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"Calamity? Tourists Are Undeterred"
"Calamity? Tourists Are Undeterred"
By THOMAS CRAMPTON
Published: January 8, 2006
www.nytimes.com/2006/01/0...rneys.html
FOR all the natural and manmade disasters that have struck tourist destinations over the past year or so, travelers seem more determined than ever to leave home. In fact, not only did calamities like the tsunami in the Indian Ocean or the bombings in Egypt and London do little to slow leisure travel, but the number of people visiting affected travel destinations has, in most cases, bounced quickly back to a higher level than before a disaster struck.
It is still too soon to compile year-to-year statistics for tourist destinations that have been affected by disasters over the last 12 months, but industry experts say that the broad trends are already clear - and leisure travel is expected to increase by nearly 5 percent this year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
"Tourism and travel now seems to bounce back faster and higher each time there is an event of this sort," said Ufi Ibrahim, vice president of the London-based tourism organization. "For London, it was almost as if people who stayed away after the bomb attack then decided to come back twice."
Early indicators show that the same holds true for other disaster-struck destinations. Statistics compiled by the Bangkok-based Pacific Asia Travel Association, for example, show that monthly visitor arrivals in Sri Lanka, hard hit by the December 2004 tsunami, were higher than one year earlier for every month from March through August of this year.
"This new fast recovery of tourism we are observing is kind of strange," said John Koldowski, director for the Strategic Intelligence Center of the Pacific Asia group. "It makes you think about the adage that any publicity is good publicity."
Following is a look at the impact on travel for a few of the areas that were hardest hit by disaster:
LONDON
On July 7, suicide bombers detonated explosives on three trains in the Underground and a bus in Central London. More than 50 people were killed and hundreds injured in the blasts.
In the days after the attacks, Londoners proudly spoke of how they had been inured to violence by Irish Republican Army bombings, and quickly adapted to heightened security. Now, life has returned to normal, apart from standard security measures.
Immediately after the bombing, the flow of visitors plunged, but by September the number of overseas visitors was increasing over the previous year. The city agency responsible for tourism, Visit London, said the total number of visitors to the city had dropped 21 percent for the period from July to September 2005, compared with 2004. By October, however, the agency said there was a 10.5 percent increase of overseas visitors entering Britain from Western Europe over the same month a year previously.
While many London businesses have said they were not affected by the downturn, some of the highest-profile tourist sites reported significant drops in those taking tours over the course of the year. Michael Day, chief executive of the Historic Royal Palaces, which operates the Tower of London, Hampton Court, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace, has said that he has yet to see a rebound in tourism and that the decline in visitors to the Tower alone reduced income by �5 million (about $8.85 million, at $1.77 to the pound).
Those wishing to visit London can find good information on Central London hotels through the Visit London Web site, www.visitlondon.com. Rooms in the four-star Thistle Trafalgar Square hotel, (44-870) 333 9119, www.thistlehotels.com, for example, are available for little more than �100.
PHUKET
An earthquake off the coast of Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004 triggered the tsunami that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean. The wave, which killed more than 180,000 people, left 5,400 dead and 5,500 missing in Thailand, many of them tourists on the resort island of Phuket. The disaster plunged the tourist industry, a pillar of the national economy, into crisis.
Recovery from the physical damage has been relatively quick, but some tourists remain reluctant to return. "The tsunami wave washed into the pool here, but nobody was hurt," said Anthony Lark, general manager of the $975-a-night Trisara resort, (66-76) 31-0100, (www.phuket.com). "Our main problem has been convincing Americans that things are safe post-tsunami."
Rebuilding began immediately, and visitors are unlikely to encounter visual signs of the wave's devastation. Indeed, some hoteliers insist that the enthusiastic cleanup has left the beaches and waterfront tidier than ever.
"Phuket and the surrounding area has bounced back following last year's tidal wave," according to The Phuket Gazette Web site, which features photos of vacationers sunbathing on immaculate post-tsunami beaches. "Many hotels have taken the opportunity to refurbish or re-build completely, adding even more comfort and even better facilities."
While Mr. Larks's Trisara resort offers a private swimming pool with each room, those visiting Phuket on a lower budget may want to consider the KataBeach Resort, www.katagroup.com or (66-76) 33-0530, which is on the beach and can cost little more than $100 a night for a double room.
EGYPT
In three nearly simultaneous suicide bomb attacks on July 23, at the height of Egypt's tourist season, terrorists killed more than 80 and injured more than 150 in the Red Sea resort area of Sharm el Sheik. Two of the bombs ripped through a hotel and a parking lot, while the third exploded in a market in a nearby town where many of the Egyptians employed by the resort hotels live.
The attack came less than a year after more than 30 were killed in three blasts at Taba, another Red Sea resort.
For those considering a visit to Egypt, State Department documents can make for grim reading. "If U.S. citizens wish to visit the Sinai, despite the multiple recent terror attacks there, they should exercise caution," the consular information sheet on Egypt reads. "As anywhere, travelers may gain a measure of safety by remaining particularly alert to their surroundings, by avoiding crowded tourist areas, and by visiting resorts and hotels with significant physical setback and security procedures."
Yet following each attack, the influx of visitors fell only momentarily.
"Requests for Sharm el Sheik fell off immediately, but people still wanted to travel to Luxor," said Joakim Eriksson, director of communication for My Travel Sweden, one of that country's largest outbound tour agencies. "Travelers from Sweden are sophisticated knowing where to go now."
Visitors from the United States, however, tend to make less distinction between destinations within a country and cancel a trip altogether, Mr. Eriksson and other travel professionals said. Statistics on the number of visitors from the United States since the bombings are not yet available.
As for places to visit, Naema Bay can be idyllic. A curve of white sand with warm sunshine all year, the area has long been one of Egypt's most popular destinations for Europeans.
Prices for rooms in resorts range from $41 a night for the Crowne Plaza Resort Sharm el Sheik, www.crowneplaza.com, (20-69) 3603090) to $120 for the Sharm el Sheik Marriott Beach Resort, www.marriott.com, (20-69) 360-0190.
KEY WEST
When Hurricane Wilma hit Key West on Oct. 24, the storm produced one of the lowest recorded barometric pressures. It also resulted in a 10-foot storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico that inundated large sections of the lower keys. Many streets were flooded by more than three feet of water, strewing the area with the rusting hulks of cars.
"Theoretically, Wilma should have relieved parking and traffic problems by destroying so many cars," said Marshall Calder, senior vice president of marketing for Leading Hotels of the World, an association of luxury hotels. "In fact, the single highway off the Keys has made removing debris very difficult."
Now only a little of the physical destruction - such as plants burned by exposure to salt water - is still visible, and Mr. Calder said such vegetation will grow back quickly. "Even after 25 years of doing business in the Caribbean, I am still amazed at the pace of recovery from a storm," Mr. Calder said. "It is the smart visitors who will be coming back to visit in the next few months because they will have the newly renovated properties for a fraction the normal price."
The Monroe County Tourist Development Council said that nearly all of the hotels and attractions in the Keys had reopened by the middle of December. One luxury hotel was largely spared by this hurricane season thanks to its position on Islamadora, about a third of the way down the island chain: Cheeca Lodge and Spa, www.cheeca.rockresorts.com, 305-664-4651, which offers rooms at $319 a night, with an additional $39 resort fee.
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"It makes you think about the adage that any publicity is good publicity."
For a while now, I've been quietly nursing a dark suspicion that events like SARS and the recent Yonge Street shootings are not necessarily 'bad' things for Toronto, speaking strictly 'objectively' from a pro-tourism perspective. This article would seem to bolster those suspicions.
"Calamity? Tourists Are Undeterred"
By THOMAS CRAMPTON
Published: January 8, 2006
www.nytimes.com/2006/01/0...rneys.html
FOR all the natural and manmade disasters that have struck tourist destinations over the past year or so, travelers seem more determined than ever to leave home. In fact, not only did calamities like the tsunami in the Indian Ocean or the bombings in Egypt and London do little to slow leisure travel, but the number of people visiting affected travel destinations has, in most cases, bounced quickly back to a higher level than before a disaster struck.
It is still too soon to compile year-to-year statistics for tourist destinations that have been affected by disasters over the last 12 months, but industry experts say that the broad trends are already clear - and leisure travel is expected to increase by nearly 5 percent this year, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
"Tourism and travel now seems to bounce back faster and higher each time there is an event of this sort," said Ufi Ibrahim, vice president of the London-based tourism organization. "For London, it was almost as if people who stayed away after the bomb attack then decided to come back twice."
Early indicators show that the same holds true for other disaster-struck destinations. Statistics compiled by the Bangkok-based Pacific Asia Travel Association, for example, show that monthly visitor arrivals in Sri Lanka, hard hit by the December 2004 tsunami, were higher than one year earlier for every month from March through August of this year.
"This new fast recovery of tourism we are observing is kind of strange," said John Koldowski, director for the Strategic Intelligence Center of the Pacific Asia group. "It makes you think about the adage that any publicity is good publicity."
Following is a look at the impact on travel for a few of the areas that were hardest hit by disaster:
LONDON
On July 7, suicide bombers detonated explosives on three trains in the Underground and a bus in Central London. More than 50 people were killed and hundreds injured in the blasts.
In the days after the attacks, Londoners proudly spoke of how they had been inured to violence by Irish Republican Army bombings, and quickly adapted to heightened security. Now, life has returned to normal, apart from standard security measures.
Immediately after the bombing, the flow of visitors plunged, but by September the number of overseas visitors was increasing over the previous year. The city agency responsible for tourism, Visit London, said the total number of visitors to the city had dropped 21 percent for the period from July to September 2005, compared with 2004. By October, however, the agency said there was a 10.5 percent increase of overseas visitors entering Britain from Western Europe over the same month a year previously.
While many London businesses have said they were not affected by the downturn, some of the highest-profile tourist sites reported significant drops in those taking tours over the course of the year. Michael Day, chief executive of the Historic Royal Palaces, which operates the Tower of London, Hampton Court, Kensington Palace and Kew Palace, has said that he has yet to see a rebound in tourism and that the decline in visitors to the Tower alone reduced income by �5 million (about $8.85 million, at $1.77 to the pound).
Those wishing to visit London can find good information on Central London hotels through the Visit London Web site, www.visitlondon.com. Rooms in the four-star Thistle Trafalgar Square hotel, (44-870) 333 9119, www.thistlehotels.com, for example, are available for little more than �100.
PHUKET
An earthquake off the coast of Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004 triggered the tsunami that devastated countries around the Indian Ocean. The wave, which killed more than 180,000 people, left 5,400 dead and 5,500 missing in Thailand, many of them tourists on the resort island of Phuket. The disaster plunged the tourist industry, a pillar of the national economy, into crisis.
Recovery from the physical damage has been relatively quick, but some tourists remain reluctant to return. "The tsunami wave washed into the pool here, but nobody was hurt," said Anthony Lark, general manager of the $975-a-night Trisara resort, (66-76) 31-0100, (www.phuket.com). "Our main problem has been convincing Americans that things are safe post-tsunami."
Rebuilding began immediately, and visitors are unlikely to encounter visual signs of the wave's devastation. Indeed, some hoteliers insist that the enthusiastic cleanup has left the beaches and waterfront tidier than ever.
"Phuket and the surrounding area has bounced back following last year's tidal wave," according to The Phuket Gazette Web site, which features photos of vacationers sunbathing on immaculate post-tsunami beaches. "Many hotels have taken the opportunity to refurbish or re-build completely, adding even more comfort and even better facilities."
While Mr. Larks's Trisara resort offers a private swimming pool with each room, those visiting Phuket on a lower budget may want to consider the KataBeach Resort, www.katagroup.com or (66-76) 33-0530, which is on the beach and can cost little more than $100 a night for a double room.
EGYPT
In three nearly simultaneous suicide bomb attacks on July 23, at the height of Egypt's tourist season, terrorists killed more than 80 and injured more than 150 in the Red Sea resort area of Sharm el Sheik. Two of the bombs ripped through a hotel and a parking lot, while the third exploded in a market in a nearby town where many of the Egyptians employed by the resort hotels live.
The attack came less than a year after more than 30 were killed in three blasts at Taba, another Red Sea resort.
For those considering a visit to Egypt, State Department documents can make for grim reading. "If U.S. citizens wish to visit the Sinai, despite the multiple recent terror attacks there, they should exercise caution," the consular information sheet on Egypt reads. "As anywhere, travelers may gain a measure of safety by remaining particularly alert to their surroundings, by avoiding crowded tourist areas, and by visiting resorts and hotels with significant physical setback and security procedures."
Yet following each attack, the influx of visitors fell only momentarily.
"Requests for Sharm el Sheik fell off immediately, but people still wanted to travel to Luxor," said Joakim Eriksson, director of communication for My Travel Sweden, one of that country's largest outbound tour agencies. "Travelers from Sweden are sophisticated knowing where to go now."
Visitors from the United States, however, tend to make less distinction between destinations within a country and cancel a trip altogether, Mr. Eriksson and other travel professionals said. Statistics on the number of visitors from the United States since the bombings are not yet available.
As for places to visit, Naema Bay can be idyllic. A curve of white sand with warm sunshine all year, the area has long been one of Egypt's most popular destinations for Europeans.
Prices for rooms in resorts range from $41 a night for the Crowne Plaza Resort Sharm el Sheik, www.crowneplaza.com, (20-69) 3603090) to $120 for the Sharm el Sheik Marriott Beach Resort, www.marriott.com, (20-69) 360-0190.
KEY WEST
When Hurricane Wilma hit Key West on Oct. 24, the storm produced one of the lowest recorded barometric pressures. It also resulted in a 10-foot storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico that inundated large sections of the lower keys. Many streets were flooded by more than three feet of water, strewing the area with the rusting hulks of cars.
"Theoretically, Wilma should have relieved parking and traffic problems by destroying so many cars," said Marshall Calder, senior vice president of marketing for Leading Hotels of the World, an association of luxury hotels. "In fact, the single highway off the Keys has made removing debris very difficult."
Now only a little of the physical destruction - such as plants burned by exposure to salt water - is still visible, and Mr. Calder said such vegetation will grow back quickly. "Even after 25 years of doing business in the Caribbean, I am still amazed at the pace of recovery from a storm," Mr. Calder said. "It is the smart visitors who will be coming back to visit in the next few months because they will have the newly renovated properties for a fraction the normal price."
The Monroe County Tourist Development Council said that nearly all of the hotels and attractions in the Keys had reopened by the middle of December. One luxury hotel was largely spared by this hurricane season thanks to its position on Islamadora, about a third of the way down the island chain: Cheeca Lodge and Spa, www.cheeca.rockresorts.com, 305-664-4651, which offers rooms at $319 a night, with an additional $39 resort fee.
============================================
============================================
"It makes you think about the adage that any publicity is good publicity."
For a while now, I've been quietly nursing a dark suspicion that events like SARS and the recent Yonge Street shootings are not necessarily 'bad' things for Toronto, speaking strictly 'objectively' from a pro-tourism perspective. This article would seem to bolster those suspicions.