More British holidaymakers concerned about terror attacks
More than half of British holidaymakers are concerned about a terror attack, significantly more than were worried last year.
According to the World Travel Market 2017 Industry Report, which surveyed 1,000 people who took a holiday this year, 52% said they are concerned about terrorism, with 14% of them extremely concerned.
When the same question was asked for the 2016 report, 38% said they had concerns over terror attacks, 9% admitting to being extremely concerned.
Meanwhile the number of Brits who say they are ‘not concerned at all’ has dropped from 40% last year to 27% in 2017. For the latest research, a further 21% said they were ‘not very concerned’. ~~~~~~
For both years, terrorism was found to be the number-one concern for British holidaymakers, higher than natural disasters, the refugee crisis and political instability.
In a separate survey of travel industry executives, 72% said terrorism had impacted their businesses in the last 12 months, with 26% reporting a ‘significant’ impact and 46% ‘some’ impact, while 28% reported no impact.
Last year, the figure was slightly higher at 76%, with 33% saying terrorism had a ‘significant’ impact, 43% saying it had ‘some’ impact, but 24% saying terrorism had had no impact at all.
Over half of the industry executives said Brexit has impacted their business, with 12% saying Brexit has had a significant effect.
The refugee crisis impacted 34% of executives’ businesses, with 7% reporting a ‘significant’ impact; health scares such as the Zika virus have impacted 33% of businesses, with 7% significantly; 44% of executives say they have been impacted by travel company failures (6% significantly); 40% have been affected by industrial action (6% significantly), while 25% say their business has been affected by false sickness claims.
WTM London’s Paul Nelson, said: "When we looked at last year’s findings, it was reassuring that, despite several high-profile attacks, the fears of terrorism had not actually increased over 2015 figures.
"Worryingly, more high-profile and frequent attacks in the past 12 months seem to have dented holidaymakers’ confidence.”
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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