Phoenix Tourism: Post-Conflict Tourism Role

This paper explores the processes affecting tourism development following a major political conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). The adopted critical theory analytical approach resulted in the identification of phoenix tourism, conceptualised as a distinctive period in post-conflict tourism development. Instead of locating tourism in the context of economic enhancement, tourism is located in the context of social renewal of the destination and its people. Although post-conflict tourism is usually conceptualised under dark tourism scholarship, phoenix tourism is not proposed as a type of tourism, but as a role given to tourism in a process through which conflict issues develop into a new heritage.

Research highlights► Post conflict tourism in the context of the renewal of the destination and its people. ► War inherited sites’ transformation into a cultural heritage through catharsis. ► Phoenix tourism & social catharsis: emotional precursor to harder forms of economics. ► Critical theory approach, challenging normative assumptions of tourism theory.