It took the Mediterranean cruise line industry over ten years to recover from the lost revenue and bookings.
VIII. CONCLUSIONS.
We believe that transportation and transportation infrastructures are and will remain attractive targets for attacks and threats of attack. Public transportation systems are vulnerable, large numbers of people can be affected by a single act, attacks and threats against transportation receive instantaneous and broad media coverage, and the probability is high that the attacker will initially escape undetected. Moreover, attacks against transportation may be associated with clearly identifiable national symbols, such as civil aviation, in an effort to embarrass or influence the government associated with that particular national symbol. Transportation may become even more attractive as overseas embassies and "official" US government facilities upgrade security and "harden" themselves, diverting terrorists to look for easier "soft" targets. The terrorists' increasing desire to cause mass casualties makes transportation an appealing target. We believe the steady increase in the number of violent attacks against transportation in the 1990s reflects the growing threat to transportation and transportation infrastructures, and to the traveling public. There is every reason to believe that all of the modes of transportation will continue to be attractive targets for criminal violence, whether it is a terrorist attack or criminal acts by individuals acting in furtherance of personal goals.
