TABLE OF CONTENTS Yoel Mansfeld and Abraham Pizam
This section is composed of five chapters that dis cuss the issue of the physical safety of tourists while visiting certain destinations or participating in a variety of dangerous tourist activities. The exposed dangers contained in this section range from partic ipation in commercial adventure tourism activities, encounters with wildlife, infection from various dis eases, and/or being injured by natural disasters and unsafe travel conditions.
Geoffrey Wall, in a chapter describing the unfold ing of the crisis that occurred in Toronto, Canada, as a result of the SARS epidemic, analyzes the influ ence that the media had on public perception of the gravity of the event. He suggests that the Canadian media has been somewhat responsible for arousing fears where minimal risks, in fact, existed. In addition, he raises some serious questions about the role that the various governments should have in crisis management and disaster reduction and mitigation plans and he advocates the creation of such plans for the private sector and especially the tourism industry. Last, but not least, he describes...
