On a sometimes-tense panel Friday morning, five speakers sat to talk about the effect of recent terrorist incidents on the tourism industry and what could be done to help consumers regain confidence.
Dorte Nordbeck, head of travel and logistics Germany for GFK, said that the security was high on the agenda, especially in relation to booking. She said, “This is something that is new, which is the clustering or accumulation of attacks. There's been a real cluster and terrorism is coming much closer to home, and to us because it was tourists that were specifically targeted. That means holidaymakers and everyone in the tourism sector is more involved than in the past.”
She added, “In the past, destinations that have come under attack have recovered quickly, usually in about eight to twelve weeks. But it's the number of events that make it difficult to make a forecast. You don't know where they're coming from or how often. I expect people in Germany will not stop travelling, though. But it depends on what happens in the next month.”
Mathias Brandes, head of communications central Europe, Thomas Cook AG, said that a lowering in prices and special offers would be one method by which customers could be enticed into booking visits to spots that had suffered terrorist attacks.
However, this point was seized upon by Joerg H. Trauboth, a crisis management and security expert, and Alexander Karapidis, senior researcher for the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering and Organisation. Both Trauboth and Karapidis said that lowering prices was not the answer but that security should be the focus.
Trauboth said that there needs to be a paradigm shift and that security should be viewed as a positive rather than a negative.
He added, “My first message is that you need to distinguish between the real threat and what you think is a threat. My second message is to the travel industry: You should consider security as a competitive advantage rather than something uncomfortable.”
The concept that security should be viewed as a positive received a rare burst of applause.
Michael Gotschenberg said that Islamic terrorism was the main fear. “When will business normalise?” he said. “We can't answer that because no one knows the answer.” He added, “The public should learn to deal with this problem. You will never have absolute security and you can't protect yourself against attacks like the ones in Paris. But the chances of being attacked are very low. The fear is in no relation to the threat.”
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