23 December 2008
Tunis — Known as 'the gateway to the desert', the Saharan town of Douz has become over the years a vibrant cultural pole where visitors from all horizons, merge together against the backdrop of the majestic, yet telling desert silence.
Like each year, Douz is currently hosting the 41 st edition of its renowned festival which includes this year an international conference on the theme: "The Sahara of cultures and peoples: an approach to human and socio-cultural dimensions".
The conference which runs from December 25 to 29, 2008, is organized by the Ben Ali Chair for the Dialogue of Civilizations and Religions.
Academics and speakers from Italy, France, Jordan, the Gambia, Iraq, Tunisia and other countries, will take part in the event whose panels will focus on the promotion of the Saharan cultural heritage, the situation of Tunisian cultural tourism, the importance of that 'desert vessel' the dromedary in Saharan tourism, the relation between tourism and sustainable development, as well as the upgrading of Saharan itineraries and the accessibility to tourists of cultural sites.
The conference will no doubt try and answer the question as to how can cultural tourism be favourable to the dialogues between peoples?
Apart from a poetry interlude, the conference will conclude with the presentation of a pioneering project destined to launch an interactive international platform to promote Tunisia's Saharan cultural tourism.
Since its inception in 2001, the Ben Ali Chair for the Dialogue of Civilizations and Religions aims at promoting relations of friendship, cooperation and mutual respect between peoples.
The Chair has been instrumental in organizing a number of international conferences, ranging from the promotion of Tunisia's rich historical and cultural heritage, to fostering dialogue and better understanding between religions, across both shores of the Mediterranean.
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