ABSTRACT

This chapter approaches to the analysis of terrorist attacks affecting tourism demand was adopted. Instead of a secondary analysis of international tourist arrivals after terrorist attacks, a case study of the local population of Salzburg which can be seen as a sample of potential western travellers in their quotidian world was conducted and the results were compared with a former study of tourists on location. Terrorist attacks represent a specific form of tourism crises, because usually the destinations are hit unprepared. Symbolic images of fright and destruction are rooted in the minds of potential travellers, and the loss in demand may strongly affect the tourism industries and the local population. By adopting a social science-based perspective, effects on tourism demand, as well as cultural processes of change as a consequence of terrorist attacks, can be analysed. The main idea is to focus on individual preferences of tourists.