To strengthen the capacity of the public and private tourism sectors to prevent and respond to potential terrorist or other security attacks on tourist and recreational facilities, whether perpetrated by terrorists, criminal organizations, or common criminals; and to help establish or strengthen public-private partnerships in tourism security.

The tourism security program provides specialized security training through workshops aimed at participants from both the public and private sectors, taking into consideration the realities and needs of individual countries and localities.  The program also promotes public-private partnerships, in compliance with the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy of 2006. The nature of tourism, because of the high concentration of people in open places, high levels of employment, and economic importance: tourist facilities such as hotels, resorts, athletic venues, cruise ships, etc. are usually identified by security officials as “soft targets” - vulnerable to a wide variety of security threats from common crime to terrorist attacks. The high visibility of these targets represents an attractive opportunity for criminal or terrorist elements seeking to inflict serious economic and political impact by attacking them.

Tourism Security activities