Tourism and Peace

The objective of this project is to help the global tourism industry in better understanding its operating context in conflict-affected countries. Thus, the overall aim is to assist the tourism private and public sector in better understanding their option in conflict and post- conflict settings and hence reduce costs and risks, meanwhile supporting peace processes.

The goal of the project is to generate practical guidelines for the tourism private sector in source markets and destinations, in how to operate business in conflict settings while advancing peace and development. A second output is to generate research recommendations for the public sector on how to support the work of the tourism private sector in order to harness the positive contributions of business towards peace building. The projects final goal is to create an online community `Tourism, Conflict and Peace´, which can provide a platform for exchanging views on the applicability of the research results.

As part of the project, an international handbook on Tourism and Peace was launched in January 2014 by UNWTO and the Austrian Peace Center. The Handbook offers a comprehensive collection of perspectives on tourism and peace from leading international specialist with topics ranging from sustainable development and conflict resolution to eco-tourism and heritage preservation and includes several case studies. The editors of the book, Cordula Wohlmuther and Werner Wintersteiner argue that there are different approaches to the complex topic of “tourism and peace” and that the handbook provides a good overview on this.

As a partner in the project, the Swedish Tourism Innovation Center’s main contribution is in the area of operational strategic communication, organizing summits, meetings, seminars and developing communication tools and training concepts for the private sector and policy makers. The Swedish Tourism Innovation Center also accounts for development of future partnership models and fundraising activities.