ETHICAL TOURISM &
CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY

The Transformation of a Travel Company

Tearfund Conference
31st October 2000
Friends Meeting House, Euston Road, London



1. What are the main ethical challenges faced in Holy Land tourism?

In 1994 following the completion of post graduate research into the impact of pilgrimages upon the indigenous Palestinian Christian community, and some experience of leading "alternative" tours to the Holy Land, I was invited to become a Director and Trustee of Highway Journeys, a Christian travel company and charitable Trust. During the following year the company was re-launched with a revised mission statement, materials, and itineraries. This presentation will summarise Highways attempts to fulfil its Christian responsibility to facilitate ethical tourism. I would like to begin with the wider context and describe the different kinds of pilgrimage.


Types of Pilgrimage Emphasis of the Tour Effect on Indigenous Church
Evangelical Biblical Sites of the Past Indifference and ignorance
Fundamentalist Eschatological Signs of the Future Antipathy and antagonism
Living Stones Human Significance in the Present Empathy and solidarity

 

Figure 1. Types of Protestant Christian Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

The litmus test for distinguishing between responsible and irresponsible Holy Land tourism is, it is suggested, the attitude of the organisers and participants toward the indigenous Christian Church. Are they visible or invisible? Are they respected or repudiated? Visited or ignored?

Types of Tour Operator Nature of Tour Offered Effect on Indigenous

Christians

Secular Specialist Package Holiday Irrelevant
Christian Biblical Archaeology & Sites Ignored
Israeli or Zionist Bible from Jewish Perspective Antagonistic
Living Stones Encountering the People Encouragement

Categories of Holy Land Tour Operators

For pilgrimage groups and organisers, to ignore the presence of a local Christian community, is a perversion of what pilgrimage could and should be about. It is ultimately to treat the Holy Land as an entertaining religious theme park, and will only hasten the day when the indigenous Christians become extinct in the Holy Land, their heritage forgotten and their churches turned into museums.



Three Major Deficiencies Inherent in the Majority of Western Protestant Pilgrimages



Summary of Ethical Decisions Faced by Holy Land Tour Operators and Group Leaders
2. What has Highway done differently?
2.1 Before
: An Appraisal of Highway Holidays Prior to 1994

The transformation of the Company can best be illustrated by an analysis of tour brochures published by Highway over the past ten years. The 1991 brochure, for example, describes Highway's then, ethical policy.

The only significant addition to the 1991 brochure was the decision to place pilgrims on a Kibbutz at the Ein Gev Holiday Village on the Sea of Galilee, allowing, "...you to experience at first hand the meaning of Kibbutz life, while enjoying stimulating trips to ancient Christian sites.


This unfortunate sentence alone could not have better epitomised the impression the Israeli Government wishes to perpetuate among pilgrims, namely the juxtaposition of contemporary Jewish life and archaeological Christian sites. It is their intention that Christian pilgrims associate the land with the contemporary State of Israel and relegate Christianity to the museum and distant history. Nothing in this or previous brochures indicated Highway were any different from the other Holy Land travel operators in Britain. Helen Drinkwater, then Managing Director said,

2.2 After : Highway Journeys and responsible tourism

Late in 1994, following the appointment of three new Directors a revised mission statement and brochure were published reflecting a radical change in the ethical agenda of the company. The name was changed to Highway Journeys to express something of the change in emphasis. Publicity included, for the first time, an explicit acknowledgement of the presence of, and need to support, the indigenous Christian community of the Holy Land. In 1994 only one other Operator, McCabe Travel made any reference to this commitment in their brochure. The 1995 Highway Mission Statement and brochure made reference to four "essential" dimensions which, "We build into every tour we arrange". Spiritual growth; Educational value; Contact with local people; and Personal refreshment. The third 'essential' was explained in the following terms:

The Mission Statement added, "We believe it is our commitment to these four areas which make Highway unique." This is how three of the Directors described their commitment to responsible tourism.

Ethical Travel? I think it's to do with contributing to rather than just taking from. Contributing to a situation rather than just going in order to take from, whether it's photographs… or experiences… you have to go out there to encounter and to ask questions of what is going on, and then on reflection, when you get back home you can do more because you have been there and you've begun to understand… and interact with people in another part of the world. (Ian White, 1997)

Summary of Highway's understanding of Responsible Tourism to the Holy Land

The re-launch of Highway Journeys, based on a commitment to responsible tourism, was vital for the Company to retain its distinctive place within what is a very competitive and volatile tourism market. For the first time in the 32 year history of the Company, the vital importance of pilgrims encountering the indigenous Christians during their pilgrimage was made explicit.

3. What has been the impact?
3.1 The impact on the indigenous Christians

Audeh Rantisi describes his experience of the small number of groups that occasionally came to visit the Evangelical Boys Home in Ramallah in 1994.

There is a difference between a pilgrim and a tourist. A tourist comes to see ruins and they go back ruined, a pilgrim comes in order to see the living and see the places too, so he goes back with a burden after he has met us.

Elias Chacour who founded the Prophet Elias School in Ibillin describes the impact tour groups have in his community.

Your visit to Ibillin was not just a courtesy visit but an act of solidarity with your brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to know that you care and we are not forgotten. We have been deprived for 50 years.

Personal contact with Christian pilgrims is something Canon Naim Ateek of Sabeel in Jerusalem, sees as "wonderful in itself", since as hosts, they long to welcome believers from all over the world.

We could begin to really break many barriers, the barriers of falsehood, of wrong information, of stereotypes, and then to open up to the truth, the truth of the life of the Christian community.

The benefit of greater contact is not all one way. Bishop Riah describes the mutual enrichment both receive, as pilgrimage becomes "not only a pilgrimage to the stones but a pilgrimage with the Living Stones". At the Anglican school in Nazareth, Riah explained,


I allow the teachers a few minutes to welcome our brothers and sisters from the U.K. or America and they go and sit with the kids and share...You are building a relationship, you are seeing human beings of the same family of Christ, with a different colour, or a different ethnic background, with a different language....and yet they are praising the same Lord
.

One Christian Palestinian tour operator described his hopes.

Before the 19th Century when people had to walk from one place to another and they had no alternative but to stay with Christian families even if they were not able to speak the language, yet they were able to detect the homes of the Christians from the sign of the cross on the front of the house. Pilgrims dined with them and stayed with them overnight, and they were guided by people from one place to another and that is what we are trying to get back to...whereby the pilgrim will be a real pilgrim.

3.2 Feedback from British pilgrims

Comments from those participating in a traditional Evangelical pilgrimage conducted in 1993 included the following,

"Beside the Sea of Galilee in the open air. It just seemed to bring it all alive in the simplest possible way. There were no buildings, nothing like that. You could just imagine walking down there with Jesus."


"Some things were quite stunning - the view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, the view of Jerusalem from Gethsemane, the Garden Tomb and the Engedi Spring."


"The Garden Tomb, that was very meaningful, and the Service we had there and the time of meditation there. The Sea of Galilee and the area of the feeding of the 5,000 and Communion by the lake.

By contrast the lasting memories of those participating on a Living Stones pilgrimage focused on a very different landscape.




4. What have been the difficulties and constraints?


The Living Stones sector is still relatively undeveloped, under financed, less sophisticated and marginalized by the Israeli Tourist Board who are indifferent or in competition with it. Meeting with the Palestinian Christians, sometimes in relatively unsafe locations like Hebron and Gaza brings an added element of risk, nervousness and discomfort, especially when impeded or discouraged by the Israeli military. Nevertheless it can bring a unique historical and theological "authenticity" to pilgrimages, a cross-cultural exchange and a genuine spiritual encounter with believers who have worshipped, suffered and witnessed in the wounded land of Jesus for two thousand years.

Whether holding such an ethical stance will result in an increased market share for Highway Journeys, or for any other Operator is questionable. Whether such an initiative will bring about a change to the wider Holy Land tourism market is difficult to predict. I have no illusions about the impact we will make on the secular market or those who control the tourism industry in Israel. It is indeed quite likely that the majority of church leaders will continue to want to lead tours that avoid such controversial distractions and keep to the well worn path of archaeological sites and pietistic encounters. It is rewarding, however, to see the impact Living Stones tours make upon both participants and local Christians.


The essential task for those who aspire to promote responsible tourism and religious pilgrimages to Israel and the Occupied Territories is to face the twofold challenge of discovering and then implementing ways and means by which the tourism industry can bring benefit to the Christian communities. They need contact and work while we need local guides, hotels, and transport services. If we are to avoid the creation of a Christian Disney World managed by expatriates but devoid of indigenous Christians, it is imperative that these communities be given the opportunity to become self-sustaining, ensuring not merely their survival into the next millennium but also their growth and prosperity. Solidarity and partnership through responsible tourism is one answer.