Met toerisme de vrede bevorderen

Nieuws | de redactie

25 mei 2010 | Stenden-lector Omar Moufakkir heeft met Ian Kelly (University of South Australia) een boek uitgebracht over toerisme en vrede. Onderzoekers van over de hele wereld werkten eraan mee. “There is more to tourism than economics and there is more to peace than the absence of arms”, zo zegt de uitgever. Lees hier het voorwoord van Klaas-Wybo van der Hoek en Sandy Dhuyvetter.

Throughout history, humankind has searched for sustainable peaceand harmony through the disciplines of political science,geography, economics, sociology and, far too often, the act of waritself. More recently, tourism has been touted as a strategy tocontribute to world peace. Tourism does not necessarily contributeto peace but has the potential to do so in so many ways. Thestruggle of both academics and policymakers has been to distinguishbetween the myths and realities of the tourism and peacepropositions, and most importantly to focus on the strategies thatqualify tourism as an agent of peace.

For the first time, academics from around the world havecombined efforts to develop a compilation of work that dealsspecifically with the tourism and peace phenomenon. Representingpeace organizations, government bodies and universities, eachcontributor offers their own perspective. From metropolitan areasto emerging regions like the Middle East, Northern Ireland, Georgiaand Cyprus, the book is a frank and open discussion that includesstrategies in creating ‘active peace’. Each of these contributorsoffers evidence, examples and hope for a new world based on theideals of achieving peace with tourism as a powerful workingstrategy. The work presented in this book is thorough anddiverse.

As head of an academic institute and advocate of worldcitizenship, I warmly welcome this academic initiative and promoteit in our classrooms. As the editors of this book would say: thereis more to tourism than economics and there is more to peace thanthe absence of arms. What I can say is that peace and tourism areintertwined and teaching this topic is timely (Klaas-Wybo).

As a media producer, I have been interested in tourism and peacefor several years, and I must admit that the book is interestingand timely. The many propositions and views addressed and presentedby the contributors make tourism an even stronger peace ally(Sandy).

Klaas-Wybo van der Hoek, Vice-President andHead of Academic Affairs, Stenden University

Sandy Dhuyvetter, Founder and ExecutiveProducer, TravelTalkMEDIA

O. Moufakkir (red.), Tourism, Progress and Peace.London: CAB, 2010. Een van de essays in het boek is geschreven doorNHTV-docenten R.K. Isaac and V. Platenkamp (‘Volunteer Tourism inPalestine: a Normative Perspective).