The True Cost of Terrorism: Tunisia's Tourism Industry Struggles to Survive

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/tunisia-tourism-struggles-to-survive-after-terror-attack-a-1056400.html



Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in Tunisia was the site of the June terrorist attack which saw 37 people shot and killed. In response, European countries issued travel warnings for Tunisia and most of the large coastal hotels in the country have had to close down. Here, a Belgian couple dance on the terrace of the Marhaba.

The True Cost of Terrorism: Tunisia's Tourism Industry Struggles to Survive
By Alexander Osang
October 08, 2015 – 12:44 PM

~snip~

'Perfectly Understandable'

The June 26 massacre destroyed the tourism industry in Tunisia. Many countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Great Britain, issued travel warnings in the days following the attack, major tour operators pulled out of Tunisia and most charter flights to Tunisian resorts were cancelled. The changes meant that Buszkiewicz had to fly to Tunisia from Düsseldorf this time instead of Cologne.

He thought long and hard about whether to travel to Tunisia this year. A friend from Düsseldorf, an elderly woman named Gisela, was killed in the massacre. A Belgian woman Buszkiewicz and his wife have known for a long time was shot in the leg. They visited her and her husband at home after the attack.

"Of course, they won't be coming here anymore," Buszkiewicz says of the Belgian couple, "which is perfectly understandable, in a way."

Buszkiewicz and his wife had originally booked their trip for exactly the time when the attack occurred, so that they could see the friends they had made at the hotel on previous visits. But because their daughter was getting married in the summer, they decided to postpone the trip until September. That's why they are still alive, says his wife. When Buszkiewicz went to the travel agency in Euskirchen to cancel the trip, the woman working there said she understood. She talked about Spain and Greece, and Buszkiewicz nodded. He didn't really care where they went.