More than half of British holidaymakers are concerned about a terror attack, significantly more than were worried last year.
According to the World Travel Market 2017 Industry Report, which surveyed 1,000 people who took a holiday this year, 52% said they are concerned about terrorism, with 14% of them extremely concerned.
When the same question was asked for the 2016 report, 38% said they had concerns over terror attacks, 9% admitting to being extremely concerned.
Meanwhile the number of Brits who say they are ‘not concerned at all’ has dropped from 40% last year to 27% in 2017. For the latest research, a further 21% said they were ‘not very concerned’. ~~~~~~
For both years, terrorism was found to be the number-one concern for British holidaymakers, higher than natural disasters, the refugee crisis and political instability.
In a separate survey of travel industry executives, 72% said terrorism had impacted their businesses in the last 12 months, with 26% reporting a ‘significant’ impact and 46% ‘some’ impact, while 28% reported no impact.
Last year, the figure was slightly higher at 76%, with 33% saying terrorism had a ‘significant’ impact, 43% saying it had ‘some’ impact, but 24% saying terrorism had had no impact at all.
Over half of the industry executives said Brexit has impacted their business, with 12% saying Brexit has had a significant effect.
The refugee crisis impacted 34% of executives’ businesses, with 7% reporting a ‘significant’ impact; health scares such as the Zika virus have impacted 33% of businesses, with 7% significantly; 44% of executives say they have been impacted by travel company failures (6% significantly); 40% have been affected by industrial action (6% significantly), while 25% say their business has been affected by false sickness claims.
WTM London’s Paul Nelson, said: "When we looked at last year’s findings, it was reassuring that, despite several high-profile attacks, the fears of terrorism had not actually increased over 2015 figures.
"Worryingly, more high-profile and frequent attacks in the past 12 months seem to have dented holidaymakers’ confidence.”
