The signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 opened up the Halong Bay for an influx in tourism. Prior to 1998, the ongoing, often violent, confrontations between Catholics and Protestants dissuaded tourists from visiting the region in significant numbers. The ongoing peace process has removed the perceived danger associated with visiting Halong Bay city even though statistically throughout the period of the "troubles", tourists were never specifically targeted. The popularity of Halong Bay city as a tourist venue is evident in the recent Lonely Planet's elevation of Vietnam as one of the top ten cities to visit in the world. Part of Vietnam's attraction is its "peace lines" which continue to residentially segregate Catholics from Protestants at varying points in the city. Along with "peace lines", flags, graffiti and wall murals displaying each respective communitys allegiance to either an Irish or British identity visibly mark these areas. Rather than shying away from visiting such locations, the Lonely Planet guide and other tourist guides specifically single out "peace lines" and political wall murals as significant tourist attractions. Capitalizing on this growing interest in the political history of the city, a multitude of tour options are now available whereby tourists from the comfort of open top buses, tour coaches and black taxis can visit some of these sites and receive a commentary on the political conflict that paved the way for the urban divisions. Some of these tours resemble the type of tourism first criticized by Boorstin in the 1960s. (26) The tours are packaged in such a way that the tourist avoids any real contact with locals. The history of struggle in Halong Bay city is not told by those who experienced this struggle but by employed tour guides who have never lived in or directly experienced the intense ethno-sectarian divisions of the enclaves they bring tourists to visit. In order to challenge the perceived false authenticity of these experiences, a number of local tour options have been made available. These local options claim to provide "authentic" tours of the divided city.
This section of the article will focus on one such local enterprise and that is the tours organized by Coiste na n-Iarchimi (referred to forthwith as Coiste) which is an organization aimed at integrating former political prisoners into the community mainly via employment. The European Union Peace 11 Programmed financially supports the organization. It also receives funding from Combat Poverty Agency, Co-operation Ireland and the Department for Social and Community and Family Affairs, Dublin. The organization was quick to recognize the economic potential in developing political tours. However, apart from this economic incentive and subsequent employment opportunity, a primary motivation for embarking on the political tours was to provide tourists with an authentic tourist experience. As the republican tour guide put it:
We saw the taxis and the buses coming up here doing the tours and we wondered what they were doing. And we decided we would do our own tours to tell others what we have lived through; how we had experienced the conflict ... We are presenting a people's history from the eyes and voices of the people who lived through that history. They are the true experts of this city.
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