Tourism and Peace

Combining reflections on my personal experiences regarding tourism with an analytical review of key concepts, this essay addresses the question whether and how tourism contributes to building a global ‘culture of peace’. Setting the scene, I first situate myself vis-à-vis tourism and the peace-through-tourism idea. The next section of the paper provides an in-depth analysis of the terms culture, peace, and tourism. After having defined these concepts, I illustrate how my own research project contributes in innovative ways to the current debate. I conclude with a plea for more collaboration and open dialogue between policy makers, industry representatives, and scholars in order to facilitate ‘peace through tourism’ as well as ‘peace within tourism’.

The modern travelers are concerned about their safety. Political violence leads tourists to opt for places where there is peace and sometimes may decide not to go at all. Travelers (tourists) are generally very sensitive to their security and safety of the country they go for holidaying. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effects of instability and unrest in tourism business in Ethiopia; a case of Gondar city. The research has used descriptive research design in combination with qualitative and quantitative research approach. The population of the research were hoteliers, travel agents, tour operators, souvenir shop sellers, and other tourism outlets. Besides, the data were analyzed and presented by using descriptive statistics (mean, frequency, percentage) and narrative & argumentative essay writing techniques. The research reveals that the tourism business of the city has been heavily affected in terms of tourist arrivals and revenue. Furthermore, a lot of human power has been temporarily unemployed due to forcefully expelled from the tourism organization as a result of business collapse. The tourism business of the city and even in the country has experienced the worst records of failure and severe recession period. The researcher has recommended that the government shall strive to bring back peace and stability to the city and to the country as quickly as possible. Lastly, the tourism business outlets and key tourism stakeholders should eagerly work hard in promotion and good will campaign to restore the business once and for all.

This paper examines the importance of tourism for sustainable peace as sustainable peace and development are essential element for peacebuilding process. This paper aims to examine how tourism facilitates to meet basic concerns of peacebuilding. This is emphasized to promote the importance of tourism to become peace-tourism. It elaborates the emergence of the concept of peace-tourism in global scenario. Further, it explores information about the peacebuilding process, its components, aims and roles of conflict transformation process, emergence of multi-track diplomacy and how peace-tourism enhances peacebuilding process in conflict affected society. Tourism plays vital role to foster peace. The tourism literature is not absolutely one-sided when it comes to the question of tourism promoting peace. This paper aims establishing relationship between peace-tourism and peacebuilding process to transform conflict, balancing both the positive and negative sides of tourism.

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Based on various case studies in Colombia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, this contribution aims to analyze the role of tourism, and in particular some related discourses and representations, in the construction of peace. Although public authorities and international organizations often present tourism as a tool that helps enhance peace, research has demonstrated that the reality in the field is often much more complex. Soon after armed conflicts are over, some countries and regions experience a rapid growth in tourism, and the sector can offer promising business opportunities for recovering communities, including former war actors (e.g. soldiers, fixers, guerilla, narcotraffickers) as well as the victims. Moreover, tourism can also provide them with a tribune for disseminating specific discourses and representations of the war. Thus, while tourism stakeholders generally aim to detach the country’s image from the violence that preceded in order to attract visitors and foreign investors, the heritage and memory associated with the war are nevertheless elements mobilized in the tourism sector. Based on an analysis of the practices of what are conceived here as ‘memorial entrepreneurs’, this paper will show that different and sometimes competing actors contribute to building these touristscapes, using conflicting narratives and representations. Stakeholders involved in tourism and peacebuilding should thus be cautious when promoting tourism as a tool to enhance peace:  while this sector can certainly contribute to reconciliation, it can also be a source of tensions

On 25 September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted an Agenda for Sustainable Development establishing 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030, on which states, civil society, and the private sector are called to contribute. In this context, tourism, which is based on billions of encounters between people of diverse cultural backgrounds, is hailed as the industry that can foster tolerance and multicultural and interfaith understanding, laying the groundwork for more peaceful societies. This chapter critically analyses the current discourse on tourism and peace, exploring opportunities and limitations. The authors affirm the urgency for a more complex approach by informing the debate with concepts, theories, and ideas coming from areas different than tourism (cultural anthropology, history, cultural heritage, cultural diplomacy, peace and conflict studies, peace education and sustainability science). The authors focus mainly on the role of cultural heritage and its management as the central hinge in the association between tourism and peace.

It is confirmed that tourism has become a widespread leisure activity among individuals and it is considered as one of the leading largest industry in the world. The increased popularity of international tourism not only supplies economical growth for the host countries, but also promotes understanding and trust among people with different backgrounds. In this matter tourism indirectly has its own role as an ambassador and vehicle of international understanding and peace. All through records, it is shown that humankinds have the culture of uncertainty avoidance, but new technologies recently facilitate travelers to have access to all necessary information. Referring to tourism development, providing more amenities by the host country brings peace to travelers visiting the country. Moreover, increasing the number of international tourists' arrival makes the policy makers to formulate more rule and regulation for the purpose of safety and security. This study aims to have an overview of the previous researches in countries such as North and South Korea, Northern Ireland, Taiwan, China, India, and South Africa to see how tourism puts steps forward to the peace in those places. The result of those researches helps the governments, stakeholders, policy makers, marketers, information providers and developers as well as other related organizations to use tourism as a means to make the world a peaceful place to live.

This paper examines the ways to enhance local peace through environment-friendly tourism. It identifies linkages among environment, tourism and local peace, looks at the trend of the tourism sector's role in peace-building and explores potentials and challenges of its engagement in building local peace in Nepal. It is a qualitative and conceptual paper. The information is derived from key informant interviews, participant observation and stakeholder consultation workshops. Some legal documents relating to the topic are reviewed. The paper also presents two examples of community participation in tourism. It argues that peace, environment and tourism are all vulnerable to local conditions. In addition to meeting the needs of tourists, it is vital to ensure community participation and protect the environment. After all, this is the venue from which local peace begins its journey.

This paper examines the ways to enhance local peace through environment-friendly tourism. It identifies linkages among environment, tourism and local peace, looks at the trend of the tourism sector's role in peace-building and explores potentials and challenges of its engagement in building local peace in Nepal. It is a qualitative and conceptual paper. The information is derived from key informant interviews, participant observation and stakeholder consultation workshops. Some legal documents relating to the topic are reviewed. The paper also presents two examples of community participation in tourism. It argues that peace, environment and tourism are all vulnerable to local conditions. In addition to meeting the needs of tourists, it is vital to ensure community participation and protect the environment. After all, this is the venue from which local peace begins its journey.

Wohlmuther, C., and Wintersteiner, W. (Eds.) (2014). The International Handbook on Tourism and Peace. Klagenfurt/Celovec, Austria: Drava Verlag/Zalozba Drava. ISBN: 978-3-85435-713-1. 388 pp.The International Handbook on Tourism and Peace brings new insights to the growing body of literature on tourism and peace. It does not approach tourism as an instrument of peace, but instead, by introducing the term 'peace-sensitive tourism', it becomes 'a part of a huge and historical social transformation towards culture of peace' (p. 20). Moreover, tourism's role becomes much more significant, because it acknowledges its economic and social power and thus social responsibility to contribute 'to the democratization of society concerned, of international relations and of the world system as such' (p. 20). Additionally, the original approach of this book is also seen in presenting current thinking of academics, practitioners, politicians, and representatives of civil...

Declaring that a tourist Colombia guarantees a post-conflict reconstruction is not a performative act. We must therefore ask ourselves whether perceiving tourism as a tool in the service of peace is more of a myth or a reality. After a brief look at the recovery of Colombian tourism since the beginning of the 2000s, this article aims to observe some of the challenges that have characterised the sector since the signing of peace agreements between the government and the FARC-Ep, such as the rebuilding the country’s image, prostitution and narco-tourism, the issue of access to land and resources, the promotion of eco-tourism and "community" tourism, and the role of this industry in the reintegration of demobilised combatants.

ATLAS Africa Conference: African Tourism in Global Society: Central or Peripheral?  Kigali, Rwanda, 3th- 5th June 2013.
Paper Presentation: Gelbman, A. The Tourism and Peace Debate and Trans-Border Peace Parks

Studies of international relations include a debate about the possibility of peace between states, and the role of transnational person-to-person contacts in the development of peace¬ful relations. Liberal perceptions hold out more hope for the potential of tourism to promote peace, but more realistic attitudes are quite skeptical about this process.  Questions about the potential of tourism to reduce tensions and suspicions between former hostile countries were analyzed in previous. A trans-boundary park is a territory encompassing at least two countries and managed by a joint authority established for this purpose with no connection to political boundaries. Such parks bear various names: transborder frontier parks, transboundary parks, transborder protected areas, conservation areas or peace parks. The main aim of trans-borders peace parks is to act as symbols of good, sustainable peace relationships between neighboring countries or to encourage peaceful relations among former enemy countries.

In unique border areas of protected ecological and cultural heritage systems, national parks are established. They often become highly attractive to tourists, as can be illustrated by a few of the most outstanding of them: Waterton Glacier Park (U.S.-Canada), Iguazu Falls (Argentina-Brazil), and Victoria Falls (Zambia-Zimbabwe). Such parks attract mainly local tourists, followed in quantitative terms by tourists from neighboring countries and from countries further afar.

Border tourism attractions present the story of local heritage and historical events as well as the natural environment, arousing interest among visitors. Tourists can be exposed to the symbolism represented by these sites. The main aim of this study is to describe and analyze cultural elements of trans-border peace parks as tourism attractions that express the symbolism of peace and co-operation among neighboring countries. The methodology selected is based on the naturalistic-qualitative approach of landscape interpretation, using descriptive analysis of different case studies of trans- boundary peace parks around the world which symbolize peace.

The actual process of initiating and planning trans-frontier peace parks requires the strengthening of trans-border political ties as well as readiness and good will on both sides of the border. The stage of planning and authorizing such projects may be long because of both objective delays in the form of official regulation on either side of the fence, and subjective difficulties based on fears of developments that might evolve as a result of the process. Peace parks may actually be the optimal example of environmental, social and sustainable tourism cooperation in shared border areas. It entails activity towards various aims and must include a ready supply of optimism and good will in relations between the nations.  The fact that in recent years new peace parks have been declared and established in various parts of the world is a very good proof  of the success and relevance of trans-frontier parks for introducing and implementing environmental and peace values as well as cooperation between neighboring countries, with sustainable tourism playing a central role.

Tourism is the business with people looking for enjoyment while being mobile. The tourism industry supports intensively the growth of the whole tourism system, progressively integrating destinations promoting their "beauty". The condition to be a part of this system is to have money, which migrants and asylum seeking people don't have. While they are leaving their home country due to security reasons, their country gets also dropped from the map of tourist destinations due to the lack of security - because migrants  are not part of the tourism system.

Cross Boundary Cooperation: Water and Tourism (Jordan River and the Dead Sea Basin), 11 – 12 December, 2013. Ein Gedi, Israel. Tamar Regional Council Dead Sea in Co-operation with: Dead Sea and Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, Dead Sea Drainage Authority and the Ministry of Regional Cooperation.
Paper presentation: Gelbman, A. Israeli-Palestinian Cross Border Tourism Cooperation: The Multinational Bethlehem-Jerusalem Peace Marathon. 

Promoting of good will, understanding and peace between people of different nations is a positive impact within the social and cultural benefits of tourism. Peace through tourism focuses on the place of tourism in promoting relations that are more peaceful on multidimensional and positive terms: peace within ourselves, peace with other people, peace between nations, peace with nature, peace with the universe and peace with our God (D'Amore, 1988).  The most conventional way to interpret the relationship between tourism and peace is to assert that cross-cultural encounter of international tourism influence on more harmonious relations. Academic debate on the topic of peace through tourism has centered particularly on whether peace and tourism are related in a causal or a co-relational way (Litvin, 1998) and on whether or not tourism contributes to attitudinal change in people who travel between hostile nations (Pizam, 1996).
The annual Peace Marathon since April 2004, dedicated to the memory of Pope John II is an international unusual sport activity, taking place in the core of a very complicates and tensioned geographical region in the Holy Land; aimed to contribute small but meaningful gesture for aspiring together for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The event established during the period of the "Intifada" (the Palestinian uprising started in the end of 2000), when geopolitical tensions reduced the number of overseas visitors to Israel.  The Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi, the pilgrimage organizer attached to the Vatican, requested the Israeli Ministry of Tourism to help realize a special Jerusalem-Bethlehem Marathon in which Israelis and Palestinians as well as other Europeans would participate with the set objective to promote peace in the region and encourage Catholic pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The initiative originally seemed challenging, and no one could imagine then that Palestinians runners would be able to run alongside Israelis and Italians, particularly considering the process of border crossing between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The main aim of this study is to examine and analyze the potential of Bethlehem-Jerusalem Marathon to contribute for promoting peace in the Holy Land as seen by its organizers and participants. The methodology selected is based on the naturalistic-qualitative approach includes interviews with the marathon organizers and with a sample of participants; and a content analysis of media materials (newspaper articles and TV news) reporting about this event. The importance of this study is its contribution to the academic debate about the role of tourism in the relevance and success for implementing peace values, and particularly in the case of cooperation between hostile neighboring nations. 
Future implementations focusing on the agenda of tourism cross boundary cooperation in the Middle East or Dead Sea Region: 

* Planning, developing and managing new cross border partnerships of sport events cooperated by Israel and neighboring countries.
* Using the combination of Pilgrimage and Sport as a potential formula for dialogue between people.
* Carrying out new annual sport events that have a symbolic character.

The 6th Kinneret International Tourism Conference: Winning Tourism Destination Image: Fantasy or reality? Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Leonardo Plaza Hotel, Tiberias, 9th December, 2013.
Paper Presentation: Laven, D. and A. Gelbman, Community Based Tourism and Sustainability: The Case of a Hostel in the Old City of Nazareth.

Tourism has been mentioned as a social force that can contribute and promote international understanding, cooperation, and global good will in establishing and keeping world peace. This connection between tourism and peace has been investigated by researchers who have debated the role of tourism in promoting peace in countries around the world. The State of Israel, most of whose citizens are Jewish, includes an Arab minority accounting for some 20 per cent of the country’s total population.  This cross-cultural dynamic is connected to a range of geopolitical challenges within the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Nazareth is the country’s largest Arab city and is considered the capital of Israel’s Arab population. Despite its rich heritage, Nazareth suffers from tensions associated with its various cultural and religious groups.
Increasingly, research on topic areas such as sustainable tourism and heritage development suggest that community-based, heritage tourism efforts can help ease tensions and promote cross-cultural dialogue and reconciliation. Previous research has examined this effect in places characterized by a range of social-cultural trauma (e.g., slavery, extreme environmental pollution, natural disasters). While the settings differ, these studies tend to conclude that heritage development (i.e., understanding the factors that shape human experience in a specific place) can empower disenfranchised communities in ways that also attract visitors.
Within this theoretical context, this exploratory study examines the potential for tourism development to promote cross-cultural dialog while catalyzing renewal of the historic old city of Nazareth. The paper offers preliminary findings from a qualitative case study of an alternative, small-scale tourism venture that seeks to dramatically influence tourism development in Nazareth’s old city. The paper’s theoretical context lies at the intersection of contemporary theories associated with heritage development, the sustainability paradigm, and peace tourism. Study findings suggest that this type of “bottom-up” tourism development can help create shared interests across different cultural groups while catalyzing new tourism development activities in historic old city of Nazareth. Implications of this experience are also discussed in the context of other regions characterized by cross-cultural developmental challenges.
Keywords: Heritage Development, Sustainable Tourism, Peace, Community Based Tourism, Nazareth

Kinneret International Tourism Conference: Winning Tourism Destination Image: Fantasy or Reality? Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Galei Kinneret Hotel, Tiberias, Israel, 19th November, 2012.
Paper Presentation: Gelbman, A. and D. Maoz, Peace or War Destination Image: An Israeli Case Study.

Located on the border between Israel and Jordan the ‘Island of Peace’, destined to become a peace park in the future, is an Israeli-Jordanian site at the confluence of the Jordan River and Yarmouk River. In the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace the two countries agreed to use this area as a tourist promotion for peace. A special tourist gate was established, and Israelis wishing to visit the island are permitted to enter Jordan for a short time, without a visa or a passport, always in a group and in a guided tour, conducted by the Israeli side of the site.
The study aims to examine how the site is introduced to the Israeli tourists by its guides; and what are the messages that the guides deliver to their audience. Do they stress the site's efforts to promote peace and mutual understanding (as its name suggests) or rather portray it as a site with history of war and battles, which symbolizes the lukewarm peace and distant relations that exist between the two countries.

The study relied on participant observation as a main tool in order to analyze the role of the guided tours in the forming of the touristic experience. While accompanying guided tours, we listened to the guides' choice of words, analyzed their expressions, comments and their rhetoric speech, documented their jokes and remarks, watched their selection of objects of interest and paid attention to what was not pointed out. We documented the information given to the tourists, which is rarely purely natural, in regards to the site, its history and of course the tragic incident that occurred on 1997, and especially focused on the interpretation (or 'keying') the guides gave to the site, its  exhibits and props. The ethnographic research included also reading and analyzing the site's official brochures and internet site and the way it brands itself through them. One of the main conclusions is that although the site markets and brands itself officially as 'an Island of peace', the messages delivered to its Israeli tourists suggest otherwise.