Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism strongly supports all activities which help to promote and better understand Palestine and its people. Therefore we would like to bring to your attention the following events taking place in Palestine and the Holy Land in 2011:

The Nativity Trail

The Siraj Centre and the Alternative Tourism Group invite you to take a part in an extraordinary adventure. For twenty centuries, people have been telling the Christmas story about the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. People of all faiths can identify with the young mother-to-be, Mary, traveling by donkey with her husband Joseph, all the way from the village of Nazareth in Galilee to a distant town - a journey of many long days and nights.

Now, 2000 years later, the modern-day city of Bethlehem - home of the Millennium - invites you to make a symbolic and historic journey commemorating that event by walking Palestine's Nativity Trail.

Walking the Nativity Trail will be an opportunity to meet a diverse range of people: Franciscan priests on Mount Tabor, Muslim clerics at village mosques, Greek Orthodox monks in desert monasteries, hillside farmers and their families, small-town shopkeepers and craftspeople, Bedouin shepherds watering their flocks at ancient cisterns, and many more interesting people (visit www.atg.ps  or www.sirajcenter for more information).

The Palestinian Summer Celebration 2011

The Siraj Center in Bethlehem invites you to come and celebrate Palestine! The Palestinian Summer Celebration is a unique annual program that gives people from all over the world the chance to encounter the life, culture, and politics of Palestine. Learn Arabic and study Palestinian history at Bethlehem University, spend time with local families and volunteer with a community organization (visit www.sirajcenter.org for more information)

Inter-religious and Inter-cultural Explorations of the Holy Land 2011

Participants in this tour will explore the religious diversity and cultural richness of Israel and Palestine. We will investigate holy sites, listen to devotees, observe religious practices, delve into group beliefs and values, and ponder the religious experiences of the peoples of Israel and Palestine. Special attention will be given to the diversity of Jewish life, the vibrancy of Islam, and a selection of the indigenous Christian communities of Israel and Palestine (visit www.sirajcenter.org for more information).

Abraham’s Path-Reconnecting the Human Family Step by Step

The Abraham’s path offers the travelers a rare opportunity to go beyond the stereotypes and the headlines, to get away from the conventional Holy land itineraries, and to explore for themselves the remarkable landscape, people and culture of Palestine (visit www.abrahampath.org for more information).

Also, visit www.walkpalestine.com and www.bikepalestine.com regularly to keep up to date with various hiking and cycling trips in Palestine!

'Tourism can foster spiritual and cultural respect amongst peoples, while creating economic benefit to disadvantaged populations'.
Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

CONTOURS Vol 21, No 2 July 2011

Sustainable Tourism and CBT

‘Sustainable tourism’ has become part of the tourism discourse. However, the yardstick for assessing genuine sustainable tourism is whether it results in sustainable development, and enhances the habitat of local communities.

Those concerned with ensuring a tourism that is respectful of nature and culture will consider Community Based Tourism to be one of the best ways of implementing sustainable tourism.  It creates economic benefits for the local communities, assists with conserving resources, makes possible continuing interaction between tourists and the local people, helps with developing local capacity, and fostering greater community ownership.

Dr Peter Aderhold researching the German experience concludes that that those who might be interested in a holiday in a South destination, and would be happy ‘to stay in a small, simple hotel with typical local atmosphere’ providing ‘the closest possible contact with local people’ amounted to a sizeable 19 % of the 15.2 million potential German holidaymakers, or, more than 3 million people interested in CBT. The challenge is to develop a way forward in light of the limited availability of appropriate accommodation and destinations. In her article, Dr Kannapa Pongponrat laments how a major tourist destination such as Koh Samui in Thailand is poised to suffer ‘ a double death by sea; first by the beautiful sea that attracts unmanageable numbers of tourists, and the second by the pollution that will turn the tourists away’.  

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