Terrorist attacks against tourists and tourism infrastructure have long been acknowledged
as having significant impacts on travel behaviour. The article examines the
impactofthe terroristattacksofthe 11September 2001intheUnited States to reflectnot
only the impact of the media on influencing travel behaviour but also tourism policy,
particularlywith respectto security issues and government response to crisis.The article
does this with respect to the notion of an issue-attentioncycle of political attention
to policy issues and the manner in which these are played out. Several stages of the
cycle are identified and relatedto the post September 11 aftermath.The cycle suggests
that a five stage pattern of policy attention will be followed: pre-problem stage,
alarmeddiscovery and euphoric enthusiasm,realisationof the cost of significant progress,
gradual decline of intense public interest and the post-problem stage. The model
suggests that current adoption of post September 11 securitymeasureswill likely cease
to find political support once the perceivedterroristthreatreceives less attentionin the
media and, related to this, the voting public.