A successful theory will provide explanations and predictions of the phenomenon
of “tourism security” by relating some of its components (i.e., the variables
of crimes, terrorism, war, riots) to some other phenomena (e.g., the variables of
tourism demand, offenders’ motivation, victims’ behavior, opportunity, location,
etc.). Though the ultimate aim of such a theory would be to state the relationship
between these phenomena in causal terms (e.g., increased rates of crimes against
tourists causes a decrease in tourist visitation), in the immediate future this theory
would at best suggest only the direction of the hypothesized relationships (e.g., a
negative direction indicates that the higher the crime rates at a tourist destination,
the lower the tourist arrivals, whereas a positive direction indicates that the more
uniformed police officers are visible at the tourist destination, the more secure
tourists feel about the destination).