Peace Through Tourism Festival – Interview with Fabio Carbone PART 2/2

Twissen interviewed Fabio Carbone lecturer and researcher at Coventry University (UK), in charge of global ambassador and special envoy to Iran from the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT, New York), who provided us with an analysis of the interconnection between Peace and Tourism.

Click here to read the first part of the interview.

Which is the tourist’s perception/condition? And what about the ones of the touristic operators?

The tourist could be an ambassador of its country or origin in the field of intercultural dialogue through tourism. By the way, it doesn’t seem to me that it happens, also where tourism practices are labeled as sustainable and responsible. A lot of marketing, little responsibility. For this reason, I’ve mentioned before the importance of education’s role: they have to teach us that tourism is a socio-cultural phenomenon! What we have been taught is that tourism is pure diversion, so we behave accordingly on vacation. How many of us have never thought to switch off the smartphone, for instance, in order to indulge in the luxury of getting lost – yes, getting lost  is a luxury today! – and to be in the condition of authentically depending on the contact with local people, with all that it concerns. This alone would change the perspective and the experience of travelling. The same is true for sector’s operators: it’s clear that if they study tourism in an Economics Faculty, in most cases  they will use adjectives such as “sustainable” and “responsible” for marketing reasons more than others. But also in this case, we can’t blame them: we have to do everything possible in order to make a new model prevail, in Universities, in local actors’ minds and in those who are involved in the tourism sector’s minds.

Which economic effects does the phenomenon “Peace through Tourism” have?

Indeed! eheheh! As you can see, economism pervades us, and  the economic aspect is the measure used to evaluate if something is valuable or not. But it’s ok, this is part of our life as well and so it is fair to also (also, not exclusively) answer this question. One of the main economic advantages that this approach could garantire is the visitor loyalty, due to the fact that the human factor is at the center of tourism experience and that authentic bolds are created. Fidelization is one of the most coveted results in many contests from every business! But in this case as well, we have to look forward, out of the box – As those good ones say! – and ask ourself:  Is the actual paradigm the right one? Earlier I mentioned overtourism in Venice. Now, it is clear that by solving the overtourism problem, Venice would become a livable place  once again (especially for Venetians, even before tourists!). But tourism revenues would also drop drastically and would have to find sustainable alternatives. Choices need to be made, and I personally believe that economic dependence on tourism is the wrong model.

What are the main challenges?

In the previous answers there are already many challenges: from education to the approach to the management of cultural heritage; from cultural diplomacy to the revision of study plans in universities. Just to name a few. Impossible? I do not believe it. Hard? Definitely: there are several status quo to review! We’re working on it! I like to think that if we have managed to take tourists into space, we will also be able to bring them back to Earth to build a better world together.



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