UKCBC - Terrorism's Impact on Tourism in Egypt and Tunisia

This research project investigates the effects of global terrorism on tourism in Egypt and Tunisia, examining how terrorist activities influence tourist behavior and the overall perception of these destinations. It analyzes the importance of tourism to the economies of Egypt and Tunisia, the challenges posed by terrorism, and the measures taken to mitigate these effects. The project reviews existing literature on terrorism and its impact on tourism, explores counterterrorism strategies, and considers the role of travel advisories in shaping tourist decisions. Ultimately, the research aims to provide insights for policymakers and stakeholders on how to address terrorism and safeguard the tourism industry, contributing to academic knowledge and practical strategies for enhancing the resilience of travel destinations in the face of global terrorism. The research also includes a research proposal, methodology, findings, and recommendations.

Table of Contents
Task 1: Research Proposal...............................................................................................................3
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
1.1Tourism in Egypt and Tunisia................................................................................................3
1.2Terrorism in Egypt and Tunisia..............................................................................................4
2. Statement of the problem.........................................................................................................4
2.1 Objective................................................................................................................................5
3. Literature Review....................................................................................................................6
3.1 Terrorism...............................................................................................................................7
3.2 How terrorism affects tourist behavior..................................................................................7
4.Research methodology..............................................................................................................8
4.1 Research Design....................................................................................................................8
4.2Data Collection Methods and Instruments.............................................................................8
4.3 Data Analysis Methods and Procedures................................................................................9
Appendices................................................................................................................................10
Research timeline.......................................................................................................................10
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................11
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................12
Introduction................................................................................................................................12
Validity and Reliability..............................................................................................................12
Ethical considerations of the Study...........................................................................................12
Research results.........................................................................................................................13
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................15
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................16
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................16

2. Evaluation of findings............................................................................................................16
Summary of findings.................................................................................................................16
3. Conclusion.............................................................................................................................16
4. Recommendations..................................................................................................................17
Suggestion for further research..................................................................................................18
Task 4: Poster................................................................................................................................19

Task 1: Research Proposal
THE EFFECT OF GLOBAL TERRORISM ON TRAVEL DESTINATIONS: A CASE OF
EGYPT AND TUNISIA
1. Introduction
Tourism is considered to be a major contributor to most of the countries globally. Over the
decades, there has been a major boom in the tourism industry attesting to increased marketing
and diversification of tourism packages (Barrera & Garrido, 2017). In most countries, tourism is
directly linked to development, and is considered to be a major driver for the socio economic
development. It can also be noted that, tourism is a very dynamic sector, which is purely dictated
by how well a market is be able to adapt to client ever changing needs; more so on their
satisfaction, enjoyment and most importantly, safety(Hunter-Jones, 2016)
1.1 Tourism in Egypt and Tunisia
Tourism in simple terms can be described as, a collection of activities done by persons traveling
to, staying and enjoying destinations that is not their normal day to day environment, in a period
of not more than one year. Tourism can either be for leisure, for business, for education amongst
many other purposes.
There are three major categories of tourism, with regards to destination. They include; outbound
tourism, inbound tourism, and domestic tourism. Outbound tourism is involves the activities
done by the residents of a specific country, travelling to and staying in a destination outside their
own country for a period not exceeding one year. Inbound tourism on the other hand is where
tourists from other countries visit a specific travel destination for a period of not more than a
year. The last classification is domestic tourism which entails all the activities done by locals of a
particular country, traveling to and staying in destinations but within their country for a period of
not more than a year. (Ordóñez de Pablos, Tennyson and Zhao, 2012)
According to a report on demographic change and tourism, (2010) the whole dynamics of how
tourism was used to be has completely changed, with emphasis shifting from accommodations,
to the various activities which the tourist are going to engage in.

Egypt and Tunisia are recognized worldwide, as countries that depict strong tourism brands,
offering a variety of tourism products (sports tourism, cultural tourism e.t.c,), and sites that
attract tourists in millions every year. In both countries, tourism plays a major role in economic
development; both in terms of direct generation of revenue to the locals, and taxation gained by
the government emanating from tourism related activities. Tourism is also one of the sectors
which employ the most people in both counties.
Both countries receive troupes of tourists from both domestic market and inbound tourist coming
from other countries. The level of success in their tourism sector, in light of the violent political
changes in their governments, internal political tensions and both actual and reported imminent
terrorist attacks, is amazing. The reasons why both markets have been able to survive the
mentioned impediments needs to be researched as mentioned by several authors. (Avraham,
2016, Ben Aissa & Goaied, 2014, Selmi & Dornier, 2017),
1.2 Terrorism in Egypt and Tunisia
According to Dalacoura, (2011), terrorism has been a major problem in most countries of the
Middle East, Egypt and Tunisia being part of the targeted spots. This is a problem that the two
countries are still combating with recent attacks being barely a year ago. The nature of terrorism
for both countries comes from different reasons including; political differences, alleged fight for
social justice, differences emanating from radical religious beliefs just to mention a few. Further
analysis of terrorism will be reviewed in the later parts of this document.
2. Statement of the problem
The importance of tourism in the developmental agenda of many countries is undisputable. In
fact quite a number of publications have been written to highlight the role of tourism on the
growth of various countries (Ivanov & Webster, 2013).Through intense marketing drives by the
Egyptian and the Tunisian governmenthave been trying to maintain their tourist numbers amidst
increased terrorist attacks.
According to Thompson, (2011), terrorists tend to target major tourist destinations for the
purposes of gaining as much attention as possible. The resultant effect is an imposition of travel
advisories by foreign countries warning their citizens not to visit the countries affected. This
further affects negatively the number of tourist visitations. In 2017, Egypt faced quite a number

of such advisories by several foreign countries against them. This was after a terrorist attack
which saw more than 300 people die.
The consistent attacks made by terrorist in both countries have severely impacted their growth in
the tourism sector. This is in spite of all the marketing efforts put in place to revamp the sector.
In a global market where there are quite a number of alternatives on offer, terrorist activities can
setback the achievements gained by a substantial margin. For example, in the instance of Egypt,
due to terrorism, their tourist numbers slumped by almost 42% between 2016 and 2017.
Such attacks or terror related activities as established have an adverse effect on the performance
of the tourism sector as a whole. This research will therefore try to establish the various
interrelationships on how global terrorism affects the overall perception of travel destinations
with Egypt and Tunisia being the case study. It is in the hope that, from the findings of this
research, all stakeholders involved, will have a new insight on how to tackle the issue of
terrorism and properly formulate mitigation measures that will aid in cushioning the tourism
industry from the adverse effects. .
2.1 Objective
The objective of this study is to find out how global terrorism affects Egypt and Tunisia
as preferred travel destinations.
From the findings of the study, there is an expectation that policy makers and other stakeholders
especially those attending the World Tourism Market, Travel Tech show will receive insight on
how to improve the tourism sector. The two countries, Egypt and Tunisia, are also to gain from
the gathered information, which they can use to strengthen their tourism sector amidst combating
the vice of terrorism. The findings will also provide a source of reference for other academicians
The hypothesis of the study is;
Hypothesis: Global terrorism adversely affects Egypt and Tunisia and preferred travel
destinations

3. Literature Review
There have been various publications written detailing the effects terrorism has on tourism. One of
the reasons for this can be partially due to the increase in terrorism over the past 2 decades. While it
is true that tourism plays a major role in the overall development of many countries, it is very volatile
in nature and highly susceptible influence from external environments.
Thompson, (2011), wrote a journal article showing various comparisons on how terrorism affects
the tourism industry in countries that are developing and those that are already developed. After
an analyzing a cross-sectional data set of up to 60 countries, he concluded that terrorism's effect
on tourism in developing countries is way more severe as compared to developed countries. He
further suggested that, developing countries should put in place measures to prevent terrorism in
order to curb the damaging effects on tourism as an industry.
According to (Jost, 2017) the global economic impact brought about by terrorism reached a
figure of US$89.6 billion in 2015, this was a decrease of 15 per cent as compared to2014.it was
also noted that Tourism’s contribution to GDP was twice as large in those countries with no
terrorist attacks as compared to countries with attacks. Tourism and terrorism are like oil and
water. They are two contrasting things with regards to how they affect the economy of countries.
Whereas tourism is an important sector aimed at stimulating and driving a country’s’ economy
forward, terrorism has a complete opposing effect due to it adverse nature to the economy.
2016 Global terrorism index
country rank score
1 Iraq 9.96
2 Afghanistan 9.444
3 Nigeria 9.314
4 Pakistan 8.613
5 Syria 8.587
6 Yemen 8.076
7 Somalia 7.548
8 India 7.484

9 Egypt 7.328
10 Libya 7.283
(Jost, 2017)
3.1 Terrorism
Saul, (2012) describes terrorism as the use of violence, and intimidation, unlawfully particularly
against civilians, in the pursuit of personal, political or religious ideologies.
Antwi-Boateng, (2017) notes that despite a number of African residents living in peaceful
coexistence, radically charged Islamic ideology that propels terrorism is on the rise. The reason
being factors that can be classified into push and pull forces. He states that the push forces are
those which attract people to embrace the beliefs of violent jihad. These include: local backlash
against perceived oppressive political systems; Americanization/globalization; high rate of
unemployment; corruption, porous borders; lack of basic human rights, just to mention a few.
The pull factors he indicated are the advantages terrorist movements have which pull people to
their cause. These include: radical Islamic ideologies; media propaganda e.t.c.
There are several counterterrorism measures that have been put in place to try to mitigate the
menace of global terrorism. Various nations have tried to formulate legislation which is aimed at
countering terrorism (Eijkman, 2012). Despite all the efforts put in place, global terrorism has
kept on evolving and has become more complex that it previously was.
One of the elements which have fostered the rise in global terrorism is advancement in
technology. With the rapid advancements in technology, the whole dynamics of terrorism has
changed. Reports indicate that organized terror groups have started using various consumer
technology products more so social media to communicate mobilize and also to spread
propaganda (Voica, 2012).
3.2 How terrorism affects tourist behavior
One of the main agenda of terrorist is to destabilize a country’s economy by targeting its major
revenue generating sectors. This is the case as experienced in Egypt and Tunisia. There are
several ways how terrorism can affect tourism and how tourists make their choice for a particular
travel destination.

How tourists view risks play a major role in their decision to visit a particular travel destination
over another (Clayton and Boxill, 2012). We have always seen travel advisories being issued on
those countries being deemed unsafe. Travel advisories are actually warnings issued to tourists
by their respective country from visiting a destination deemed unsafe.
In the event that a tourist visits a country in spite of an existing travel advisory against them
doing so; they may be inclined to stay in a confined location thus affecting their freedom to
explore; a major component in tourism, and ultimately their satisfaction of the whole tourism
experience. There is also the aspect of having a negative attitude towards a location deemed to be
terror prone.
Terrorism related activities have also played a very big role in defacing great tourist spots;
especially those with cultural significance. Egypt has been a victim to this. Recently Egypt has
faced quite a number of attacks in some of their known tourism spots for example the Karnak
Temple, a known tourist site. By doing so, the tourism appeal that once was will be lost affecting
the number of tourist inflow in that area. Not only that, but such attacks set precedence of fear to
visit popular tourist sites.
In recent days, the top leadership in Egypt has presented themselves as a strategic partner to the
western world; however they have been accused of not putting enough effort. The Egyptian
government has been seen to spend more on its military apparatus than essential security organs
responsible for countering terrorism. This is one of the reasons why the western nations are
finding the partnership with Egypt strenuous and non-committed to fighting terrorism
With regards to radicalization, both Tunisia and Egypt has had challenges of developing a
comprehensive systematic approach to dealing with this issue. Egypt has also tried to quash but
so far, very little has been seen to indicate a substantial progress amidst an increasing number of
attacks
Despite all the challenges the two countries are facing in tackling the challenge of terrorism,
there have been various efforts to counter the vice. Taking Egypt for example, the Egyptian army
has deployed machinery in the Sinai region for comprehensive counter terrorism operations in
what has been dubbed operation Sinai. According to the Egyptian army, the operation is meant to
flash out terrorist in their perceived strongholds across Egypt. This operation has however faced

criticism from various quarters citing that it is short term and may not achieve much in providing
a permanent solution to the issue of terrorism. The country has also tried to put measures to
tighten their border security which was initially a pathway foreign terrorist used to cross into
Egypt. Tunisia on the other hand has been working closely with European Union in countering
terrorism. The European Union has provided tactical support to Tunisia through training and
equipment for fighting terrorism. However, its police reforms have not been as first as most
would have wanted. Through other nongovernmental partners, Tunisia has tried to combat
radicalism by communicating a counter narrative in different public forums
Recently there have been several reviews on how media shapes the image of travel destinations.
There has been major criticism coming from different quarters especially on how media reports
terror related events. Some governments have gone on the offensive citing that the way the
media portrays them has a devastating effect on their image as a preferred tourist destination
(Ayalon, Popovich and Yarchi, 2014).
Media plays a major role in either promoting terrorism or countering terrorism. The main
purpose of terrorism is to intimidate, to spread propaganda and to incite fear. The best way of
doing so is by using media channels (Amble, 2012). By airing the terrorists’ narrative, their
“accomplishments” especially by the mainstream media, most would argue that the terrorists
have won. The opposite is also true; when media channels are used for proactive, anti terror
campaigns, a positive change in the mindset of individuals is normally experienced. It is a
common misconception that terrorism is always linked to Islam as a religion, and not specifically
to radicals who hide behind religion. Egypt and Tunisia having a substantial number of their
population being Muslims may experience a negative effect on their tourism sector due to this
perception. It is the work of the media to work hard enough to air the counter narrative. The
fight to reduce radicalization should also be spearheaded by the media (Eijkman, 2012).

4. Research methodology
This chapter provides the methodology used in the study. The research design, target population,
sampling technique, data collection techniques and how data analysis was conducted are also
described in this chapter.
4.1 Research Design
According to Kothari, (2011), a research design is the actual arrangement of conditions
necessary for data collection and analysis to take place in a way that seeks to combine relevance
to the research purpose. This research will employ descriptive research design.
Descriptive research design is actually concerned with describing or portraying the
characteristics of an individual, or a group, Descriptive research is designed to depict the
respondents in a precise manner (Bryman & Bell, 2015). The study used case study approach
which is a form of descriptive research design
4.2Data Collection Methods and Instruments
The study will use both primary and secondary data sources in gathering data for analysis. The
primary data will be gathered using questionnaires (Appendix I). According to Bernard, (2013)
questionnaires are considered good tools to collect quantitative data because they are not
expensive to produce, they do not require as much effort from the questioner as compared to
other forms of data collection, and often have simple, standardized answers which make them
easier for data collection .Questionnaires also guarantee some sense of confidentiality as
respondents act without any fear. They also have simple and standard answers which eases
compilation of data. (Saunders 2012). Also considers a questionnaire as also being preferred
because it is simple to administer and quite convenient for collecting data within a short time.
Secondary data was collected primarily from books and journals.
4.3 Data Analysis Methods and Procedures
The research will employ quantitative method of data analysis. Descriptive statistics will be used
to analyze the data. The data collected from respondents will be analyzed and their frequency
and percentages recorded and presented using various tools such as pie charts among other media
for easy understanding and interpretation. Descriptive statistics shows the characteristics of a

data array and enables a researcher to use statistics to meaningfully describe the event under
investigation (Aldous, 2016)

Appendices
Research timeline
Decembe
r
Januar
y
Februar
y March April May
Identify research area
Formulate research
questions
Choose research methods
Literature review
Proposal writing
Presentation of proposal
Preparation of data
collection tool
Collection of data
Analysis of data
Presentation of findings
3.