In early March, Visit California held its annual Outlook Forum.
Typically a setting for the state to reveal its upcoming marketing programs, this year included a general session “Travel as a Force for Good,” most inspiring for all who want a peaceful and sustainable planet.
Two speakers, Maoz Inon, an Israeli, and Aziz Abu Sarah, a Palestinian, discussed how they met in Jerusalem, a divided city and society, and now are working together in tourism as a tool for peacemaking.
Their bilateral tour groups, each staffed with an Israeli and a Palestinian tour guide, present visitors with the multidimensional aspects of life in Israel and Palestine from those living it. The aim is to inform and hopefully inspire them (and us) to transcend and embrace our cultural differences and find the common humanity that can lead us to a more peaceful planet.
For years, I have been involved in peacebuilding as a member of the worldwide service organization Rotary International, which includes peacebuilding as one of its seven areas of focus. As a long-term tourism professional, I often think about the intersection of tourism and peace and how they can work in mutually beneficial ways. I was very inspired by the partnership of these two seeming enemies striving for peace through tourism.
This article discusses the many ways in which tourism can be a tool for peacebuilding and, with peace, can thrive. A list of resources is included at the end for further research and information. Please know that this is a vast subject; this article is intended as an initial source for inspiration, introspection, and potential action.
Overview
As the world’s largest and most diverse global industry, tourism is a multidimensional force that can help build peace in many ways, touching on various aspects of human endeavor.
According to Sustainable Travel, an organization devoted to sustainability and peacebuilding:
“Our world faces a wide range of threats, from climate change and resource depletion to extreme poverty. Travel itself can exacerbate the degradation of precious or fragile ecosystems, economic leakage, and loss of cultural traditions.
At its best, tourism can alleviate poverty and inequalities, develop cross-cultural understanding and appreciation through human interchange, and incentivize environmental protection and sustainable development. Tourism is pervasive and can be a powerful tool to confront threats. It can also help promote and build peace with vision and collaboration so that all the relevant players have a place and a clear path toward change.
10 Ways Tourism Advances Peace
An article by KaitlynBra, published on the Sustainable Travel website on September 19, 2024, presents 10 ways that tourism contributes to peace. I have edited the article for clarity and brevity as follows; read it in its entirety here.
“For tourism to truly contribute to long-term peace, it must start with and then prioritize the needs of local communities, protect cultural and natural resources, and ensure that its benefits are shared equitably.
Ten ways that tourism can catalyze peace on both global and local levels are:
1. Fostering Cultural Exchange and Understanding
Tourism promotes understanding and appreciation of diverse perspectives and ways of life among both tourists and local communities. By exposing people to different cultures and backgrounds, respectful and inclusive tourism can break down stereotypes and prejudices, creating a more empathetic and tolerant world.
2. Driving Economic Growth and Stability
Tourism creates employment opportunities across a range of formal and informal sectors. It stimulates demand for goods and services beyond those directly consumed by tourists, creating a ripple effect across a destination, stimulating economic growth, and supporting jobs in sectors throughout the wider community.
Tourism also provides an opportunity for economic diversification, particularly for countries that rely heavily on industries like agriculture or mining. This can lead to a more resilient, multi-faceted economy and higher wages. Stable employment and reliable income foster social stability, reducing the likelihood of conflict or violence fueled by economic desperation.
3. Improving Living Standards and Reducing Poverty
Tourism-generated foreign exchange can reduce poverty by providing revenue to marginalized communities and driving sustainable development, especially in rural or underserved areas, that can be reinvested in social programs and essential infrastructure projects, improving living conditions, and economic stability that help alleviate poverty, a key factor in social unrest, and foster long-term prosperity and development.
4. Supporting Education and Skill-Building
Tourism also contributes to peace by providing opportunities for education and supporting career development, particularly in developing regions, which benefit from training across various sectors. Newly acquired skills empower individuals to secure employment, thus improving personal and community economies, helping to alleviate poverty. Education builds personal capacity and empowerment, raises participation in society, thus reducing social tensions, and fostering a sense of belonging. A skilled and educated population is more likely to resolve conflicts through dialogue and constructive activities than by violence.
5. Incentivizing Peace and Political Stability
Conflict, unrest, or insecurity can lead to disruption and a decline in tourism to a destination. As a result, governments and local communities are motivated to preserve peace and prioritize public safety to maintain their tourism industry. However, for tourism to serve as a meaningful incentive, it must be inclusive, giving local communities a stake in its success. When people benefit from tourism, they are more likely to support peaceful resolutions and work together to maintain stability.
6. Advancing Human Rights and Social Justice
Tourism can empower marginalized groups and underrepresented groups, including women, Indigenous people, ethnic minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community. Through sustainable and inclusive tourism, these groups can gain access to upward economic mobility, greater social recognition, and involvement in decision-making processes that impact their lives. Many tourism experiences raise awareness of human rights abuses, encouraging visitors to reflect on and advocate for social justice issues.
7. Instilling Local Pride and Social Cohesion
Tourism has the power to unite communities by instilling pride in shared identity, history, and values. It offers locals an opportunity to share their cherished sites, traditions, and natural landscapes with visitors, and reflecting how they want their home to be represented and preserved fosters commonality, and collective action. Protecting historic landmarks, maintaining clean beaches, or offering high-quality food, creates an inviting tourism experience that requires local collaboration, between government entities, civic organizations, and private businesses. Working together builds stronger relationships and promotes greater cooperation within the community.
8. Promoting International Cooperation and Diplomacy
Tourism fosters international cooperation, as it requires safe and open borders, strong diplomatic relations, and collaboration between governments. Countries that promote tourism often engage in peaceful negotiations to ensure secure travel routes and protect their tourism markets. This international exchange encourages diplomacy and cross-border collaboration, contributing to a more peaceful global environment. Countries relying on tourism have an incentive to maintain good relations with their neighbors and the broader international community.
9. Increasing Accountability and Transparent Governance
Tourism brings increased exposure and scrutiny to destinations from international media, tourists, and local businesses, compelling government and local authority accountability and transparency. As tourism grows, so does pressure for governments to challenge corruption, enforce fairer policies, protect human rights, prevent environmental abuses, and improve public well-being through better resources management, cultural and natural assets protection, and more community participation in decision-making. Greater accountability among stakeholders who rely on the destination’s success encourages a more harmonious environment.
10. Supporting Post-Conflict Recovery and Reconciliation
Tourism can play a valuable role in post-conflict recovery by helping rebuild economies and fostering reconciliation. In regions recovering from conflict, tourism development provides much-needed jobs, infrastructure, and investment, offering a pathway to economic revitalization. It also brings people from different backgrounds together to work toward a common goal, fostering unity and healing. Tourism experiences like heritage tours, memorials, and museums can raise awareness of past conflicts and acknowledge their enduring impact, promoting greater understanding and serving as powerful reminders of the need for peace. They ensure that the past is not forgotten, offering opportunities for reflection, commemoration, and reinforcing a collective commitment to prevent future conflict.”
Tourism Breaks Down Barriers & Builds Bridges
Another source for how tourism and peace can work together is found on esignals, an online publication from Haaga-Helia UAS, a Finland based business and applied sciences university.
Below are excerpts from the article written by Eva Holmberg, educator, Novia UAS and Annika Konttinen, lecturer, Haaga-Helia UAS, that addresses the need for global peace and how tourism can be a force for good, including the role of the United Nations and the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), as quoted below. Read the entire article here.
“The Global Peace Index 2024 (Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) 2024) reveals that the world is facing several challenges to reach peace. Currently, there are 56 conflicts, the most since World War II (Vision of Humanity 2024). Peace and intercultural understanding are essential ingredients for post-pandemic recovery.
Indeed, the UN has enshrined tourism as a human right in its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where it says that everyone has the right to cross international borders, enjoy rest, leisure, and paid holidays from work. (McClanahan 2024.) However, the simple act of taking a holiday abroad may not solve all the problems of the world.
Tourists can be a part of this social transformation towards peace. Exposure to new lifestyles and understanding of different cultures have always been at the core of tourism. Work placements, student exchanges and study tours abroad increase the understanding of different cultures in our students, the employees and leaders of tomorrow. At its best, tourism enables a greater tolerance of different values and customs, building bridges between visitors and hosts. Thus, making war and conflict less likely. Switzerland, known for its neutrality, peace and security, has become a successful tourism destination partly because of these characteristics that visitors associate with the country (Kyrylov et al. 2023).”
Safety is Crucial for Visitors
The same esignals article also examines that to facilitate a healthy tourism environment, and positive exchange between visitors and residents, visitors must feel the destination is safe and peaceful.
“As long as encounters between the local population and tourists are not entirely on a commercial basis, meeting up with local people can offer real possibilities for a dialogue, an exchange of ideas and views. Tourism makes it possible to make friends in all places. When people respect, understand, appreciate, and like each other, wars are less likely. The International Institute for Peace through Tourism promotes the idea that every traveler is potentially an 'Ambassador for Peace' (International Institute for Peace through Tourism 2024).
Development, safety, and security are essentials enablers for tourism, which is why war and conflict should be avoided at all costs – wiped off the tourism map altogether. Tourism is a peace-sensitive industry and it makes economic, environmental, and social sense to maintain peace (Alamineh 2022). Current wars in Middle East and Ukraine have wide impacts on the neighboring countries and it will take time before tourists perceive these regions as safe destinations.”
The possibility to travel brings hope to people and working towards peace is a requirement for more sustainable and fair tourism. Thus, the theme of this year’s World Tourism Day definitely makes sense in our conflict-filled world.”
We are all Peace Ambassadors
Each of us is a peace ambassador every time we take a trip, whether across town as Aziz and Maoz did in Jerusalem, or across the globe to regions far away. We have the opportunity to engage - well beyond taking selfies of famous visitor sights – with all we have to offer one another.
Aziz and Moaz said at the Outlook Forum that ignorance leads to fear, which leads to hate.
To break this pattern and work toward building peace is their blueprint to:
dream (big)
hear and understand one another
build coalitions
create a road map
execute
then start dreaming again, at the next higher level
I’d welcome hearing your take on building peace through tourism.
Resources to Learn More on Peace and Tourism:
ESIGNALS, a publication of the Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences
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