Sanctions and tourism: effects,complexities and research

Abstract

Despite the growing use of sanctions as a post-Cold War foreign policy instrument, there is limited research on sanctions in a tourism context despite their substantial impact on destinations and tourist flows. Although there is significant research on sanctions in political science, international relations, economics, and public policy, very few studies explicitly examine the effect of sanctions on tourism. This study therefore examines the intricate geopolitical relationship between sanctions and tourism via a scoping review of relevant literature. Each of the four main types of sanctions that were identified: financial, sectoral, diplomatic and individual, have different implications for tourism at various scales. The findings show that tourism is profoundly affected by sanctions impacting tourism and hospitality businesses and destination image, severely restricting international travel, and disrupting financial investment and supply chains. More comprehensive sanctions may lead to substantial economic and personal hardship in destinations as well as indirect effects including decline in the value of currency and inflationary pressures. Nevertheless, despite the development of smart and targeted sanctions they rarely affect the coercive capacity of the targeted government and induce political behavioural change. Resistive economies can develop in response to sanctions in which domestic tourism assumes greater significance as a result of reductions in international mobility. Some destinations facing sanctions also focus on specific international markets from non-sanctioning countries as well as a country’s diaspora. Overall, the study of sanctions deepens knowledge of the interrelationships between geopolitics, foreign policy and tourism and its ramifications for destinations. Significant gaps in knowledge for future research include the role of domestic politics in influencing sanctions policy, the selection of tourism as a specific target for sanctions, and the development of destination adaptation strategies to sanctions.