As I finish writing this book at the beginning of 2014, the world seems to be a very chaotic place indeed. In fact, there does not appear to be any one spot around the globe that does not have to face some form of danger or risk. From super-sized hurricanes (or typhoons) to earthquakes, from acts of terrorism to acts of crime, from social unrest to threats of war, tourism must exist and thrive in a world that often seems to have gone mad. Seeing the world through the eyes of the media, we cannot help but wonder how we make it to the next day and why anyone would travel. Yet, people continue to live their lives, travel, and find joy in learning about one another.

Perhaps what we perceive as modern madness has always been with us, and people in each generation saw themselves as living in a time of violence. Looking back on the twentieth century, the century in which modern tourism was born, we see a century filled with violence: acts of terrorism, genocide, war, and crime. Reading ancient texts helps us to put violence into a historical perspective. Certainly, the viewpoint that violence “covers the earth” goes as far back as Biblical times. Genesis notes that God destroyed the world through a flood, stating the reason as “the Earth was/would be corrupt and filled (would be filled) with violence before God. God saw the Earth and corruption was pervasive throughout the Earth” (Genesis 6:11–12, English Standard Version). Ironically, the violence causes not only the destruction of land life, but also the first cruise—a cruise to nowhere with Noah as its captain.

Just as acts of violence seem to have been born with the birth of humanity, so too have humans sought physical and mental ways to escape the horror of violence and add joy to their lives. Once again, the Biblical text clearly states that leisure is also a part of life: “And the heaven and the earth were finished, and on Saturday, God finished His work, which He had made, and He rested on Saturday (the seventh day) from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it” (Genesis 2:1–2, English Standard Version). Rest and leisure are not only necessary, but to ignore them is an offense against both God and the state. The sentiment that humans need more than merely the basics reaches its philosophical pinnacle in Deuteronomy where it states: “Human beings do not live by bread alone” (Deuteronomy 8:3, English Standard Version). In other words, what defines humanity is its ability to combine work with pleasure.

Perhaps it is this madness that provides the underpinning for leisure travel or tourism. Tourism is a road to personal escape. In a world in which many of us wonder about the direction that civilization is headed, tourism provides if not the answer at least the opportunity to clear one’s head and to see the world through fresh eyes. Tourism, as distinguished from travel, is a leisure pursuit. A traveler, such as a business traveler, may have little choice as to where he or she goes. A soldier is also a traveler, but, more often than not, has no choice as to his or her destination. The tourist, on the other hand, has a choice. He or she makes a conscious decision as to where to go, where to stay within the destination of choice, and when to leave. Tourists, unlike visitors, literally vote with their feet.

Although mass or industrialized tourism is a relatively new field, for many countries other forms of tourism have been a valuable source of economic development. These lesser forms of tourism include the pilgrimage, the market, or fair-oriented tourism. Today, these specific forms of tourism have both a singular quality in the lone traveler and a massive quality as expressed by large trade shows and convention and pilgrimage cites such as the Hajj to Mecca. All these forms of tourism share the fact that they provide a nation with a venue with which it can showcase, to its own citizens and to the world, its culture, products, and even its political system.

Tourism is a unique industry in that it is one of the world’s largest industries, and also perhaps the world’s least-protected industry. For example, to quote the “World Travel & Tourism Council”:

In reality, tourism is a composite industry composed of numerous smaller industries, and as such no one really knows the industry’s true economic impact. Many of the numbers cited depend on which components are included in the industry and if we are to measure solely the direct impact of tourism or also its indirect impact.

In today’s world, the cohort we call “tourists” and “travelers” may blend into new groups. A person may travel to a particular destination due to a business reason and then choose to stay longer, thus becoming a tourist. Likewise, a person may visit a specific location as a tourist and then return to invest in that locale and become a frequent traveler to, or investor in, that locale. Although the traveler and tourist may have different objectives, both suffer from some of the same sociological patterns. Both groups know what it is to be vulnerable, both may suffer from being in a state of anomie, and both are in a particular place but not of that place. Certain hypotheses used in this book are also valid for both groups. For example, it may also be hypothesized that the further a person travels from home, the more vulnerable he or she is to problems of cultural and linguistic differences that may impact on his or her sense of safety and security. The Spanish have a saying: “para aprender hay que perder” or “To learn one must be willing to lose.” This means that we often do things, take chances, or accept risks that we might not take at home. Because we unfortunately live in a violent world, our “there” may be the local criminal’s “here.” The challenge is not only teaching visitors to be careful, but also the understanding that tourism security is as much about perceptions as it is about facts.

For example, the media may exaggerate the level of violence in a particular area, giving the impression that a locale has an excess of violence, or the media may create a false sense of security in which visitors are convinced that no matter what they do, nothing will occur. To complicate the situation, few places measure “nonevents,” nor do they measure “nonreported events,” leaving all tourism crime statistics as being open to debate.

What we do know is that reported violence can greatly impact a locale’s tourism image, and in marketing a product such as tourism image is everything. Violence is to a society what cancer is to the body. Like cancer, it slowly gnaws away at a society’s very fabric. When a society suffers from violence, fear enters, streets empty, and isolation overtakes the joie de vivre that is so essential to the world of tourism. Because tourism is a choice and not an obligation, fewer people will travel to places where they feel threatened. Often violence is accompanied, just as in the case of a physical ailment, with a sense of denial. Instead of confronting the problem, authorities simply deny it. Thus, a major threat to tourism is when its leaders believe that no matter what they do, people will come, that the level of violence simply does not matter. For too long a time, the tourism industry practiced some form or another of ostracism. That is, it took the position that if it saw no evil and spoke of no evil, that evil would not exist. Unfortunately, evil does exist and our visitors and tourists need protection from evil that comes in many forms and from many corners. In most other industries, security is considered to be a vital industry component. In tourism, on the other hand, many of its officials in the past labored from a schizophrenic position in which they feared violence against their clientele (visitors) and at the same time feared that overt protection of visitors would produce its own challenges and fears.

This schizophrenic industry position can be noted in many of the early studies about crime and tourism. In these studies, the authors assumed that tourists brought crime onto themselves, by the way that they dressed, spoke, and chose their jewelry. The assumption was that tourists were rich and that the locals were not and therefore tourism provoked jealousy due to conspicuous consumption. Put simply, the assumption was that the crime was the victim’s fault. In the case of tourism, however, the media are attracted to incidents that involve visitors. The result being that the very thing that the industry has hoped to avoid, negative media publicity, becomes its reality.

Unfortunately, facts have a way of catching up with rhetoric. In tourism the public always has a choice not to come, and when tourism dries up, so do the businesses and public services that are dependent on tourism. Despite an often-heard popular myth, tourists do pay taxes in multiple forms, from room and entertainment taxes to transportation and sales taxes. The loss of tourism not only means the loss of revenue, but it also produces the perception that the community or locale that suffers from a lack of good tourism is not a good place to relocate a business. When the public refrains from visiting a locale due to fear of travel, social ills such as isolation may begin, cross-cultural fertilization ceases, and political and social accusations dominate the media and then creep into a locale’s social climate.

The fight for civility then is the basis of tourism security and one of the reasons for having written this book. I wrote this book with the idea of not only providing additional tools for the tourism professional, but also with the hope that the lowering of violence will act to reinforce the principle that yes we are our brother’s (and sister’s) keepers; that it is our responsibility to make the world not only a safer place but also a better place. It is my hope that the book will inspire students of tourism science and professionals to do everything possible to promote a safe and worry-free travel experience so as to avoid suffering from the social cancer of crime and being damaged sociologically, morally, and spiritually.

Today tourism lives in a world that has come to know the continual horrors of terrorism and violence against tourists and visitors, against transportation and places of lodging. Every time a passenger passes through a metal detector, the visitor is reminded that we now live in a very dangerous world. For this reason, among others, tourism leaders have begun to address the issue of crime against visitors. This new awareness means that all forms of tourism security must cooperate and work together. The new world of tourism requires an understanding of the many aspects of tourism security and safety, from food safety issues to those dealing with potential pandemics, from issues of street crime to gang violence, from the illegal sale and consumption of drugs to acts of terrorism.

The first two chapters in this book deal with what tourism security is and how it impacts the economy. The book then moves onto types of security, from places of lodging to places of assembly. Other areas touched on are the threats of terrorism, legal threats, and issues of transportation. Finally, the book presents four case studies of two U.S. and two Latin American cities, comparing and contrasting each locale’s tourism realities in its own words.