Terror risk is ‘still small’
European Tour Operators Association executive director Tom Jenkins says that, although the threat has been raised to ‘critical’ security services the risk is still small.
"The natural reaction is one of horror combined with deep sympathy for those caught up in the events at the Manchester Arena.
"The danger posed by such incidents lies not in the threat that they pose, which is nugatory, but in our reaction to them. Authorities, driven by the need to do something, are always tempted to increase visible law-enforcement presence, sometimes involving militia.
"They may upgrade the status of terrorism threat. Institutions impose heavier screening of visitors. Transport hubs bristle with armed security. This is all part of the ostentatious barn door closing that solemnises terrorism.
"We used to think that this was problematic. Such variation from normality amplifies the impact of an attack and distorts perceptions of threat. It grants morbid celebrity to the actions of a sick individual. But, now, it is almost part of the ritual. And rituals are reassuring.
"What does this mean for travel? None of it is good news, but it means that the impact of these things is nothing like as dramatic as it used to be. That the risks posed by terrorists are infinitesimal (in broad terms they pose less of a threat to human life than livestock) is being understood.
"MI5, presumably using the same gnosis that failed them last week, now declare that: ‘The current threat level for international terrorism in the UK is CRITICAL’. It would be useful if they added: ‘The risk posed to the general public is MINUTE’."
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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