Tourism, Development and International Studies - Tourism and Development: Concepts and Issues - page 421

imperialists. A political scientist may view this through the lens of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An economist may focus on the poverty in the
Middle East, of the challenges with modernisation and economic develop-
ment. Finally Anderson et al. (2013) suggest an anthropologist may examine
the cultural symbols used to recruit people into terrorist organisations.
Bringing these various disciplines together through international studies
as a way to examine tourism will be illustrated below. Before examining the
selected disciplines that Anderson et al. , (2013) suggest are applicable to inter-
national studies, it is important to note that the list of disciplines here is far
from exhaustive. Other disciplines such as psychology, sociology or business
could be added and there is also a danger of generalisations within the
selected disciplines presented below. However, the aim of this chapter is to
explore the idea that the tourism development process needs to be under-
stood within a broader context and, hence, these disciplines are used here as
an example to demonstrate this potential. It is also important to recognise
that tourism is very much an interdisciplinary field of study and the call for
a greater link with international studies may help in investigating the chal-
lenges associated with using tourism as an agent of development in the con-
text of global risks.
History
History can be examined from several perspectives that inform interna-
tional studies, including political and diplomatic history, economic history,
cultural and social history and intellectual history (Anderson et al. , 2013).
Understanding the historical accounts of conflicts such as the Arab-Israeli
conflict, the Yugoslav Civil War, or the history of the Korean Peninsula is key
to understanding present-day realities in which tourism is trying to func-
tion. On the African continent, millions have died as a result of civil wars in
Sudan, Somalia, Chad and Congo and the UN reports that Africa has the great-
est number of states that are susceptible to economic and political collapse
(Anderson et al. , 2013). Eritrea, for example, faced a 30-year war for indepen-
dence and ongoing conflict with Ethiopia over the border and the US (US
Department of State, 2013) and Canada (Government of Canada, 2014) are
just two of the countries that have issued travel warnings to the country. Sri
Lanka faced civil war for decades and the government is now trying to
develop the tourism industry. In Passekudah Bay, the government has estab-
lished a special tourism development zone where there has been an allocation
of leases for luxury hotels to build 800 rooms in order to bring in 2.5 million
tourists by 2016 (BBC, 2013c).
Geography
The study of geography brings many dimensions to international stud-
ies. Space, region and environment are three ways of geographic thinking