Protecting our Nation's Hotels from Terrorism

I have been thinking about this for a long time. I decided one day that I should talk about the topic on my blog, as it is a timely issue and one which our nation's business leaders should address if we are truly to be vigilant against further attacks like that of Sept 11, 2001.

Here is my concern: What are we doing to protection our hotels and resorts from terrorism?
In recent years, and especially since the events of 9/11/01, we have seen our country’s government and industry leaders take great steps to protect lives and property from terrorism. New technologies to detect and deter perpetrators of terror are in place at airports, city streets, entertainment venues, and cargo terminals. Unfortunately, our approach is always reactionary rather than precautionary. In other words, industry and government don’t typically make the investments in terms of money, talent, and technology until after a significant event has occurred that suddenly raises awareness of our vulnerability in a given area. There are many examples, a few of which I will illustrate here. Under-car scanning and parking entrance pop-up barriers did not exist until after the first World Trade Center bombing in the 1990’s. The monitoring of nitrogen fertilizer traffic was intensified after the Oklahoma Federal Building bombings a few years after. And later, anyone can see how we reacted with tremendous airport security after three of our nation’s planes were used to attack us on 9/11. And even then we did not scrutinize passenger shoes until after the shoe bomb incident (potential terrorist tried to use his shoes as a bomb on a plane) a few years ago. So we see how investments in protective measures do not typically manifest until after a terrorist event.

When terroristic events occur, suddenly it seems we have budgets and means available where none existed prior to the attack or event.

My idea is to prepare for such an event by offering a protection technology set which is absolutely necessary but whose importance has not yet been underscored by a terrorist event. My intention is to begin to help the right folks find this solution by pointing out the vulnerability before an event occurs, with the hopes that the targeted community will respond by taking the protective steps immediately, rather than waiting for the terrorists to point out the vulnerability. If industry does instead wait for an event before attempting to secure these solutions, then the channels will be ready and prepared to deliver protective solutions in the fastest manner thanks to our preparation as members of the security and safety industry.


So I think that we need to begin thinking of real technological solutions in order to begin to explore means for protecting hotels, resorts, and the entire hospitality industry from terrorism. Do you know when this will be addressed? I am wondering too.