Credit where it's due: A terrorist risk to hospitality and tourism is hidden in the cards

This study sought to clarify the risks posed by terrorism to the American financial industry, as exemplified by a major credit-card issuer with adjacent lending interests and how they would impact hospitality and tourism. It was structured as a multi-stage poll of general forecasters, whose views were critiqued and supplemented by subject specialists in the fields of terrorism and finance. This technique has proved highly successful in previous research by Forecasting International (FI), including a major study of terrorism for the Department of Defense. In general, participants doubted that a company in this segment of the financial industry would be specifically targeted by terrorists. Such an attack seems more likely to come from a disaffected individual, possibly with inside knowledge of the firm and its procedures. Possible threats could include sophisticated computer tampering, but a simple bombing, such as that in Oklahoma City, seemed both more probable and more likely to be devastating.