Sport tourism and peace: crossing the contested wall

Abstract

Peace through tourism focuses on the place of tourism in promoting peaceful relations in positive multidimensional terms. Sport events are associated to tourism in that such events provide tourists with the opportunity to engage in friendly competition and social proximity brings local sport people, teams and communities in contact with societies from around the world. The main study aim is to examine and analyze how, why, under what circumstances, and to what extent a cross border sport tourism event can contribute to the promotion of a message of peace between Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land. The case study examines the Bethlehem to Jerusalem Peace Run in which participants were Catholic Italian pilgrims, Israelis and Palestinians. The qualitative methodology includes several forms of mixed data collection: participant observation; content analysis of media documents, and in depth interviews based on a grounded theory approach. The in-depth interview questions to the organizers focused on understanding the challenges and implications of organizing the event, and the extent to which it was important and successful, in their estimation. Participants were asked about their feelings during the event and their estimation of its importance and success. In light of the study findings, a typological model was constructed of tourism-sport-peace relations against a background of conflicts and confrontations. The model illustrates that the elements are interrelated and encourage peace-promotion aspects in three dimensions: at the decision-making and governmental level in the organizational dimension; at the level of people’s feelings in the field in the social dimension; and in the positive media image that emerges in the media dimension, promoting positive coverage and a positive image. These insights and the proposed model should be considered for implementation in other areas of the world suffering from closed and hostile borders.

摘要

通过旅游促进和平的重点是旅游在以多种积极方式促进和平关系中所起的作用。体育赛事与旅游业有关, 因为这些赛事为游客提供了参与友好竞赛的机会, 而这种近距离的社会交往使当地的体育人士、团队和社区能够与世界各地的社会团体有所交流。本研究的主要目的是考察一项越境体育旅游活动是如何、为什么、在什么情况下以及在多大程度上能够有助于促进圣地地区的以色列人与巴勒斯坦人的和平信息。该案例研究考察了伯利恒至耶路撒冷的和平赛跑, 参与者有天主教的意大利朝圣者, 以色列人和巴勒斯坦人。该质性研究以多种形式收集数据：参与者观察、对媒体文献的内容分析以及基于扎根理论方法的深度访谈。对组织者的深入访谈问题着重了解组织该项赛事的挑战和启发, 以及在他们看来该项赛事的重要及成功之处。参与者被问及他们在该赛事中的感受, 以及在他们看来该项赛事的重要意义及成功之处。根据调查结果, 本研究构建了一个在冲突与对抗背景下旅游-体育-和平关系的分类模型。该模型说明, 这些要素是相互关联的, 并在三个方面有助于促进和平:组织层面的决策和政府管理、社会层面的人们在该地的感受、媒体层面呈现出的积极的媒体形象, 促进了积极的报道和积极的形象。这些见解和提出的模式应考虑在世界其它遭受封闭和敌对之苦的边境地区实施。

Keywords:

• Sport tourism
• peace
• sport event
• cross border visitors
• Christian pilgrimage
• Israel
• the Palestinian Authority
• separation fence/wall

关键词:

• 体育旅游
• 和平
• 体育赛事
• 越境游客
• 基督教徒朝圣活动
• 以色列
• 巴勒斯坦权力机构
• 隔离墙

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alon Gelbman

Alon Gelbman (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Israel. He is a Cultural Geographer and his research interests include international tourism and geopolitical borders, tourism and peace, urban/rural tourism, and hosts-guests relationships. His research papers published in leading scientific journals. Email addresses: [email protected]; [email protected]. More information can be found at: http://kinneret.academia.edu/AlonGelbman