Former UK defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon has warned the travel industry to expect more impact from terrorism as extremists have an “ever wider” choice of targets the further people travel.
He said that while governments and resorts had a responsibility to protect customers, holidaymakers had to weigh up the safety risks for themselves.
“Terrorism is going to have more of an impact in travel,” Fallon told the Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT) conference in Sicily.
“In your industry these terrorists are presented with an ever wider range of targets – lying on beach, walking on the promenade, drinking in a bar.
“As your customers go further, explore more places, with the efficiencies of scale you’ve enabled them to do so, so these destinations become riskier.
“That risk will only grow as terrorists themselves understand the value of publicity, the difficulty of protecting so many people who are determined to enjoy themselves, and indeed understand the dependence of poorer more fragile economies of their earnings from tourism.”
Fallon said the industry had already thought long and hard about striking the right balance between informing customers and raising awareness.
However, he said: “We also need to encourage greater understanding of risk itself.
“You and the countries and the resorts do everything possible to reduce risk, to secure basic protections but you cannot be expected nor should be expected to be able to claim to eliminate risk altogether.”
The UK government would continue to advise the public through the Foreign Office website, Fallon said, but it was equally important “not to imply by constant amendment” that every risk has been identified or that every country is absolutely safe.
Fallon, who was secretary of state for defence in the governments of both David Cameron and Theresa May, resigned amid sexual harassment allegations in November.
He said holidaymakers must ensure they have the right insurances in place if things go wrong.
“The public should not escape responsibility for weighing up the risk for themselves and their families,” he said.
The ability of destinations and suppliers to recover following terror attacks will be among the issues discussed at the Resilience through Tourism Summit in Jordan later this month.
Resilience Through Tourism Summit, June 26-27, Amman, Jordan