Toward Decolonization in Tourism: Engaged Tourism and the Jerusalem Tourism Cluster

Tourism in Jerusalem, particularly through the lens of the Old City, serves as a tool that perpetuates colonial narratives and power imbalances between Israelis and Palestinians. This study highlights how different tour guides—one Israeli and one Palestinian—present contrasting narratives about the city's religious and political landscape, revealing the embedded colonial dynamics in tourism practices. The research demonstrates that tourism normalizes dominant, often Orientalist, narratives while erasing Palestinian perspectives, thereby reinforcing colonial structures. By comparing two distinct tours, the study exposes how power relations shape historical and contemporary perceptions of Jerusalem, suggesting that engaged tourism can challenge and decolonize these narratives.

Vanden Boer, D. (2016). Toward Decolonization in Tourism: Engaged Tourism and the Jerusalem Tourism Cluster. Jerusalem Quarterly, (65), 9. https://doi.org/10.70190/jq.i65.p9