March 24, 2016
One day after terrorist attacks killed 34 people in Belgium, Regina Creedon paused from her work at Ventresca Travel Inc. to consider the impact the bombings might have on local residents planning trips to Europe.
Bookings to European destinations remained steady following the terroristic attacks in Paris last November, said Creedon, owner of the Hatboro, Montgomery County travel agency. But will another major terroristic attack cause travelers to rethink their European destinations?
"These terror attacks can happen anywhere, even in our own country," Creedon said. "We haven't had a lot of people canceling their European travel. This episode in Brussels, we've had two people (call). That's not a huge percentage of our clients. We'll see what happens now."
The U.S. Department of State issued a travel alert Wednesday warning travelers that terrorist groups continue to plan "near-term attacks throughout Europe, targeting sporting events, tourist sites, restaurants and transportation."
The bombings in Brussels occurred at the city's airport and on its metro system. Four months earlier, terrorists in Paris targeted a concert theater, soccer stadium and restaurants, killing 130 people. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks in both cities, and is said to have been planning attacks in other Western European cities, including Germany.
About 30 percent of Ventresca Travel's clients head to Europe, Creedon said. Brussels is more of a connecting city than a destination point, but the Belgian city of Bruges has gained popularity.
The two groups that contacted Ventresca were flying into neighboring France, Creedon said. One of them – a group of high school students – canceled. The other group expressed concern about flying into a Paris airport.
Terrorism can prompt dramatic shifts in travel behavior, said Wesley Roehl, a tourism and hospitality management professor at Temple University. He expects to see a "chilling effect" on travel with Belgium, if not elsewhere in Europe.
"We see a dramatic drop in the short term in travel to those destinations," Roehl said. "In the longer term, especially if the destination then goes several months without further incidents, we see the travel volume recover to the level it was at prior to the incident."
Tourism takes 13 months to recover from terrorism, according to a study released last year by the World Travel and Tourism Council. But that's a shorter recovery time than destinations rebounding from disease, natural disasters or political unrest.
"It reroutes traffic," Roehl said. "I would suspect that a lot of people who were sitting around over coffee, thinking about where we'll be going for our summer vacation, might now be thinking about a cruise or a Caribbean vacation rather than Europe."
But Suzanne Shank, owner of Atlas Travel in Norristown, Montgomery County, questioned the rationality of such fears. Certainly, Shank said, another terrorist attack could occur, but law enforcement remains on high alert in the immediate aftermath.
"I feel if anything, the security is bumped up," Shank said. "If you're going to go anytime, this is when it's going to be the most secure."
Shank said she fielded some concerns Wednesday from people who had booked upcoming European trips. They're all still scheduled as planned, but Shank wondered whether other prospective travelers might never call.
"Could be," Shank said. "They're the ones that you don't know."
