The Emergence Safety and Security in the Tourism Strategies of EU Member States

Abstract

The aim of the study is to position tourism safety and security within the strategy-making practices of the European Union member states. We examined these issues through content analysis of tourism development strategies. In quantitative research we analyzed the frequency of occurrence of terms related to 13 topics, while a qualitative study revealed the different dimensions of safety. Most of the planning and strategy documents do not pay much attention to tourism safety, which is in most EU countries clearly in its infancy. Terms related to public safety most prevalent in the member states' strategies, within which they have formulated objectives concerning mainly crime and terrorism. The European Union does not currently have unified concept for tourism development, leaving the development of tourism as a destination to individual Member States.