Thetourism industry has evolved and matured steadily over recent years. Today,tourism is not only as a leading industry but also a consolidated commercialactivity worldwide. The turn of the century accelerated some global risks,which placed the tourism industry in jeopardy. Ranging from natural disastersto terrorism, policy-makers devoted considerable attention to the riskperception theory and its potential applications to protect destinations'images. In so doing, scholars adopted an economic-based paradigm, which focusedon the commercial nature of tourism as a benefactor of local economies whileterrorists were depicted as the enemies of democracy. It has been observed thatterrorists often target foreign tourists as a proxy to damage the democraticinstitutions they view them as representing, presenting the question: aretourists cultural ambassadors of their respective societies? On this basis, one might speculate thattourism is somewhat more complex or sophisticated than a service industry. Inthese terms, this book centers not only on a debate about the nature of tourism- which is considered as a rite of passage - but also on modern terrorism.Chapters explore the current limitations of the specialized literature to framean all-encompassing model to help our understanding of tourism security today.
