Tourism in Conflict Areas: Complex Entanglements in Jordan.

In this article the workings of tourism in areas of socio-political turmoil are critically examined. In so doing the aim is to scrutinize interconnections between tourism, safety and conflict as I contend that tourism, tourists and the danger generated by ongoing socio-political conflicts are intimately connected. The empirical focus is on tourism in Jordan, a country in a region troubled by ongoing conflicts. Fieldwork for this project was carried out in 2009 and 2010 and data was collected from local tourism industry representatives and international tourists in Jordan. Findings indicate that a safety/danger binary is destabilized by industry representatives who operate a ‘sanitization’ process in Jordan meant to erase danger and conflicts from tourism spaces. Tourists in the region also disrupt this binary as they travel to the region in spite of the conflict and downplay violent incidents.