Case Study: Terrorism and British Tourist Behavior (2013-2023)

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To what extent terrorism affects the decision-making process of
British tourists: Case Study of the last ten years in UK
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction...................................................................................................................3
1.1. Identification of a particular area of the research topic........................................................3
1.2 Why the problem is important...............................................................................................3
1.3 Research Aim.........................................................................................................................4
1.4. Research Objectives along with the research questions.......................................................4
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................5
2.0 Introduction............................................................................................................................5
2.1. Terrorism in the 21st century.................................................................................................5
2.2. Factors affecting terrorism....................................................................................................6
2.3 Tourism industry and its impacts...........................................................................................7
2.4. How terrorism has affected the tourism industry of UK......................................................8
2.5 Conclusion.............................................................................................................................9
2.6 Literature Gap......................................................................................................................10
Chapter 3: Research methodology.................................................................................................11
3.0. Introduction.........................................................................................................................11
3.1. Research onion....................................................................................................................11
3.2. Research philosophy...........................................................................................................12
3.3. Research approach..............................................................................................................13
3.4. Research design..................................................................................................................14
3.5. Data collection process.......................................................................................................14
3.6. Ethical considerations.........................................................................................................15
3.7. Conclusions.........................................................................................................................15
3.8. Research limitations............................................................................................................15
Chapter 4: Findings and analysis..................................................................................................16
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Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations..500....................................................................20
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................22
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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Identification of a particular area of the research topic
Terrorism has indeed turned out to be one of the significant threats of the current times. The
effects of the terrorism are particularly identified in all of the sectors of business and tourism is
one of the significant among them. There are no certain reasons as to why terrorism occurs in a
particular place. Mostly, this may be due to the internal conflicts of the place. In the words of
Papacharissi and Fatima (2018), in case of UK, the main sources of tourism are the communal
disputes along with the internal conflicts that are prevailing in the country. In the last 10 years,
UK and its suburbs have been characterised by ample terrorist attacks particularly the Northern
Ireland Conflicts, as well as the attacks by the Arab-Israeli community have strictly hampered
the peace and the serenity of the country.
It is obvious that whenever people are op-ting for visiting a particular place, safety and security
is always the first factor of concern. In the words of Bac et al. (2015), these often contribute
towards the flourishing tourist industry of a particular place. For a country like UK, where
tourism forms the most significant business, it is essential for the government to identify the
reasons behind these and hence resolve them as soon as possible. This will also help the country
in fostering the tourism industry extensively.
1.2 Why the problem is important
If statistics are considered then tourism forms the most significant revenue-earning sector of the
country. In the words of Huysmans and Buonfino (2018), the tourism industry of UK,
contributes greatly towards enhancing the infrastructure as well as the economic growth of the
country. If the related statistics are considered then the tourism industry is expected to witness an
overall industry is expected to generate overall revenue of more than just $ 257 billion within the
year 2025. In a situation like this, if problems of this type prevail, then this will be tough for the
industry to generate the expected amount of profit and this will affect the overall economic
conditions of the country as well. In fact the enhanced terrorism in Manchester as well as parts
of UK have indeed reduced the number of tourists of the country by more than 15% and is
expected to fall further in the upcoming years.
When discussions are being made on the terrorism and its advents particularly in case of UK,
then the terrorist attacks of Westminster Abbey in March 2017 deserves a special mention. The
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attack was further followed by the series of attacks of Manchester and London Bridge and this
created an atmosphere of threat in the country. Some of the big organisations that are operating
in the UK tourism sector stated that these have developed a tendency among the tourists to avoid
UK as their tourist destination. In fact, the “peak seasons “of tourism has also witnessed a much
reduced sale of the tourist packages as devised by the organisations. In the words of Richards
(2019), the sales of the products are expected to reduce further in the upcoming years, if steps are
not taken right now. The particular research will investigate the significant impacts that
terrorism has created on the tourism industry of UK.
1.3 Research Aim
The aim of the proposed study is to investigate the impact of terrorism upon the decision-making
process of British Tourists
1.4. Research Objectives along with the research questions
The key objectives of the research proposal are as follows:
 To identify the extent of terrorist activities in UK over the past ten years
 To comprehend the impact of terrorism in restricting travellers to visit the destination
 To assess the different changes that has been made in the decision making process of
British tourism owing to the rise in terrorism
The research questions are stated below:
 What has been the extent of terrorism in UK over the past ten years?
 How has terrorism restricted travellers to visit UK?
 What significant changes have been made in the decision making process of British
tourism owing to the rise in terrorism?
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Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.0 Introduction
The literature review forms an important segment of the research that provides an effective idea
about the research topic as well as the factors affecting it. The current literature review that has
been included below will provide a clear idea about terrorism and the ways it has affected the
tourism industry of UK.
2.1. Terrorism in the 21st century
In the words of Silke (2018), terrorism is of course not something that have suddenly popped up,
in fact this is considered as one of the oldest crimes in the history of man-kind. In fact, even if
the history of UK is considered, then the oldest recorded terrorism in UK dates back to as old as
the 16th century such as the Gunpowder plot. There are even lots of terrorist attacks recorded in
the 18th, 19th as well as the 21st century and are even expected to increase in the upcoming years.
The views were however contradicted by Von Behr (2018), who pointed out that the rates of
terrorism as well as its impacts have reduced may be by insignificant percentages as people are
more habituated to it. However, the related statistics forecast a different story. The statics that
have been collected in this regard however points out towards a different story.
Figure 1: the rates of terrorism in UK
(Source: Blake et al., 2018)
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The above graph clearly points out that the rate of terrorism has been witnessing an increasing
graph in the past years. The current statistics points out that in case of UK the current rate of
terrorism in 90%. In the words of Henderson (2017), there have been no changes in terrorism,
except the fact that the forms have changed greatly. Terrorists nowadays use tools that are more
effective and techniques for terrorism as it creates more threat and fear among the people. Yes,
terrorism has indeed moved a great pace from the gunpowder slot (oldest) to the 3rd June 2017
(latest) London Bridge attack. However, if incidents like this continue then the UK tourism
industry will of course face a drastic downfall in the years to come (VisitBritain, 2019).
2.2. Factors affecting terrorism
In the words of Richards (2019), when the effects of terrorism are so impactful, the causes that
have contributed to this does not really matter. However, this is not always true. Unless the
causes are determined, it is almost impossible to eradicate terrorism. The factors are many in
number, however some of the significant among them may include
Racism and other religious issues- It is a matter of awe that even in the 21st century, where
countries are launching spaceships, the religions form the most obvious causes of terrorism.
There are people who use religion as gun, just for terrorism. The latest of the 19th June 2017,
attack at Finsbury Park stand as a live example to this. It was on this day that Darren Osbone ,
drove over the Muslim worshippers in London, killing more than 10 people. He was later found
guilty and sentenced to lifetime imprisonment. When questioned about his doings, Darren clearly
stated that his intolerance towards the other religions drove him to do so.
Political Reasons – In the words of Silke (2018), in most of the cases, the political reasons in
most of the cases turn out to be more effective in insignating terrorism in a place. There are
incidents when terrorist attacks have been made on a particular political party by another party
just for the sake of power. The murder of Jo Cox on 2016, who was shot to death, stands as a
live example to this. The victim was a member of labour party member of the parliament and
was stabbed to death at West Yorkshire. The guilty Thomas Alexander Mair was accused and
was summoned to life imprisonment. The incident marked the first killing of the sitting MP of
Britain since the death of Ian Gow.
The above incidents clearly points out towards the face of terrorisms in UK. In the words of Von
Behr (2018), the political and the religious reasons are not always the only ones that contributes
towards the incidents of this type. There are of course more than this. He further identified the
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vulnerability of the children towards the incidents of this type have often stood as the main
reasons behind this.
2.3 Tourism industry and its impacts
The tourism industry is considered as one of the oldest existing industries of the contemporary
times. In case of Britain, the particular industry contributes much to the overall growth of the
country particularly in the economic and the infrastructural backgrounds. In the words of Jarvis
and Lister (2018), the overall economic growth of the country has been largely due to the
presence of an existing and prospering tourism industry of the place.
Being one of the largest and the most significant industry of UK, the tourism industry creates
ample job opportunities’ and it also opens up path for the ancillary business and the hospitality
industry as well. In the words of Henderson (2017), the statistics that have collected in this
regard points out that in the year 2017, the tourism industry have been able to generate more than
4055500 jobs. The figure is expected to rise by another 2% within 2019 and more than 15%
within 2028.
It has also been identified that the impacts of the tourism industry in case of UK is extended
towards the GDP of the country as well. In the words of Buckley and Klemm (2018), the
tourism industry of UK have contributed to more than 3.7% of the total GDP of the country in
2018 as is expected to rise by 1.9% in the year 2020.
Figure 2: The overall effect of tourism on the GDP and employment
(Source: Hi-tek.io. 2019)
These accounts for the direct impacts, but as put forward by Buckley and Klemm (2018), there
are actually more to it. The indirect impacts of tourism involve the capital investment and the
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government collective spending along with the positive effects in the supply chain industries as
well. It also needs to be included in the regard that in most of the cases, the effects of tourism
are also witnessed in the transportation as well as the food industries as well. In a nutshell,
tourism brings about overall development of the place in terms of social life as well.
In the words of Crenshaw (2018), there are ample examples when tourism have instigated the
political stability of Britain. It is obvious that people will often prefer the destinations that are
free from the claws of political turmoil – a place, which is politically stable, will of course attract
more visitors. Hence establishing political stability just for the sake of attracting more number of
tourists often becomes extremely useful for the country.
Figure 3: Contributions of the travel and tourism in the GDP of UK
(Source: Hi-tek.io. 2019)
2.4. How terrorism has affected the tourism industry of UK
The effects of terrorism particularly on the tourism industry of UK have indeed proved to be
detrimental for the country. In the words of Crenshaw (2018), it is obvious that the threats of
terrorism as well as the after effects that are related to it, is one of the sombre factors that the UK
tourism industry has been facing. In UK, the recent terrorist attacks, more significantly the media
coverage and the highlight it received have indeed magnified the matter in front of the tourists all
over the world. The impacts of these are reflected greatly on the tourist packages of UK. In the
words of Buckley and Klemm (2018), the year 2018 witnessed 10% reductions in the terrorist
attacks. Even similar incidents occurred in the year 2016 as well, when the country witnessed a
range of terrorist attacks of different genres and types.
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The above discussions have been greatly supported by Jarvis and Lister (2018), who pointed out
that Central London witnessed a significant fall in the tourists by more than 15% owing to the
attacks of these type. Similar cases were also witnessed in case of Westminster Abbey and the
Kenning stone Palace as well. It was identified that mostly the young families who visited these
places most often started avoiding these places. When questioned about these changed behaviour
the visitors strictly pointed out that the fear of terrorism and the loss and the injury of the near
and dear ones are debarring them from visiting these places.
In justifications of the above statement Silke (2018), added that, this is what terrorism does, this
instigates a sense of fear and anxiety among the tourists. The tourists restrict themselves from
visiting the place, which is a completely justified move and hence the tourism industry is
affected in a negative manner by this. The overall revenue generation of the industry is reduced
and the unemployment ratio increases abruptly by this. The effects of these have also been
identified in the employment sector as well as the sector of the other small business as well.
2.5 Conclusion
Thus, it can be clearly concluded that terrorism of course affects the tourism industry in a
detrimental manner. In most of the cases, the fear, anxiety as well as the sense of insecurity
among the tourists restricts them from visiting the place. Similar cases have been identified in
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case of UK as well where the series of repeated terrorism attacks have indeed reduced the
number of tourists visiting the place annually. The effects of these have also been witnessed in
the other sectors as well and if things like these continues this will pose a serious problem in the
UK tourist industry as well.
2.6 Literature Gap
Though the above section has provided a clear overview of what terrorism is and how it has been
affecting the UK tourism industry, but there are certain factors that have not been covered in this.
The expected impact of terrorism on the tourism industry in the upcoming years has not been
included in the sections. The gap thus identified will be covered effectively in the data collection
and analysis sections of the research.
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Chapter 3: Research methodology
3.0. Introduction
The research methodology forms one of the significant parts of the research project. In the words
of Ray (2017), if conducted in an effective manner, then research methodology lays out the exact
path that can be followed by the researcher for conducting the entire research project. Some of
the important segments that will be considered in the research methodology are the research
design, research approach, research design and the research philosophy along with the data
collection and the sample size techniques.
3.1. Research onion
The research onion provides a proper outline of the particular research work that needs to be
used by the researcher throughout the research process. The different layers of the research
identifies the different perspectives of the research that includes the research philosophy,
research design , research approach as well as all of the significant factors that is to be
considered by the researcher during the entire research. In a nutshell, the research onion provides
an exact overview of the overall research methodology.
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