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
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
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