Tourism and reconciliation in an enduring rivalry: The case of Kartarpur Corridor on India–Pakistan border

Abstract

This study aims to position the role of the Kartarpur corridor, a unique collaborative visa-free setting situated on the international border between Pakistan and India, as an interactional performative platform between tourists from both of the countries within the theoretical streams of tourism-peace studies. Classical grounded theory approach was considered that involved interviews from Pakistani and Indian tourists and service personnel in the Kartarpur setting. The findings add to the discursive discourses on the relevance of the contact-hypothesis in the debate surrounding the tourism-peace nexus within the novel setting of Kartarpur. Further, it evidences the evolving role of geo-political discourses in tourist encounters and signifies the relevance of memory-heritagization in relation to reconciliation tourism. It steers the debate towards relatively underutilized discourse of tourist identity as a pivotal tenet in the tourism-peace connection. The findings offer implications for the policy makers, practitioners and destination marketing organizations of divided nations.