Just hours after three massive bombs ripped through the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on July 23, Jonathan Gatland, a British doctor on vacation with his three children stood defiant. He would not go home and he would return again. "Fear is not going to stop me," he said simply.

It was once widely held that terrorism devastated tourism. But as travelers grow accustomed to a new era in which suicide bombers can strike anywhere, tourists are proving increasingly resilient.

Tourist-driven economies, once leveled for months or even years after tragedies, are bouncing back much more quickly than in the past.

For those like Dr. Gatland, it is a way to make a stand against terrorism. For many others, however, it is simply a growing acceptance that terrorism can strike anytime and anywhere.

As the Madrid and London bombings demonstrated, Western travelers are no safer on their morning commute than they are at a Middle Eastern resort.

"Human beings are incredibly resilient creatures; we're very adaptable and we build tolerances," says Dr. C. Scott Saunders, director of the UCLA Trauma Psychiatry Service.

When Islamic militants gunned down 58 tourists at a Pharaonic temple in Luxor in 1997, Egypt's tourist industry was decimated. Superstitious shopkeepers, who struggled to put food on the table following the attacks, still speak of "the Luxor effect" in whispers.

Tourism revenues dropped by 50 percent, and it took nearly two years for tourists to begin returning to Egypt in pre-Luxor numbers.

Seven years later, however, tourism was barely affected after three car bombs tore into the Taba Hilton and two campgrounds farther south on Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

In the six months following the Taba bombings, whichkilled 34 people, there was a 15 percent increase in tourist visits over the same period in 2004.

Tourism officials are similarly optimistic that tourism will bounce back following the Sharm el-Sheikh bombings, the deadliest terrorist attack in Egypt's history. The official figure is 64 fatalities, but other sources report a toll of at least 88.

Beaches in Sharm are still packed with tourists, and hotels are reporting 60 percent occupancy. While that is a significant decrease from the no-vacancy signs hanging outside many hotels before the bombings, tour operators are taking heart.

"We had three new bookings for Sharm el-Sheikh two days after the attacks," says Pamela Lassers, spokeswoman for Abercrombie & Kent, an upscale travel agency in Oak Brook, Ill. "One client made a point of saying it was their way of making a stand against the terrorists. They feel very strongly that choosing not to travel is like letting the terrorists win."

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