terror tourism in Spain
Terrorism in Spain and its impact on Spanish Tourism. ... The tourism industry accounts for 12% of Spains GDP and is a 50billion pound industry. In this traditional farming country tourism plays a major role in Spain’s economic survival and is the most popular international tourism destination. ... Spain differs from all other western democracies due to the strong support for provincial nationalism and the level of violence brought about due to conflict between Madrid and the provinces (Whittaker 2002, Schweilmer 1999). For the past four decades the Spanish government has been struggling to suppress a terrorist splinter group known as ETA, who are attempting to destroy the countries tourism industry through the threat of violence and bombings. ETA was founded in 1959 with the aim of establishing an independent homeland (based on Marxist ideologies) the area is located in northern Spain and southern France, see figure 1. Figure 1 The basque region of Spain/ France This student resistance was set up as a direct response to General Franco’s repressive military dictatorship. ... But more recently they have begun to target large cities and popular tourism areas such as the coastline towns. The worry is that the targets now appear to be tourists and their actions will directly effect the countries tourism industry (Whittaker 2002, Episcopo 1999). ... However the secretary general of the World Tourism Organisation told its members at the Tourism Recovery Meeting in March 2002 “our industry has weathered its most serious crisis in its history and already we see light at the end of the tunnel”. The crisis of Sept 11th 2001 taught the tourism industry how vulnerable the tourism industry is and how quickly consumers change their ways.