As a traveller, I used to lament how tiresome flying has become…But today I’d have more stringent checks at airports, planes and trains, hotels, beach resorts, etc, please. This should be the new normal.
In a mere 10 days between March 13 and March 22, there were three terror attacks. Gunmen opened fire on civilians at an Ivory Coast beach, another terror attack in Istanbul, this time on its main shopping street Istiklal, and the attacks at Brussels airport and metro last week.
Beach, airport, shopping street. As a tourist or business traveller, would you stop travelling? As head of homeland security of a country, would you tighten up security? As someone whose livelihood depends on travel & tourism, what should you do?
The UNWTO does not think tourists or business travellers will stop travelling. More than 50 million more tourists travelled the world last year than in 2014, a 4.4 per cent increase to a total of 1.2 billion people. This year, it expects another year of growth, around four per cent, despited increased volatility and uncertainty.
On the second question, it would be unlikely that security would not be tightened. But the Global Travel Association Tourism (GTAC) comprising groupings such as UNWTO, WTTC, IATA, etc, is worried that this would be done in such a way that would “end up killing the industry we are trying to preserve”, said UNWTO secretary-general Taleb Rifal. At a media conference at ITB Berlin (see Analysis on pages 4-5), he called for not just safe but ‘friendly’ passage of travel. “If we (countries) start closing borders, building walls, reducing our openness attitude, mixing the refugees issue with tourism, we will reverse our openness index,” he said.
In these times, we are indeed lucky to have GTAC speaking in one voice on behalf of global travel and tourism. But because safety and security are inextricably interlinked, GTAC must ensure it is lobbying for the right outcome. And for me, the right outcome is not more openness for tourists to enter a country, but more security measures to ensure they are as safe as possible.
As a traveller, I used to lament how tiresome flying has become, with one feeling like a criminal at security checks and immigration. But today I’d have more stringent checks at airports, planes and trains, hotels, beach resorts, etc, please. This should be the new normal. GTAC should press for more security, then run a campaign for the world tourists to understand why more stringent safety measures are needed and what tourists themselves can do to make it easier on everyone travelling (say, read up what is/isn’t allowed on planes today; don’t hold up everyone by arriving at the nick of time, etc).
Those of us whose livelihoods depend on travel and tourism should also make safety first the top priority today. Otherwise, the four per cent increase UNWTO believes we will get again this year will not happen. Immediately after Brussels, it’s the stocks of travel companies such as Carnival Corporation that went down. And with technology such as augmented reality, we can’t take growth for granted.
This article was first published in TTG Asia, April 1, 2016 issue, on page 2. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe
