Tourism since 9-11

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Tourism since 9-11

• An English Reading and Discussion Activity
• By
• Kevin Oskovich
• M.A. TESOL

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• The date 23 February 2004, 896 days beyond
  September 11, seems a long way off, but it will
  be an important day for the world tourism
  industry. It's being called "Travel and Tourism
  Freedom Day". Tourism economists estimate that
  on that day the worldwide industry will have
  recovered all of the losses incurred since the
  terror attacks.
• Tourism is a hard-to-define industry, and as a
  consequence is often under-estimated. But its
  tentacles stretch far and wide from the
  fisherman with a sideline in beach huts in
  Thailand, to the multinational hotel chain, which
  neighbors his property.
• Its well-being affects 200,000,000 people, who
  are employed directly or in subsidiary industries
  in virtually every country across the globe. The
  method of attack on September 11 - the use of
  civilian aircraft as a suicide bomb - was bound
  to have a major effect on the confidence of
  travelers worldwide. On a worldwide level, the
  effects have been much worse than the Gulf War.

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Jobs lost Figures indicate the industry, worth
4.2 trillion each year, has slumped
dramatically. The World Travel and Tourism
Council, estimates that in the two years to the
end of 2002, overall demand for tourism will have
dropped by 7.4 - far greater than during the
Gulf War a decade ago. This is partly because
last year's attacks have coincided with an
economic slump. It's estimated that almost 3.2
million jobs will have been lost. Jean-Claude
Baumgarten, president of the World Travel and
Tourism Council, says the impact has been
significant. "It has had a big effect on our
industry," he says in an interview with BBC News
Online. "Our industry has had to adjust their
costs - and our industry has had to try and get
into new markets."
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The American tourism dollar is particularly
influential to the well-being of the world's
tourism industry. Added economic woes, have led
to more Americans staying at home which has been
good for the domestic tourism industry, but bad
news for many European and Caribbean
destinations. "In a normal year 95 of the
American market stays at home, and 5 travel
overseas. This year 98 have stayed at home and
done domestic travel," says Mr Baumgarten. It's
not surprising. A report conducted two days after
the atrocities indicated that half business
travelers would take fewer overseas business
trips in the future. The survey, by market
research firm Yesawich, Pepperdine Brown, also
found that almost 60 of leisure travelers would
take fewer overseas trips. But, a year on, are
people less nervous? Unfortunately, a new survey
conducted by the same firm, shows that many are
still reluctant travelers. As many as 17 of
leisure travelers say they are concerned about
terrorism and will not travel as a result, with
1 more business travelers saying they are
staying put.
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Closer to home The picture closer to home within
the UK and across Europe is more mixed, but there
is some evidence that people have been fearful of
air travel. For example, there has been a 25
increase in self-drive holidays taken by Brits
this summer. France - only a stone's throw from
England - has proved this year's big European
destination - up 4, according to Abta. In
contrast, holidays to North America have been
particularly affected - packages have fallen by
20, for example. Destinations close to the
Middle East, and Muslim countries in South-East
Asia, such as Indonesia and parts of the
Philippines, have also suffered tremendous
setbacks since September 11.
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Feeling the pinch Is this just down to September
11, or wider economic worries? UK holidaymakers
have certainly been holding on until the last
minute to book their holidays. "I think we have
seen some very unusual booking patterns. And you
can pin that down to September 11. "Although
people are still keen to go on holiday abroad,
people were waiting to see what happened before
they actually committed, especially if they have
children," says Frances Tuke of Abta. But while
package holidays on the whole are down 10 this
year other areas of tourism have boomed,
particularly low-cost no frills airlines. Their
passengers don't seem to have been
psychologically affected by the terror attacks.
"No-frills airlines are the biggest issue
affecting the travel industry at the moment, "
says Ms Tuke, whose association represents the
interests of travel agents.
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Dunkirk spirit? Neal Baldwin, deputy editor of
Travel Weekly, believes the British have been
pretty resilient. "Perversely some of the
destinations like Greece which have been able to
be much more price competitive thought they would
be down because they were nearer to the troubled
region, but they have done relatively well." "I
don't think the British are put off by acts of
terrorists. They are a very resilient bunch -
they like their two weeks in the sun." Indeed,
there is no hard-and-fast rule to tourists'
behavior post September 11. Around the world
tours are up 37, according to Abta, although
this is perhaps fuelled by redundancy packages.
Long-haul destinations, such as Thailand,
Australia and New Zealand have been very popular
with British holidaymakers.
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On the rebound? This September 11, tourism
officials will meet in New York to publish a
"White book", a compendium of statistics
outlining the state of the tourism industry, and
announce a new recovery action plan. "It is on
the way to come back. The psychological impact
was very big because it happened in the United
States and because of the media exposure," says
Mr Baumgarten. Pending any future similar
incident, experts believe the industry will start
recovering next year. But, if another September
11 or similar tragedy were to happen again, Mr
Baumgarten says his job would be even harder. He
finds it difficult to elaborate, such has been
the shock and impact of the events a year ago. "I
am sorry I can not tell you," he says. But one
thing is for certain, it would require an even
bigger marketing budget. "It would be dramatic of
course, and we would have to do what we have done
on a much larger scale."