Reizen naar Vrede? Een verkenning van de relaties tussen ‘grassroots’ toerisme en vredesopbouw in de (post)conflictlandschappen in Colombia

Which development strategies are best suited to support the recovery of societies torn by civil war? Tourism is increasingly promoted by both academics and practitioners as a key sector in such contexts. Grassroots tourism approaches, in particular, are seen as highly effective in supporting peacebuilding by shaping the collective memory of the conflict, facilitating cooperation between former enemies, and providing spaces to process emotional trauma. However, this focus on healing and reconciliation presents an oversimplified picture of a much more complex phenomenon, creating unrealistic expectations of bottom-up development as inherently emancipatory and conciliatory. This research challenges these established assumptions and offers a more nuanced understanding of the interconnections between peacebuilding and grassroots tourism in conflict-affected areas. By integrating tourism studies with critical insights from peace studies and political geography, I delve deeper into the conflicts within 'post-conflict' contexts. Based on empirical qualitative research in Colombia—a country striving to overcome decades of armed violence—this research analyses three scenarios where grassroots tourism emerged after the demobilisation of major illegal armed groups. It focuses on tourism initiatives by small farmers returning to land they were forced to leave due to war, former guerrilla fighters attempting to reintegrate into civilian life, and conflict-stricken communities carving a livelihood from tourism under the rule of the country's largest drug cartel. The thesis demonstrates that grassroots tourism initiatives are not an indisputable indication of participatory peacebuilding and do not always aim to reduce underlying tensions. Instead, they can reintroduce (non-violent) conflict as a necessary condition for peace with social justice. In doing so, this research advances the field of post-conflict tourism by providing insights into how tourism helps contest, transform, and conceal power structures in the aftermath of war and how tourism is used as a spatial strategy to support the territorial goals of new powerholders. In a broader sense, the thesis contributes to discussions on post-conflict reconstruction by offering a deeper understanding of the role of grassroots development in peacebuilding, which is crucial in an increasingly conflict-prone world.