ABSTRACT
Tourism historically is one of the fastest growing economic sectors, but its growth cannot be taken for granted. Events such as terrorist attacks, the outbreak of SARS, and the Indian Ocean tsunami can quickly cause a tourism recession in affected destinations. The impacts of these recessions rapidly ripple throughout an economy, affecting businesses and their employees in tourism and non-tourism industries. However, tourism is affected not just by dramatic events but by day-to-day, systemic impediments to its growth. Many such impediments may be taken for granted because they have either emerged slowly in response to non-tourism issues or were implemented years ago without due consideration for their impact on tourism. Nonetheless, their effects on the ability of tourism enterprises to compete and grow as well as on their effects on the ability of private individuals to travel internationally should not be ignored.
