Border tourism attractions as a space for presenting and symbolizing peace.

Abstract

This chapter traces the origins of political borders and analyses border visitor attractions as symbols of interstate cooperation (actual or desired). It differentiates among one-sided attractions (where borders remain closed), those at formerly closed borders (often commemorative in nature) and trans-border peace parks (involving high levels of cooperation in administration and conservation), and emphasizes the importance of the peace element in each of them.

Does Tourism Really Lead to Peace? A Global View

“…The establishment of peace parks are another tourism‐oriented strategy designed to foster peace between bordering countries (Gelbman, ; Gelbman & Maoz, ). Peace parks can also be established to commemorate the end of war between two states and hence serve as dark tourism sites (Ballantyne, Kang, Lee, & Scott, ).…”

Tourist lodging, spatial relations, and the cultural heritage of borderlands

“…Chan, 2006;Gelbman, 2010;Timothy, 2001;Wachowiak, 2006;Więckowski, 2010), the relationships between borders and tourism-specific services have been virtually ignored by scholars. Exceptions include a set of studies that examined people's motives for crossing international frontiers to dine in "foreign" restaurants or the barriers that inhibit people from doing so (Lord, Putrevu, & Parsa, 2004;Lord, Putrevu, & Zheng, 2006).…”

“…Research on political boundaries and tourism indicates that many international frontiers and their adjacent borderlands are important tourist attractions, with most studies suggesting that their appeal is rooted in the socio-cultural, political and economic differences that exist on opposite sides of the boundary (Askew & Cohen, 2004;Gelbman, 2008Gelbman, , 2010Gelbman & Timothy, 2011;Prokkola, 2007;Timothy, 1995;Więckowski, 2010). This has led to the development of various types of "border tourism" products, including shopping, gambling, prostitution, other recreational pursuits, and medical care.…”

The Visual Representation of Border Tourism: Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) and Dokdo in South Korea

“…Understanding borders as social constructions rather than geopolitical boundaries means that borderlands become sites that symbolically recategorize ‘here and there’ or the ‘us versus them’ to maintain or revise economic, nationalistic or cultural interests (Newman, ). Tourism developers and tourists recognize borderlands as symbolic cultural landscapes loaded with iconic sites and attractions that reflect the public memory (Gelbman, , ). Moreover, this memory is often focused on the past or ongoing wars, or territorial conflicts that have formed the border.…”

“…325) or work as a ‘fear and hope’ mechanism (Gelbman, ) for transforming the borderland and generating sympathetic interest from abroad. Moreover, it is as thus that tourism can work to symbolically transform borderlands by focusing on other historical events, features and functions of the landscape or new services and markets (Gelbman, ). Representations downplay (Figal, ) or diversify (Vitic and Ringer, ) the conflict‐related image.…”