Chapter 10 - International Tourists and Transport Safety

Abstract

[Extract] Travel in the twenty first century is more comfortable, reliable, cheap, accessible and importantly, safer than at any other time. Earlier, travel was dangerous as boats sank, highway travellers were robbed or even killed and the risk of disease or accidental injury was an ever-present travel companion. Journeying from a point of origin to a destination was to endure a state of travail. While travel is now safer, it is not without risk. Table 10.1 provides some examples of these risks. Accidents do happen and travellers suffer injuries and death, although on a minuscule scale compared to the total number of journeys undertaken. Yet, in this era, where instant communications can beam graphic images of carnage into homes, the risk of travel, while small, is highly visible and accidents potentially influence tourists' travel decisions. Equally, there is the impact on tourists when injury results in lost travel time and itinerary changes (May 1989). Compared to deaths caused by disease, cardiovascular incidents and other health conditions, transport accidents often involve relatively large numbers of people who suffer injury or death in single incidents. Surprisingly, the available literature on international tourists and transport safety is limited. For example, in the area of road transport, Watson et al. (1999) noted that while road safety is an important issue for tourism authorities, it, along with many other areas of tourist health and safety, has not been given a sufficiently high priority, and mishaps are largely left to be handled by insurers.