The Effects of Terrorism and Political Instability on UK Tourism

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SIGNIFICANT THREAT IN THE TRAVEL AND TOURISM
INDUSTRY
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Depletion of tourists in UK..............................................................................................................2
Terrorism attack on tourism sector and its effect on economy........................................................3
Political instability of UK tourism...................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
Reference list...................................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
Terrorism is termed to be one of the significant threats to the travel and tourism sector as it stay
effective for the depletion of economy along with harming lives and thus creating market
uncertainties. It indirectly attacks the economy of a country through depleting its tourist numbers
along with having impedance creating negative business environment. In UK, various terrorist
threats have been found within their travel and tourism business which has depleted their
incoming tourist level along with having drastic effects over their economy. Depletion of
employment level along with stoppage of business growth are some of contested viewpoints. In
addition, there are also pertaining to political instability thus increasing the threat to its
maximum extent. The thesis statement thus pertains to highlight the significant effects of
terrorism on travel and tourism industry of UK. However, the statement will be counter-argued
in reference to liabilities such as adherence to incoming tourism level increment and reduction of
over exaggerated caused by foreign tourists. The following essay will be thus highlighting
various constraints of terrorist attacks impact on UK travel and tourism and procuring
argumentative terms regarding their pros and cons. On additional content there will be pertained
recommendations and example of such events thus finalising the essay contents.
Depletion of tourists in UK
One of the major arguments regarding the tourism aspects over UK tourism is the depletion of
tourists in large numbers. The attacks on special tourist attraction are eligible to create a sense of
fear among the tourists which is leading to switch their destinations. In this regards, likelihood
stays for the tourism industry to be deleted from the desired revenue generation and thus stay
devoid of growth. As opined by Stefănica and Butnaru (2015), the fear of terrorism are effective
to deplete their overall economic growth of UK which in turn can disrupt culture. On another
hand, Mylonopoulos et al. (2016) argues the destination popularity plays a major role while
catering to tourism sector. The popularity of tourist destination will however prompt the
increment of tourists in that particular destination. For example London is having worldwide
popularity for tits tourism aspects.
Despite of terrorist attacks there stays the aspect of having regained the popularity as well as
tourist numbers thus elevating the business. This is contradictory with that of their effects of
terrorism in UK which is depleting its economic grounds. With reference to both the arguments,
it can be stated that the depletion of tourists though puts up a significant impact over the growth
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of tourism in UK; however the destination popularity of UK pertains to revamp its loss. Thus
destination favourability and popularity is found to play a significant role in judging the
destruction caused through terroristic events (Karaman, 2017). Their context of having such
aspects is likely to commend the loss and thus pertain to growth of tourism level within a
stipulated period of time.
Evidence can be drawn in favour of famous London tourist attraction such as Madame Tussauds
and London Eye has faced a fall of 5% tourists on account of terrorists’ behaviour. On other
hand, entertainment industry of UK has incurred a lot of foreign tourist by a rate of 7.5%
(Theguardian.com, 2019). However, the tourism industry has been with assurance that the
destination popularity and the demands of tourists for the mentioned traction are likely to mend
the situation within a couple of time. However efforts are being made such as strict policies over
foreign tourism in order to reduce the terrorists’ events.
Terrorism attack on tourism sector and its effect on economy
In reference to that of terrorist attack, economic depletion is evident to have occurrence which
has a drastic effect on tourism industry. In context of UK, the terrorists’ attacks are evident to
disrupt tourism business along with pulling out employment in most of cases. On account of
such, there is available depletion of tourism sector revenue generation along with having
impedance of loss of economic assets. As stated by Bac et al. (2015), such losses are evident to
highlight downsizing progresses of tourism thus limiting incoming tourists. Limiting the tourists
would deplete the growth of tourism industry and thus would be left behind the business scales
on both national and global context. However on contradictory, Din et al. (2016) highlights the
fact that employment level would be drastically affected for having depletion in travel and
tourism sector and business assets.
This would directly affect the GDP rate along with having impact overgrowth of taxation rates.
Higher GDP rats and taxation rates would be disruptive for travel and tourism industry through
raising cost of products and rest which would ultimately deplete the incoming tourists. The
above two arguments are in alignment of the deduction of economy though raise of corporation
taxation rates and products of products which would lead to disruption of incoming tourist. Van
Niekerk and Pizam (2015) argued that through employment level are likely to deplete the GDP
rates, the factor of tourism management thus gets limited as the fear of tourists are also a point of
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consideration. In this regards, regain of business aesthetics with use of tighter policies and
strategies can leverage the travel and tourism sector from these sorts of nuisances.
An example can be considered in light of this context highlighting the Sousse beach attack
within Tunisian province. In terms of ministerial advents, report has been found regarding the
Tunisian minister agreeing the attacks threatening to the travel industry drastically. A drop of
14% unemployment rate has been found in Tunisia apart from the negative consequences of the
attack (Theguardian.com, 2019). There were killed around 30 British tourists with eight of
militants having links with Islamic states. This has threatened the security cooperation of Tunisia
thus limiting the incoming tourist and growth of tourism business within the province.
Political instability of UK tourism
The aspects of terrorism often lead to distortion in political instabilities and in sequel, it affects
travel and tourism sector on a drastic tone. Terrorism often leads to political violence thus
triggering physical forces exercising and being with harmful intentions. Negative constraints are
especially seen in context of governmental bodies unable to take any sort of leading steps to
decrease the political instability. According to Saha et al. (2017), rise of political violence would
not only limit the incoming tourists but would also take lead in depleting economic assets of the
nation thus harming business growth. However, Bowen et al. (2017) counter argues the fact that
tourism industry is more bound to trigger terrorist activities with highlights to having links with
governmental bodies with negative intentions. There the terrorism factors stays triggered against
whatever steps are taken to ensure its depletion.
In turn, any sort of attack gets permission and thus harms the economy and tourists with
adherence to depletion of incoming tourist level. Here, a drastic reference is to be mandated to
any sort of travel tourism organisation in order to have no links with terrorists’ organizations.
The political instability is contested to be with drastic effects over the tourism industry with
depleting the availability of policies and featuring links with terrorist organization. The travel
and tourism stays as a major prey to make entrances of such activities within a particular nation.
On contrary, there has been showcased governmental links with terrorist organizations and are
being facilitated through the tourism organisations. These sorts of events are to be minimised in
order to have impedance over tourism facilities more availed to the tourists incoming on both
national and international basis thus producing tourism sustainability (Jeffrey and Bleasdale,
2017).
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An example can be given with respect to that of terrorists with stronger intentions of attacking
within the western tourists regions. The Sousse beach hotel is attacked by terrorists in whom 38
holidaymakers were shot dead. In terms of these, there were reported closure of 100 hotels in
Tunisia and thus the travel and tourism revenues were fallen by 35% (Ise.ac.uk, 2019). As per
reports, the Islamic attack was a mere action taken in collaboration with political parties of
Tunisia in order to gain the political leadership and thus limit the assets of the province.
Conclusion
In light of above essay, the thesis statement has been pertained to highlight significant effects of
terrorism on travel and tourism industry of UK. However, the statement has been counter-argued
in reference to liabilities such as adherence to incoming tourism level increment and reduction of
over exaggerated caused by foreign tourists. Depletion of tourists in UK along with tterrorism
attack on tourism sector and its effect on economy and political instability of UK tourism are
some of the major discussed areas. The fear of terrorism has been effective to deplete their
overall economic growth of UK which in turn can disrupt culture. On another hand, it has been
argued that destination popularity plays a major role while catering to tourism sector. Few
recommendations for minimising the effects of terrorism can be termed in form of tight security
protocols requirements along with adherence to limiting the publicity of tourist destination on a
secular level. It can also be recommended to have a drastic analysis of the tourist destination
before planning any sort of events so as to avoid any sort of major risks.
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Reference list
Journals
Bac, D.P., Bugnar, N.G. and Mester, L.E., (2015). Terrorism and its impacts on the tourism
industry. Revista Română de Geografie Politică, 17(1), pp.5-11.
Bowen, D., Zubair, S. and Altinay, L., (2017). Politics and tourism destination development: The
evolution of power. Journal of Travel Research, 56(6), pp.725-743.
Din, B.H., Habibullah, M.S., Baharom, A.H. and Saari, M.D., (2016). Are shadow economy and
tourism related? International evidence. Procedia Economics and Finance, 35, pp.173-178.
Jeffrey, H. and Bleasdale, S., (2017). 17 Tunisia: Mass Tourism in Crisis?. Mass tourism in a
small world, p.191.
Karaman, Z.T., (2017). Corporate social responsibilities of stakeholders in terms of secure
tourism at disasters and sustainable tourism governance. Journal of Tourism Theory and
Research, 3(2), pp.66-78.
Mylonopoulos, D., Moira, P. and Papagrigoriou, A., (2016). The Travel Advisory as an Obstacle
to Travel and Tourism. Case Study-The Greek Economic Crisis. International Journal of
Research in Tourism and Hospitality, 2(2), pp.1-13.
Saha, S., Su, J.J. and Campbell, N., (2017). Does political and economic freedom matter for
inbound tourism? A cross-national panel data estimation. Journal of Travel research, 56(2),
pp.221-234.
Stefănica, M. and Butnaru, G.I., (2015). Research on tourists’ perception of the relationship
between tourism and environment. Procedia Economics and Finance, 20, pp.595-600.
van Niekerk, M. and Pizam, A., (2015). How do terrorism and tourism coexist in turbulent
times?: Introduction to a conflicting relationship. Terrorism and the economy: Impacts of the
capital market and the global tourism industry, pp.109-125.
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Websites
Lse.ac.uk (2019), Political instability of UK tourism, Available at:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Research-Highlights/World-regions-and-development/Terrorism-
and-tourism [Accessed on: 12 May 2019]
Theguardian.com (2019), Depletion of tourists in UK, Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jun/13/merlin-entertainments-uk-attractions-visitor-
numbers-fall-after-terrorist-attacks [Accessed on: 12 May 2019]
Theguardian.com (2019), Terrorism attack on tourism sector and its effect on economy,
Available at:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/06/tunisia-urges-uk-tourists-to-
return-after-90-drop-in-visitors [Accessed on: 12 May 2019]
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