Tourism and the elusive peace amid violent post-conflict geographies in Colombia

Abstract

As tourism is increasingly portrayed as a means for peacebuilding, the need to study its impact in conflict-ravaged areas has become more acute. Current debates on peace-through-tourism engage critically in such analyses, focusing further on the connection between tourism and socio-spatial (in)equalities, power (im)balances and everyday (in)securities as central elements in the study of peace. Yet the discussion still reinforces normative assumptions by tending to invariably associate community-based tourism with peace outcomes. Hence, paradox-ridden contexts where structural violence and oppression persist even in the presence of grassroots development receive considerably less attention. This article addresses this gap by discussing the case of Urabá, a Colombian region wracked by the armed conflict that has seen a rise in bottom-up tourism initiatives in recent years. Our findings suggest that, despite their perceived peacefulness, tourism spaces have become ‘pockets of security’ where the conditions enabling grassroots tourism are maintained as long as the legal and illegal power structures that are furthering dispossession in the region remain unchallenged. Drawing on insights from peace studies and human geography, we aim at contributing to the burgeoning body of research on peace tourism by proposing a more nuanced understanding of the linkages between tourism, violence, and the spatial reconfigurations that underlie the so-called post-conflict period. Ultimately, we want to encourage more critical analyses of the use of heart-winning discourses that could conceal violent geographies surrounding tourism spaces.

Keywords:

• peacebuilding
• tourism
• post-conflict
• Colombia
• Urabá

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the research participants who generously shared their time for the purpose of this study and the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mónica Guasca

Mónica Guasca is a doctoral researcher at the Division of Geography and Tourism at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium. She currently studies the role of bottom-up tourism initiatives in peacebuilding in Colombia. Her research interests lie primarily in the socio-economic development of societies recovering from war, focusing on the role of local agency and spatial configurations in post-conflict transitions. [email protected]

Anne Marie Van Broeck

Anne Marie Van Broeck is a senior lecturer at the Division of Geography and Tourism at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium. Her main research interests and lecturing topics are related to the Anthropology of Tourism (socio-cultural dimensions of tourism) and to Tourism and Conflict (conflicts caused by tourism; tourism in a context of political tensions; contested heritage). She has a strong interest in Colombia, where she lived several years.

Dominique Vanneste

Dominique Vanneste is a full professor at the Division of Geography and Tourism at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium. Her research focuses on regional and destination development and (cultural) heritage with an emphasis on identity building and preservation. She works on tourism networks and the role of brokers, as well as on heritage tourism as a lever for development. Further, she studies the relationship between war heritage and tourism from a memoryscape perspective.