This presentation explores the intersection of two theoretical arenas that are increasingly important in today’s unstable world: (i) ‘the tourism and peace agenda’, and (ii) ‘from heritage tourism to heritage development’. After introducing and integrating these theoretical perspectives, the presentation discusses implications for the contemporary tourism sector.
Tourism has been described as a social force that can make important contributions to international understanding, cooperation, and global good will in establishing and keeping world peace. As a result, the potential connection between tourism and peace has been investigated in settings around the world. While a number of these studies suggest that tourism can help promote peace, other studies claim that tourism has a negligible or non-existent contribution to peacebuilding. Despite these varied findings, tourism continues to receive attention as a peacebuilding resource from a wide range of national and international policy actors.
Parallel to this interest in ‘tourism as a resource for peace’ has been the growing application of ‘heritage’ in conflict and post-conflict settings. In this context, the use of heritage as a peacebuilding tool has emerged from heritage-oriented theories that address empowerment of the disenfranchised, post-conflict renewal, and resistance to authorized heritage discourses. In practice, the conceptualization of heritage in these terms has led to critical discourse in the museum sector (and the field of museum studies more generally) about institutional responsibility for creating “safe spaces” to explore difficult and contested histories. Interestingly, several exploratory studies suggest that visitors find the ability to engage in contested topics to result in more ‘authentic’ and ‘responsible’ tourism experiences.
This suggests that tourism providers in the heritage sector may be able to offer new and more authentic experiences through development of “safe spaces” that probe contested and difficult histories from multiple perspectives. Such spaces may ultimately help position tourism as a more active agent in peacebuilding efforts.