Thelma Wright is a seasoned traveler who doesn't want to let terrorists spoil her love of the world. But it is partly the threat of terrorism that is leading her to the British Isles for her next major trip.
Wright, 76, a retired Memphis, Tenn., schools guidance counselor, says she has been to England twice before and knows that London "is a big city and would be a perfect target for everybody. But in case of an emergency, they could tell us where to run in a language we can understand."
It is part of the new reality of world travel. One travel agent describes travel decisions as a "volatile, almost day-to-day thing" with isolated terrorist episodes affecting entire national economies. That means the big travel trend for 2003 is a quest for safe destinations where the biggest lures are escapism and shopping.
Bali? Forget it. After the Oct. 12 bombing on the island paradise, occupancy rates that once averaged more than 70 percent dropped to less than 5 percent, according to the chairman of Indonesia's Hotel and Restaurant Association. It could take months, maybe years, of bargain-basement lures to draw tourists back in large numbers to the island that Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour helped popularize in the 1952 movie "Road to Bali."
The road or air route to almost every travel destination is now colored by concerns about either terrorism or the economy, say travel agents. Some places, like the great pyramids of Egypt, wonders of the world once considered must-see travel magnets for historical and cultural reasons, now are considered "adventure travel" for the bravest of tourists. Most have put that kind of trip on hold indefinitely.
Instead, they are flocking to what the industry calls "comfortable destinations," like the Caribbean.
Most of those Caribbean destinations are cruise stops. In spite of widely publicized outbreaks of the Norwalk virus, agents say cruises remain popular because of rigorous security on cruise vessels and the sense there is safety in numbers with group travel.
Frequent traveler Charlie Gallagher, a former circuit court judge, and wife Leslie, a former travel agent, are planning a southern Caribbean cruise in the spring. On their last cruise they were impressed with security measures.
"They gave us boarding passes that looked like a credit card with a magnetic strip. Each time you board, you swipe the card, and it gives a visual image," Charlie Gallagher said. Ship's agents compare the image on a video screen to the real person before allowing the person to reboard at each port.
Gallagher also does not want to let terrorist threats determine the course of travel. Even so, Gallagher, who has always wanted to see the pyramids, has ruled out the entire Middle East as a destination.
Leslie Gallagher says she has always wanted to visit Israel and the Middle East. "But not right now."
They have ruled out some places on grounds other than terrorism. And, like several other travelers, they wouldn't recommend Morocco.
"It's not a place for women to go," says Leslie Gallagher. A largely Muslim country, Morocco had outdoor cafes reserved strictly for men and made her feel generally unsafe, she says. "It was very intimidating. I slept with my passport around my neck on a string, and that was in a four-star hotel."
Thelma Wright left Morocco with the same feeling. "It was dirty and filthy and not safe. We felt very uneasy."
Her usual travel companion, her sister Margaret Nerren, 81, said the trip to Morocco convinced her she will never again visit a country where women are treated as second-class citizens.