Russia terrorist attack puts tourists in front line

Tourists and business travellers tend to be tolerant of destinations that suffer from terrorism and other manifestations of extreme violence, so long as foreign visitors are not the targets.

Most travellers to India, Mexico and - until yesterday - Russia enjoy their trips with little regard for the violence taking place away from the main business centres and tourist sites.

When the risk of being caught up in an atrocity remains statistically very low, travellers have typically been prepared to take a chance.

For Russia, those grisly percentages changed dramatically yesterday afternoon at the capital's window on the West, Domodedovo airport. The location and timing - the international arrivals area, just after the wave of inbound flights from western Europe had arrived - were calculated to place foreigners in the front line of Russia's wretched war on home-grown terror. Travellers will now be aware of the tangle of conflicts that have cost so many lives in the world's biggest nation.