20 Aug 2026
Peace Tourism Comes of Age at the PATA Travel Mart 2026
Kuching, Malaysia — The cause of “Peace Tourism” came of age at the PATA Travel Mart 2026 in Kuching.
For the first time, a Korean group devoted to promoting Peace Tourism as a “way to build understanding and trust through the simple act of travel” exhibited at this annual travel show. As clearly stated in its flyer, the South-North Korea Exchanges and Cooperation Support Association (SONOSA) believes that “even when dialogue stalls, tourism keeps connecting people and cultures — and peace tourism turns that power into a bridge where dialogue has broken down.”
The SONOSA booth was buried in the far right corner of the floor — a twilight-zone location. But I noticed it immediately and spent a good half-hour talking to the team directly as well as through both a human and AI interpreter about what they were doing there. I grasped the mission and vision, but didn’t clearly understand why the group chose to exhibit at the PTM. I asked if it was the result of PATA’s annual summit in Gyeongju-Pohang, Korea, last May, and the election of a Korean chairman, Mr Henry Oh of Global Tours. But Sonosa’s Business Division Exchange Department General Manager Ms Hwasoon Nam, said they knew nothing about this.
The SONOSA presence did attract the attention of PATA Foundation chairman Andrew Jones. Knowing my passion for Peace Tourism, he and I talked briefly about how the PATA Foundation could help advance the agenda, possibly in cooperation with other shared-values groups such as the Rotary Clubs.
As the day went on, the SONOSA booth did in fact attract considerable interest. A “polling” system had been set up to ask visitors if they “had heard of Tourism for Peace” and respond by posting a red-dot sticker on the answer. As the image below of the results clearly shows, quite a large number said, “This is news to me.” The poll also showed significant interest in visiting North Korea.
I am reproducing below images of SONOSA’s collaterals, which are self-explanatory.
After the SONOSA booth, I walked around and was pleasantly surprised to see Peace mentioned prominently in the booth decoration backdrops of both India and Nepal. Two Indian exhibitors also exhibited images of India’s spiritual sites, which attract pilgrims seeking inner peace.
I then visited exhibitors from Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Berlin, now the capital of a country that was also divided by a calamitous war but is now proudly positioning itself as a “City of Freedom.” Berlin is also home to the ITB, the world’s biggest trade show. Indeed, Korea, Germany Bosnia-Herzegovina have a lot in common and much to share about their war-time past, the pain of recovery and the role of Travel & Tourism in the rebuilding and reconciliation process.
Vietnan and Cambodia, two other countries once plagued by wars and conflict but now actively promoting tourism, were also among the exhibitors. Unfortunately, I did not have time to speak to their delegates.
Collectively, these exhibitors made the PATA Travel Mart in Kuching the event where the cause of Peace Tourism took a major step forward. There is no doubt it will now go mainstream in this age of conflict and chaos and lead to serious discussion about how Travel & Tourism can become a part of the solution.