Peace and tourism: Bridging the gap through justice

Abstract

The inclusion of peace as a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 16) in the United Nations' Agenda 2030 underscores the interrelationships between peace, economic development, durable security, and promoting human rights. Within this context, tourism has been heralded by scholars and practitioners as a means to alleviate negative prejudice and improve human relations. Yet the existing research on tourism as peacebuilding shows little supportive evidence of tourism's contributory role to peace, and instead forwards numerous claims that tourism inhibits peacebuilding by exacerbating economic, political, and socio-cultural inequalities between opposing groups. This study examines the role of tourism as a potential vehicle for justice that may bridge the gap between tourism and sustainable peace. More precisely, it considers tourism as an agent of justice addressing economic, political, and social inequalities between opposing groups through distributive, procedural, and restorative justice-related activities. Its analysis and findings offer insights that contribute to peace-through-tourism theory and practice while enhancing understanding of tourism's contribution to the UN's sustainable development goals. | 287PEACE AND TOURISM members' behavior that result from war. 3. The estimate that around 108 million people died from war-related causes in the twentieth century is perhaps the starkest evidence of this. 4. The twenty-first century has seen more than 70 million people forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of conflict, violence, human rights violations, and persecution, out of which 21 million are refugees fleeing from conflict-ridden countries. 5. Higher levels of poverty are evident in both war-torn countries and host societies whose social welfare systems and socio-demographic structures are stressed by the influx of newcomers. 6. Given these global realities, peace has quite reasonably been included as a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) in the United Nations' (UN) Agenda 2030. In coining the term "sustainable peace," both the UN General Assembly and Security Council joined conflict settlement with conflict prevention, presenting peace both as an enabler and as an outcome of sustainable development. 7.The SDGs represent a revised version of the failed Millennium Development Goals (MDG) 8. that include seventeen goals and 169 targets which, in combination, form a larger vision for inclusive social and economic development, environmental sustainability, security, and peace. 9. The articulation of wide-ranging intergovernmental aims in the SDGs is a corrective to the shortfalls in the MDGs, expanding the range of goals among developing and developed nations to include poverty alleviation, energy, and health (among others) and by highlighting the pillars of human development, rights, and equity that were not included in the MDGs, 10. the SDGs form the blueprint for a more sustainable future. 11. Within this framework, tourism can support sustainable solutions. 12. Although tourism was not identified as a target...

Animosity and Tourism: Resident Perspectives

“…While some of these factors such as the role of media and country image were previously recognized in pertinent literature (which consists mostly of quantitative studies) as influential on animosity among tourists (e.g., Alvarez & Campo, 2020a; Stepchenkova et al, 2018), this study highlights the existence of multiple, overlapping factors shaping the extent, the duration and the manifestation of animosity (or equally affinity). Specifically, this study underlines that tourism has a socio-cultural, economic and political character (Farmaki & Stergiou, 2021) that complexifies the manifestation of animosity. Thus, the presence of animosity does not necessarily imply expression of animosity toward a specific entity (Klein et al, 1998).…”

Solidarity tourism: A pathway to revitalising the health of vulnerable war-affected populations?

“…In the context of war or military conflict, solidarity tourism refers to “action taken by governments, tourism businesses and tourists to help people suffering during and after crises, driven by empathy towards people, a sense of unity, and a shared understanding of societal standards and responsibilities” [ 15 ]. Taking the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict as an example, it is imperative to propose ways to demonstrate tourism’s power: from catalysing peace and justice [ 16 ], improving mental health [ 17 ], and advocating for human rights [ 18 ] to furnishing emotional support [ 19 ]. Solidarity tourism can be practised via two pathways.…”

Critical debates surrounding the peace and tourism nexus

“…Much of the criticism against the peace through tourism tenet is based on the fact that the structure of tourism -especially global mass tourism -limits meaningful contact between hosts and guests. Likewise, the profit-oriented nature of tourism implies that the industry may in fact worsen social and economic inequalities between social groups and, in turn, further fuel a conflict (Farmaki & Stergiou, 2021).…”

“…The ongoing debate on the peace and tourism interface calls for further academic attention on this important topic. The increasing political instability noted around the world in recent years (Farmaki & Stergiou, 2021) entails that it is timely and more pressing than ever to re-examine the peace and tourism relationship. As the number of tourist flows worldwide is expanding (WTO, 2020), the tourism industry may potentially emerge as not only a significant pillar of the global economy but also a hopeful force that may contribute to peace.…”