Tourism: A Tool for Crafting Peace Process in Kashmir, J&K, India

Abstract

Among the positive benefits attri¬buted to the social and cultural aspects of tourism are the promotion of good¬will, understanding and peace among people across cultures. The role of tourism as an ambassador and vehicle of international understand¬ing and peace has even been acknowledged by the Un¬ited Nations. World Tourism Conference in 1960 in Manila has de¬clared that tourism as a vital force for world peace since it brings both “hosts” and “guests” together to learn about peace by understanding and appreciating diverse cultural issues. Kashmir despite of a major tourist destination, the spread of terrorism especially during the last two decades have hindered the smooth growth of tourism industry. Thus following the principle of tourism as a strategic tool to counter terrorism, the present research is conducted to study the tourism’s contribution to the peace building in Kashmir in terms of residents’ and tourists’ perception. The research concludes that tourism has a significant contribution towards peace building in the study area and the study also suggests a strategic model based on developing guest-host relationship