TERRORISM AFFECTING TOURISM
20 January 2009
Conflicts and crisis are part of our everyday lives. They have always been
here and they always will. How do they impact the tourism industry? There
are the recent terrorist acts in India and protests in Thailand. These crises
have surely negatively affected the tourism industry in these destinations.
Some tourists may now ask whether there is any place safe to travel to.
The crises make people think more about their safety when traveling.
Hospitality businesses improve their safety standards. For example the
general manager of Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts New Delhi hotel claims
they screen vehicles and luggage and use metal detectors to check
visitors. After the Mumbai attacks they have also added extra armed
security to watch inside and outside of the hotel. Nevertheless, hotels
cannot be changed into fortresses, says Robert Grenier from the global
security consulting company Kroll Inc. According to him, it is advisable for
Western executives traveling to the world’s hot spots to keep low profile.
He recommends staying in three-star hotels rather than in five-star hotels.
He warns against driving fancy cars and having an entourage.
In short term perspective the tourism of India and Thailand will see a drop
but it is likely to improve after a few months. According to the National
Business Travel Association survey examining the impact on business
travel, 42 % of the surveyed subjects will decrease their travel to Mumbai
and 34 % of the 191 respondents will reduce their companies’ travel to
Bangkok and Thailand. Being aware of the possibility of serious
consequences to their business, hotels in Bangkok now try to lure local
customers by reducing prices. At present many hotels in the problematic
destinations heighten their security measures but it is likely to disappear
as memory of the attacks fades.
Terrorism ruins tourism in India
In the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks many foreign countries
have issued travel advisories against travel to Mumbai and
India. The attacks are expected to dent the image of 'Incredible
India' and make it difficult for the 'brand' to achieve its goal of
doubling tourist arrivals from last year's five million to ten million
by 2010. Anita Jain talks about the repercussions faced and
measures taken to help the tourism sector bounce back.
Ever since the
economic crisis in the
mid-90s, the tourism
industry has been
struck by a series of
setbacks – 9/11, the
war in Iraq, SARS,
tsunami, climate
change and more
recently the financial
turmoil. The global
credit crunch and rupee depreciation had already affected the Indian tourism
growth. But the recent acts of terrorism in Mumbai are probably the final nails
in its coffin. ‘Incredible India’ – one of the top tourism campaign is now certain
to fall short of its goal of doubling tourist arrivals from last year’s five million
(to ten million) by 2010. Tourism figures may even regress, as it happened in
Bali after the bombings in a nightclub in 2002 and the country lost more than
one third of its tourism traffic overnight.
Indian tourism sector is witnessing a downturn due to the travel advisories
being issued by various countries against India, recently for the terror attacks
in Mumbai and in other destinations in the past. The Mumbai terror acts have
put an end to the tourism season, especially the inbound segment, as 22
foreign tourists were killed spreading a wave of fear among foreign nationals
slated to visit India. Thus, Indian tourism sector and all players of the travel
industry are now witnessing a flurry of booking cancellations by overseas
visitors. In this scenario the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) should play an
important role by undertaking major steps for rebuilding the brand India in the
overseas market.
“The inbound business is gone for a toss and outbound market too will be
affected. We are witnessing very few bookings and walk-in customers
since last one week”
Akash Sheth, CEO, Raj Travel World
Repercussion on tourism
The first victim of any terror attack is tourism. Post Mumbai attacks, most
inbound tour operators are recording cancellation on bookings. It is estimated
that the tourism market will be down by about 40 per cent and the situation
could get even worse. Both leisure and business segments were hampered
due to global meltdown. The recent Mumbai attack will further slow down the
leisure segment and to some extend business travel. Phone calls, faxes and
emails with cancellations are piling up. Business travel was already at a low,
but the travel industry was hopeful that leisure travel will make up for the
losses incurred this season. Unfortunately, with travel advisories and
cancellations that have been recorded by the travel trade, the inbound leisure
tourism business seems to be a washout this season.
Post the terror attacks in Mumbai a lot of travel agents have been cancelling
air tickets and holiday packages. Pradip Lulla, Acting President, Travel
Agents Federation of India (TAFI) said, “The effects of the global economic
recession could be seen in the travel and aviation industry across the world.
So we are, in effect, already in some type of a cyclical downturn because our
markets are very depressed.” Echoing similar thoughts, Akash Sheth, CEO,
Raj Travel World said, “The inbound business is gone for a toss and
outbound market too will be affected. We are witnessing very few bookings
and walk-in customers from last week.” Veena Patil, CMD, Kesari Tours Pvt.
Ltd. was of the opinion that the travel agents and tour operators should be
quite and let the situation in Mumbai ease out. “In next six months tourists will
gain confidence and will be able to come to Mumbai and other cities of India,”
stated Patil.
“Most international tourists currently in India have not changed their travel
plans and flown off. Instead tourists around India are expressing strong
intention of not changing their travel plans”
Devesh Chaturvedi, Director, MoT
Due to low volumes, few travel suppliers might consider a reduction in prices
to attract business. On this, a Delhi based tour operator said, “The drop in
prices will not bring in more volumes and I think the industry over the years
has matured and has realised that dropping prices in many ways at the end
of the day just harms all of us and it is still the same amount of business that
is going to come in.” Mukesh Jagga, President, Association of Domestic Tour
Operators of India (ADTOI) stated, “Due to the terror attacks and economic
downturn, inbound business has been burned badly. Travel trade can focus
on domestic tourism as this segment has higher potential than inbound.”
Rebuilding the
‘Incredible India’ brand
Recently MoT announced that
most tourists currently travelling
in India have not cancelled their
travel plans. Talking about the
recent feedback taken by MoT
from various inbound tourists,
Devesh Chaturvedi, Director,
MoT said, “Most international
tourists currently in India have
not changed their travel plans and flown off. Instead tourists around India are
expressing strong intention of continuing their itinerary in India.” But due to
24X7 media coverage of the horrific event in Mumbai, travellers around the
world are avoiding travelling to India. Thus, the international and national
tourism offices of India Tourism are cracking every nut to change the
perception of fear created by the influence maker – Media.
Travellers don’t always react in predictable ways to terrorism. After the
Madrid bombings in 2004, United States travel to Spain increased by eight
per cent between 2004 – 2005. “We should not make too much of this
terrorist act as bad as it was because travellers went to New York after 2001,
people went to Spain after the Spanish blast. Many tourists visited London
post the bombing in London metro. So I think these things are forgotten,
people come back and life starts again. I certainly believe that there will be an
impact but the impact will be more than just on South Mumbai because travel
advisories that have come out are not limited to Mumbai and many of them
encompass the entire country,” said Paris based tour operator R Gandhi,
Director, La beaute Indienne.
“In next six months tourists will gain confidence and will be able to come
to Mumbai and other cities of India”
Veena Patil, CMD, Kesari Tours Pvt. Ltd
India Tourism board in United Kingdom is planning to launch a campaign
aimed at reassuring visitors that the country is safe following the attacks in
Mumbai. A spokesperson from India Tourism, UK said, “We are in talks with
MoT in India and local tour operators to launch the new ad campaign for
rebuilding the India brand. The travel trade has till now not recorded any
cancellations for travelling to India but are planning for a change in itinerary.”
Currently UK office is running a press and outdoor campaign promoting India
tourism with the message, ‘Colours of India’. It was due to run until March
2009 but the tourism body is now considering scrapping the campaign.
Chaturvedi said, “We are in talks with the travel trade on national and
international level for their support to rebuild the image of India as a safe
tourist destination. We are working on several short term plans to reinforce
the confidence of travellers travelling to India, but don’t want to disclose at
this point of time about plans that are underway.” On similar note, Sujata
Thakur, Regional Director – Western Region, India Tourism said, “Many
travel agents, tour operators, hotels and airlines are receiving cancellations
for Mumbai. Government has initiated few action plans in the right direction
and we are looking forward for a positive outcome in tourism. We are going to
work closely with travel trade to enhance the brand image of India as tourist
destination, but right now it’s too early to talk on the issue.”
Whatever be the action plan of MoT, the tourism sector has to sustain the
hard blow of terrorism. The terror attacks can happen anywhere in the world.
It should be realised that the impact of terrorism on tourism is not limited to
the trend in arrivals in a destination immediately following the occurrence of
an incident, but extends to the ‘reaction to the reaction’ of authorities and
private sector tourism enterprises to the threat of terrorism. For instance,
restrictions on hand luggage in airports or the requirement for biometric
passports. Tourism industry is looking positive and is expecting to see ‘light
at the end of the tunnel’ for the next season.
