Building Peace through Tourism: Community Experiences from Post-Agreement Colombia

Tourism can be much more than an economic activity. In territories affected by armed conflict, it can become a means of creating livelihoods, rebuilding social relations, preserving collective memory and opening spaces for encounters between people with very different experiences of war and peace.

The event “Building Peace through Tourism: Community Experiences from Post-Agreement Colombia” brings to Eichstätt actors directly involved in developing community-based tourism initiatives connected to Colombia’s peace process. The discussion focuses on the experiences of former FARC-EP members who signed the 2016 Peace Agreement and who today participate in initiatives that link economic reintegration, territorial development, memory and reconciliation.

Doris Suárez Guzmán, signatory to the Peace Agreement, is co-founder and director of La Casa de la Paz in Bogotá. The initiative has created a space in which economic activities, memory work, culture and encounters between former combatants, victims of the conflict and other sectors of Colombian society come together. She is also involved in the Huellas initiative and the Red Tupar, which connects community-based tourism projects led by signatories to the Peace Agreement.

Esperanza Torres Alvarado (Ximena) is also a signatory to the Peace Agreement, a community leader in Agua Bonita, Caquetá, and a representative of Turipaz – Turismo Integral por la Paz. Turipaz develops tourism experiences centred on nature, community life, historical memory and the transformations taking place in a territory closely connected to the Colombian peace process.

The discussion will also include Marie Witzel, Director of the V Social Foundation, and David Gómez, researcher and peace and conflict professional at V Social Foundation. Their work supports community-based tourism initiatives and examines how tourism can strengthen local economies while contributing to longer-term processes of peacebuilding and reconciliation.

Rather than presenting tourism simply as a development strategy, the event will discuss the possibilities and challenges that arise when tourism becomes part of a broader transformation of territories affected by conflict: How can former combatants develop sustainable livelihoods? How can tourism contribute to changing stigmatizing perceptions of territories and their inhabitants? What role can encounters between visitors and local communities play in processes of memory and reconciliation? And under what conditions can tourism genuinely support locally rooted peacebuilding?

The event provides an opportunity to discuss these questions through the experiences of actors directly involved in the implementation of the Peace Agreement and in the everyday construction of peace in Colombia.

Event information

Date: 15 October 2026
Time: 11:00 AM–1:00 PM
Venue: Room 017-105, Eichstätt
Language: English

Moderator: Dr. Luis Peña, Scientific Coordinator, ZILAS

The event is organized by ZILAS in collaboration with the V Social Foundation and the Colombian Tourism, Peace and Reconciliation Network (Red Tupar).