All of a sudden, egotism, hedonism and comfort zoning, otherwise deplored as signs of misbehavior, felt like evicted, giving way to nothing less but the desire to love your neighbor. Cataclysms create their own laws. Peace time has gotten its heroes, and in moments of danger and disaster people may show their other side it may be their best.
The task is tough, setbacks are real, optimism is vital, though. Immediate emergency is prone to trigger first and fast aid, whereas developments that just gradually grow fatal are missing peoples full awareness to spark prompt action. Assets, gained step-by-step, will take their time to bear fruit, while individual opportunities for champions to shine are in the wait.
Generally, heroism in peace time and less emergency may be less spectacular, but no less valuable (heroic pacifism is undoubtedly imaginable, says Albert Einstein). Peace is not a self-actor; peace is the result of our deeds. Needless to say that this provides a real challenge to Travel & Tourism executives as communication experts to act!
As travelers, we pay money for our holidays. That means we appreciate enjoying our holidays higher than the money we paid for that. We should know about the privilege of being our hosts guests. Social behavior is key to co-existence. On the other hand, if we as hosts feel that the hospitality we offer our visitors threatens to end up as a kind of hostile take-over by strangers, then our social self-confidence is severely violated. Creating violation and disharmony is another way to cause environmental pollution.
Our eye for environmental consciousness and human empathy needs to be sharpened, in order to know what is good to both our physical (external) and psychic (internal) environments. There is peace only, if deeply rooted inside ourselves as individuals, who share the sense of dignity with one another. Travel & Tourism provides the global stage for the good or bad practice. Somebody once said, it is like the eye which cannot see itself. It may learn to sensitize its view to its environment, similar to a photographers evolving talents.
Looking at Tourisms high-flying claim to promote international understanding, we may find out: At its worst its a fake (e.g. all-inclusive travel!), at its best its wishful thinking. It feeds the myth shared by stakeholders that prejudice would disappear, and stirs up the silent hope shared by ourselves, the travelers, that exactly this would not happen, and we could afford to stand by our standardized opinions. Rather than locals, we meet compatriots. The intended bottom-up effect toward international understanding is minimal: Despite joining in sightseeing tours, enjoying the hosts culinary art or browsing through colorful shopping arcades, most holiday contacts are sporadic and casual only. They fade away with time, just as travel stereotypes sometimes do.
The outward appearance of Tourism Unlimited has emerged due to the fact that formerly quite distinctive social markings have become blurred or wiped out entirely. Holiday destinations once considered exclusive are being offered now in any catalogue or website.
Some places have gone through an especially striking transformation, for instance Baden-Baden: Formerly reputed as Europes summer capital, where the rich and beautiful were staging their own Vanity Fair, the spa-city today is a site of convalescence and wellness even for clients on welfare. Or choose Madeira, where at distinguished sanatoriums in a mild climate the worlds upper-classes once recovered: Today the island-state is a cruise and package-tour destination.
More crucial still, is the case of Venice: Distinguished as a UN World Heritage, Venice has been invaded until recently by short-term tourists from mighty cruise-ships threatening the lagoon citys structural essence and local peoples easygoing serenity. Locals have regarded this kind of invasion as an attack to their city and their social life.
The situation elsewhere looks similar: Angkor, once the glorious Hindu-Buddhist temple city of the Khmer kings, started to decay from the 15th century on and fell into oblivion. It is believed that climate change (!) and human hubris brought about Angkors downfall.
Only in the 19th century French explorers discovered the ruins and brought Angkor to daylight. In the wake of the Vietnam War, communist Khmer Rouges conquered them. Today, the Khmer Rouges have gone, and hordes of monkeys and tourists (Christopher Clark, Australian historian) have reconquered the impressive temple ruins of Angkor Vat and Angkor Thom.
In Expansion du tourisme, Ms. Anita Pleumaon of the Tourism Investigation & Monitoring Team (tim-team) summarizes: Modern values, imposed on Asian societies in rapid development, seem to have caused particularly devastating effects and a feeling of disorder, alienation, upheaval and incertitude. The process of commercialization and homogenization and the massive circulation of new ideas, pictures and information left little space to traditions, cultural expression, values of family and community. Is our approach to destination building a double-edged sword since its logic and methodology follow western-style patterns? Are there commonalities between our compelling efforts of destination building and the post-Cold-War concept of nation building?
The most brutal evidence of the incongruousness of western-style democracy and nation building could be witnessed in Afghanistan. Afghanistan, in the 1960s and 70s an exciting travel destination and a heaven for dropouts from Europe, had successfully prepared the ground for the defeats of two world powers: the Soviet army in 1989 and the U.S.-led NATO troops in August 2021. For the Soviets, Afghanistan was just a power play, for the U.S. and NATO it was the identified center of international terrorism and the hideout of Osama Bin Laden, the 9/11 top terrorist.
The goal of U.S.-NATO military intervention was to topple the then Taliban government and catch Bin Laden. Both missions were accomplished, but a more glorious challenge lured the Western alliance to stay a while, in order to consolidate Afghanistan as a Western-style democracy. This goal failed shamefully, the Taliban peasants militia returned and forced U.S. and NATO to leave Afghanistan harum scarum with many dead, injured or traumatized, billions of dollars spent, and serious doubts left. They culminate in the everlasting but still unanswered question: What for?
Gloomy reminders of the Vietnam War have resurged. Pictures of the spectacular escape in helicopters from Saigon rooftops in 1975 were juxtaposed in 2021, to photos of the sky lifts from Kabul Airport, overcrowded with desperate people, some of them clinging to the undercarriage of the aircraft and falling
Who is guilty? Who assumes responsibility? How about lessons learnt?
Responsible are all those who could not understand or refused to accept lessons that they should have already learnt earlier: first, societal patterns and social ways of life cannot be transferred upon others by force nowhere and not at all in Afghanistan; second, the job of the military is to wage war, and not to build up schools, hospitals, and to ditch wells; third, both military and civil projects need a stringent and timely fixed vision, or objective that would have to be made everyones cause and not just well intended procedures with an open end and a lot of lofty illusions; forth, intertwined relations between local elites and foreign partners have a strong tendency to further nepotism and corruption. This kind of liaisons dangereuses will inevitably lead to conflict or even war and cause naked chaos at last.
Too often, after a halfhearted yet long-term military commitment, foreign partners best choice seems to leave the scenario with the repeated experience of a shameful flight, rather than an orderly departure, yet now hopefully with the main lesson learnt: to keep out of other countries internal issues, especially when socio-cultural differences are too hard to shun out. The English-Dutch author Ian Buruma refers to the colonial trap great powers are prone to fall into, then and now.
Is it too far-fetched to also apply the colonial trap thesis for development aid NGOs? The objections development aid faces largely target the perennial character of many technical projects, with high-flying intentions but little tangible results only. It is true that foreign experts may act beneficially not only as hands-on support and trainers, but also as trustworthy mediators between rivaling local interest groups. Tourism development in its varied contents and parameters is anything but exempt. Alas, the temptation is real that one gets too much involved in a host-countrys internal affairs, and an experts departure may only visualize the fact that he or she had become part of the problem, rather than its solution.
Usually it is highly appreciated to pronounce words clearly yet given the ironic perception of etymological commonality of Tourism and terrorism, slurring may be fatal: Tourism loves freedom, terrorism needs hate. Tourism, in its most negative expression, may kill local culture softly, whereas terrorism kills immediately, both targeted and at random, without mercy, yet with Tourism as one of its first victims.
Tourism cannot bloom, where terrorism rages, Tourism needs peace. How can we say that Travel & Tourism effectively contributes to create and maintain peace? Has anyone ever heard of a substantial role that a Tourism organization, jointly with others, has played, in an effort to keep, say, Afghanistan a peaceful and even tolerant country and Tourism destination, the way it used to be in the sixties?
Some two decades after the war, Vietnam has become an attractive travel destination, even with a communist regime in a capitalist setting (!), and friendly relations with the U.S. and the world. Political negotiations, business companies networking, and President Clintons historic visit in 2000 made normalization of government and business sector relations their mantra. Travel & Tourism was following suit, yet preceding steps that might have shown the commitment of UNWTO or WTTC are hard to recall.
Can we take Vietnam as a daring blueprint for normalization of relations with the Afghanistan Emirate? May we expect adventurous mountain tourism in the Hindu Kush again around the 2040s with Islamist Talibans as friendly tour guides?
Crazy enough, one might think, shaking the head for twenty years after the Vietnam War, Samuel P. Huntington published his political blockbuster The Clash of Civilizations. Huntingtons theory that future wars would not be waged between countries but cultures, lead to controversial discussions and the resurgence of the Dialogue Among Civilizations, a counter-thesis which Austrian philosopher Hans Kchler defended in 1972, in a letter addressed to UNESCO and left in oblivion.
Would the present situation not justify the committed interference of Travel & Tourism, with its peak organizations UNWTO and WTTC, to help renew the dialogue among civilizations, via analogous and digital media, visibly and forcefully, on behalf of the idea to make Peace through Tourism though not only?
The message demands the inclusion of like-minded partners inside and outside of Travel & Tourism, to converge on thought and action. It could be inspired by the ideas Louis DAmore idealistically and enthusiastically promulgated and defended as the founder and long-time President of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism.
Well, let dreaming be a privilege of the optimists and irony the weapon of the powerless the powerful will have their own issues: While the Russian Bear has recovered from its own Afghanistan experience and readjusted himself again, the U.S. Eagle and its transatlantic hummingbirds are still busy with licking their wounds from their failed mission. The Chinese Dragon cant but indulge in an evil grin over its global rivals disgrace. It seems that the world is gliding from Cold War right away into Cold Peace. That means little more than merely armistice, yet enough to risk a hot political climate change, possibly not along Huntingtons cultural fault lines, yet roughly along the old, familiar West-East divide. Its hard to bypass the idea that political blindness may trigger patterns, originating in the return of events but only for the most part, as the philosopher Leibniz said. What a bankruptcy of political creativity since the Iron Curtain disappeared!
There is another ironical thesis to these patterns: When Man penetrates the world as a bandit, the world will enforce him to keep living as a bandit. This is the worlds response, we could say, its revenge, says Ludwig Fusshoeller in Die Dmonen kehren wieder (The Return of the Daemons). Visitors who are regarded as intruders, will be treated as such, be they simple tourists, outreaching businesspeople or foreign armies! What can we say? Bye-bye to welcome culture wont be enough.
In Goethes notorious drama, Fausts true goal is determined by his personal victory over nature. However, just as he feels overwhelmingly happy to have accomplished his ego-centric project, he loses his bet with Mephisto and pleads: Then, to the Moment Id dare say: Stay a while! You are so lovely!
If we look at our planet today, we get aware of the Faustian world to have returned blatantly, while splendor again has dressed up anew the glamorous mirage of yesteryear and both hosts and visitors timeless desire, complemented by the pandemics haunting curse to stay a while
The author, Max Haberstroh, is a founding member of the World Tourism Network (WTN).
More here:
Peace Through Tourism Now Though Not Only - eTurboNews | Trends | Travel News
- 10 best Reverse 1999 Arcanists to use and build - Sportskeeda - November 20th, 2023 [November 20th, 2023]
- The tightrope of 'Cabaret' - The Source - Washington University in St ... - Washington University in St. Louis - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Peter Schlesinger's Hedonistic Photos of Artists in 1970s Paris - AnOther Magazine - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Jonathan Baileys Long-Awaited New Drama Is Almost Upon Us Here's The Lowdown On Fellow Travelers - Yahoo Sport Australia - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Surusinghe 'Brake Fluid' EP review: every second hits as hard as a ... - NME - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Reformation Taps Model and Actress Camille Rowe for Holiday ... - Sourcing Journal - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Latest additions to the Halloween horror movie canon - Two Row Times - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Towa Bird Shares New Single And Video 'Drain Me!' - uDiscover Music - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- We Asked AI to Rewrite the Eagles Hit "Hotel California" about ... - American Songwriter - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- There's no such thing as normal mental health - The Medium - The Medium - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Use your voice, Luke: How Mark Hamill's anti-Jedi mind tricks gave ... - Salon - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Realms Of Ruin Finally Fixes A Major Problem With Warhammer ... - TheGamer - October 25th, 2023 [October 25th, 2023]
- Eric Nam and SG Lewis on Feeling Lonely and Getting Healthy - Interview - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Tom Ford Waxes Nostalgic and Prada Plays the Slime Card - The New York Times - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- September Horoscopes - The New Paltz Oracle - SUNY The New Paltz Oracle - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Attracting Gen Z Workers and Future Leaders to Automotive - Ward's Auto - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- C Pam Zhang on Relishing Pleasure, Observing Billionaires, and ... - Vanity Fair - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Paramount+: new shows and films streaming in October 2023 - ScreenHub - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- At 2nd Debate, Rivals Laud Reagan, Trump Dances on His Grave - TIME - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Business is Key to Attaining Justice and Peace in the World - denvercatholic.org - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- San Antonio filmmaker recalls time he recorded Jimmy Buffett ... - San Antonio Current - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- The Will and Intensity of Marisol - frieze.com - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- All Is (Boomer) Vanity - The American Conservative - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Slayyyter: STARFUCKER review - takes you on one hell of a night ... - The Line of Best Fit - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- 10 Best Modern Movies Set in the 1990s - MovieWeb - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Condiments & sauces category propelled by natural colors and ... - Food Ingredients First - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Dumb Money director reveals fundamental difference with Wolf of ... - Dexerto - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- How Janet Jackson, Lost in Translation, and Melbourne nights inspired Troye Sivan's new album - Yahoo Eurosport UK - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Outside the Box: Is Russell Brand a Victim of Groupie Culture? - Fair Observer - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Russia Lauds North Korea's 'Square-Headed Dude' and His Pauper ... - Center for European Policy Analysis - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Where to Watch and Stream 'Saw X': Showtimes - Collider - September 28th, 2023 [September 28th, 2023]
- Why I believe the question God, what is your will for my life? belies ... - Patheos - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Pleasure in the age of panic - Cherwell Online - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Dominique Larose: Northern Ballet's first soloist on bringing The ... - Luxury London - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Drew Barrymore reveals Kate Bosworth sent her flowers after ex Justin Long visited her show - Yahoo Entertainment - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Chris Holmes: I'm overlooked, sure. When I was in W.A.S.P., I was ... - Guitar World - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Sophie Ellis-Bextor on if she'd ever do Eurovision and her ... - NME - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- 10 Movies like The Social Network you must watch - Ready Steady Cut - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- The eternal paradox, and 'Quantum Criminals,' of Steely Dan - Wisconsin Public Radio - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- Five Classic SF Novels Featuring Advanced Body Modifications - tor.com - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- From queer Westerns to Wes Anderson Here are HUNGER's most ... - Hunger TV - May 18th, 2023 [May 18th, 2023]
- WGSN, Coloro Crown Moody Navy Alternative as 2025 Color of the Year - Yahoo Life - May 10th, 2023 [May 10th, 2023]
- Woo Girl Nails Life Balance For First Time Ever With Piss Up Friday ... - The Betoota Advocate - May 10th, 2023 [May 10th, 2023]
- Biden's Corruption Is What The Media Hoped For Trump - The Federalist - May 10th, 2023 [May 10th, 2023]
- Brandon Cronenberg Dives into the Deep End - FilmInk - May 10th, 2023 [May 10th, 2023]
- The 10 Best Movies of 1996, Ranked - Collider - May 10th, 2023 [May 10th, 2023]
- WFA: The Shits - Everything Is Noise - May 10th, 2023 [May 10th, 2023]
- 10 Things You Must Do On Your First Hedo Trip - Vacation Parties - January 23rd, 2023 [January 23rd, 2023]
- Epicurus | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - January 23rd, 2023 [January 23rd, 2023]
- An All-Nude Vacation With My Boyfriend Taught Me a Ton ... - SELF - January 19th, 2023 [January 19th, 2023]
- What to Expect at Hedonism | Hedonism II - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- HEDONISM II: HOTWIFING HEAVEN - Hedonism II - November 25th, 2022 [November 25th, 2022]
- Disco - Wikipedia - November 25th, 2022 [November 25th, 2022]
- Hedonism Resorts - Wikipedia - October 30th, 2022 [October 30th, 2022]
- What Is Hedonism? An Ethics Explainer by The Ethics Centre - October 21st, 2022 [October 21st, 2022]
- Eudaimonia - Wikipedia - October 21st, 2022 [October 21st, 2022]
- 'The White Lotus' season 2 trailer brims with love, murder and a whole lot of hedonism - Alternative Press - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Reconsidering the Good Life - Boston Review - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Alcoholic Drinks and the Spectre of Stagflation; A Wile E. - Euromonitor International - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- The Weeknd Brings Sex, Money, and Drugs to His New Series: The Idol - uDiscover Music - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- 7 of the Best Rock Bands of the '70s - American Songwriter - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio, And More Featured In Meet Me In The Bathroom Trailer - uDiscover Music - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Is the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS the most extreme road car in history? - British GQ - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Charlies Good Tonight: Read an Exclusive Excerpt From the Authorized Biography of the Rolling Stones Late Drummer - Billboard - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Wreck cast on huge behind-the-scenes secret on BBC series: Can you imagine the chaos? - Express - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Four albums recorded in France and one song that should have been - The Connexion - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Twisted elegance: Janet Jacksons The Velvet Rope is a template for Black pop stars to embrace the darkness - TheGrio - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- On the futility of modern bureaucratic states - Catholic Culture - October 8th, 2022 [October 8th, 2022]
- Fall is the time towards the cranberry secure - DU Express - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- 1st October Weekend in Osijek Was Full of Life - Trust Us, Head On East - Total Croatia News - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- LSD, Dolly's and a Rolls Royce car chase: How Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones nearly came to blows - Far Out Magazine - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- I survived the sex, drugs, and misogyny of 90s Wall Street to make millions - New York Post - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The Stars Advise: Dont Overdo It in Indulgence - astrosofa.com - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Procera rolls out vintage gins - The Spirits Business - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- How To Watch 'Hellraiser' In The UK: Horror Film Reboot Set To Terrify Audiences - Bustle - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Fresh blood brings new life to Interview with the Vampire - The Boston Globe - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Why do bankers love techno? - The Spectator - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- Alice In Chains : Dirt - The heaviest grunge album at 30 | Treble - Treble - October 2nd, 2022 [October 2nd, 2022]
- The simmering wickedness of Pentiment's dialogue is a delight - Eurogamer.net - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]
- Gothic Gin Announced as Official Partner of Goodwood Revival - BevNET.com - September 7th, 2022 [September 7th, 2022]