(Click on title to read more)

In a few years, the growing number of immigrants has transformed culture shock into culture unrest (Moufakkir, 2008, p.86), defined as “the context where two cultures live together, but at a level of acceptance that has developed from a state of euphoria, apathy, to annoyance, or even antagonism”, sometimes expressed verbally and even physically. In a destination image study, we found the Dutch perceptions of people of Moroccan origin living in the Netherlands to be overwhelmingly negative, confirming similar opinions expressed in the media (ref. Table 1, qualitative information). The social and political landscape of the Netherlands was infected by the murder of right wing politician Pim Fortuyn just before the national election in May 2002. Despite and/or because of his death, his party List Pim Fortuyn (LPF) won 17% of the national vote, making it the second strongest political party in the country. Besides a rising mistrust of politicians, Fortuyn’s success was attributed to the issue of ‘unsuccessful’ integration of ethnic minorities (Krouwel et al., 2006) or what Scheffer (2000) referred to as the “multi-cultural drama”. In addition to this, the murder in November 2004 of outspoken anti-Islamic opinion-leader, filmmaker Theo van Gogh, shocked the nation. In such a tragic environment, the fear of inter-ethnic polarization, as well as the need for effective measures for integration, appears to be a reality (Krouwel et al., 2006). During the March 2010 Dutch municipal elections the PVV won in Almere with 21.6 % of all votes, making it the biggest party in the city with nine seats in the municipal board. In Den Haag, winning eight seats, they came second to the PVDA (Labor Party) and became more popular than the CDA (Christian Democrats). More importantly, a public opinion poll (peiling) of 2500 voters undertaken by Synovate during the same period indicated that this ultranationalist party would be the third most important political party in the country with 24 seats compared to nine seats in 2006. The poll by Maurice de Hond, also a very well known poll group, indicated that the PVV would become the biggest party in the country with 27 seats. As was reported in the media, these results were a shock to Dutch people and to the world community, because of the reputation of the Netherlands as a multi-cultural society noted for its tolerance and multiculturalism.

The results of a study conducted by the Tourism for Peace (lectoraat) research group are (graphs below), no surprise because they simply confirm ”public opinion” perceptions about the Moroccan Allochtonen in the Netherlands which are overwhelmingly negative. The whys of this phenon is not the subject of this communication. Rather, it is noted that Dutch people who visited Morocco were found to be less prejudiced towards Moroccans than those who did not. Tourism, in the context of this study seems to reduce prejudice. Furthermore, as those who have visited Morocco appear to be less prejudiced than those who did not, it could be suggested that tourism has to some extent a positive impact on perceptions.  

In the 9^th century B.C. epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer observed: “a guest never forgets a host who has treated him kindly”. It is possible that as guests who have been treated kindly in Morocco, the Dutch return home as hosts whose prejudices towards Moroccans in the Netherlands have been positively mediated.

That is, because of the important relation between tourism, immigration, prejudice, cultural diversity and integration, the Moroccan minstry of tourism should work together with other ministries, especially the ministry of immigration. It is unfortunate that tourism in Morocco  has not yet evolved from destination selling and promotion, to destination branding, and nation branding. Again, the irony is that Moroccan nationals abroad, in a period of less than 60 years, are set to mirror “justly or unjustly” the Moroccan people and a culture of thousands of years. And it is this mirror and the seriousness of this irony that deserve more attention in the study and “doing” of tourism.

One of the biggest tests for the enlarged European Union, in the years and decades to come, will be how it manages the challenge of immigration. If European societies rise to this challenge, immigration will enrich and strengthen them. If they fail to do so, the result may be declining living standards and social division.

The face of immigration and hospitality has changed, and so have its challenges and opportunities. There is no need for argumentation; a quick scan in the media shows the actual immigration-integration climate in major Western European countries, be it in France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweeden, Switzerland, Norway, Greece, the UK, Austria or Belgium. Although there is much ado in some countries than others, the overwhelming climate and discourse is rather negative. This is what we hear, what we have become conditioned to hearing, and what we most often expected to hear:

Madam President, we are losing our country. We are losing our Netherlands. We are losing it to mass immigration. We are losing it to the inflow which is no longer in control. We are losing it to a culture of backwardness and violence. We are losing it to the Moroccan thugs who go through life scoffing and spitting and beating up innocent people. They make the schoolyards and streets unsafe. They stick up their middle finger to funeral processions, threaten and abuse ambulance staff and beat up gay people and hiss ‘whore’ to women. They happily accept our benefits, our homes, our doctors. But not our standards and values (Excerpt from a speech Geert Wilders gave in Dutch parliament, September 2008).

This is what we seldom hear and know:
All who are committed to Europe’s future, and to human dignity, should therefore take a stand against the tendency to make immigrants the scapegoats for social problems. The vast majority of immigrants are industrious, courageous, and determined. They don’t want a free ride. They want a fair opportunity for themselves and their families. They are not criminals or terrorists. They are law-abiding. They don’t want to live apart. They want to integrate, while retaining their identity (Kofi Annan, January 2004).

Clearly, the media plays a big role in affecting our judgements about immigrants and integration, and the discrepency between negative and positive news is outrageously and harfully too big.

Managing migration is not only a matter of opening doors and joining hands internationally. It also requires each country to do more to integrate [old and] new arrivals. Immigrants must adjust to their new societies – and societies need to adjust too. Only with an imaginative strategy for integrating immigrants can countries ensure that they enrich the host society more than they unsettle it (Kofi Anna, 2004).

The task undertaken by the research center and participating European reserarch groups is to develop a integration barometer with the objective to measure the traditonal as well as modern indicators of integration. Certainly, integration barometers exist, however, the proposed barometer is comprehensive in nature, in that, among others, unlike other barometers, it also includes perspectives about integration from the immigration sending country -a somewhat forgotten perspective, yet very important. Simply put, while it might be that a sending country would like and does encourage their people to keep their national identity for cultural and economic reasons, the receiving country, however, might be encouraging and seeking the assimilation of its new and old immigrants in the mainstream culture. Thus, the challenges of immigration and integration are big, and only through comprehensive research can we comprehend the big picture of diversity, and act accordingly (click on link below for pp presentation)
Immigration-integration-barometer

(For more information about the Comprehensive Integration-Immigration Barometer, contact us by e-mail or phone at:
omar.moufakkir@stenden.com
+31 (0)58 2441301

Click to view our presenation “Tourism and Peace: Myths, Realities and Progress” at the World Heritage Conference in Austria, June 3-5, 2009. austria_conference

L&R Sozialforschung/ L&R Social Research

To see the conference program, click on the following links:

heritage-tourism-conference; heritage-tourism2

The 1st European Conference on Peace and Tourism has received about 400 registrations, and attracted 190 participants from 35 countries. Press on the names of speakers to view their presentations. 

Welcome Address Louis D’Amore
Opening Ceremony Jannewietske de Vries
Opening Ceremony Edmund Bartlett
Plenary 1 Hon Gil da Costa Alves
Plenary 1 Hon N Nandi Ndaitwah
Plenary 2 Hon Phillip Savadoga
Plenary 2 Vasilis Morfopoulos
Plenary 2 John Hummel
Plenary 3 Catherine Rubbens
Plenary 3 Ginger Smith
Plenary 4 Janos Damon
Plenary 4 Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi
Plenary 4 Luigi Cabrini
Plenary 5 Dallen Timothy
Plenary 5 Irena Ateljevic
Plenary 5 Myriam Jansen Verbeke

Concurrent Session Speakers: 
Aditya Eggert
Akke Folmer
Albert Postma 3b
Anna E Papanicolaou
Anne Krupp
Apolonia Rodrigues & Aurea Rodrigues 2b
Armin Gemmer
Aviad Israeli
Ben Sherman
Brett Galimidi
Brigitte Nitsch
Chris & Mike McHugo
Constantia Anastasiadou
Daphne Lowe Kelley
Dion van den Berg
Francoise Tondre
Gopinath Parayil
Gordon Sillence
Ian Kelly
Jacob Henderson
Jacob Robinet
Jan te Kloeze
Janos Damon
Jovan Popesku
Kwame Neba
Max Haberstroh
Message from IIPT Caribbean for jamaican forum
Nick Welman
Noga Collins-Kreiner
Ole Pihl
Paul te Molder
Peter Singleton
Raed Saadeh
Sarah Siddiqi
Senija Causevic
Simon Tijsma
Tomas Cuevas-Contreras
Ton van Egmond
Valentina Dinica
Victoria Lindsay
Vikneswaran Nair
Willem de Bruijn
Willem Reynders
Yolande van Wijk
Yoram Krozer

Tourism4Peace Forum 

An Example of Best Practice in Peace through Tourism Education

africa-conference-photo-of-delegates-with-uganda-president

africa-conference-photo-with-soni-irabor

 Preamble

The Tourism4Peace Forum was established in 2005 as an initiative by the Israel Hotel Management Association and sponsored by the Peres Center for Peace. The purpose of the creation of the forum is to advance peace through tourism by strengthening dialogue and ties between the regions and the tourism industry. The third annual meeting of the Tourism4Peace Forum was hosted for the first time outside the Middle East, in the Netherlands. The Tourism4Peace conference was organised by the Christelijke Hogeschool Nederland (CHN University) in October 31-November2, 2006.

A panel presentation included senior hospitality executives of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, The Palestinian Authority. Their presentation included a prototype tour brochure, “The Pillars of Civilization,” which illustrates their vision for regional tourism promotion. The four-country tour program offers cultural experiences, religious pilgrimages to the Holy Land and a wide variety of tourist sites and resorts.

By endorsing this vision delegates agreed among many others to 1) work towards easing freedom of movement for easier access to tourists and Palestinian tourism professionals in the area; 2) gather efforts on joint marketing and promotion activities; and 3) facilitate joint professional workshops for top hotel and travel executives in the region.

Overview

Delegates respectively presented tourism in their countries indicating respective unique selling points (USPs) but also emphasizing the cultural similarities that exist between the concerned destinations.

No borders, no boundaries, no animosity; just beautiful cultural experience

That was the message by delegate from Israel Rafi Baeri, Executive Vice President of the Dan Hotels-Israel to the students. The Tourism4Peace forum conference at the CHN university has been of an important success, not only because it has gathered delegates from the Arab world and Israel around the same table, but most importantly because it has served as an eye-opener for students -citizens of the world, future marketers, politicians, policymaker and entrepreneurs- making them more aware of the importance and power of tourism as a facilitator and beneficiary of peace.

You probably won’t believe it, but there are people in the Middle East who want peace

Janos Damon, Executive Director, Irael Hotel Manager Association

The delegates’ echoed message was that, despite the conflict, tourism does happen in their region and could and should grow even more because of the so many tourism treasures and opportunities that this part of the world offers. While the media tend to ‘over dramatise’ the situation in the Middle East, sensitise and sensationalise their media products, it is time to ‘cheer up’ a bit. The challenge of the delegates has been on focusing on, and emphasising, the other somewhat forgotten face of the Middle East. Their mission thus has been to cover the other side of the story and, through tourism, share with the people of the world the other positive realities of the region.

 Surely, there is conflict, but not only that: there is life as well. The delegates have taken a non-political strategy and collected their efforts around marketing their region as a one and inviting tourism destination that has hospitable people, full of life and energy. Their joint destination marketing presentation entitled the Pillars of Civilization indicates: For the first time in history, you can experience all of our glorious sites in one visit, with one ticket, at one low price. Discover the magic of our cultures, our people, our histories, our hospitality. Tourism is about hospitality and hospitality is about bringing guests and hosts together.

The Major challenge: First, it was difficult for students to relate the contents of the conference, which is primarily destination marketing, to its primary purpose which relates to promoting peace in the region. That was an unfamiliar concept to our students. During each presentation and at the end of the conference, a number of questions were asked but several of them remained unclear to them. The two most challenging questions were: a) how can we talk about peace in such a troubled region without talking about politics? And b) tourism contributes to peace or peace contributes to tourism?

Challenges faced

• Before the conference students were very much enthusiastic to learn more about a very timely and interesting topic: Peace through Tourism.
• During the conference: the level of euphoria had levelled down, because the delegates’ presentations was perceived to be less challenging than expected; more about destination marketing than about ‘peace’.
• At the end of the conference: a level of apathy or disinterest was reached.

Actions implemented

• Discussion and feedback after the conference
  • Raising awareness about culture of peace
  • Understanding that peace can be addressed without politics
  • Understanding that peace can be a topic of discussion without talking about war or conflict

Conclusion

• After the conference: the level of euphoria had reached its highest. Students have become even more interested in knowing about the so many ways that one can contribute to the forging of a culture of peace towards achieving an everlasting peace. A few students have even decided to pursue the tourism and peace topic in their BBA or MA dissertation research. They have understood that debates about peace and conflict abound, yet to promote peace in a troubled region without talking politics is scant, but possible, desirable, and even successful in reaching hearts and souls deeply.

THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD WANT TO CREATE A CULTURE OF PEACE

UNESCO

As defined by the United Nations, the Culture of Peace:

is a set of values, attitudes, modes of behaviour and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups and nations… For peace and non-violence to prevail, we need to foster a culture of peace through education.

Like many other value-driven tourism and hospitality schools and associations (AHA), The CHN University:

strives to develop tourism and hospitality leaders of tomorrow who have a positive attitude, demonstrate strong work values, lead by example, encourage tolerance, celebrate diversity and promote peace around the world.

UNESCO has identified eight action areas to foster a culture of peace; the first one is fostering a culture of peace through education. The Tourism4Peace Forum is a good example of attitudes and behavior inherent in a culture of peace, and a good and successful example to promote a culture of peace in educational institutes, especially that: Tomorrow’s leaders are today’s youth. Their education and participation is key to the world’s future.  

UNESCO has identified eight action areas to foster a culture of peace, the first one is fostering a culture of peace through education by:

promoting education for all, focusing especially on girls; revising curricula to promote the qualitative values, attitudes and behaviour inherent in a culture of peace; training for conflict prevention and resolution, dialogue, consensus-building and active non-violence . . .

There is more to the world of tourism than only selling good feelings. Values play a part, especially in a region as the Middle-East

Ernst Jonker, CHN University

L E V E L   o f   I N T E R E S T

The Tourism4Peace Forum conference in Leeuwarden

The concept of the culture of peace, as defined by the UN General Assembly in its

landmark resolution A/53/243, Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of

Peace includes:

1. Culture of peace through education.

2. Sustainable economic and social development.

3. Respect for all human rights.

4. Equality between women and men.

5. Democratic participation.

6. Understanding, tolerance and solidarity.

7. Participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge.

8. International peace and security.

Investment in youth is the best investment in the future

Academic Director of the European University Center for Peace Studies

The CHN conference was divided into two symposia: Students symposium, and destination marketing symposium. The focus of this communication is on the students’ symposium, where students were given a unique opportunity to get face to face with visionary people, listen to their respective stories, and spontaneously ask questions related to the situation in the Middle East with a focus on conflict, peace, and the role of tourism in the region.

World’s leaders, meeting at the United Nations in September 2005, which identified the Culture of Peace and Dialogue and Alliance of Civilizations as major priorities for the coming years, have declared that:  Tomorrow’s leaders are today’s youth. Their education and participation is key to the world’s future.