Introduction

Security is an issue that is important to tourism, thus stakeholders in this sector are heavily involved in the struggle for resources. Security as a state of affairs enables the utilisation of assets or resources such as beaches and cultural heritage, which attract tourists. It is a widely held view among tourism analysts that international visitors are very concerned about their personal safety (Edgel, 1990: 119) and that ‘ … tourism can only thrive under peaceful conditions’ (Pizam & Mansfield, 1996: 2). The reason is that there are many tourism destinations, such as Jamaica in the 1970s, which have acquired a reputation for being insecure and have thus seen their tourism arrivals crumble. A common way of making areas more secure and to allay fears of insecurity is for local and national governments to provide support for more intensive policing in tourism areas. This chapter concerns one aspect of security, terror, which can usefully be seen as a form of insecurity that leads to extreme instability, and it makes the point that anthropologists are well placed to shed light on such issues as security and terror, though these concerns are often seen to be the preserve of specialists on politics and security studies. With their emphasis on fieldwork and their interest in the cultures and contexts of the places in which tourism takes place, anthropologists can offer an especially nuanced understanding of security issues: the central case study of Bali in this chapter illustrates this point.

Perspectives on tourism and terrorism

Before considering what anthropologists can bring to the table, it is worthwhile mentioning the perspectives offered by other specialists concerned with security issues.