Life-long Learning Memory and Sustainability of Cultural Landscape Interactive Dark Tourism under the scope of Cultural Landscape: the case of post-conflict Western Balkans HeritageForAll International Internship Program 2021 “Musealization of Cultural Identity” Dea Morina BA in Tourism and Event Management
The Balkan Peninsula has been the site of numerous conflicts, and the twentieth century saw plenty of wars with their origins in the former Yugoslavian territories. Western Balkan states with coastal areas were the first to reap the peace dividend in the late 1990s and early 2000s, using tourism to diversify their economies following the past conflicts. Although coastal tourism dominates discussions of tourism development, a desire to spread the benefits of tourism to inland communities, and to support cross-border international tourism in the Western Balkans, means that is important to consider how other forms of tourism can contribute to sustainable development. For example, tourism provides opportunities to war-torn inland areas as well, particularly on the theme of "Dark Tourism". In order to promote interactive dark tourism, the relationship between tourism and peace in the post-conflict Western Balkans ought to be investigated. Tourism development concurrent with the normalization of ethnic relations, particularly to dark tourism sites linked to post conflicts, necessitates careful stakeholder engagement to ensure that these "dark" tourism destinations contribute to the sustainable development of the Western Balkans’ cultural landscape.