Rebuilding Tourism and Reconnecting War-torn Places to The World | Michael Luongo | TEDxPurdueU

In many ways, current and former conflict zones are like a Terrarium, an enclosed environment, growing all on its own. There is healthy growth at times, unhealthy growth as well, and barriers for the people inside to connect to the outside, and for those who want to look inside more closely. What motivates some travelers to visit conflict zones and how can tourism help nurture the best within the Terrarium and play a role for future growth, connection and stability as those from the outside come to visit? When war can break out at any moment, the war in the Ukraine only one example, how is it that locations can recover their tourism sectors after war? Michael Luongo's work as a journalist in locations including Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Palestine and other areas has helped him to see aspects of this in many locations. He first decided to visit such locations after being part of a Ground Zero clean-up crew, searching for dead bodies in the rubble of September 11th, understanding firsthand as a New Yorker what it meant to live in a war zone. As a long-time travel journalist, he decided to see how others rebuild their tourism sectors after or in the midst of war, something not looked at by researchers, despite the fact that war is all around us. Michael Luongo is a PhD student in Purdue University’s School
of Hospitality and Tourism Management. His research centers
on tourism recovery in the context of conflict. An awardwinning
long-time freelance travel journalist, his experiences
volunteering on a Ground Zero cleanup crew days after
September 11th vastly transformed him, launching him to
report in Afghanistan, Iraq and other conflict areas, covering
tourism, culture, human rights and LGBT issues for the New
York Times, Bloomberg, Gay City News and others. The New
Jersey native was an interviewee for the 2022 TED Fellowship
and lives between Manhattan and West Lafayette. His travels
include 100 countries and all seven continents This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx