Out of the Box 8 - Why call tourism names?

by Renton de Alwis

Is tourism a trade? Or is it a wonderful human activity? Why place every adjective of the English language before tourism to give it different meanings, when it should be one holistic activity? These are issues I raised then in February, 2010 in my ‘Out of the Box’ column in the ‘Financial Times, Sri Lanka’. Since they are valid now as they were now, I repost it today for your thought.

Last week, I once again heard tourism referred to as a trade. Worst still, the reference was to a ‘tourist trade’ not even to a ‘tourism trade’. It was at a forum where a cross section of tourism personnel gathered to discuss the future needs of tourism. Whenever, wherever I hear this usage, I take strong objection to it. That is not because of any apathy I have towards trading as a business activity. I know many decent traders of goods and services, who go that extra mile to make it good, as much as I know some real bad ones, focusing only on making that fast buck.

My objection to tourism being called a trade also has nothing to do with its semantic or legal connotation. It is purely because it places limits on this wonderful human activity, bringing a strong focus on its buy and sell potential. Tourism in my mind is much more than providing an airline seat, hotel room, a site-seeing tour, enjoying nightlife or being taken on a shopping spree. It is an opportunity for facilitating human interaction and understanding like no other. It enables a sensitizing of people to the heritage, environment, culture and ways of life of another people. It is about caring and sharing and is why also called the hospitality industry. When presented right, it becomes a lesson in life learnt, more meaningful than any given in a classroom or other learning institution. We must not forget that it is within that context and process it gives us a financial yield as a business activity.

In an earlier column, I compared tourism to a pursuit of dream selling. I have also often focused on the negatives that a badly handled tourism activity can leave behind for society. Focusing on overcoming dichotomies, such as elimination of poverty and the existence of elitism within tourism’s operational environment, are but some of the real issues we need to address. As an independent observer or a stakeholder of tourism in Sri Lanka, you will no doubt see that those who have achieved success in tourism so far, to be those, whose organisations have combined their individual passion for the pursuit with a vision and efficacy. This is no different in the rest of the world too, where behind every successful brand, a passionate personality has existed.

Even during bad times when terrorism placed a dampener on tourism in Sri Lanka, there were passionate hoteliers and operators who ventured to develop facilities and tours with a difference. The Jetwing Group’s Light House, Vil Uyana, Ayurveda Pavillion, The Beach and Jetwing Ecotours are examples. We also had Aitken Spence develop the Heritance brand and the accompanying fusion cuisine presentations. The Culture Club of the early days was another such innovation. Facilities the likes of those featured in ‘Sri Lanka in Style’ and other individually developed boutique and villa facilities were testimony for achievement of excellence. Out of the mainstream, other mind-body wellness presentations and resorts such as ‘Ulpota’ stood tall in the crowd. Not only were they works of art as concepts and facilities, they also held good during bad times and sold high, regardless of the ‘dog eat dog’ type price competition that then prevailed.

It is now opportune time for Sri Lanka tourism, to understand and define that we must not be in a tourist trade, but into a profound and profitable human activity called tourism. This is more important today than any other time, for Sri Lanka could well be a victim of the ‘good times - rapid action – bad outcomes ‘syndrome.       

The mention of terms such as ecotourism, sustainable tourism, responsible tourism in reports or in promotional material will not help the cause as one of Asia’s prime tourism experts of the yore, Late Robertson Collins once pointed out. “These names often confuse the real essence of tourism and make us believe that what we do are all the right things”. Recognising the urge most have to create clichés, he added “if you must call tourism a name, please call it Good Tourism, for all tourism must be sustainable, eco friendly, utilise cultural and heritage resources sensitively, fully benefit the host communities and be a profitable business for those who run it and for those for whom it is run”.   

 

 Pix credit: Harsh Milhan



Out of the Box 7 - Getting it right for Sri Lanka

by Renton de Alwis

I wrote this column for the FT, Sri Lanka in mid-February 2010, to celebrate the contribution made by lesser known people and the huge contribution they make to Sri Lanka Tourism. I repost it today, once again as a tribute to the likes of Mr. Kuttan with a view of focussing on the need to give them and their work due recognition within the body institution of our tourism..

This week a most unique event happened in tourism in Sri Lanka. The Galle Face Hotel’s doorman par excellence; K Chattu Kuttan turned 90. More significantly for the travel and tourism industry, he celebrated 70 years on the job, almost half of the hotel’s 146 years. He, as part of the history of this venerated hotel, has perhaps greeted and served more of the world’s celebraties than anyone else we know, still living and working. Leaders of nations, literarary giants, movie stars and other rich and famous had the benefit of this man’s attention and care, and so were the early morning Colombo joggers who came over for breakfast and a chit-chat and several generations of chauffers and drivers who stopped by to drop-off guests at the hotel’s doorstep.

I remember how in early 1990’s, the legendary Asian grand dame hotelier Jenny Chua, the then general manager of the 172 year old Raffles Hotel in Singapore was adjudged the ‘World’s Hotelier of the Year’. Her award was presented at a pretigeous event, in the midst of the cream of the world’s hospitality industry, in New York. When this pinnacle award was announced and Chua was to be the first woman ever to have been bestowed with it, to the surprise of all in the audience, a tuban-clad tall Singaporean-Indian gentleman in his colourful regalia emerged on stage. It was only a few moments later that the petite Jennie Chua walked up on stage. In her acceptance speech, she explained that it was the likes of this gentleman; the doorman and the other members of her team, visible and invisible to the guest, that enabled her to make the mark to win such award.

A lesson indeed it was for many, in this great industry of ours. What makes tourism tick at a destination, as a unique human activity, is for sure not the large hotels, resorts, theme parks, and shopping complexes it builds or the glitter and the glamour of the night-life and the glitzy offers made to attract visitors. While those form some part of the equation, the greater part is about, the feel, emotion, caring and the service excellence it presents.

Sri Lanka as a tourism destination, which has a unique blend of a diverse nature, culture, heritage offer and a warm and friendly people, needs to get her positioning right. The theories we hear of meeting customer demand (based on what was in the past), with offers of more and more of the glitz may not be the way forward for a destination so blessed with riches, like Sri Lanka. That is, if we were to focus on ensuring the sustainability of the tourism industry and to present ourselves as a unique destination, away from that of many others that offer much of the same. In my mind, we are placed in a vantage position to shape a new model for the tourism world at large, much like Costa Rica, Bali (Sanur, Ubud) or Chiang Rai did in the recent past.   

Destinations that seek the many millions of visitors and have little to offer in terms of diversity, must not be taken as examples of the way forward for us. In this recovery stage of our industry from the thirty year lows, it is only natural that we want to make it back, rapid and fast. As was pointed out in an earlier column of mine, we may want to look at the demand of the many millions, limiting their experiences to one or two large ‘resort’ areas but not have the millions roaming all over this beautiful land of ours. What our home-stays and the community tourism initiatives should be catering to, is the demand at the upper end of the spectrum.

To do this, we need to get away from the mindset of treating the SMEs as the ‘second best’ but get them to be the main-stream of our industry.  

We also need to remember that Sri Lanka is in itself a treasure-trove destination which offers a myriad of natural theme parks and traditional theme events for our visitors. We do not need to build any afresh or spend time organising make-believe events. What, in my mind we need to do, is to get it right with what we have, while sharpening the rough edges, as we do with our precious stones.

 

Mr. Kuttan of the Galle Face Hotel
Google Shared Image, credit: Nation.lk

 

Out of the Box 6 - A plea for responsible tourism

by Renton de Alwis

I repost this ‘Out of the Box’ column I wrote for the FT, Sri Lanka in February 2010, without further comment …


Tourism, unlike terrorism is about unity, serenity and purpose. It is about bringing people together, to share one another’s heritage, culture, resources, thoughts and ideas. Although, it may have its negative impacts when handled wrong, at the core as a human activity and movement, tourism is never intended to be destructive or negative. Its lure and appeal is often strong and magnetic. Tourism’s fast growth, positive global performance indicators and the fast return on investment have made it a most sought after area for investors. Since tourism depends so much on the natural, cultural, heritage and people resources to form its operational base, any wrong attempt at gelling them together can mean disastrous consequences to a destination, its people and investors themselves.

Just the other day, a villager of the area where I live came to see me, all excited. He is a person who has had exposure on how to operate an ecotourism business, being trained by several non-governmental organizations in the past. He owns a resource rich land bordering the lagoon and the sea, on which he always intended to set up his own business. The reason for his excitement was, for a ‘broker’ had come to see him and offered him a tidy sum of money for his land, also for a tourism activity. This ‘broker’ is said to have made the offer on behalf of a person residing in Colombo, who in turn was representing a person overseas. The advice he sought was if he should sell his land and if so, for how much. The villager has a family of three young children and the only additional asset the family has for themselves is this land.

My advice to him was that he should not sell, lease or rent his land. Instead, I suggested that he participates in the venture as an equity partner, with the land, expertise he possesses of this activity, his roots in the area and familiarity of its resources as his equity contribution. I also further advised him to assign a value to his land considering the natural resources found in the area, such as the rare bird watching experiences, proximity to the beach and the serendipitous environment. I also advised him of how his land will go on rapidly appreciating in value and that it would be prudent of him, not to sell out.

Upon appreciating my position, the villager explained the reality of his need. While he had what it takes to be part of such a venture, he was in dire need for immediate liquid cash to sort-out his debts and also invest further in his children’s education. That was the reason he was seeking to sell his land outright. An inherited land in the family for generations, held by him for over three decades of ‘bad’ times, with immense hardship he is now presented with this seeming ‘opportunity’ to cash in on it.

This to me is symptomatic of a dichotomy faced by many like him all over rural Sri Lanka. The demand for tourism development is increasing together with opportunities for communities to participate in that development in a responsible manner. On the demand side too, there is a definite niche for well-designed community-based responsible tourism presentations. Sri Lanka as a destination is positioned as offering a unique blend of tourism, where our appeal as a serendipitous destination with a myriad of natural, heritage, cultural and people resources need to be blended to make it happen. Greening of our island is strongly placed on the government’s overall policy agenda.

In making sure that it will be so, the rational and responsible among the investing community now has a huge task on their shoulders. They need to offer the right solutions to rural entrepreneurs the likes of our villager. The banking system in turn should venture out to encourage, support and assist those who are willing to make equity partners of members of the community in their tourism ventures.  

A new outlook, a new way will need to be paved to ensure that Sri Lanka’s tourism future will be one that is responsible and is one with nature.    

These indeed are challenging times. We either get it right or get it all wrong.

 

 

Pix Credit: Self

Out of the Box 5 - Learning from the Best

by Renton de Alwis


Earlier this week I heard the most disturbing news that there were plans to establish a helicopter landing pad at Sri Padha, the protected peak wilderness area. This is what I would call, a thoughtless initiative brought forth by those who do not understand that the journey is more important than being at the destination itself. Some of them perhaps have never ever made the pilgrimage (journey) and do not understand the marvel it is, in devotion and worship.

I am someone who made that journey eleven times since childhood and a person who led the initiative of Sri Lanka Tourism as its head for several years. It is my earnest appeal to whoever came up with this suggestion, not be someone who will contribute to instilling irreversible damage to the serenity of this most revered peak wilderness area and the wonderful experience of worship and devotion it is, for all Buddhists and the unforgettable journey it offers all travelers, regardless of religious belief.

It is within this backdrop that I repost this ‘Out of the Box’ column of mine published in the ‘Financial Times, Sri Lanka’ during the first week of February 2012. I must state here that I do not believe that declaration of ‘International Days’ alone, will assist conserve the world’s most valuable natural resources. There is so much we need to do as routine activity if we are to make an impact and I present this column rekindle your though and generate action in this regard.

The second of February was World Wetlands Day, a day dedicated to focusing on conservation of our wetland habitats. This year’s (2012) theme is "Caring for Wetlands - an Answer to Climate Change." This year (2013) the theme is "Wetlands and Water Management". Living far away from the urban centre, in the Deep South of Sri Lanka at the door-step of a most diverse wetland habitat, it gave me another reason to reflect on our own environment and that of the rest of the world. Thankfully, Kalmetiya is known as a bird sanctuary, only among ornithologists and serious bird-watchers and does not offer much to the mass tourist.

Here, we greet several peacocks and waders each morning. They in turn entertain us with sun- worship dances, crafty pickings of fish from the ponds and excellent displays in formation flying. Amazingly, we still stay well connected with the world at large too; with A 3G mobile connection with fast-access to the Internet. The time we spent in mostly useless social pursuits and small-talk is now used to learn and share thoughts with other likeminded people.

It is in this backdrop, that I share some thought provoking initiatives I came across during my leisurely explorations on the Internet. In today’s column, I present a code of conduct designed by an Arctic region tour operator, which may serve as an adaptable best practice guideline for our own environment as well.

Natural Habitat Adventures conducts polar tourism operations in the Arctic, Antarctic, and South Georgia. They offer tours with a wide range of experiences extending from viewing of polar bears, brown bears, orcas, and harp seals in the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic to nature tours of Iceland and Spitsbergen, and visits to several Arctic Protected Areas. Their operational good practices include:

• A philosophy of respect for the conservation of nature and local culture.
• Small groups of travelers that both minimize impacts and enhance tourist satisfaction.
• Well qualified expedition leaders that have specialized knowledge of the destinations and possess essential safety and hospitality skills.  The ratio of guide to tourist is well designed to facilitate both increased appreciation of the local environment and personal safety.
• The use of the most secluded accommodations, which benefit local communities, appropriately represent native culture, and reduce congestion.
• Revenue sharing with conservation organizations is an integral part of the company’s philosophy and a cost knowingly paid by the tourists.
• Tourist education programmes are implemented prior to travel as well as during the tour. The information contained in the programmes introduce the tourist to local environments and culture, the physical conditions likely to be encountered, essential equipment and clothing, and safety considerations.  All of these educational efforts are intended to directly affect appropriate visitor behavior, safety, and enjoyment.
• Close coordination with local governments and communities.
• Strong efforts are made to enlist long-term support of the tourists for conservation programmes and policies.
• Active participation in a variety of sustainable tourism programmes such as the Carbon Pollution Reduction Program, the Conde Naste Traveler Green List, the Adventure Alliance, and the World Wildlife Fund.

Our own Jetwing Group also celebrated its Jetwing Earth Day this week (February 2012). It is yet another commendable initiative, where reforestation, involvement and information sharing with tourists, school children and the public take the spotlight. This year we had the good news that Wilpattu was declared the sixth Ramsey site in Sri Lanka, which should augur well to ensure its protection on the legal front, at a time when various threats are reported on this valuable wetland area. While Sri Lanka has a reasonable record on similar sound practices, some of it remains the exception. The need is for more and more to come into the fold not only in the legal front, but also on the action front, to ensure that a brighter future will be made for Mother Sri Lanka and for Sri Lanka’s tourism.

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Out of the Box 4 - Sustainable investment in Tourism

By Renton de Alwis

Reposting of a column from 'Out of the Box' in the Financial Times, Sri Lanka published in February 2010


Late Robbie Collins was a well-known and highly respected tourism personality in the Asian region, during the 80’s and 90’s. Hailing from the historic township of Jacksonville in the conservation state of Oregon in the USA, he came over to Asia to live and work among us. I had the privilege and good fortune to closely associate with him, when he was an active campaigner for conserving heritage resources of most Asian cities and regions for tourism during much of that time. His campaigns extended through Kathmandu’s Lalithpur, Vietnam’s Hue, Bali’s Ubud, Cambodia’s Angkor-Wat, Thailand’s Cheng Rai, Macau’s Portuguese heritage to Singapore’s Tanjong Pagar. Today these stand as proud monuments, as well as successful tourism sites benefiting from the valuable input he gave to convince those in governance and in tourism policy making of the power they had, both as iconic conservation sites and money spinning tourism resources.

He also worked closely with our heritage conservation activist and administrator Dr. Roland de Silva, when he was heading Unesco, supporting him strongly with initiatives such as our Cultural Triangle and the World Heritage Sites initiatives. Robbie was then holding the position as Head of the US ICOMOS, the organisation dedicated to the preservation of monuments. I recollect how he held our legendary architect late Goeffrey Bawa in very high esteem and cited his example at many forums where he spoke.  

Today in this column, I took on to reminiscing of Robbie, whom I consider a mentor and friend for several reasons. It is not only because of the many insights he gave me as a novice tourism administrator in the region at the time, but because of the solid contribution he made to focus on an area, that most entrepreneurs in tourism today leave for conservationists and governments to look after. His unique selling point was the much neglected aspect of direct economic benefit that accrued not only to government coffers but also to individual tourism investors in each of those areas. I had heard of how he and his friends persistently wooed then prime minister of Singapore Lee Kwan Yew to stop the demolition of buildings of heritage value in Singapore, using it as the key rationale. 

At a time when we in Sri Lanka are taking on a fresh phase of tourism development and investment, the value of work done by the likes of Robbie become extremely relevant. Especially when, tourism policy makers and investors are talking about rapid development of hotels and resorts, we need to re-evaluate our own thinking on how such development should take place. I recollect how a tourism consulting team from a European country a few years ago designing a strategy for eco-tourism for Sri Lanka, came up with a report where most scenic spots on our island were recommended as being suitable for building eco-lodges. Robbie’s position on this would be that any eco-lodge or other accommodation development should not be located on or in too close proximity to a scenic spot or a heritage site. He would argue that having accommodation placed at the scenic site will diminish the economic value of the area and affect the sustainability of the investment itself.    

This is food for thought for those in search for land for individual tourism development projects and also for those that are responsible for evaluating the environmental and economic impacts of such investments. Our spatial planners, heritage conservationists and architects have a responsibility to innovate ways in which we could ensure that we will continue to reap the most economic value from our scenic and heritage sites.

We do have the good among us. But we also have the bad and the ugly. What we need to do is to exercise caution at all times and ensure that we must always attempt to get it right, for such beauty and value as we have in our midst, can never be regained once lost.

Pix credit: Self

Business of Dream Selling

By Renton de Alwis

Written and published in the FT in my ‘Out of the Box’ also in January 2010, this column sought to seek some fresh definitions for tourism, away from the formal text book definitions. I repost it today, without any further comment.

Travel and tourism is a most interesting pursuit. Often we hear about its potential to earn fast returns, provide employment and become a formidable foreign exchange earner. Yet, it is little we hear about the need to ensure its sustainability and long-term good health. This is particularly relevant in the context of a destination like Sri Lanka, where our ecological, cultural, social and human resources present a blend and a feel that is unique. It is that feeling of elation of one’s spirit, travellers’ had felt visiting this lush green and salubrious island, that later added the word ‘serendipity’ to the English vocabulary.  

When in the mid 1990’s, I was called upon to address the issue of developing a definition that could adequately capture the essence of travel and tourism at an Asian forum devoted to defining the future of our enterprise, I came up with the following;

“Tourism today is a basic human right. If one has the means and time, one can opt to travel. Tourism is about peoples’ dreams. People dream of the places they want to visit and the events that may unfold for them. Our work therefore is not merely about selling airline seats, hotel rooms, excursions or tour coach seats. It is about fulfilling peoples’ beautiful dreams. That makes us, the people who work in tourism, somewhat different types of service providers … We become dream sellers.”

Think of what ‘Dream Seller’ tourism policy makers, planners, investors, service providers and communities could do for the future wellbeing of this exotic island of ours. They would naturally be sensitive, creative, imaginative, conservationist and do their utmost to ensure that the dreams we sell will present good value and not be turned into nightmares. They would pay attention to detail needed to make travellers comfortable. Our naturally hospitable and caring ways will be honed just to do that.

We are fortunate that we have a few but significantly successful ventures in our midst in travel and tourism which can stand out as models of dream-selling. To make Sri Lanka realise her fullest potential in the enterprise of travel and tourism, we shall need to have more and more efforts at sensitising stakeholders by taking on training with a difference, providing an understanding of the substance of what this enterprise should and/or could be.

This brings to fold an interesting differentiation that must be made of our customers in travel and tourism. That differentiation is between the types, ‘travellers’ and ‘tourists’. Much of Sri Lanka, especially its rural hinterland and the new areas of the North and the East, can be destinations for travellers but not for tourists. A ‘traveller’ is a person who visits a place of his or her own choice, becomes one with its natural, social and cultural environment and ventures to care for the wellbeing of that place and life around. A traveller ventures to internalise one’s experiences without being a mere spectator.

A ‘tourist’ on the other hand is a person who makes a similar choice to visit a destination ‘sold’ to him or her by an agent and remains a spectator of the places visited, without necessarily seeking deep involvement in what unfolds around. A tourist’s demand is for a presented pleasurable experience which is considered value for money paid for it. There are indeed ‘travellers’ among ‘tourists’ as well but form the exception to the rule.

Sri Lanka’s travel and tourism enterprise, in the post-war era presents immense opportunities to more and more sensitive and creative entrepreneurs to join its domain. While good, clean profit can be made there are a whole host of challenges in developing responsible and sustainable businesses that can be met with positive contributions by such entrepreneurs. The need and call is for a critical mass of them to venture into this enterprise.

 

 

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Tourism as a people business

By Renton de Alwis

Reposting of a column from 'Out of the Box' in the Financial Times, Sri Lanka published in January 2010

By definition tourism is about people and their interactions with the natural, social and cultural environments at the places they visit. Yet, people in most instances perceive tourism to be an elitist business activity which only leaves the crumbs of its benefits, for the communities at these destinations. While in most instances this is far from the truth, there are others, where it is the reality.

In a day and age, where responsibility to society is held as a desirable goal for business, tourism could do well to benefit from such demand driven sentiment. The new consumer demand at the mid and high-end of the spectrum now demands that destinations and tourism business operators be even more socially aware and environmentally responsible than before. Issues such as ‘travel guilt’ arising from sensitivity to causes of global warming, seeking direct benefits to communities from the tourist spend and exploring interactive experiences with real people in real situations are becoming more and more important to customers demanding tourism services today.

Some destinations and businesses are seemingly addressing this issue with a segmented approach. They have a mainstream or mass tourism which caters to the low-end demand while also presenting activities with labels such as ecotourism and community-based tourism. There are others who present the entire destination as one that is based on principles of responsible tourism. Examples of the first approach will be Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia or India, while destinations such as Costa Rica and Scotland will represent the latter.        

In my opinion, we in Sri Lanka are placed in a vantage position to seek a way-forward with our future tourism development that can provide us a unique positioning as a responsible tourism destination. To do this we need to venture to develop our new tourism operations based on a fresh business model. A model that can be profitable and be able to both meet customer expectations and provide direct stakeholder benefits to communities.  

One such opportunity for establishing entirely new business models is presented in the area of tourist accommodation facilities development. Today, when we consider mainstream tourist accommodation we tend to look at constructing hotel or resort complexes with all facilities contained within that complex. Such hotel or resort complexes need to have centralised power, water-supply, sewerage and waste disposal facilities and adequate numbers of hired wage workers to provide required services. These are expensive investments, with largely negative environmental impacts and are also difficult to sustain during demand down-turns.      

Instead, if we were to establish tourist accommodation as an expand on the concept of rooms in homes or smaller accommodation units, concentrated in destination areas where an effective demand for that area can be created based on the natural and/or cultural resources available there. The rooms-in-homes will not necessarily have to be inside people’s homes, but additions built close to them. An example exists now of such facilities in Goyambokka/Madilla area near Tangalle. The Ubud area in Bali will also provide a similar example from overseas. Kalkudah on the East coast, in my mind, could be a suitable area to set such a model into action to test its viability. The idea further extended will provide opportunities for the formation of new ‘Area Accommodation Management Companies’, which can step in to provide managerial expertise and training to ensure quality assurance, marketing and selling the area and its facilities, where community operators could hire its services.

The advantages of such a business model will be its potential to use renewable sources of energy, i.e. solar, bio-gas and wind; operation of units managed by members of the community providing them direct stakeholder benefit, not become burdensome during periods of demand down-turn, have least impact on the scenic environment of the area, meet and satisfy customer aspirations and assist to position Sri Lanka as an unique tourism destination that can stand tall in the global market place.   

 

  

Hopes for a saner tourism

By Renton de Alwis

Written and published in the FT in my ‘Out of the Box’ column in January 2010, after a few months of the ending of the war on terror, this was the first in the series. I repost it today, without any further comment.

Fresh out of the war on terror, tourism is banked on to dish-out fast returns. The current elections have some what dampened the fast-forward talk. But it is sure to gather up speed again immediately the verdict is done with and the dust settles. Short of insanity, we should see a somewhat stable structure of governance in place, without any major overhaul. The bickering will go on, with a strike here and a strike there, but in the main, things should turn out to be better for this lovely island destination’s people, their economy and tourism operations.

The dividends peace offers tourism is amazing. It is indeed a fast forex generator and gives fast ROIs. Get it right, it will be a long-term goldmine for this blessed land of ours. Get it wrong, it can turn out to be a nightmare and her serendipity done with forever. It is much like the goose that lays the golden eggs. Kill it for meat, its all gone in an instance.

There is talk of 5,000 room hotel complexes and mega thinking is on the drawing boards with our development planners. With more and more head counts of tourists, more and more brick and mortar hotel rooms are thought of. It is ok if all this is done in the Kalpitiya area, where the tourism authorities have acquired over 4,000 acres. Like a wise old man I knew in tourism once said, “If a destination wants to have mass-tourism, don’t do it everywhere, and only do it in one or two resort areas”. With sea level rises, areas around Kalpitiya will anyway be submerged within the century. That is according to predictions of climate scientists. We have all heard loud and clear what the Maldivian President expects for his lovely island nation of atolls. He pronounced that he is looking for liveable land elsewhere.

Kalpitiya is pristine, it is lovely and it gives us a window of opportunity for at least fifty years. That is before it may begin to show signs of submerging. What we must do is to think of gaining fast returns from this area. The Sixth Senses group already has plans laid out for an eco-resort. That is fine, but in my mind, it should be for the fourteen islets there and its surrounds. The rest will make a good gaming centre with all needed auxiliary facilities, much like Genting Highlands or Macau. That gives huge and rapid returns and can be contained to serve millions of mass tourists that should not be roaming around everywhere else in the country.

Why I say this is because there is talk about resorts and hotels everywhere. The East and the North is talked about. Mega investments are called for. Land grabs are going on. To me, what my Motherland Sri Lanka is about is her serendipity, her ecological and cultural diversity, her lush green canopy, her meditative splendour and our laid-back lotus-eater ways. And that I believe is also our USP for tourism. In my mind, if we were to seek every beautiful and serene area of this country and were to build a resort or a hotel in that space, that would be killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Remember, terrorism is not the only deterrent to tourism. Pandemics, regional conflicts, natural disasters, civil disorder and the like can also render mega tourism accommodation projects turn blue.

It is now time that we thought of ‘out of the box’ ways for providing tourism accommodation.

 

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Beyond Conventional Wisdom

 

Today is the first reposting of a series of columns I wrote in the Financial Times, Sri Lanka

 

Please click on the link below the pix for a pdf copy available in the Google Drive.
Access is made public.
For easy reading you may want to use the zoom magnifier given on the Google Drive pdf page.

 

 



 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6xx6_E157dVV0gyLUZsU1dfWms/edit

End of Postings of Back to Basics



There will not be anymore posting of Back to Basics columns from today. Instead , I am planning to use the same blog to post several of my articles on tourism and issues related to sustainability, beginning tomorrow.

I thank those who made over 5,200 visits within four months, to my Blogsite since it was given life in mid-November last year.

Black skin White masks

Renton de Alwis

It’s a Sunday morning. I cannot explain why I thought of reposting this column I wrote  almost a year ago, of some of the people who influenced my life, with their own craving for exploring what is beyond our physical reach with their mind’s eye. I remember those Sunday mornings of almost forty three years ago, well spent...sitting at a corner table at ‘The Lion House’, listening to them explore their world... our world to be.  

I do not know why I thought of Franz Fanon and his 1952 book that carries my column title today. I recollect picking up an English translation of Fanon’s work in French (Peau noire, masques blancs) some time in early 1970’s from my friend late Ranjith Gunawardena, then lecturer in English at the Keleniya University. He had it on the table beside him sipping a cup of tea at the Lion House in Bambalapitiya and was kind to lend me that copy upon my asking. Ranjith was a student of our mutual guru in English late Reggie Siriwardena, and won our additional regard and respect as he was also well versed in the work of Spanish, African and Latin American writers of the time.

Melting pot

The Lion House, the elite teashop also known for its bakery products (mostly the Teabanis, Chinese rolls, the cutlets) and the lime juice, was a melting pot of ideas where discussions on issues literary, political and social took place each evening in the decades of 1950s, 60s and the 70s. There was a band of learned university dons, social activists, some Editors of newspapers and journalists who gathered there after a day’s work (and on Sunday mornings) to engage in vibrant discourse on matters that mattered, the world and our own nation. I guess it could also be called the meeting place of teetotallers, where saner discussion was the hallmark. I remember the large glass panels that made the Lion House special. Passers-by saw the inside of the teahouse through those clear-glass doors. It was perhaps the owner’s way of telling the world that there was an air of open and transparent discussion and that the most sought after minds in the country were engaged in.

Right across the street from the Lion House stood another monument at the entrance to Bullers Road (now Bauddhaloka Mawatha). That was an unusually designed marvel of a glittering advertising signage for one of the popular Sri Lankan shoe companies of the time. It was like the ‘thing’ in the pre-electronic era of advertising signage with thousands of little shiny metal pieces so arranged on hooks to highlight the brand danced in the wind, creating an audio-visual experience for those who passed that signage and a visual experience for those who saw it from afar.

Reality check

That to my mind stood as a reminder of the world of commerce and as a reality check of what was happening around those that engaged in discourse on matters philosophical. I remember those good old days when we as cub university teachers used to hang out at the Lion House occupying a table at a far-corner to eaves-drop on the many words of wisdom spoken by those doyens of intellect of the yore.   

I must have thought of Fanon and those ‘Lion House’ days for I read that the recent atrocity of the killing of innocents in Toulouse was carried out by a 23 year old Frenchman of Algerian decent. I recollected that two of Fanon’s other work that touched on the plight of Algerians in living in France in the Post World War II era. They were “A Dying Colonialism” (1959) and “Wretched of the Earth”(1961) and thought that there could be much beyond what some analysts saw as the reasons for the most irrational action of this young man. 

I read the book I borrowed from Ranjith with much interest and learnt much about Franz Fanon and that ignited my interest in reading most of his other work at the time.  Fanon (1925 – 1961) according to a Wikipedia account was a “Martinique-born French psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and writer whose work is influential in the fields of post-colonial studies, critical theory and Marxism. Fanon is known as a radical existential humanist thinker on the issue of decolonization and the psychology of colonialism. Fanon supported the Algerian struggle for independence and became a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front. His life and works have incited and inspired anti-colonial liberation movements for more than four decades.”

Equal citizens?

Much of Fanon, the psychiatrist’s work was dedicated to seeking answers to why Algerians who fought in World War II as part of the French army felt alienated within French society, while living within a domain of declared rights as equal citizens. In the study that led to the publication of “Black Skin White Masks”, as the Wikipedia account states “Fanon uses psychoanalysis and psychoanalytical theory to explain the feelings of dependency and inadequacy that Black people experience in a White world. He speaks of the divided self-perception of the Black Subject who has lost his native cultural originality and embraced the culture of the mother country. As a result of the inferiority complex engendered in the mind of the Black Subject, he will try to appropriate and imitate the cultural code of the colonizer. The behaviour, Fanon argues, is even more evident in upwardly mobile and educated Black people who can afford to acquire status symbols.”

Taking my mind back to the ‘Lion House’ days I wonder why most of our discussions on issues now are limited to domains that are either immediate or near future. We seem to learn little from history and the happenings of the past. At a time when the world’s nuclear powers and some aspirants are meeting to determine the future course of how those destructive armaments are to be handled, should there not be discussion among our learned intellectuals about what that should be? Should we not be focusing the attention of the world’s and nation’s leaders drawing from the many experiences that are documented or demonstrated, that alienating peoples, subjugating their belief systems and creating oppressive social environments can lead to even more disastrous human tragedies and can serve to be softer weapons of mass destruction. 

Disarmament

I think it is appropriate here to revisit the call made by the 14^th Dalai Lama on the issue of nuclear disarmament of “by far the greatest single danger facing humankind - in fact, to all living beings on our planet - is the threat of nuclear destruction. I need not elaborate on this danger, but I would like to appeal to all the leaders of the nuclear powers who literally hold the future of the world in their hands, to the scientists and technicians who continue to create these awesome weapons of destruction, and to all the people at large who are in a position to influence their leaders: I appeal to them to exercise their sanity and begin to work at dismantling and destroying all nuclear weapons. We know that in the event of a nuclear war there will be no victors because there will be no survivors! Is it not frightening just to contemplate such inhuman and heartless destruction?”

On the same token it must be impressed upon leaders of the world of the danger of the soft weapons of destruction at play everywhere in out midst. Fanon’s work focused on the scenario of the immediate aftermath of the World War II and not much seem to have changed deep within the human conscience in dealing with these issues. The answers are certainly with genuine attempts at treating all human beings with equal dignity regardless of their importance in the scheme of things of those seeking power, wealth and access to resources. There can not be any “Wretched of the Earth” or those in “Black Skin White Masks”.

Humanist

We must all be one and need to work for the good of all regardless of who we are or what we are for we are all members of this one human-race.

I remember our Guru late Reggie Siriwardena reading excerpt from Charles Dickens’s ‘Great Expectations’ during one of his university English fiction teaching sessions. He read a passage from the text of how Pip, the little orphan boy was sent up the chimney filled with black soot and there were tears flowing from his eyes wetting his entire face during that reading.

And then there was his poem ‘Colonial Cameo’ of the encounter at Missionary school when his fellow English speaking students mocked his mother when she bade him goodbye in Sinhalese, the language she knew…

 “My mother pretended not to hear that insult.

The snobbish little bastards! But how can I blame them?

             That day I was deeply ashamed of my mother.

Now, whenever I remember, I am ashamed of my shame.”

Such was the love of that man for humanity and what that must account to be. Need I say more?  

 

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All we are saying is give peace a chance ….

Renton de Alwis

This time last year I wrote this column, when disappointment set in about the manner in which world’s leaders were handling peace. No different to how it is anywhere in the world the peace agenda is dotted with various self serving agenda of politicians. From time to time, we are reminded that we need to rethink peace and revisit the glorious dividends it can bring humanity.  Yet, destructive weapons manufacture is still one of the biggest industries in the world and so is the waste generated through unscrupulous consumption. The ‘self’ in the agenda of running affairs of nations is the key determinant of all involved in it. Hearing calls of protest about the wrongs we see around us, I repost this today with the hope that some thought will be directed to peace, its value and its dividends.  

My column title today will be familiar to most in my generation as the title of one of John Lennon hits which touched most hearts and minds at that time, being a theme song for the anti-Vietnam protesters in the late sixties and the early seventies. The song’s chorus was on the lip-tips of most every one at the time. They all loved freedom, called for peace and stood against intervention and oppression. The lyrics of that song, like most other from this sensitive artist were simple, yet all encompassing. As illustration here are a few lines from the song:

“Ev'rybody's talking about
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m.

All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance” 

Not much changed

Why am I now thinking of Lennon? No! It’s not John Ono Lennon’s birth or death anniversary anytime soon. Those happen to be in October and December. Nor is it because of any event due soon to celebrate the achievements of Beatles in the world of music of that unforgettable era.

Seeing what happens around us, I simply wondered if that that much has changed between those days of the Vietnam War, a good forty over years ago and now. Much was written and much was talked about on ‘lessons learnt’. Reports were made and committees sat mostly to determine the fate of US soldiers that went missing in action and/or to determine where US went wrong in fighting that war. While hundreds of thousands of Americans protested the killing of a million Vietnamese; annihilating whole villagers and families, mothers, fathers and families of US soldiers sent out there for the task, wept for their own sons who never came home.

The Art of War

In the aftermath of that tragic period in human history, in 2003 a documentary film was made with the title ‘The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara’ by an American film maker Errol Morris. This ‘award winning’ film featured the life and times of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara and documented his observations of the nature of modern war and of the nature of modern warfare.

Driven perhaps by the need to leave a classic work on military strategy akin to the ancient Chinese ‘The Art of War’ of Sun Tzu behind, RSM’s outlining of the lessons were as follows: 1. Empathize with your enemy, 2. Rationality will not save us, 3. There's something beyond one's self, 4. Maximize efficiency, 5. Proportionality should be a guideline in war, 6. Get the data, 7. Belief and seeing are often both wrong, 8. Be prepared to re-examine your reasoning, 9. To do good you may have to engage in evil 10. Never say never and 11. You can't change human nature.

McNamara, coming from a business background and being a former CEO of the Ford Motor Company, brought in ‘systems management’ techniques in running the war machinery of the US. Interestingly, upon retirement McNamara served as the President of the World Bank, creating an interesting precedence of bringing his learnt skills at war making into the sphere of global lending and financial management.  

Regime Change

Similarly, Henry Kissinger, the then US Secretary of State and another key architect of that scenario was associated with several other interventions such as the India-Pakistan War of 1971, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, where Israel gained territorial advantages over Egypt and Syria, causing regime change in Chile when popularly elected Salvador Allende was ousted by Augusto Pinochet in  a military coup in the same year, the 1975 annexation of East Timor by Indonesia and the involvement in the Cambodian conflict.

In 1973, Henry Kissinger shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Vietnam’s Lee Doc Tho for the Paris Peace Accords of 1973; "intended to bring about a cease-fire in the Vietnam War and a withdrawal of the American forces". This prompted American singer-songwriter Tom Lehrer to famously quip in an ironic reference, that the award ".. makes political satire obsolete".

Later years in joining the academia he was touted as a top diplomat and peacemaker involved in advisory capacities in addressing US’s disputes with India, China and Iran. It is interesting that he once stated; "Vietnam is still with us.  It has created doubts about American judgment, about American credibility, about American power--not only at home but U.S. involvement throughout the world.  It has poisoned our domestic debate.  So we paid an exorbitant price for the decision that we made in good faith." The good faith he talked about was in defense of what Lennon in his song lyrics referred to as ‘this ism’ against ‘that ism’. 

‘Hope for Change’

When Senator Barack Obama was running for US Presidency in 2008, he gave us all hope of seeing ‘real change’. That fever of hope and change reached beyond the US electorate and touched even minions the likes of me elsewhere on the planet. I for one, in spite of talk ‘that nothing much would change’, was hopeful that we were to see a new dawn. A new dawn of a process to end waging of war and creation of conflict, giving peace a real chance to flourish was what I longed for. I was hopeful that this man, with a diverse racial and ethnic background will be able to able to reach out, to bring the diverse belief systems together recognizing the diversity of each. I hoped that attempts at causing regime change would be a thing of the past.

I was longing to see trust and bridges of honest bondage being built with the closing of the Guantanamo detention facility which he himself saw as a Bush era blunder of “running prisons which lock people away without telling them why they’re there or what they’re charged with.” The January 2009 deadline for the facility’s dismantling is long gone and the Military Tribunals which he said “failed to establish a legitimate legal framework and undermined our capacity to ensure swift and certain justice” are back in operation after his recent reversal of the two year order to stay halt on that process.

Sovereignty of Nations

In an address he made at the New Economic School in Moscow in mid 2009, President Obama stood firm in his defense of the sovereignty of nations in reference to Russia’s position in the Federation of European nations. He stated that “America’s interest is in an international system that advances cooperation while respecting the sovereignty of all nations. State sovereignty must be a cornerstone of international order. Just as all states should have the right to choose their leaders, states must have the right to borders that are secure, and to their own foreign policies. That is true for Russia, just as it is true for the United States. Any system that cedes those rights will lead to anarchy.” Yet, the Obama administration’s support for the ‘Lisbon Treaty’, a blueprint for creating a European federal ‘Super State’ through Secretary of State Hilary Clinton as “a major milestone in our world’s history” nullifies that earlier pledge.

On the climate change mitigation front too my hopes have been shattered. The US is yet to sign the Kyoto protocol and is causing huge dents in the ability of other nations to move forward in taking real action on this front, even when there is scientific evidence backing the realization that there is not much time left for us in reversing the process of global warming. 

The Human Spirit

Our hope was rekindled when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Barack H. Obama in 2009 "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". As a citizen of Mother Earth and of nation Sri Lanka, my own hope still is that America and the Obama administration will be able to take politics from it’s often used tag of being the ‘Art of the possible’ to a greater height, where it will give a fresh breath of life to ‘Hope and change through a rekindling of the goodness of the human spirit.’

And that takes me back to John Lennon’s other hit “Imagine all the people” and I join in singing its chorus;

“You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
and the world will be as one”

 

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Peace - 4beatles.net