Tourism and Unity: two sides of the same coin

The different countries of the world are moving closer, not only due to technological advances but also for political and economic reasons. There are now regional groups of considerable size, such as the European Union and  ASEAN. But there are also transcontinental groupings. The recent conferences in Bandung and Brazil are two good examples. Asian and African countries met in Indonesia last April to mark the 50^th anniversary of the  Bandung Conference; the conference that heralded the term “Third World” and paved the way for “The Non-Aligned Movement”. The political climate of the day made political and ideological concerns the main topic of the conference.

But  Bandung concentrated on trade co-operation between Asia and Africa. Similarly, the first Arab-Latin American summit took place in Brasilia last May with the participation of 33 countries. Political rhetoric did not hinder the strong economic orientation of the summit. Despite the lack of official Arab responses, the private sector had a strong presence and many bilateral agreements on different business fronts were signed.

These conferences are good news for tourism. The more countries start to come together, the more opportunities there will be  for  people to move about and benefit from closer co-operation. There will also be investment in education and media programs that will aim at highlighting these countries and create an atmosphere of understanding between them. The hope will be to remove all sorts of prejudices that tarnish ‘the others’ image and prevent a healthy dialogue and peaceful co-existence. Unfortunately, the Islamic world is not providing  a good example on this front and the sectarian divide is looming large. A new enlightened spirit and culture has to emerge in the Islamic world to counter the prejudices and sectarian evils  that  dominate its people.

Finally, water is becoming a scarce commodity and future disagreements between nations may revolve around it. Our present issue moves away from the political debate to concentrate on the  tourism potential of marshes, oases and rivers. In a wide range of articles, the reader will have a tour of the Thames in the UK,  the Iraqi marshes, backwaters in India and oases across the Arab world. This is the first time we concentrated on one topic and we hope to do the same with other tourist attractions and issues in  future.

Dr. Abdul-Rahim Hassan
Editor-in-Chief