ROANOKE, Va. – It’s hard to believe it will be 20 years since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Since the attacks, the travel industry and airport security have drastically changed.
According to Virginia Tech’s director of hospitality and tourism management masters program, Professor Mahmood Khan, the terrorist attacks affected people’s desire to travel.
“The psychological fear that we have the security checks and so on that we have to go through,” said Khan.
Two months after 9/11, Former President George W. Busch created the transportation security administration, commonly known as TSA, forever changing the travel industry even more.
“We have to go through security checks which is not what it is nowadays. Now it is very extreme and what you have to pack in your bags, to take the liquids or not take the liquids, what toiletries we should be taking. all of those things,” said Khan.
Not only domestic travel, but international too. Khan says people are now more cautious of where they travel to or where their layovers are, and he doesn’t see any of this changing.
“I don’t see that it is going to come back to what it was before, that you can walk in 30 minutes before your flight time, have your loved ones, family members going, your children are going to see them off as much as we used to do.”
Although TSA may cause longer wait times at the airport, most experts agree this type of security is necessary.