Workshop on "Tourism in the Arab World – Social, Economic and Spatial Development", Hamburg, 2 December 2006
The one-day workshop is combined with the "13th International Congress on Contemporary Research in the Middle East" organised by the German Middle East Studies Association (DAVO) in Hamburg, 30 November – 2 December 2006 (see http://davo.uni-mainz.de)
Tourism is one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy in the Arab world. It repre-sents an important pillar of the economic and social development strategies in countries with long-established mass tourism like Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. Tourism was also a booming sector and source of hope for the economic recovery in Lebanon before the recent war. New destinations for international tourism are being created as more and more Arab countries like Libya or Saudi Arabia are opening their tourism markets. On the other hand, tourism serves as a means of economic, social, spatial and urban transformation in the Gulf. Waterfront development projects reshape large parts of the Gulf coastline and mushroom all over the Arab shores from Oman to Morocco.
It is the aim of the workshop to describe and explain the structural changes reshaping the social, economic and spatial structure of the Arab world. In addition to analysing the impact of this development on specific Arab countries, papers are also welcome which study tourism from various regional and global perspectives and apply different theoretical concepts.
High quality papers will be published in English in an edited book. Therefore, English papers and discussions are strongly encouraged. Generally, 20 minutes will be allowed for each presentation followed by 10 minutes for discussion. The workshop will end with a plenary session, which is intended to conclude with some general findings.
Please send your abstracts (about 300 words) before 1 October 2006 to g.meyer@geo.uni-mainz.de. Authors will be informed about the acceptance of their proposals for papers before 10 October 2006.
Further information: Prof. Guenter Meyer, Centre for Research on the Arab World (CERAW), University of Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany,Tel.: 0049-(0)6131-3922701, Fax: 0049-(0)6131-3924736, e-mail: g.meyer@geo.uni-mainz.de