Tourism under the sight of terrorism

What do terrorists achieve, attacking tourists, vacationers at resorts and visiting sights?

Tunisia, Thailand, Egypt have recently flickered in the news of the leading information agencies around the world. Not so much by virtue of their objective significance as as a country in which Muslim militants attack foreign tourists. Jihadists pursue two goals with their actions, both ambitious, who do not leave the world media, the chance not to notice them: the first is to intimidate foreign governments that have lost their citizens in the terrorist attacks, the second is to achieve the international isolation of local authorities who allowed bloodshed. The image of the latter in the eyes of the West is already low due to their anti -democratic orientation: they narrow the field of civilian freedoms, explaining this with the needs of the fight against extremism. Now, incompetence in the suppression of this very extremism is added to the reputation of freezers of freedoms, for which, in fact, the restriction of freedoms was made. However, the strategic effect of the "antituristic" subspecies of terrorism, as well as from terrorism as a whole, is small -scale and fleeting.

Tunisia, March 2015 . In the Bardo Museum , where a collection of ancient Roman mosaics is stored, an attack on visitors, mainly passengers of a cruise ship who went on an excursion to the city. Twenty -three people were killed. The raiders quite calmly went into the room, carrying machine guns with them. Later both were destroyed. According to special services, they studied in training camps of terrorists in Libya.

Tunisia, June 2015 . Another misfire of law enforcement agencies. The terrorist is landing on the boat on the beach in Susa near the luxury hotel complex and shoots vacationers. Thirty -eight dead, of which thirty British. The attacker of the post -fact is also killed.

Tunisia is considered a pearl of "Arab spring." The uprising of 2011, which led to the resignation of Autocrat Zin El Abydin Ben Ali, was crowned with the establishment of a moderate semi-light regime than a theocratic dictatorship. The disappointed Islamists went to fight in Libya, Syria, and other places; Of those who returned home, the part was arrested, the remaining free revenge on the new government, attacking the tourist industry, the main source of hard currency for Tunisia.

Terrorists, not spent without spending, receive a grandiose public in the West through these attacks

Historical certificate: In 2002, on the Tunisian island of Jerb, a truck was taken into the air of Al-Qaeda, a truck mined by the militants of the Al-Qaeda . Twenty -one people were killed by the explosion, of which fourteen guests from Germany and two from France.

Egypt . The Muslim Brothers , who were in power for a little more than a year, pretty much frightened the Egyptians with their radicalism. The army, which overthrew the president and the head of the Muslim Brothers Muhammad Mursi , announced the organization outlawed. Since then, a wave of more or less large terrorist attacks is shaking the country, whose targets become police officers, prosecutors, judges, and Minister of the Interior. The results of these shares did not shake either the support of the head of the country of General al-Sisi, nor the determination of the general himself to eradicate extremism. Therefore, the Islamists made an attempt to return to the old tactics - attacks on foreign tourists. Two months ago, it was barely possible to avoid the attack on the Carnak Temple near Luxor. The security service in time revealed a group of three attackers, one of which, wrapped in a hunger belt, blew himself up in a parking lot. The other two were killed there.

The bodies of the dead with a terrorist attack in Tunisia, June 2015

Egypt, like Tunisia, greatly depends on economically on foreign tourists, the arrival of which, in addition, is designed to serve visible evidence for the West Success of the normalization policy pursued by the military. Therefore, as-Sisi, who reacted in the working order to the previous actions of the Islamists, who harmed the tourism indirectly, simply due to the injection of tension, since state institutions are located in the center of the capital in the neighborhood of the main museums, seriously concerned about the potential consequences of an abnormal situation-an attempt on a terrorist attack, directed directly against foreigners-visitors to the Karnak Church. At the same time, we add, a low -power bomb in the Italian consulate was blown up and about a week ago Islamists executed the Croat, an employee of the French energy company, stolen on the highway in the suburbs of Cairo. The expanses working in Egypt were nervous. Almost a third with respect to the peak value, quotes of shares on the stock exchange dropped. As a result, a law was adopted, expanding the powers of bodies involved in anti -terrorism events. The legislative act provoked the strongest criticism of human rights organizations in the West.

Again, referred to the past: in 1997, the militants of the Al-Gamaa al-Islamia group attacked excursionists who examined the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Luxor . 62 people became victims of attacks, including 36 Swiss, eight newlyweds from Japan and a five -year -old girl from England.

Tourists in Western countries are less vulnerable than in the third world

Thailand, another tourist Mecca. On August 17 of this year, a homemade explosive device worked in the Hindu sanctuary in the center of Bangkok . Twenty killed, including four foreigners. The sanctuary is often visited by ethnic Chinese from the PRC and other countries of Asia, and the police believe that bombers rushed in them. Hong Kong Tour operators immediately advocated the suspension of trips to Thailand, the authorities of Australia, including the Prime Minister, parked that such a step would only be beneficial to the terrorists, whoever they aimed, and called for fellow citizens not to cancel the visit to Thai resorts and sights.

About the "tourist" subspecies of terrorism is discussed by the expert of the Heritage Foundation Jim Philips.

- We see, in principle, the same countries in the list of targets of "antituristic terror" - Egypt, Tunisia, Thailand, Indonesia. And about the same groups of foreigners who are attacked. Until the very recent time, these were Western tourists. Now the Chinese can be added to them, at least in Thailand, since the Muslims-Uyghurs, taking scores with the Chinese authorities, are counting on some sympathy of the inhabitants of Southeast Asia, who are unhappy with the aggressive policy of China in their region. The economy of all these countries greatly depends on tourism. And terrorists, not spent without spending, receive a grandiose public in the West through these attacks.

Egypt has recently been under the sight of terrorists, too

- "Antituristic terror" is the prerogative of Islamists or are other radicals play on this field?

- For several decades, if my memory is not cheating on me, Islamists are occupied by this clearing. Apart from the Baskskaya episodic actions in Spanish resorts or a raid of Kurdish terrorists on the Turkish health resort Kemer. The considered activities of Islamists sometimes hurt Europe: remember the attack on Israeli tourists in Bulgaria or an attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels. The actions of the radicals also have a certain side effect: the USA, the UK, Denmark, due to the extremely restless situation in Somalia, actively discourage their citizens from traveling to neighboring Kenya, although Kenya currently does not suffer from terrorism. We talked about Thailand: not so long ago, the police opened the Hzbollah cells there, planning anti -Israeli sabotage. It seems, along with its ammunition from Iran.

-Why do terrorists still prefer to attack tourist attractions in the third world, and not in the West? Because in the West they are better guarded?

“Honestly, I don't think so.” It’s just that Western countries are less dependent on tourism. And the organizers of the attacks have a greater risk of being caught, since the police and special services still work well. Like all other services in general. After terrorist attacks in underdeveloped countries, the streets are flooded with army patrols; Falls are exhibited everywhere; There are traffic jams, it is impossible to go through. A person who takes a photograph in a public place, and a foreigner, including, can elementarily fall under suspicion and be detained. Popular institutions where people gather often close reinsure officials. A foreign tourist, even if he is not scared by a terrorist attack, feels extremely uncomfortable in such an atmosphere. In developed countries, the authorities will not allow their own excesses, so there are fewer incentives for attacking tourists from radicals. There is another point here, we will call it the back of globalization: in the third world, unlike the West, antipathy to foreigners, including tourists who behave extremely relaxed, neglecting local customs, can be very strong, and terrorists operate these feelings of the indigenous population ... Returning to your remark, and, in fact, tourists in the western countries are less vulnerable than in the third. world. The incident with the 18 Palestinians of the Akille Lauro cruise ship comes to mind in 1985. The ship was Italian, passengers, for the most part, were Italians and Portuguese, but the capture occurred in Egyptian waters along the path of the ship from Alexandria to Port Said, where terrorists killed the American, disabled Leon Klinghofer.

According to Jim Philips, in the absence of foreign guests, security measures in a number of third world countries can degrade, so that, scaring away tourists from them, the radicals hope to somewhat weaken them in a purely law security plan. But this is all, by and large, in particular:

Propagandists from the Islamic State posted on the Internet a mocking “tourist” brochure advertising them “Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria

- The income from the intourism of Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan significantly diminished. As a result of this, unemployment has grown. Not only in the wake of the latest terrorist attacks, but also as a result of the preserved influence of the chaos that accompanied the Arab Spring and which constantly replicated television. It takes time to overcome this negativity. This is the main one. In the future, the negative effect will be erased from the memory of Western tourists. And in them again the indefatigable curiosity and passion for exotic will prevail. This has already happened more than once. As for the near future, the countries we are talking about will switch their advertising efforts to potential visitors, less impressionable than their Western counterparts. Not so shy, but those who want to relax well and inexpensive and having funds for it. For example, Japanese and Southern Koreans who love medical tourism, easily accessible in Jordan. As well as the Chinese and Russians. Despite the fact that both China and Russia are now experiencing not the simplest times in the sense of the economy. By the way, over a decade and a half years, the number of KRN citizens traveling abroad increased by more than an order of magnitude. You see, in order to inflict the irreversible, irreparable damage to the tourism industry, not scattered shares are required, but a systematic, targeted and long -term terror campaign. “Al-Qaeda”, “Islamic State” and their related structures are too ambitious to be pleased to destroy the tourism industry, ”says Jim Philips.

Over the past 30 years, statistics have been saying, terrorists have killed about 350 foreign travelers, a drop in the multi -billion dollar sea of world passenger turnover. And an disappearingly small value in the general lethal context of everyday crime. Not to mention the terrorism of the "wide", and not a specifically "tourist" profile. About a week ago, propagandists from the Islamic State laid out on the Internet a mocking “tourist” brochure, advertising them “Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria with its pure spring sources, excellent fishing, Olympic pools and pastoral landscapes with apiary.