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IIPT World
Tourism Day Event Focuses On Impact of Conflicts on
Tourism and Women (Sydney,
Australia, 28 September 2007) The stark realities
of conflict situations and the impact on tourism
were vividly illustrated in presentations made at a
World Tourism Day event organized by IIPT-Australia
Chapter in conjunction with Australia Travel and
Tourism Professionals and Intrepid Travel. Post
conflict transition consultant and Commonwealth
scholar, Nimalan Karthikeyan, spoke about the
situation in Sri Lanka and Intrepid Travel's
Responsible Travel Manager, Jane Crouch, about her
experiences in East Timor. Both
speakers spoke about the potential and economic
importance of tourism, the role and position of
women in society and how tourism could open doors
for women and provide additional income to help
support families. However, progress in recent
times has been significantly negated by the
internal conflicts in both
countries. Karthikeyan
pointed out that Sri Lanka's patriarchal society
already presented difficulties for women, but this
paled in significance when compared to the major
problems resulting from the internal conflict in
Sri Lanka's northeast, where there are 47,500 war
widows and 30,000 households headed by a
female. In
a country that had been traumatized by conflict for
so long, Crouch spoke about her post independence
discussions with the East Timorese to discover
their attitudes towards tourism. She then
accompanied the first small group of travellers to
East Timor in May 2003 and subsequent groups
organized by Intrepid Travel. Last year,
Crouch took long service leave and went as an
Australian Aid Volunteer to work with the Timor
Leste Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assist in the
development of tourism. Unfortunately, with
the outbreak of internal conflict and fighting she
had to be evacuated after only 12
days. However,
she later returned to East Timor to work as PA for
Timor Leste's first lady, Kirsty Sword Gusmao and
her Alola Foundation, which assists women and
children. Once again, as in Sri Lanka, armed
conflicts result in a growing number of widows and
children who have lost their breadwinners.
Added to the problems associated with the loss of
husbands and fathers, is that most Timorese
families are large with 8-10
children. In
his WTD Message, UNWTO Secretary-General Francesco
Frangialli said, "One of the most important
characteristics of tourism is its great capacity to
create employment for women and for youth and
particularly at a community level in poor
countries. This is a major potential for
responding to the war on poverty." IIPT
Australian president Daphne Lowe Kelley stressed
the importance of building a culture of peace and
not war, and that building a culture of peace
through tourism is a journey that the travel and
tourism industry could take in helping to make a
more peaceful, just and sustainable world for
all. Since
its formation in 1986, IIPT Founder and
President Louis D'Amore has led the way in
promoting a "higher purpose" of tourism, with the
belief that Travel and Tourism can be the world's
first global peace industry and every traveller is
potentially an Ambassador for Peace. About
International Institute for Peace through Tourism
(IIPT) IIPT
is dedicated to fostering and facilitating tourism
initiatives which contribute to international
understanding and cooperation, an improved quality
of environment, the preservation of heritage, and
poverty reduction, and through these initiatives,
help bring about a more peaceful and sustainable
world. For
more information on IIPT please visit:
www.iipt.org. Media
Contact: Karen Hoffman, The Bradford Group.
Email Media
Contact - IIPT Australia Chapter: Daphne Lowe
Kelley Email |
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As
designated by the World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO), the main purpose of World Tourism Day (27
September) is to foster awareness among the
international community of the importance of
tourism and its social, cultural, political and
economic values. Each year there is a
different host country and theme &endash; this
year's host country was Sri Lanka (an active UNWTO
Member for 30 years) with the theme, Tourism opens
doors for Women. 
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