The development of intercommunity relationships prompted by tourism has made an impact on the political relationships within the country (see I25 156–160, consultant and academic).
In tourism trade fairs, the country is presented as B&H. In fact, both the Federation and RS put nationalistic sentiments on hold when it comes to tourism discourse. Even before the central Tourist Association of B&H was founded, both entities launched a project in 2001 known as ‘putting Bosnia on the tourism map’ (Van Eekelen, 2001). This project presented B&H as one destination. When cooperation began in 2001, RS did not have a Tourism Board, so it formed a body to enable cooperation between the Ministry of Trade and Tourism in RS and the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in the Federation. In addition to this, the umbrella organization that regulates and controls cooperation was established at state level in September 2003 (Tourism Association President, 2006, personal communication). This can all be observed in two ways. First, cooperation between the entities is complicated, even if the stakeholders are motivated to cooperate. Lots of time, work and money is spent on the creation of the administrative conditions under which cooperation would be possible. Second, tourism decisions are still made at the level of the entities and tourism laws in the RS and the Federation do not correspond to one another, bringing many challenges to the tourism sector in B&H. However, cooperation between the entities at the institutionalized level (e.g. ministries in charge of tourism and tourism offices on the entity level) functions exceptionally well, taking into an account the complexity of the circumstances under which this takes place, as one of the informants (I1, advisor) in B&H argues:
I’ve been here for almost 15 years … it’s the only time I’ve seen RS and Federation work perfectly together. RS Ministry of Trade and Tourism and Federation Tourism Association have not only great personal relationships, but
also great professional relationships. We presented B&H abroad together, it’s worked extremely well the cooperation has been very friendly, very correct, it has been very fair.
I1 (September 2006) The informants perceive it easier to promote and rebrand the country if it is done at the state level, arguing that there would be a duplication of the work and costs if the promotion were done separately. Although the promotion of the country is done on the level of the state, there are no laws that would regulate the tourism industry at this level. Therefore, promoting the country on the state level requires cooperation. Instead of starting with development of the product, the need is to equalize the laws and regulations first. As a result, the process of tourism development has been slow and expensive. These arguments are illustrated by the informant below (Travel agent, I11):
Federation has a separate law, RS has a separate law which regulate tourism in RS, but there is nothing to regulate our cooperation.
I11 (August 2006) When it comes to tourism development, in the case of B&H, natural borders are more important than the artificial political ones. The nature of tourism in B&H requires cooperation. It is difficult to divide natural features such as rivers and mountains. The tours start in one entity and end in another. The project of four rafting rivers in B&H, for instance, needs to include cooperation, because the rivers flow through both entities.
We linked the guys from Banja Luka, Bihac with Drvar. They now help each other whenever it is necessary and do not need us there anymore. We provide support if there are any interesting projects they would like to initiate. The last one was the certification of the skippers. Through that program, they met the guys from Tara and Neretva and now they want to create a project which is called 4 rafting rivers in B&H and they work on it now.
I22 (International donor agency)
Conclusion
Although the findings suggest that people are ready to work together in tourism settings, the culture of disharmony is still present. The biggest challenge comes surprisingly from younger generations, especially those educated in the time after the Dayton Peace Agreement and the OSCE phenomenon called ‘two schools under one roof’, which actually represents the segregation in schools.
Each canton in the Federation, RS and District Brcko learn a different syllabus in schools. This prompts new generations to trust only the people in their own ethnic/regional group. This approach erases trust between communities and distances people from one another; hypothetically, it may cause future disputes.
Therefore, the process of social reconciliation needs to be addressed as soon as it is possible. Social reconciliation in a post-conflict B&H is difficult to achieve because of B&H’s constitution being based on the ethnic division
principle (Brown and Cehajic, 2008). This principle does not allow quality contact to happen. In order to achieve economic prosperity, the phenomenon of reconciliation needs to be addressed first. However, it will not happen easily, as B&H citizens are institutionally and ethnically divided, and do not trust each other. The informants for this present study suggested that building up trust between people is the most important segment in developing tourism. Change will not happen through a single trip, or simple contact between groups that used to be in conflict. Contact needs to be frequent and multiplex in order to increase out-group trust and empathy (Cehajic et al., 2008). Moreover, change will not come from official political circles, but through contact between ordinary citizens. Therefore, this research argues that vital change can be achieved through track-two diplomacy described by Montville (1987), i.e. a bottom-up approach. Inspired by Ateljevic (Hall and Ateljevic, 2007; Ateljevic, 2009), the researcher’s personal account was reflected upon. Memories of war, and post-war hostile rhetoric communicated through the media, contrasted to what was seen on the ground, where people showed a readiness to work together. Through tourism projects it appears easier to address the lack of trust as the ‘politics’ behind tourism are natural resources. It is not easy to label the intangible concept of nature itself as being Bosniak, Croatian or Serbian. This makes tourism ideal for creating a dialogue, and addressing the issue of a post- conflict reconciliation. Although natural borders, according to Van Houtum (2005) are not that important in border studies, it does not mean that they need to be marginalized. Tourism in B&H enhances the recreation of the natural borders. In the scope of natural borders, Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs in B&H understand each other and cooperate well.
At present in B&H, the main power of tourism lies in a fact that it urges cooperation, and facilitates frequent and quality contacts between B&H citizens, regardless of the entities to which they ultimately belong. Tourism is understood as frivolous (Hall, 1994), which opens up the possibility of covert enhancement of trust between the divided individuals. However, tourism is usually recognized as an economic generator, but if reconciliation does not occur, it is difficult to achieve much economic development as cooperation is blocked. This research argues that tourism needs to have its place, not only as an economic enhancer but as a political tool, as it is positively correlated to common identity and trust, pursuing much-needed social reconciliation. This is the role of tourism development in B&H.
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5 Warming Up Peace: an Encounter between Egyptian Hosts and
Israeli Guests in Sinai
D. M
aozDepartment of Tourism Management, School of Business Administration, The Centre for Academic Studies, Or Yehuda, Israel
Introduction
Contacts between tourists and hosts often involve face-to-face encounters between people from differing cultural backgrounds (Reisinger and Turner, 2003, p. 38). Such contact may result in positive attitude change in the way in which tourists and hosts view one another (Taft, 1979; Pearce, 1982), give them an opportunity to learn about other cultures and foster social interaction (Bochner, 1982). It may also result in the development of friendships (Pearce, 1988) and psychological satisfaction. It was noted that the longer and the greater the intensity of the social interaction the more positive is the change in attitudes (Li and Yu, 1974; Pizam et al., 2000).
Other studies have claimed that the contact between tourists and hosts is superficial and influenced by images, stereotypes and symbols (Hofstede, 1997). Several studies show that the intergroup contact provided by tourism does not guarantee positive attitude change (Amir and Ben Ari, 1985, p. 112;
Milman et al., 1990; Pizam et al., 1991) and may even result in a negative change in attitudes (Brewer, 1984; Anastasopoulos, 1992). Encounters between working tourists, for example, and their hosts are less likely to be positive as they are based on economic interests that may cause tension (Uriely and Reichel, 2000). The contact between tourists and hosts from different cultures can create communication problems, misunderstandings, dissatisfaction and tension due to numerous cultural differences (Pearce, 1982).
However, despite the possible negative outcomes, tourist–host contact seems to have more advantages than disadvantages. It can provide a chance for reconciliation and softening of negative attitudes and images, and potentially contribute to peace and international understanding (Edgell, 1990, p. 1). This chapter will examine the change in attitudes, stereotypes and images that occurred as a result of Jewish–Arab encounters in the beach resorts of Egypt’s
Sinai Peninsula. The objective of this study is to examine, using contact theory, the interaction between rival groups in a temporary but stable tourism-related contact, and its effects on reducing prejudice and negative stereotypes.