ABSTRACT
No other economic activity is perhaps as dependent on reputation as tourism. Even after a year of the so-called Arab Spring and the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the city of Cairo was already showing a US$3bn decrease in tourism revenue alongside 32 per cent fewer visitors (Shenker 2012). The effects on employment, family life and even politics have been devastating considering the fact that tourism had become over the past few decades one of the most important streams of income for that country. However, Egypt is not alone in facing collateral effects from political turmoil and social upheaval; many places around the world have also seen important changes in their own tourism fl ows due to news affecting the reputation of these places. The Swiss tourist who was gang-raped in India in 2013, China’s regular outbreaks of avian fl u cases and crime in New York and Miami, all made for issues that at some point deterred tourists from visiting those places.
