Author(s)

M. Zineddin & L. Sherwood

Abstract

In today’s security climate, terrorists do not target key government installations or so-called \“hard targets.” Rather, terrorists have been targeting \“soft targets” such as public areas with high human traffic volumes, and private establishments. There are numerous global examples to support this. What more can a hotel do to enhance security without compromising its basic function – to encourage the public to enter its premises? If it is a question of when, not if, hotels succumb to terrorist attacks, how prepared are they to mitigate the consequences of an attack? A paradigm shift in response strategy, moving beyond perimeter security to include hardening and protective measures is clearly required. This paper summarizes the methodology, threat scenarios, blast overpressure calculations, structural assessment and results for the hotels industry. Keywords: anti-terrorism, hotel security, protective design, blast effects, bomb threat.

Keywords

anti-terrorism, hotel security, protective design, blast effects, bomb threat