discourses can contribute to the construction of that symbolize violence, destruction, and death.
a national “great narrative”, help to impose an The challenges are economic development and the
official version of the past or give a positive image attractiveness of the territory. The promotion of
of authoritarian political regimes. An example France, a first touristic destination in the world,
for this, among many others, comes from Alicia on the international scene as a “destination
Fuentes Vega’s work on the role tourism played in of remembrance” allows the State to promote
the rehabilitation of the Franco regime after the civic values and to foster active diplomacy while
Second World War, and more specifically through encouraging tourisme as a tool of economical
the conversion of a fascist landmark, the monument development. As shown by the french case, tourism
known as Valley of the Fallen, into a tourist site and culture professionals, communication experts,
through a heritagisation process (Fuentes Vega, marketing agencies scenographers, architects –not
2017). to forget the tourism industry – are from now on
Tourism can thus be considered as one of the
fully involved in the processes of remembrance
contemporary modalities (resulting from the spread tourism development. The promotion, marketing
of global capitalism) for producing public discourse and tourism planification processes lead to new
on the past at many levels of scale. From the scale kinds of partnerships between these stakeholders
of states to that of cities, regions or departments, and more traditional memory “entrepreneurs”,
memory tourism policies are a way of producing such as historians, associations, veteran or
official or dominant narratives in the public space political actors. New kinds of power struggles and
and promote identities. conflicts of legitimacies thus characterizes these
Patrick Naef has shown the role of tourism in
complex partnerships, as these stakeholders show
the invention of some cities as “martyred cities” divergent interests – not only because they do not
in the Balkans (Naef, 2016). The selective process all necessarily share the same version of history
of valorization of places (what is worth seeing) (conflicting appropriation of the past) but also
also makes it possible to promote a territorial because they do not develop the same relation
ideology that allows inscribing the legitimacy of and attachment to places, and objectives in their
some dominant groups or powers. Maps, itineraries, development (conflicting appropriation of the space).
tourist guides and, in recent decades, digital tools
The paradigms of peace, reconciliation, and
can be the vectors in the process of invisibility resilience have become part of a global frame in
of certain social groups. In some cases, tourism contemporary mediation and tourism narratives.
accentuates the phenomenon of marginalization of Wars and conflicts that have been largely
minorities, as illustrated by the case of Israel, where reinterpreted through the narratives of “shared
the Arab-Muslim memories are often excluded in memories”, which emerged at the beginning of the
the tourism mediation of some places of memory; 2000s under the influence of UNESCO. Meaning that
moreover, Arab visitors are no longer welcome war leads to shared disasters and responsibilities
on certain places of memory previously shared, for all nations and people involved, the “shared
as shown some works on Rachel’s Tomb near memories” paradigms introduce a new vision of war
Bethlehem (Selwyn, 2011, Bowman, 2013). memory, in rupture with the patriotic, aggressive
The French case of the construction of a policy
and militarized approach. It is often considered
of remembrance tourism is indicative of the plurality as a “denationalized” approach of war memory
of issues at stake. Preferred to “war tourism” or suitable for present diplomatic goals achievements
“battlefield tourism”, the use of the notion of and development of international tourism. Yet,
“remembrance tourism” (tourisme de mémoire) this is not always the case. In some conflict areas,
suggests an acceptable, sustainable and positive such as South Lebanon controlled by Hezbollah,
vision of tourism, although associated with places tourism development is widely war-oriented, as
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