Two candles to enlighten the pathways of tourism
With the publication of this issue, Islamic Tourism would have completed two years of its life. The eight issues that have been published so far are concrete examples of what we intend to do for tourism and a good indication of things to come. Islamic Tourism has been bourn out of a clear foresight of the need for a bridge between East and West in a world where we find polarizations and tensions on all levels of global relations. We have presented Eastern, Islamic heritage to a wide readership and also introduced common heritage of human achievement to be found in Western countries. Good examples of the latter are the Islamic treasures in Holland in the fifth issue and the article on Granada in the present issue.
The magazine has paid special attention not only to the well known tourist destinations but also new destinations and much forgotten ones, for example: Iraq, Kuwait and Djibouti. The head of our office in Cairo has just finished a tour of several African countries and you can read his reports in this and the coming issues. We are also going to keep our focus on Iraq. The magazine is ken to attend regional and international exhibitions. You can find reports of some of these exhibitions in this issue. However, the magazine noticed during its participation in the MTF in Cairo that there is a decline in the number of visitors from the relevant backgrounds and we point out the need for more attention to this matter because exhibitions are indicators of the state of tourism and they play major role in promoting tourism. We are determined to persist with our effort in providing a forum for tourism in the Muslim world and to encourage tourism between Muslim countries as well as between these countries and the rest of the world.
Dr. Abdul-Rahim Hassan Editor-in-Chief
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