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There are a large number of destinations in which post-conflict tourism (PCT) might be a relevant development option. This chapter considers four destinations which have opted to use the PCT brand as part of their strategies to attract tourists. These destinations – Cambodia, Nicaragua, Rwanda and Bougainville (within the country of Papua New Guinea) – are on four different continents, had conflicts which ended in the last decade of the twentieth century and represent tourism industries at different stages of development. They were also chosen because they are at low or medium levels of development and have relatively small populations of less than 20 million people. The chapter considers the different ways in which PCT is or might be used not only to provide economic opportunities for local residents, but also as a means towards reconciliation, healing and recovery after conflicts which have resulted in many casualties and divided the people against each other. Each of the case study destinations have attempted to turn a negative aspect of their histories into an opportunity for development, with differing levels of success.

Emerging from 20 years of violence and terrorism, the city of Medellin, Colombia, has used social transformation to improve civic culture, leading to a renaissance. The purpose of this study is to explore how social transformation can lead to urban transformation, forming the basis for sustainable, post-conflict tourism.

This case study is based on available descriptive data and direct observation supported by secondary sources.

The results of the research help to provide a better understanding of the conditions needed to develop and manage sustainable tourism in post-conflict environments. In so doing, it should be possible to make better policy decisions, with particular reference to social and urban interventions on planning, design and entrepreneurship.

The transformation of Medellin’s civic culture can be a model for destination with similar histories that present significant destination image and branding challenges – though each will take different paths.

This paper is one of the first on post-conflict tourism that analyzes the impact on a destination and country of internal turmoil due to narco-terrorism and insurgency over a lengthy period.

This chapter introduces the tourism–disaster–conflict nexus through a comprehensive review of the contemporary social science literature. After reviewing conceptual definitions of tourism, disaster and conflict, the chapter explores various axes that link through this nexus. The linkages between tourism and disaster include tourism as a trigger or amplifier of disasters, the impacts of disasters on the tourism industry, tourism as a driver of disaster recovery and disaster risk reduction strategies in the tourism sector. Linkages between tourism and conflict include the idea that tourism can be a force for peace and stability, the niche status of danger zone or dark heritage tourism, the concept of phoenix tourism in post-conflict destination rebranding, tourism and cultural conflicts, and tourism’s conflicts over land and resources. Linkages between disaster and conflict include disasters as triggers or intensifiers of civil conflict, disaster diplomacy and conflict resolution, disaster capitalism, and gender-based violence and intra-household conflict in the wake of disasters. These are some of the conversations that organise this volume, and this introductory chapter ends with a summary of the chapters that follow.

This study investigated the potential for the development of dark tourism in Lebanon, a destination that has suffered multiple crises in recent years including conflicts and the world's largest non-nuclear explosion, which devastated a large section the country's capital city, Beirut. Research was carried out using desk audit, key informant interviews and archival research, which identified 21 potential dark tourism sites that could be incorporated into a new dark tourism product as part of the recovery of Lebanon as a tourism destination. Of these 21 sites, the majority were found in Beirut, suggesting that an urban dark tourism product may be the most suitable product to develop as the country emerges from crises. However, a number of barriers would need to be overcome in order for dark tourism to contribute to a form of phoenix tourism in the country, including the engagement of diverse stakeholders, the security of international tourists in the destination, and the ability of the public sector to invest in destination marketing in the post-crisis period.

Tourism is sensitive to many factors related to security, such as terrorism and armed conflict. This scenario can be considered for Colombia and its National Natural Parks. The signing of the peace agreement with the revolutionary armed forces (FARC-EP) of Colombia that would end the armed conflict in 2016 offers economic possibilities for the country where tourism represents an important option, especially in natural areas where the government has regained control. This has had an impact on the sustained growth of tourism demand. The objective of this study is to determine the sensitivity of the tourism market in Colombia and natural parks and its relationship with the evolutionary dynamics of tourism, in a context of armed conflict. Variables related to visitors and the armed conflict were associated by autoregressive vectors, Pearson correlation test and Granger causality. A correlation of −0.5474 was found for the accumulated period from 1995 to 2018. It was also determined that the number of victims of the armed conflict is the Granger cause of the number of visitors to natural parks. The study concludes that the sensitivity of tourism in natural parks in Colombia is a consequence of State policy for the partial termination of the internal armed conflict.

This study aims to investigate the social and affective impacts of inviting residents of a socially divided, post-war city to “play tourist” for a day, exploring their own backyards with a new intentionality and perspective.

This qualitative research within a transformative worldview uses a creative, place-based approach of role-playing based upon principles of participatory action research.

While each tour was unique, participants’ insights reflected three common themes: shifts in observations and perceptions of place arising from the intentionality of the “tourist” lens, a sense of freedom created by the touristic research opportunity, and the varying abilities of tourism experiences to help build empathy or awareness in a post-conflict setting.

The inventive research approach allows for a unique examination of local tourism-styled explorations, a subject of growing interest that has largely been overlooked in literature, while paying special attention to ways in which a history of conflict may manifest in contemporary urban tourism experiences.

This introductory chapter synthesises an extensive and hot debate revolving around the role of precautionary doctrine in tourism fields. Although the industry faces serious risks and dangers, terrorism – just after 9/11 – situates as the most dangerous hazard and as a challenge for policymakers and practitioners. We have reviewed the pros and cons of the most important academic schools that focused on tourism security and risk perception theory. The urgency is given in creating a bridge between theory and practice in order to articulate the policies to the nature of each risk. Today risk perception theory lacks a robust methodological background that invariably led to a gridlock. Whether the demographic school advances in the multivariable correlation between class, ideology, income or education with risk perception, the sociological school lays the foundations towards a much deeper understanding of the impacts of risks in society. Rather, the radical turn – coming from a Marxist tradition – focuses on the limitations of risk perception theory. Finally, authors who form the psychological tradition, as stated in this chapter, highlight on the complexity of emotions and the inner world. All chapters in this book aim to provide fresh practical cases that reflect the socio-cultural background of the four continents.

Wars destroy the tourism cities by causing damages to their cultural and natural attractions. However, the post-war cities have great upward potentials to develop through careful and integrated tourism planning. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to identify the perspectives of local stakeholders on tourism development in a post-war city.

The study used qualitative methods in collecting and analysing the data while closely referring to pertinent literature. Interviews, observations and focus-group discussions have been the main data collection tools and content analysis was performed with NVivo (v.12) to analyse the data.

Analysis of interviews, focus group discussion findings and observations highlighted the availability of a plethora of tourism potentials within post-war Jaffna that include, both cultural and natural attractions: Hindu Kovils and Buddhist temples, colonial heritage, traditional cuisines and way of life, beaches, flora and fauna and sceneries. The study further identified a lack of professionals, absence of a master plan, remoteness, poor infrastructure and absence of tourist activities as main obstacles for tourism development in Jaffna. Finally, implications are forwarded based on stakeholders’ perspectives to promote post-war city tourism in Jaffna.

Wars are not common, and post-war tourism cities are rare. The present study is focused on a destination where the war has ended, causing much damages to the destination. The study evaluates the tourism potentials and challenges based on stakeholders’ perspectives and forwards implications for city tourism development despite post-war empirical glitches, which have rarely been addressed in the tourism literature.