Prelims

Half Title Page

Tourism, Terrorism and Security

Tourism Security-Safety and Post Conflict Destinations

Series editors: Maximiliano E. Korstanje and Hugues Seraphin

Since the turn of the century, the international rules surrounding security and safety have significantly changed, specifically within the tourism industry. In the age of globalization, terrorism and conflict have moved beyond individual high-profile targets; instead, tourists, travellers and journalists are at risk. In response to this shift, the series invites authors and scholars to contribute to the conversation surrounding tourism security and post-conflict destinations.

The series features monographs and edited collections to create a critical platform which not only explores the dichotomies of tourism from the theory of mobilities, but also provides an insightful guide for policy-makers, specialists and social scientists interested in the future of tourism in a society where uncertainness, anxiety and fear prevail.

Tourism Security-Safety and Post-Conflict Destinations explores research approaches and perspectives from a wide range of ideological backgrounds to discuss topics such as

• Studies related to comparative cross-cultural perceptions of risk and threat

• Natural and human-caused disasters

• Post-disaster recovery strategies in tourism and hospitality

• Terror movies and tourism

• Aviation safety and security

• Crime and security issues in tourism and hospitality

• Political instability, terrorism and tourism

• Thana-tourism

• War on terror and Muslim-tourism

• The effects of global warming on tourism destinations

• Innovative quantitative/qualitative methods for the study of risk and security issues in tourism and hospitality

• Virus outbreaks and tourism mobility

• Disasters, trauma and tourism

• Apocalyptic theories and tourism as a form of entertainment

Title Page

Tourism, Terrorism and Security: Tourism Security-safety and Post Conflict Destinations

Edited by

Maximiliano E. Korstanje

University of Palermo, Argentina

Hugues Seraphin

University of Winchester Business School, United Kingdom

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2020

Copyright © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83867-906-4 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83867-905-7 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83867-907-1 (Epub)

Endrosements

I have long admired Maximiliano’s perspective and expertise on tourism security. In short order, Seraphin and Maximiliano pinpoints the heart of tourism security in Tourism Security and Dark Tourism Today tied to complexities dark tourism and the ever-changing world of risk. They provide insights into the two distinct areas, both are intertwined in tourism today. Well thought out and explained in this new book.

Brian Bergquist Ph.D. – School of Hospitality Leadership. University of Wisconsin-Stout

This is a “must read” book for all academics, researchers and tourism professionals who are interested in the subject of tourism security. The editors are acclaimed researchers and prolific authors who have conducted and published numerous studies in this field. The chapters’ authors provide an international perspective by highlighting the phenomenon of tourism security in different countries such as: the UK, Colombia, the Russian Federation and South Africa. In addition, the book has a couple of fascinating chapters that address security issues in dark tourism destinations. All in all, this book is a valuable and important contribution to knowledge in the domain of tourism studies.

Abraham Pizam, Ph.D. – Professor and Linda Chapin Eminent Scholar Chair in Tourism Management, Founding Dean Rosen College of Hospitality Management- University of Central Florida, US

“This book fills a necessary place in the literature. It highlights terrorism and security. As the travel industry globally is faced with increased terrorism understanding how to manage these incidents is more important than ever.”

Lori Pennington-Gray Professor & Director of Tourism Crisis Management Initiative – Coordinator online MS in Hospitality Business Management University of Florida, US

Foreword

Ever since 11 September 2001, there has been a plethora of books published in the field of terrorism. Many of these books were written quickly and with little regard to methodologies and research needs. The study of terrorism, however, is not merely another area of academic scholarship. The terrorism literature deals with issues of life and death and the consequences of errors might result in tragedy, loss of property, economic viability or even life.

To make matters even more difficult for the researcher, there are numerous challenges in methodologies used to research this field. In fact there still is no one common definition of terrorism nor is there a clear general delineation between issues of crime and issues of terrorism. In this matter, the field of academic tourism is slightly ahead of other aspects of academic terrorism research. The tourism industry has long understood that criminal acts seek a parasitic relationship with tourism. That is to state, that the criminal needs the tourism industry's success if they are to benefit from their victims. From the perspective of crime, criminal actions are nothing more than a (illegal) business. Terrorism is another matter. Terrorism is political in nature, and vis-à-vis the tourism industry, it seeks to destroy it by causing the maximum amount of harm to a location's economy and reputation. To accomplish this goal, terrorism starts by destroying a tourism locale's facilities, causing death to the industries workers and clients and creating reputational destruction.

Furthermore, the researcher has to be careful to be objective. All too often researchers permit personal biases to creep into their analysis, and thus important details are omitted so as to present the terrorists' actions from the biased perspective of the researcher.

Doing terrorism research then produces multiple challenges. I present below some of the difficulties in my years of studying the interaction and inter-sectionality between tourism and terrorism.

1. International terrorism is not locale specific, nor is it time specific. Western researchers tend to have very short time ‘analysis time spans’. For example, Western researchers consider several centuries to be a considerable amount of time. Other parts of the world and especially those cultures that are based in the Middle East or in Asia do not view time in the same way. Their languages use a different tense frame, and their cultures tend to think of time as a continuum rather than as specific and independent blocks of time that can be divided into past, present and future. In many cases, these languages see a future action as having already started. What this means to the researcher is that he or she will need to translate texts not only verbally but also culturally.

2. Secondly the researcher must view primary documents or materials with a great amount of caution. Often pronouncements by terrorist organizations are for purely propaganda purposes. This differentiation between verbiage and truth means that terrorist organizations publish what they believe their enemy wants to hear, rather than what they truthfully mean. The researcher who accepts what he or she is told at face value might well be publishing a false analysis. All too often those of us who have worked in the field of terrorism and tourism have discovered that our subjects believe that the ends justify the means and that words are merely words. Put another way: this is my opinion, truth or fact until I change it.

3. Western researchers are often at a loss due to language difficulties. In my experience, I have found that statements made in languages such as English, French, Portuguese or Spanish are merely for show. In order to understand the subject matter, one must know the actor's language and thought pattern.

4. Researchers are also hampered by Western governments unnecessarily classifying many documents as ‘top secret’ and thus not only is it difficult to understand the terrorist's mindset but without clear documentation it is also difficult to understand how Western governments might have reacted to terrorism attacks.

5. What is true for government documents is also true for many in the tourism industry. Major parts of the tourism industry have at times downplayed the extent of terrorism in order not to scare their customers. This means that terrorism organizations often exaggerate the extent of their destructive power while the tourism industry has tended to downplay these same actions.

The interaction between tourism and terrorism is an organically changing field. What might be true today may well be disproven tomorrow. Researchers are well advised to approach this subject not only with caution but also with great humility. What we believe to be true today might well be false tomorrow.

Dr Peter Tarlow

Faculty of Humanities in Medicine,Texas A&M University andPresident of Tourism & More Inc.

Preface: Tourism Security and Dark Tourism Today

The dilemma revolving around tourism security suggests a great controversy policy-makers and scholars tried to resolve over the recent decades. While nation-states devote efforts and time in mitigating potential global risks, further unseen risks inevitably surface. Sociology and anthropology studied this risk paradox inspiring the works of authoritative voices such as Ulrich Beck, Anthony Giddens and Niklas Luhmann in their respective academic careers. In the risk society, echoing Beck, the notion of security is like a dog chasing its tail. A multidisciplinary approach is necessary to understand the nature of risks that could potentially hit the tourism industry and cognate sectors. Sociology and anthropology are at the forefront of the solicited disciplines. Both disciplines hold the thesis that risk – in the postmodern society plays a leading role in keeping the society united. The precautionary doctrine not only echoes the western rationality but allows the articulation of new policies oriented to mitigate the negative effects of external dangers. Over recent years, some authors have alerted on the problem and limitations of the precautionary principle. As Cass Sunstein (2005) puts it, the needs of mitigating (imagined) risks without a coherent evaluation may very well lead to a state of disaster. Still, the over-exposure to the precautionary principle predisposes public opinion to panic and inaction. In this way, Sunstein holds that societies are interested in creating their fears to ignore the significance of the real hazards. Quite aside from this controversy, no less true is that the tourism industry has been subject to countless risks and dangers just after the turn of the twentieth century (Becken & Hay, 2007; Korstanje & Clayton, 2012; Pizam & Smith, 2000). From natural disasters towards the radicalization of Islamic cells, policy-makers acknowledge the importance of adopting new more efficient measures in enhancing tourism security. What is equally important is that, the securitization process, which means the arrival of new techniques of digital surveillance or the tightening of border control, has been recently questioned by some senior scholars (Altheide, 2006, 2017; Howie, 2012; Skoll, 2016). The culture of fear, which is revived by the rise and expansion of terrorism within the United States and Europe, is substantially mutating the democratic institutions towards more autocratic forms of government. Exaggerated reactions against the ‘foreigner’ such as Islamophobia, Tourist-phobia and political separatism seem to be part of a broader dynamic which structures in the hospitality decline (Korstanje, 2017). This suggests that the urgency is not given to how the notion of security should be thought, but in the fact that we have to revisit the current understanding of tourism security. Some studies have highlighted the importance of post-disaster tourism in the acceleration of recovery timeframe. New morbid forms of consumption recycle today obliterated cities or disaster zones transforming them in spaces which are disposed to receive thousands of dark tourists (Seraphin, 2019; Séraphin, Butcher, & Korstanje, 2017). Hence, between the precautionary principle which illuminated the pathways of risk perception theory as it was applied in tourism fields and the post-disaster consumption, there is a gap, which the present book attempts to fulfill. To put simply in other terms, the book is structured based on two goals. The first is entirely dedicated to the study of the limitations of tourism security in an ever-changing world. Rather, the second concentrates efforts in discussing the importance of post-disaster or post-conflict consumption making from the atrocity and sadness a criterion of attraction. Although each chapter can be read separately, they were organized according to the axiom that tourism security and dark tourism as two sides of the same coin. While the notion of tourism security plays a preventive role, moving resources and time, to protect the destination, dark tourism –instead – operates once the risk has been materialized. Dark tourism and post-conflict tourism act as a mechanism of resiliency which helps the community to be on feet again.

As the previous backdrop, on the introductory chapter, I outline the conceptual borders of tourism security post 9/11 contexts. The emergence of radicalised groups is threatening the tourism industry and cognate sectors. Places attracting large number of tourists are particularly at risk. Because of time and space limitation, the chapter does not explore all publications but gives some highlights on the most important academic schools which focused on risk perception and security as main fields.

In the second chapter, Hugues Seraphin, Professor at Winchester University, UK, brings a deeper reflection on a new global phenomenon which captivates the attention of tourism scholars. While in former decades, the hostility against tourism was considered a mark of underdevelopment or simply – so to speak the lack of democracy, today the Western urban cities have developed a caustic sentiment of hostility against foreign-tourists. Over-tourism and tourism-phobia, following Seraphin, seem to be inevitably entwined. Tourism security fields should incorporate and discuss critically this surfacing theme as a key element to ensure the stability of the tourist system. In the third chapter, César Augusto Oliveros-Ocampo, Rosa Maria Chavez and Leticia Bravo present the case of Colombia and years after the treaty of peace between FARC and government. These researchers analyze the correlation and variation of different variables to the perception of security. The study shows widely the sensibility of Colombian tourism market as a consequence of State policy and its failures to contain and undermine rivalry and conflict. The fourth chapter shows the titanic efforts of our Russian colleagues Oleg Afanasiev, Alexandra Afanasieva, Mikhail Sarancha and Matvey Oborin, in presenting a clear snapshot of tourism security in the Russian Federation. As authors brilliantly proved, the idea of tourism security is individually internalized but, at the same time, culturally determined. The Western stereotypes forged in the days of the Cold War, far from disappearing, remain active to date. The Western social imaginary sees the Russian Federation as an insecure destination plagued of political violence and the lack of individual rights. Of course, this represents a serious harm for the image of Russia, while – as authors admit interrogates further on the capacity of leading countries to fabricate a biased (ideological) discourse revolving around the East. At the time, countries suggest not traveling to a certain destination because of security issues, these countries are automatically boycotted. However, reliable index and rankings can be used to stretch tourism security far beyond the stereotypes deeply framed in the ideology of Western capitalism.

The fifth chapter (Korstanje and George) explores the essential nature of security and its connection to religious tourism. The chapter examines the nature of security that provides safety for the religious tourist without adulterating the spiritual experiences of worshippers. Religious faith is known to provide the social trust necessary for a society to function systematically; but touristification of places of worship is often the cause of distress in many communities. Historically, religions have inspired useful leadership practices and we conclude the chapter with a discussion on crisis leadership ideas that are apt for religious tourism management.

The sixth chapter, which is authored by Victoria Mitchell, Tony L. Henthrone and Babu George, centers on dark tourism and dark consumption as a very heterogeneous activity. In fact, authors are aimed to give a conceptual diagnosis that helps in understanding this phenomenon. As an inherent part of human cosmology, death occupies a significant position in the construction of culture. It is unfortunate that over recent years, the term dark tourism moved towards multiple interpretations and significances. Authors eloquently provide an all-encompassing model to understand dark tourism in these global times.

Lwazi Apleni and colleagues, in the seventh chapter, introduce readers in a fascinating debate revolving around terrorism and its impact in the tourism industry. The South-Africa case provides evidence of the negative impacts terrorism can have on the image of a destination, and it is no less truth that the industry shows greater levels of resiliency. However, developing countries have little probabilities to recover just after an attack than developed economies. The acts of terrorism help policy-makers to improve safety and security at the destination while learning of the lessons behind. This leads towards a more proactive attitude which is functional to the destination management. In Chapter 8, I describe the controversies and challenges of dark tourism as an emerging object of study in our days. Based on the Netflix documentary The Dark Tourist, I analyze discursively the contradiction and limitations of dark tourism as a postmodern drive oriented to consume the other's pain. The motivations behind dark tourists lead me to think in a new globalized version of capitalism dubbed as ‘Thana-Capitalism’.

Cyril Peter, in the ninth chapter, calls the attention on the needs of adopting qualitative-related methods to enhance tourism security. Based on the legacy of Abraham Maslow, he introduces a critical analysis that questions the fact that tourism staff are sometimes mistreated when they enter to their respective working desk. Since they deal with tourists, staff are subject to unilateral security checks. One of the dichotomies of the tourism industry associates to the needs of offering an open and inviting landscape while security and safety should be granted. Therefore, people who work often in these spaces should be carefully trained to act when the opportunity arises without vulnerating the guest's privacy.

We, the editors, want to thank all involved and invited authors who are well-recognized scholars in their fields for their generosity and their time in taking part in this book, which looks to expand the current understanding of tourism security, precautionary logic and post-conflict consumption. We wish to express our gratitude to Niall Kennedy and Emerald Group of publishing for space and patience as long as the proofread process took place.

Hugues Seraphin

University of Winchester, UK

Hugues.Seraphin@winchester.ac.uk

and

Maximiliano Korstanje

University of Palermo, Argentina

mkorst@palermo.edu