ICPTR

(click on title to read more)

The Call for Contributions to the CABI publication, Tourism, Progress and Peace, listed
25 topics deemed relevant to the proposition that tourism can help in bringing about a more peaceful world (Table 1). The same list may be referred to by potential contributors to the new Journal of Tourism and Peace Research.

Table 1: Topics relevant to peace through tourism

Tourism and globalization
Ethical and responsible tourism
Tourism as a social force
Tourism and poverty alleviation/elimination
Industry initiatives
Peace museums
Attitude change
Travel writing (eg, the tourist as witness)
Reconciliation tourism
Diaspora tourism
Tourism and the media
Tourism and community development
Success stories and case studies Conflict and tourism
Tourism as a political force
International initiatives (eg, codes of ethics)
International cooperation
Festivals and events
Peace parks
Volunteer tourism
Tourism and human rights
Tourism borders
Cross-cultural behavior and understanding
Tourism ethics
Tourism and humanitarian relief

However, some, if not all of the topics listed may be seen as mega-topics whose complexities are hidden in an overview approach. It may, therefore, be useful to suggest, for these, a breakdown into component parts each of which can be addressed by one or more research questions.

For example, the issue of Tourism and Poverty Alleviation/Elimination may be addressed through a range of questions, as follows:

1. How can/should poverty be defined? Can we develop a definition which identifies a central element while capturing the range of conditions (absolute to relative, local to global) by which poverty is recognised?
2. How is poverty distributed? Is there a relationship between geographical location and poverty? Does the distribution of poverty change over time?
3. How serious is the problem of poverty? What are the impacts of poverty on individual and community life quality, health and wellbeing? Is poverty a contributor to conflict and antisocial behaviour?
4. How is the problem of poverty addressed? What has been done in the past and has it been effective? What is being done now?
5. Does tourism contribute to poverty? If so, how can this be remedied?
6. How can tourism make a positive contribution? How can the beneficial impacts of tourism be optimised? Are there case studies which can provide useful examples?

With respect to Question 6, Goodwin (1998)* suggests the following:
• a focus on destination level issues – diversification, ownership, economic leakage, local employment and protection of the environment;
• meaningful consultation with and assistance in participation by the local community;
• a regulatory framework for ethical and sustainable trading;
• an effective taxation system;
• infrastructure development which serves the community as well as visitors;
• collaborative arrangements among elements of the tourist destination value chain; and
• targeted assistance from developed nation governments, NGOs and tour operators.

It is recognised that this review is far from comprehensive and the Centre invites input in the form of comments, suggestions for additional topics, research proposals and submissions to the Journal of Tourism and Peace Research from educators, travel writers, administrators and industry practitioners with an interest in how tourism may be managed to encourage peaceful relationships.

* Goodwin, Harold (1998) Sustainable Tourism and Poverty Elimination: A Discussion Paper. (http//:www.propoortourism.org.uk/dfid_paper.pdf)

Ian Kelly (February 2010)

France backs partial veil ban
(Click on title to read more)

“France has backed a partial ban on the wearing of Muslim veils in public. A parliamentary inquiry recommended they be made illegal in all places of public services, including public transport. It also said residence cards and citizenship should be refused to anyone with visible signs of a “radical religious practice.” To read the whole article visit: http://news.uk.msn.com/world/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=151891504.
(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

What politicians do not seem to acknowledge, or perhaps even fail to understand, is that the majority of women wearing the burqa in France are already French citizens. Most of them were born in France. The question then is: why is this phenomenon fast growing in France and other European countries and not in some Arab or Muslim countries, especially immigration sending countries including Turkey, Morocco, Algeria, or Tunisia? What makes people convert to this way of life and lifestyle in European societies? The burqa phenomenon as a product of failed integration policies is not a religious demarcation per se, but a form of new civil protest of les Beurres or the so called hyphenated-French.
Putting the thorny issue of “freedom of expression” aside, in lay terms, pragmatically, would the ban effectively reduce ongoing immigration-integration related tensions or fuel them? The ban does not seem to reach the heart of the problem. Rather, it may seem like a childish game of power, which instead of alleviating misunderstandings, would but relocate reactive tensions to other modern venues of protest or expression. The burqa (and by the way also the growing Talibanisation wear culture of men in France) should be looked at as a national identity crisis of those who use them. Curiously, when will beards be also banned in selected public places?

Why Europe needs an immigration strategy (Kofi A. Annan, 2004)
(Click on title to read more)

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

Book cover Tourism Progress & Peace[1]
Edited by Omar Moufakkir and Ian Kelly

Tourism has the potential to contribute to world peace, and through appropriate management, to address current realities such as globalization, migration, conflicts, prejudices and poverty. By providing a range of international perspectives and case studies, this book discusses the interrelation between peace, conflict resolution and tourism, the role of industry and the role of the individual, and tourism as a catalyst for change and development. Exploring the ideas that there is more to peace than the absence of war and that there is more to tourism than economic interests, this book is the first of its kind and an essential resource for researchers, students and policymakers in tourism and related subjects.

The book contains 15 chapters, an introductory chapter and a conclusion. The intention of the book is to stimulate research in the area of tourism and peace, answer and pose a few questions about the tourism and peace proposition, provide examples and case studies that could be used by policymakers where tourism qualifies as an agent of peace, offer a background material to be used in the classroom for discussions about tourism and peace -economic peace, cultural peace, social peace, and environmental peace.

It is published by CABI and will be out by April-May 2010.

Join Sandy Dhuyvetter in her visits to Palestine
Sandy is meeting with Palestinian tourism officials and also with ordinary Palestinian citizens to talk about the importance of tourism in Palestine and promote tourism in the Holy Land.
Tourism is about bringing people together and about sharing. It is also about economic development. That is, it is very important for visitors to Palestine to make sure that their money is spent in the local community. Even if you are just a day-trip visitor from Israel, make sure to participate. Your smallest economic contribution is a gesture that will certainly make a few smiles and reach a few hearts.
To connect with Sandy in her incredible journey to Palestine visit
http://www.traveltalkmedia.com/archives_dec20_09.html#1002
Also visit The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities http://www.visit-palestine.com/
From the ICPTR, we wish all the Palestinians Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Safe Holidays.
Merry Christmas Palestine

Controversies in Tourism
Editors: Omar Moufakkir (Stenden University)
Peter Burns (University of Brighton)
Tourism is a dynamic global phenomenon: an agent of change and a significant factor in social, cultural, and technical evolution. Such evolution, especially those driven by tourism, are almost certainly followed by a variety of induced controversies. A look at the current spectrum of tourism studies illustrates the importance, timeliness, and even necessity to set these controversies out for serious debate beyond the simplicities of journalistic headlines. A critical analysis of the contexts, causes, and consequences is required. Failure to comprehend the basis of a tourism controversy may (more than not) produce myopic tourism development policies of the sort seen in countries ranging from Turkey to Kenya. Click to read more
call for proposals1

Sandy Dhuyvetter Executive producer asked Dr. Moufakkir a few questions about the tourism and peace progress and book. Click on archives, then on segment 4-5 to listen to the interview.
archives_oct11_09http://www.traveltalkmedia.com/archives_oct11_09.html#1004

I am very pleased to publish the list of the editorial board members of the new journal -The Journal of Tourism and Peace Research. The selection was based on academics, scholars and researchers who have an interest in the topic and have written about it.

We are looking forward to your contributions for advancing our understanding of the tourism and peace propositions.

Omar Moufakkir,
Editor in-Chief
The Journal of Peace and Tourism Research
www.icptr.com
omar.moufakkir@stenden.com
(00)31-58 2441301

To go or not to go?
Political tourism has emerged as a form of political consumerism where individuals use their voice or buying power to boycott or buycott a tourism product for the purpose of either supporting or refuting a government or corporate practice.
While the lens of the two strategies –boycotting or buycotting- is different, the goal is, nevertheless, the same. Both protagonists look at social justice from the prism of their ethical value system, hoping that their voices or actions will impact the lives of those concerned (Micheletti et al., 2006). However, their impacts are disputed, and depend on the context where the political, social or environmental practice is taking place. Besides the moral dilemma of tourism boycotting and buycotting (e.g., Holden, 2003; Glaesser, 2003). In a tourism context we ask: how lasting and successful is tourism boycotting? Within the tourism and peace proposition, in the Israeli-Palestinian context, a context of 60 years of conflict, internally tainted with fear and suffering, and externally painted with boycotts and buycotts, we ask ourselves: of the two lenses, which is the most peaceful, realistic and pragmatic, 60 years later?

The interplay of perceptions, immigration, and travel propensity is a research note based on the research commissioned by Stenden University as part of its educational vision that resides in contributing to a better world. It was thus conceived as a strategy to strengthening existing ties between the Netherlands and Morocco through tourism…
a-research-note
(more about the book visit http://www.cabi.org/bk_BookDisplay.asp?PID=2096)