Bali bombing

FOXTROTSFox – slyTrots – left-leaning (Trotsky) plus its more insalubrious meaningFoxtrots – leading the industry in a dance. 2005 October 10

Bali bombing

Following the ‘out’ crowd?

It was Yogi Bear who was credited with saying “No-one goes there any more; it’s too crowded”. Perhaps it is time to turn this on its head – “Everyone goes there; it’s so empty”.

  Usually it is taxi drivers that give out fascinating information. This time, it was me in a taxi, shortly after the Bali bombing, and explaining to him what might happen. It goes like this…

  If terrorists are targetting tourists, then they are likely to target popular tourist centres – such as Bali. So should tourists start to go to other places that are not so popular? Not just Lombok instead of Bali, or Koh Samui instead of Phuket. But Luxi instead of Hainan, Ottawa instead of Montreal, Nice instead of Paris.

  I am not entirely serious, of course. But steadily, these recurring terrorist attacks will certainly change tourism.

  Forget what most pundits tell me – that travellers are not affected any more because they realise a terrorist attack could happen anywhere and at any time.

  Rubbish. If we can, we avoid places we think at risk. Ignore what the sages at the World Tourism Organisation say. The proof is in the extremes – after all, how many tourists are there going to Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, or Somalia? And why are there none? (Answer – because of fear of being killed.)

  Of course the fear is less for Bali than Somalia, but it is one of degree. We make a choice on a leisure destination on various factors, and fear or likelihood of a terrorist attack is one reason.