, Clements & Georgiou (2008) noted that the destination of tourists is cost-effective in delivering a broader political and ideological opposition. Moreover, the contribution of travel and tourism to both developing and industrialized countries is large that downturns in the activity level are a major cause of concern (Saha & Yap, 2013). The consequences extend beyond the activities that are directly associated with catering, hotels, notably airlines and tourism to the sectors supplying final and intermediate goods purchased by employees and firms.
Terrorist attacks manifest in various forms. For instance plane hijacking targets the tourist’s destinations and consequently leading to loss of property and lives (Ubavi...