3 Florida tourists' vulnerability to crime

Abstract

Foreign embassies routinely issue safety advisories or warnings for residents traveling abroad. The list changes fairly often, but some countries such as Lebanon, Colombia and Afghanistan consistently remain on it (Lunberg and Lunberg, 1993). Third World nations have generally been considered more dangerous than developed nations as travel destinations. However, a new trend has emerged whereby developed nations are also listed among the places where travelers are vulnerable to criminal victimization. Tourism is generally acknowledged as an industry that only thrives under peaceful conditions. Additionally, the need for safety is a well-recognized innate trait of human nature (Maslow, 1954). Consequently, concern about personal safety has been shown dramatically to restrain travel to hostile destinations (Edgell, 1990). Egypt, for example, lost an estimated $1 billion in tourism revenues due to the publicity surrounding the murder of three and wounding of a dozen foreign tourists by Muslim extremists over a 12-month period (Associated Press, 1993). The 1992 Los Angeles riots are estimated to have cost that city between $1 billion and $2 billion in lost travel revenues (Crystal, 1993). Highly publicized crimes against tourists have been shown to cause destination shifts to safer locales. For example, the Achille Lauro ship hijacking caused a sharp drop in cruise travel to the Mediterranean but was attributed to increased cruise bookings for the Caribbean and Alaska lines {Advertising Age, 1986). In fact, according to a recent Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) study, cruise travel is still the fastest growing vacation category in North America (Gainesville Sun, 1994). Perhaps one factor partially accounting for this growth trend is the issue of safety.