Tourism may give peace a chance
Australia’s first postgraduate course on Peace through Tourism became a reality this year thanks to a collaboration between the Tourism Group at UniSA’s School of Management and the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) of the University of Sydney.
In a week-long course held during the Winter School of 2005 and offered to both university students and tourism industry participants, UniSA tourism lecturer Freya Higgins-Desbiolles delivered the topics: tourism politics and peace through tourism.
Lynda Blanchard, from the University of Sydney, who coordinated the course, presented on theory and understandings from the peace studies discipline.
Together Higgins-Desbiolles and Blanchard developed the students’ understanding of the ways in which tourism and peace are interrelated and placed the topic within a context of peace with justice. Student feedback indicated it was one of their best study experiences, challenging them and opening their eyes to the importance of thinking about the power and impacts of tourism and the value of viewing it as a tool for peace.
Higgins-Desbiolles says UniSA is considering offering a similar course as an industry short course in 2006 .
She has published on the topic of peace through tourism in the journals Tourism Management and Travel Recreation Research. She serves on the executive committee of the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (Australia) and has been asked to host the 2006 national Peace through Tourism conference in Adelaide.
She was a keynote speaker on tourism and terrorism and justice tourism at a recent European-funded international study workshop on human encounters for Peace and Reconciliation through Tourism in the Occupied Territories convened by international and Palestinian NGOs in Egypt.