ETHICAL/ Tourism and Peace Hand in Hand

Tourism professionals and tourism scholars have long grabbled with the question if tourism promotes peace. Certainly this is a concept that tourism industry professionals want to believe. Yet, the answer to this intellectual query is not cut and dry. The basic assumption of those who see tourism as a peace generator is that tourism allows people to know each other, to work with each other, and to learn to appreciate each other’s cultures and by so doing come to appreciate each other. To...

Peace is a fragile commodity – it breaks easily and must be protected and defended against its many enemies. It is of vital importance that we make our peace as strong as possible – that we build our peace on rock, and not on sand – to use a biblical expression. The intermittent outbreaks of violence, conflicts and terrorist attacks in different parts of the world, and the increases in crime and violence, remind us that we live in an uncertain and dangerous world. The challenge...

There are many ways to look at the relation between tourism and peace. From a perspective that seems to be purely economic only at first sight, it is clear that tourism is intrinsically linked to affluence, to affluent societies, to leisure time: tourism means travel for fun, for relaxation, out of pure personal will - in contrast to other forms of travel that are linked to work or even survival, like migration, the search for a better life elsewhere. Only someone who does not have to worry a...

What are the factors that tourism and peace have in common? Are there examples that and how tourism has facilitated peace or cooled down conflicts? Both questions are extremely interesting and need a lot more consideration than they have received so far. Patterns of conflicts are very different from each other and each needs its own approach of peace-keeping measures and conflict disengagement. The one thing that might certainly have a common positive effect on calming down sentiments after a...

There are quite a few people who believe that one of the key aspects to promoting increased peace and understanding in the world is through facilitating positive interaction between individuals and communities from diverse backgrounds. The assumption is by learning about each other's cultures, languages, lives, that people can discover what they have in common, as well as explore their differences and possibly build long-term friendships that can have a positive impact on the world. In recent...