"TOURISM
TIDBITS" FROM TOURISM & MORE, INC.
The goal of
"Tourism Tidbits" is to provide travel
professionals with a monthly, easy-to-read
overview of creative ideas. With proper
referencing, we invite you to quote or reproduce
"Tourism
Tidbits" and to pass it along to a friend.
"Tourism
Tidbits" is published monthly in English and
Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish. Mtra. Patricia
Koalska of Mexico does the Spanish translation,
Ericka Amorim of Lisbon, Portugal provides the
Portuguese translation, and Dr. Turgut Var
provides the Turkish translation.
_______________________________________________________________________
TOURISM &
MORE'S "TOURISM TIDBITS" for February 2010
Our thoughts
and prayers go out to the people of Haiti.
May they soon
be able to rebuild their nation.
Reassessing
Tourism Security
The recent tourism near travel tragedy and
terrorism attacks against hotels around the
world serve to underline once again the
importance of tourism security. The
unsuccessful attempt to blow up a an airplane on
December 25th not only garnered a great deal of
publicity but also ought to serve to remind us
that no matter how we may try to ignore the
issue of tourism security both from within the
tourism industry and from without, the issue of
tourism and travel security is very much with
us. In fact historians of tourism may someday
call our reaction to the tourism security and
our ability (or inability) to protect the
traveling public tourism's defining moment.
Despite what many people think Tourism security
is a great deal more than merely adding extra
regulations onto an already frustrated traveling
public. Tourism security is a complicated
subject that combines both passive elements such
as CCTV (closed circuit television) cameras,
psychological and sociological knowledge and
active public policy development. Because
travel and tourism cross national borders, what
affects one nation may well impact the entire
world.
Unfortunately due to too many knee jerk
reactions many in the traveling public
increasingly are beginning to wonder if these
newest travel hassles accomplish much more than
making travel difficult. All too often it
appears that governments agencies around the
world tend to be reactive to the last incident
rather than being proactive. The almost
Christmas day bombing ought to teach us all a
number of important lessons:
-Terrorism is a chronic problem that will most
likely be with us for a long time.
Despite what the politicians say, and the public
may demand, travel and tourism can never be made
100% terrorism proof. The most we can hope to
do is develop smart and creative ways to
frustrate terrorism. The Israelis have offered
the world an important lesson that has not yet
been learned: tourism security is not about
focusing on bad things but rather intercepting
bad people.
-Terrorists are not stupid and know how to be
innovative.
The Christmas Day terrorism attack should be
seen as another example that counter security
cannot simply relay on the same security
measures. Tourism security requires both
creativity and innovation.
-Crime
and terrorism are not the same. In travel and
tourism criminals need the tourism industry with
which they maintain a parasitic relationship.
While crime gnaws at the heart of a tourism
industry, it does not seek to destroy it.
Indeed, many forms of organized crime have
traditionally found tourism to be a convenient
way to lauder money. Terrorism, on the other
hand seeks to destroy tourism. Its goal is to
separate people and inflict as much economic
damage as possible in order to destroy a
locale's economic viability as part of an
overall war strategy against modernity.
-Overreactions are the terrorists' best friends.
Despite the fact that the airplane landed safety
from a tourism perspective the terrorist still
won. He succeeded in frightening the public and
making travel less desirable and more difficult.
Terrorism is different than a criminal act. The
goal of terrorism is the destruction of national
economies. Because tourism is a major world
industry and provides numerous job opportunities
around the world travel and tourism are and will
continue to be prime terrorism targets.
Terrorists know that an attack against travel
and tourism will not only hurt multiple
economies but will also receive a great deal of
publicity, thus further damaging the victim's
economy.
In the
wake of the current reality here are several
things that tourism professionals can do at
relatively low cost:
-Understand what tourism security is all about.
There are far too many security professionals
who know security but do not know how to
"translate" security concepts into tourism
needs. On the other side of the ledger, tourism
professional are often woefully ignorant of how
tourism security, surety and safety work.
Because most tourism professionals have been
trained in marketing, they are often confused as
to what steps they should and should not take,
and how they should interact with security
professional. Many tourism professionals know
so little about the subject that they do not
know even the correct questions to ask.
-Never
hold a tourism security conference in which at
least one or two sessions is devoted to the
inter-relationship between tourism and
marketing.
Simply put good tourism security is an essential
part of twenty-first century marketing. Tourism
professionals need to demand that their
conference organizers provide them with the
basics of tourism security if they are to
compete in the twenty-first century. Simply
put if there is no tourism security then
eventually there will be nothing left to market.
-Attend
one of the tourism security conferences around
the world.
Las Vegas will hold its yearly tourism security
on May 9-11 and at the end of the month, Aruba
will be holding its third bi-annual conference.
These conferences permit tourism officials,
police officers and other security professionals
to learn about the newest trends and dynamics
within the tourism industry and to exchange
ideas and concepts. As often security
professional budgets are tight, consider giving
a scholarship a police officer or other tourism
security professional's registration and/or
airfare.
-Learn to
do more and speak less.
One of the problems with tourism security is
that we publicize what we are and are not
doing. While a certain amount of publicity is
needed to reassure the traveling public, a lot
more needs to be done to stop bad people rather
than merely looking for bad things.
-Learn
from others and then adapt to your local needs.
There is much that we can learn from Israeli
security techniques when it comes to travel.
For example airline passengers traveling to and
from Israel do not have to go through many of
the indignities that Western fliers must endure,
and yet these same passengers are considered a
lot safer, both on the ground and in the air.
Part of Israel's success comes from studying
what others do and then adapting these
techniques to local needs. Good tourism security
provides travelers with a high level of
professionalism, the best of interrogation
techniques coupled with the best of high tech
and good training. Tourism industries around the
world need to learn how to follow suit.
-Never forget
that no cost savings is worth a life.
Tourism security is not just about safe travel.
It is about saving lives. When developing a
tourism-marketing plan, never forget that we can
pull a bad promotion campaign, change a ad, or
find a new slogan, but we can never replace a
life. Tourism is about hospitality and good
hospitality comes from taking care of our
guests.
_______________________________________________________________________
What topics
would you like to see discussed in Tourism
Tidbits?
Please send us a list of topics of interest
to you and we will do our best to dedicate
future issues of Tourism Tidbits to your
needs/desires.
TOURISM AND MORE'S WIDE RANGE OF SPEECHES AND
TRAINING SEMINARS
For a
complete listing of topics and information,
please check our web page
http://www.tourismandmore.com/contact or
e-mail us at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com
Please note our all-new special course:
Tourism Confronts Terrorism: What You Need to
Know to Maintain a Viable Industry in the Face
of Terrorism.
Here is a partial list of some of our other most
popular topics. All seminars and speeches can be
presented in English or Spanish.
Brand
New Lectures concerning the World's Economic and
Health Crisis:
1)
Smoothing out rocky economic roads: What tourism
needs to do stay in front of these economically
challenging times!
2)
Surviving Economically Challenging Times: Best
Practice from Far and Wide.
3) Developping H1N1 Travel and Tourism
Policies: What Tourism Needs to Do in a
Potential Age of Pandemics.
Additionally:
3) Our
trained staff of professionals are ready to meet
with your board and you to discuss specific
strategic planning in this most difficult of
times.
Please
contact us at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com for
more information regarding costs and available
dates.
Also New!!!! How to tourism communities need
to work to prevent and recover from natural
disasters.
Other
lectures include:
-Tourism
Confronts Terrorism: What You Need to Know to
Maintain a Viable Industry in the Face of
Terrorism.
-Training
Your Police: Tourism Oriented Policing (TOPs),
how it works and why it is essential for a
viable tourism industry.
-Getting
On Board: Helping Your Police and Other City
Employees to be Part of the Tourism Industry.
-Marketing to the Baby-boom Generation,
Generation X and beyond.
-New
Trends in Tourism Marketing and International
Tourism.
-When the
Market is Tight and the Economy Is Slow: New
Ideas in Marketing.
-Developing a Successful Agricultural and Rural
Tourism Industry.
-Something from Nothing: The Art of Creating New
Attractions.
-Tourism
Ethics: Linking the Wisdom of Moses to Your
Tourism Product.
-Understanding Tourism Statistics: When is a
fact a fact and when is it not? How to present
data to the media.
_______________________________________________________________________
TOURISM
ON-LINE/EDUCATION
1)
TOURISM SECURITY. The George Washington
University's Tourism Destination Management and
Marketing Certificate Program announces the
launch of "Safety and Security for Tourism
Destinations: Achieving a Safe and Secure
Tourism Environment". This is a course designed
to help tourism professionals understand the
importance of safety and security within a
destination, as well as provide them with the
"tools" needed to create a secure environment
for both visitors and residents. World-renowned
travel safety and security expert, Dr. Peter E.
Tarlow, has developed this course by drawing on
his wealth of experience and the growing number
of publications in this area. The course is
available worldwide via Internet-based distance
learning. For more information please contact
Kristin Lamoureux at klam@gwu.edu.
2)
Interested in doing research in the area of
tourism security?
Announcing Our New Subscription Service!;
The Tourism & Security Control Panel
Tourism & More, working with our technology
partners at
Mnemotrix Systems, Inc.,
is now offering subscribers an enhanced and
indispensable online service. Here is a new part
of the "More" in Tourism & More. This new
service offers its subscribers full access to
the last 18+ years of our Tidbits Newsletter
archives, our News and Newsgroup realtime feed,
and our Global Security Research Database for
Tourism.
This all-new approach to research provides much
more than the usual keyword search, with our
Strategic Data Fusion research capability, and a
simple manual for how to make use of it. All
this is available for a modest annual subscriber
fee of only $99.99 per year. Corporate
memberships are also available. The aim is to
give you best-of-class in strategic data fusion
research tools. It is not enough anymore to list
a hierarchy of subjects we once wrote about.
This new service will allow you to be able to
get into the content directly by idea or
concept.
The cost for this service is US$99.00 per year.
To subscribe to this service, please go to our
website at <www.tourismandmore.com> and click on
where it says: "subscribe".
_______________________________________________________________________
BOOKS OF
INTEREST TO TOURISM PROFESSIONALS
1)
Event Risk Management and Safety (ISBN
0-471-40168-4) by Peter E. Tarlow, published by
John Wiley & Sons. Presenting theory and
practical applications. To purchase this book,
visit http://www.wiley.com/ or
http://www.amazon.com/. If you would like
Dr. Tarlow to speak or train people in this
area, please contact him at
ptarlow@tourismandmore.com
2) Restoring Tourism Destinations in
Crisis by Dr David Beirman: Published By
Allen & Unwin (Australia & SE Asia) and CABI
Publishing North America/ Europe 2003. For more
information contact the author at
mailto:david@aicc.org.au.
3) Leisure Travel: A Marketing Handbook,
by Stanley Plog, Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper
Saddle River, NJ, 2004. It's available through
the website of Pearson Prentice-Hall for $25.
4) Tourism in Turbulent Times. Toward Safe
Experiences for Visitors. Edited by Jeff
Wilks, Donna Pendergast, and Peter Leggart.
Published by Elsevier.
5) Tourism Security & Safety, from Theory
to Practice. Edited by Yoel Mansfeld and Abraham
Pizam, published by Elsevier.
6) The Economics of Tourism Destinations,
by Norbert Vanhove, Published by Elsevier
7) Beach Safety and the Law, Edited by
Jeff Wilks published by Queensland
(Australia) Law Society
8) Media Strategies for Marketing Places in
Crisis, by Eli Avraham and Eran ketter
Published by Elsevier
9) Tourism Development: Growth, Myths and
Inequalities. Burns, P. and Novelli M. eds.
(2008). Wallingford: CABI
10) Tourism Management: Analysis, Behavior and
Strategy, edited by Woodside and Martin,
published by Cabi, London, England
11) Tourism and Mobility, Burns, P. and
Novelli M. eds. (2008). Wallingford:
CABI.
12) Two new books for Spanish readers: (1)
Inversión Hotelera, by Alfredo Ascanio and
Turismo Sustentable both by Alfredo Ascanio
and Marcus Vinicius Campos, You can purchase
both of these books at
http://etrillas.com.mx/trillas/busqueda/php
13)
"The Ethics of Terrorism. Innovative Approaches
from an International Perspective." Eds Thomas
Albert: Publisher: Charles C. Thomas,
Springfield, Il; USA Mailing Orders may be
obtained directly to use: PO Box 19265
Springfield, Illinois, 62794 - 9265. USA or by
calling (800) 258-8980); ask for customer
service, at "www.ccthomas.com" or a
books@ccthomas.com.
____________________________________________________________________
Student
Safety Abroad, www.studentsafetyabroad.org,
is a leader in study abroad security consulting
and crisis management. SSA is now offering a
safety course online to prepare students who
travel abroad on study abroad programs. Please
contact one of our staff at +1 979-492-1345 to
learn about the services offered by Student
Safety Abroad or contact us at
<wise@wiseabroad.org>
__________________________________________________________________
Some Upcoming Tourism Conferences
We
invite you to submit your conferences to Tourism
Tidbits. Please submit request in the form
found below. If you do not tells us, then, we
cannot list the conference. We are happy to
list all conferences about which we are
informed. Please follow the below format when
sending us a conference announcement. Thank you!
Unless otherwise stated, English is the
conference language.
Feb 18-21
2010
Plymouth, UK
2nd International Cruise Conference
University of Plymouth
For details please visit:
http://www.pbs.plymouth.ac.uk/icc2/
March 17-19 2010
Miami, USA
THE WORK EXPERIENCE TRAVEL MARKET AND IAPA
ANNUAL CONFERENCE
For more information, please go to:
www.wetm-iac.org
March
22-24, 2010
Nashville, Tenn.
STS Spring Meeting & SETTRA Symposium
Contact Neville Bhada
Neville@southeasttourism.org
or go to http://www.southeasttourism.org/spring/
and <http://settra.org/>http://settra.org/
March 23-26, 2010
Atlanta, Georgia
2010 Food Safety Education Conference
Hyatt Regency Atlanta
For more
information please go to
www.fsis.usda.gov/Atlanta2010
March 30-April 1
Sitka, Alaska
4th Annual Heritage and Cultural Tourism
Conference
For more information please go to:
http://www.sitka.org/public.html
April 17-20, 2010
Mulu, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia
Second Global Geotourism Conference
Royal Mulu Resort
For details, please visit
http://www.globalgeotourism.com
April 21-23
Budapest, Hungry
TTRA 2010 European Chapter Conference
For more information please go to web:
http://www.ttra-europeconference.com/!
April 22-25, 2010
Crete and Santorini, Greece
International Conference on Sustainable Tourism:
Issues, Debates & Challenges For more
information please to:
http://sustainablecrete.com
May
3-5
Havana, Cuba
Turicencia (in Spanish)
For more information please contact: 5238-7765/
5238-7766 or email info@turiciencia.org
May 5-7, 2010
Surrey, England
Council for Hospitality Management Education
(CHME) Research Conference
For more information please go to
<http://www.surrey.ac.uk/chme2010>www.surrey.ac.uk/chme2010
May 5-7, 2010
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
N.H. Governor's Conference on Tourism
Sheraton Portsmouth Harborside Hotel
For details, please visit;
www.nhtravelcouncil.com
May 10-12, 2010
Las Vegas Tourism Security Conference
Please note May 10 offers a pre-conference tour
followed by the formal conference on May 11 and
12. For more information, contact Sherry Watson
at swatson@lvcva.com or Peter Tarlow at
ptarlow@tourismandmore.com
May 30-June 2
Aruba
III Biannual Caribbean Tourism Security
Conference
For more information, please contact Roland
Peterson at
allamanda@setarnet.aw.
June 14-17, 2009
International Tourism Security Conference
Kuala Lumpur, Maylasia
For more information, please contact Muneeb Bin
Yousuf at
<muneeb@egnatia-group.com>
June 27-30, 2010
Vienna, Austria
Best En Think Tank X: Networking for Sustainable
Tourism
For more information, please contact Anja
Hergesell at anja.hergesell@modul.ac.at or call
+43 (1) 320-355-5419
July 25 - 30, 2010
Dahlonega, Ga.
STS Marketing College
Contact Neville Bhada at:
Neville@southeasttourism.org
Or go to
http://www.southeasttourism.org/education/
Aug. 22-28, 2010
Amsterdam. Holland
TRAVEL AS A FORCE OF HISTORICAL CHANGE
For more information, please go to: ICHTT -
International Commission for the History of
Travel and Tourism at
<http://www.ichtt.org>www.ichtt.org
Oct 18-22
Charlotte, North Carolina
TEAMS (Travel, Events & Management in Sport)
For more information please contact: Timothy
Schneider at
Timothy_Schneider_rvvzrrg@cmpgnr.com
_______________________________________________________________________
About the
Author:
Dr. Peter E.
Tarlow is the President of T&M, is a popular
author and speaker on tourism. Tarlow is a
specialist in the areas of sociology of tourism,
economic development, tourism safety and
security. Tarlow speaks at governors' and state
conferences on tourism and conducts seminars
throughout the world and for numerous agencies
and universities.
If you know of anyone else who might enjoy
"Tourism Tidbits," please send his/her email
address to
ptarlow@tourismandmore.com,
Please let us know of any topic that you would
like to see covered by "Tourism Tidbits." We
invite others to submit articles for
consideration for publication.
You are welcome to reproduce "Tourism Tidbits"
or any part of "Tourism Tidbits" with proper
citing. We hope that you will see "Tourism
Tidbits" as a place where tourism, visitor, and
travel professionals exchange ideas and
information. "Tourism Tidbits" does not offer or
provide specific legal or financial advice. Our
goal is to provide a "review" for industry
personnel and discuss provocative issues. We
remind all readers that every specific business
decision should be made only after you have done
the proper research. The author(s) accept(s) no
responsibility for any loss due to any
information published in "Tourism Tidbits."
All articles
sent to "Tourism Tidbits" and accepted for
publication are owned by "Tourism Tidbits" and
may be subjected to editorial review and
rewriting (with permission of the author). All
questions about "Tourism Tidbits", suggestions,
or cancellations should be addressed to Dr.
Peter E. Tarlow at ptarlow@tourismandmore.com
--
Dr. Peter Tarlow
1218 Merry Oaks,
College Station, Texas, 77840-2609, USA.
Telephone: +1 (979) 764-8402.
--