The tourism industry is highly vulnerable to natural (i.e., hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, torrential rains) and
human-caused disasters—whether social or political (i.e., riots, insurgency, terrorism, crime, political upheaval,
war, regional tensions). Regardless of their nature, disasters create difficult, often tragic, situations for the
afflicted area and its residents. Over the years, media coverage of disasters has conveyed the resulting loss of
life, human suffering, public and private property damage, and economic and social disruption. The ensuing
negative publicity often characterizes the period after a disaster occurrence that lasts until full recovery is
achieved and predisaster conditions resume. For a tourist destination, this period can represent a tourism crisis,
which can threaten the normal operation and conduct of tourism-related businesses; damage a tourist
destination‟s overall reputation for safety, attractiveness, and comfort by negatively affecting visitors‟
perceptions of that destination; and, in turn, cause a downturn in the local travel and tourism economy, and
interrupt the continuity of business operations for the local travel and tourism industry, by the reduction in
tourist arrivals and expenditures (Sönmez, Backman, and Allen 1994). Although the repercussions of a tourism
crisis are likely to damage all destinations, the period of recovery can vary for each.
Often, large numbers of people have a vested interest in the health of the local tourism industry. Stakeholders
and the local economy depend on outsiders‟ perceptions of the community. For this reason, it is highly
unfortunate that tourism crises receive wide publicity because tourism centers are, by definition, places with
high visibility. Regardless of whether tourism crises are triggered by natural or human-caused disasters,
travelers will shy away from afflicted areas. Consequently, the local tourism industry will suffer from a lageffect,
in which a negative image caused by the disaster may well outlive physical damages and the tourism
community/ industry will have to find ways to manage the disaster‟s after effects. This, in turn, may cause an
economic downturn that is as harmful to a destination‟s tourism sustainability as the initial disaster. Tourism
crises triggered by terrorism are likely to be different from those caused by natural disasters. Although terrorism
has been a political tool since early history, modern-day terrorism began in the latter part of this century.
International terrorism increased rapidly during the late 1960s and early 1970s. After a brief lull in activity, the
1980s began and ended with terrorist violence. By the end of the decade, terrorism had become commonplace
(D‟Amore and Anuza 1986; Richter and Waugh 1986). Fewer terrorist incidents in the United States have been
recorded for the first half of the 1990s; however, their nature and magnitude are more severe than those of past
years‟ events. Experts indicate that terrorism will continue to victimize “soft” targets, attacks will become more
indiscriminate, terrorism will become institutionalized as a method of armed conflict, it will spread
geographically, and the public will witness more terrorism than ever due to the media‟s improved ability to
cover terrorist incidents (Atkinson, Sandler, and Tschirhart 1987; Jenkins 1988).
