Rami K. Isaac

Understanding visitor's motivation at sites of death and disaster: the case of former transit camp Westerbork, the Netherlands

This study begins to fill the gap in research of peoples motivations to visit sites of death and suffering and to contribute to a deeper understanding of dark tourism consumption within dark conflict sites. The article aims to examine the motivations of visitors to former transit camp Westerbork as an iconic dark site in the Netherlands. The research process involved a self-administered survey questionnaire filled by 238, randomly selected Dutch visitors. Data are analysed by means of exploratory factor analysis to decide upon the relevant factors for representing the motivations of visitors to Westerbork. The findings show that people visit Westerbork mainly for ‘self-understanding’, ‘curiosity’, ‘conscience’, a ‘must see’ this place and ‘exclusiveness’. This is the first study to examine visitors’ motivations to Westerbork as a dark site. Most research on visitor motivations is not based on empirical data, but on theoretical research.

Alternative tourism: new forms of tourism in Bethlehem for the Palestinian tourism industry

War and conflict are usually seen as major hindrances to travel and tourism. The daily diet of war and conflict stories that have emanated from the second uprising (Intifada), give the impression that the tourism industry is the least likely sector to flourish. This article provides an overview of some of the alternative forms of tourism found in the literature on tourism and attempts to contextualise the form of tourism it is exploring. It starts by setting a definitional context of tourism and political instability, which is followed by visiting alternative tourism and the different forms of it as well as the analysis of tourism industry in Palestine and finally the examination of new forms of tourism in Bethlehem and the surrounded areas.

Have we illuminated the dark? Shifting perspectives on ‘dark’ tourism

It is almost 20 years since the idea of dark tourism was introduced into tourism studies, which was still predominantly viewed as a fun-based activity with a potential for a beneficent cross-cultural understanding. The suggestion that it could have dark attributes was both novel and shocking. Once introduced, the idea offered new insights into the tourist experience. It promised to open up new connections with many facets of human sensation and behaviour and also an intellectual framework to assist the management of multi-used tourism sites. This paper will examine the promise of the idea as it evolved through the work of numerous scholars who developed and refined the concept and discovered new applications for it and will explain how the focus, which initially was to identify and catalogue dark sites, has shifted towards the motivation, subsequent experience and consequent behaviour of the tourist in relation to the sites.

Moving from Pilgrimage to 'dark' tourism: Leveraging Tourism in Palestine

traveling to places associated with death is not a new phenomenon. People have long been drawn, purposefully or otherwise, towards sites, attractions, and events linked in one way or another with death, suffering, violence, or disaster. war-related attractions, though diverse, are a subset of the totality of tourist sites associated with death and suffering. this article aims to assess how “dark” tourism may play a role in leveraging tourism in Palestine, which has largely relied on pilgrimage tourism in the past. this article investigates the potential for developing this form of tourism, since Palestine has been undergoing death, suffering, violence, or disaster through political tension and instability since 1948 and arguably for a generation earlier, but has not yet developed a strategy for tourism development that considers this type of tourism.

Moving from pilgrimage to responsible tourism: the case of Palestine

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Palestine has seen complicated changes in its political circumstances, most notably the creation of Israel in 1948 and the 1967 war, where Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These events have created catastrophic political, economic and social facts which deeply affected the life of the Palestinian people. In this context, tourism became a political tool in the supremacy and domination of the Israeli establishment over land, and people, and an instrument for preventing the Palestinians from enjoying the benefits and the fruits of cultural and human interaction on which tourism thrives. Israel controls all access to Palestine (land and sea borders), most of the Palestinian water resources and all movements of people and goods from, to and within Palestine. This article assesses the role that tourism may play in promoting peace by presenting the Palestinian Initiative for Responsible Tourism – code of conduct – and its contribution to peace. In addition, issues of sustainability and the triple bottom line will be evaluated which could go a long way towards healing some of the divisions in the Palestinian/Israeli society.

Holocaust concentration camp memorial sites: an exploratory study into expected emotional response

This study explored Dutch peoples expected intensity of emotional responses of a potential visit to a concentration camp memorial site in the Netherlands. A total of 1050 online panel members participated in a questionnaire that contained a 33-item emotion scale. Results reveal that individuals with a closeness to the Holocaust expect to feel most emotions more intensely, specifically emotions that are traditionally considered ‘positive’, such as pride, love, joy, inspiration, excitement and affection. Overall, respondents expect to feel disgust, shock, compassion and sadness the strongest. Those who look from the viewpoint of the offenders mainly expect to feel emotions that are traditionally considered ‘negative’, whereas those who took the point of view of the victims also expect a more ‘positive’ emotional reaction to the visit. Managerial implications address aspects of education, storytelling and authenticity.

Alternative Tourism: Can the Segregation Wall in Bethlehem be a Tourist Attraction?

Safety, serenity and stability are conceived of as obvious fundamentals to deem a destination attractive for tourists, especially when instability such as in Palestine and Israel is tied to hostilities. The daily diet of war and conflict stories that have emanated from the first and second Intifadas gives the impression that the tourism industry is the least likely sector to thrive in a nation occupied by Israeli troops. This research note reflects on the possibility of creating an alternative tourism based around the segregation wall, which Israel has built on Palestinian land in the city of Bethlehem.

Master of Arts in Pilgrimage and Tourism

ABSTRACT Pilgrimage and hospitality have been a defining feature of the economy and society of the Holy Land and Palestine for 2000 years. The economic infrastructure of Bethlehem itself has been built on the foundations of the needs of visitors to the town. Hotels and restaurants, olive wood souvenirs makers and tourist vendors, guides, as well as cultural industries such as museums, archaeological and exhibition sites, have all provided employment for the city. This paper describes the final module of the TEMPUS programme “research papers” combined with the first tourism conference in Bethlehem University and the implications of this conference for the Palestinian tourism industry.

An Exploratory Study: Justice Tourism in Controversial Areas. The Case of Palestine

Justice tourism is emerging as a social phenomenon worthy of further critical examination and conceptualisation. Justice tourism can be described as a form of purposeful travel directly aiming to meet criteria of social, political and environmental sustainability. Although, many of the concepts falling under justice tourism have been around since the emergence of alternative tourism, it has only recently been accepted as a form in its own right and given a name. This research note explores what a justice tourist is, and addresses the question of whether justice tourism is an identifiable form of tourism activity in Palestine.

The Tourism Structures in Central Vietnam: Towards a Destination Management Organisation

Abstract This study begins to fill the gap in tourism literature in examining the tourism structures from the perspective of a socialist-market economy with a single-party political system like Vietnam. At present, Central Vietnam (CV) has three different types of administrative layers and existing different tourism structures of destination management organisations (DMOs), like co-operations of public and private stakeholders in juxtaposition with each other, which do not achieve an effective target-oriented co-operation for enhancing the destinations competitiveness. Therefore, this paper aims to analyse the existing organisational tourism structures in CV under the aspect of tourism stakeholder co-operation in order to find out which structures and types of co-operation appear as the most efficient ones in CV and which structures would add most value to the region, with the goal for enhancing tourism management in CV. The research process involved a field research as well as in-depth interviews with public and private stakeholders in CV. The findings revealed that all stakeholders perceive CV as one destination. It is recommended to establish one single “DMO CV” as Public Private Partnership, which shall be responsible for CV, with the tasks including sustainable tourism development and to position CV as a strongly competitive destination.