BANGKOK, 22 October 2025: A leading travel & tourism historian and researcher, Imtiaz Muqbil, invites tourism and hospitality stakeholders worldwide to join a special webinar lecture on 4 November 2025 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the assassination of the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The webinar will “revisit the hopes and aspirations for peace and rethink how the ‘Industry of Peace’ can create a new normal in the second quarter of the 21st century.”
On 2 November 1995, Muqbil was the sole travel industry journalist from Asia sitting in a Tel Aviv convention centre amid the world’s leading hoteliers listening with rapt attention to a powerful keynote speech by the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
The co-winner of a 1994 Nobel Peace Prize spearheaded negotiations with the Palestinians in pursuit of a just and durable peace in the Middle East. In his inspiring speech to the 33rd annual congress of the International Hotel Association, he talked about saving the young generation from the scourge of war. He flagged travel and tourism as a primary economic beneficiary of peace.
Muqbil notes in a preamble to the webinar lecture how the late Israeli PM envisioned a “Holy Land criss-crossed with tourists, pilgrims and visitors from across the Abrahamic faiths” — precisely in line with the congress’s circular theme of ‘Peace Promotes Tourism Promotes Peace’. A mere 48 hours later, PM Rabin was assassinated.
Muqbil notes that “the first quarter of this century began with a devastating act of terrorism and has ended with two years of brutal, barbaric genocide. The Israel-Palestine conflict was at the heart of both.
“In each of the past 25 years, Travel & Tourism has been impacted in multiple ways — ethnic conflicts, visa restrictions, heightened security, intrusive surveillance, curbs on freedom of speech and human rights, religious and cultural discrimination, civilisational confrontations.
The core conflict remains unsettled. Which means the next 25 years are likely to be even worse.
“It’s time to rewind the clock 30 years and resurrect the dreams and vision of an Israeli political leader who was genuinely trying to convert swords into ploughshares, save the young generation from the scourge of war and usher in an era of economic prosperity and civilisational harmony for the entire Middle East — with Travel & Tourism at the heart of both.”
Click here to register
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScuvTXvIuKmpEtnUYRCpuxw9i1qTkoH7sBh122pD_VUAyi6Nw/viewform.
(Source: Travel Impact Newswire. Visit: Travel Impact Newswire)
