The impact of terrorism on tourism demand

Abstract

Terrorism and threats to national security are documented to have impacts oil tourism demand. This paper focuses on the short-run impacts of the September 11 attacks in New York on tourist preferences for competing destinations in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands. The proposed approach is a stated preference model based on two different samples taken at different points in time in relation to terrorist attacks. Results show that the attacks caused a shock to tourists' utility, and a change in the image profile of destinations. Moreover, it was found that while some destinations experienced a strongly negative impact on their image and attractiveness, others were upgraded as a consequence of terror events.