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”.
No comments:
Post a Comment