Senseless Bombings: The Locals Suffer Most.
"The summer is just coming and there were lots of bookings but now it will be a disaster."
This comment from Ahmed, an employee at a Chinese restaurant near the scene of the blast in the Red Sea resort of Dahab summarises the tragedy of the senseless violence which left at least 23 people, mainly Egyptians, dead.
The local people are the ones who suffer most when tourist resorts are targeted. Their livelihood is threatened when the visitors stay away.
Just as the 9/11 atrocity resulted in a negative backlash against Muslims in the West, the latest bombing in Egypt will hurt the local economy and tarnish the country’s image as a leading tourist destination.
In a statement the Foreign Office pointed out that “we must make sure we do not do the terrorists’ work for them by causing too much of the very disruption which the terrorists want”. We have to strike a balance between danger and disruption: making public safety the prime concern while minimising the disruption which terrorists want to cause. In the case of terrorist threats, we said we would advise against travel only in situations of extreme and imminent danger - if the terrorist threat was sufficiently specific, large-scale or endemic to affect British nationals severely. We have followed these criteria here. The overall level of our advice remains similar to that after the Sharm al Sheikh bombings in July 2005. We will of course keep this under close and active review. One of the terrorists' key aims is to undermine the societies, prosperity and economies of those countries they attack”.
Most travelers would agree with the sentiments expressed above how many will refrain for canceling their travel plans when a bombs have resulted in death and destruction at the holiday destination of their choice? |