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Tourism Security: Strategies for Effectively Managing Travel Risk and Safety
Par Peter Tarlow
Description
Tourism security is an important part of both security management and tourism. Private security professionals and police departments in tourism cities, as well as hotels, major attractions, and theme parks, have all come to realize that tourism security and safety issues (often called tourism surety) are essential for industry survival and success. In Tourism Security, leading expert Peter Tarlow addresses a range of key issues in tourism safety and security. The book guides the reader through a study of tourism security themes and best practices. Topics include the relationship between tourism security and the economy, hotel and motel security, risk and crisis management, public places, transportation, and legal issues. The book also includes case studies of four popular tourist destinations. With each destination, an interview with a police or security representative is included—providing unique, in-depth insight to security concerns. Tourism Security is an invaluable resource for private security professionals, police departments that serve tourist destinations, and tourism professionals who work in hotels or convention centers, or at attractions, casinos, or events.
- Explains what tourism security is and outlines safety procedures for different tourism environments
- Serves as a resource tool and how-to for implementing best practices
- Includes detailed case studies of four popular tourist destinations: Charleston, South Carolina, the Dominican Republic, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Aperçu du livre
Tourism Security - Peter Tarlow
2001;55:18–21.
Introduction
As I finish writing this book at the beginning of 2014, the world seems to be a very chaotic place indeed. In fact, there does not appear to be any one spot around the globe that does not have to face some form of danger or risk. From super-sized hurricanes (or typhoons) to earthquakes, from acts of terrorism to acts of crime, from social unrest to threats of war, tourism must exist and thrive in a world that often seems to have gone mad. Seeing the world through the eyes of the media, we cannot help but wonder how we make it to the next day and why anyone would travel. Yet, people continue to live their lives, travel, and find joy in learning about one another.
Perhaps what we perceive as modern madness has always been with us, and people in each generation saw themselves as living in a time of violence. Looking back on the twentieth century, the century in which modern tourism was born, we see a century filled with violence: acts of terrorism, genocide, war, and crime. Reading ancient texts helps us to put violence into a historical perspective. Certainly, the viewpoint that violence covers the earth
goes as far back as Biblical times. Genesis notes that God destroyed the world through a flood, stating the reason as the Earth was/would be corrupt and filled (would be filled) with violence before God. God saw the Earth and corruption was pervasive throughout the Earth
(Genesis 6:11–12, English Standard Version). Ironically, the violence causes not only the destruction of land life, but also the first cruise—a cruise to nowhere with Noah as its captain.
Just as acts of violence seem to have been born with the birth of humanity, so too have humans sought physical and mental ways to escape the horror of violence and add joy to their lives. Once again, the Biblical text clearly states that leisure is also a part of life: And the heaven and the earth were finished, and on Saturday, God finished His work, which He had made, and He rested on Saturday (the seventh day) from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it
(Genesis 2:1–2, English Standard Version). Rest and leisure are not only necessary, but to ignore them is an offense against both God and the state. The sentiment that humans need more than merely the basics reaches its philosophical pinnacle in Deuteronomy where it states: Human beings do not live by bread alone
(Deuteronomy 8:3, English Standard Version). In other words, what defines humanity is its ability to combine work with pleasure.
Perhaps it is this madness that provides the underpinning for leisure travel or tourism. Tourism is a road to personal escape. In a world in which many of us wonder about the direction that civilization is headed, tourism provides if not the answer at least the opportunity to clear one’s head and to see the world through fresh eyes. Tourism, as distinguished from travel, is a leisure pursuit. A traveler, such as a business traveler, may have little choice as to where he or she goes. A soldier is also a traveler, but, more often than not, has no choice as to his or her destination. The tourist, on the other hand, has a choice. He or she makes a conscious decision as to where to go, where to stay within the destination of choice, and when to leave. Tourists, unlike visitors, literally vote with their feet.
Although mass or industrialized tourism is a relatively new field, for many countries other forms of tourism have been a valuable source of economic development. These lesser forms of tourism include the pilgrimage, the market, or fair-oriented tourism. Today, these specific forms of tourism have both a singular quality in the lone traveler and a massive quality as expressed by large trade shows and convention and pilgrimage cites such as the Hajj to Mecca. All these forms of tourism share the fact that they provide a nation with a venue with which it can showcase, to its own citizens and to the world, its culture, products, and even its political system.
Tourism is a unique industry in that it is one of the world’s largest industries, and also perhaps the world’s least-protected industry. For example, to quote the World Travel & Tourism Council
:
Travel & Tourism continues to be one of the world’s largest industries. The total impact of the industry means that, in 2011, it contributed 9% of global GDP, or a value of over US$6 trillion, and accounted for 255 million jobs. Over the next ten years this industry is expected to grow by an average of 4% annually, taking it to 10% of global GDP, or some US$10 trillion. By 2022, it is anticipated that it will account for 328 million jobs, or 1 in every 10 jobs on the planet.
(Travel and Tourism Economic Impact, 2012, Foreword)
In reality, tourism is a composite industry composed of numerous smaller industries, and as such no one really knows the industry’s true economic impact. Many of the numbers cited depend on which components are included in the industry and if we are to measure solely the direct impact of tourism or also its indirect impact.
In today’s world, the cohort we call tourists
and travelers
may blend into new groups. A person may travel to a particular destination due to a business reason and then choose to stay longer, thus becoming a tourist. Likewise, a person may visit a specific location as a tourist and then return to invest in that locale and become a frequent traveler to, or investor in, that locale. Although the traveler and tourist may have different objectives, both suffer from some of the same sociological patterns. Both groups know what it is to be vulnerable, both may suffer from being in a state of anomie, and both are in a particular place but not of that place. Certain hypotheses used in this book are also valid for both groups. For example, it may also be hypothesized that the further a person travels from home, the more vulnerable he or she is to problems of cultural and linguistic differences that may impact on his or her sense of safety and security. The Spanish have a saying: "para aprender hay que perder or
To learn one must be willing to lose. This means that we often do things, take chances, or accept risks that we might not take at home. Because we unfortunately live in a violent world, our
there may be the local criminal’s
here." The challenge is not only teaching visitors to be careful, but also the understanding that tourism security is as much about perceptions as it is about