Is sky the limit for our tourism? - Out of the Box 23

Renton de Alwis

As far back as 1974, I had the opportunity to be part of a team that worked on a project called “An Unsteady State: Problems of Growth, Culture and Environment”. That was when I was a post graduate student working on a special workshop that was the preamble, to set in place the Environment Institute at the East West Center in Hawaii. As a student of economics who also wrote poetry, I was a member of the ‘Open Grants’ group at the centre then. It was also the same time that, President Obama’s mother Anne Dunham was a colleague attached to the Culture Learning Institute of the EWC.

This one and half year workshop was conducted by Prof. Kenneth Watt from the University of California at Davis, who had at the time authored the book “The Titanic Effect”, suggesting that the way the US was exploiting her resources could lead to its sinking in the future. And that was in 1995 and he was called a ‘doomsday soothsayer’ by many.

At the workshop, in teams we examined what he termed ‘Dominant Cultural Beliefs’  and they were all to do with what were then accepted as the ‘truth’, in relation to how the world saw its way forward in growing its lot. They were the likes of  ‘Chemical fertilisers increase production’, ‘Growth is desirable’, ‘Greed is good’ and more. While the empirical evidence showed that they were all valid in the short term and some in the medium term, all were found to be false in the long term.  And then, most thought and asked “we are all dead in the long term... so why worry? “

That was decades ago. Today we have seen, what the outcomes have been. Alternative energy sources are now touted as the best options, when 40 years ago, when presented as options, they were scantily disregarded. The conventional energy lobby was more powerful then, than it is today.

When we depend on our environment and its resources to live and further our quality of life, we need to be mindful of how we should be on that journey. Tourism is no different. And at Sri Lanka tourism, we have lots of lessons we can draw from elsewhere,  to observe how things had gone wrong when they followed the conventional model.

I repost this column I wrote for the ‘Daily Financial Times, Sri Lanka’ in June 1210, as food for thought on this Sunday morning.

 

I read a headline in a leading business journal recently which said “Sky is the limit for Sri Lanka Tourism”. The story referred to the statistics of a 50% increase in visitor arrivals, year to year, period to period and talked about expectations for the coming winter season. This is all excellent. For we in Sri Lanka have a visitor base of manageable proportions and the impact on our natural and heritage resources are still at reasonably low levels. In fact, the unique selling proposition (USP) Sri Lanka as a destination will have for the future, are the relatively pristine natural environment, our cultural heritage and the evergreen smiles we have to offer.

From a tourism point of view those past years of conflict, has now given us an edge and an advantage, not many other destinations in Asia can boast about; i.e. a place in the sun which is not over-crowded, where serendipity still finds its meaning and our culture still remains relatively unpolluted by dominant influences of rapid growth. We must also find solace in the fact that planners of tourism in the early days were thoughtful and wise.

As far back as 1967, when tourism became a formal business activity in then Ceylon, a group of consultants from Hawaii who prepared a tourism development plan recommended that ‘no resort or hotel development on the coasts of Ceylon should be taller than a coconut tree’. It was just a rule of thumb recommendation, but its positive impact for our tourism today is of great value. Except for one or two sad exceptions, all of Sri Lanka’s coastal tourism development is not above three stories high and is covered with the green canopy of our coconut palms.

I am sure our tourism planners will make good of this unique advantage we have and continue not to over build. Thanks to our innovative architectural heritage both in ancient and in more recent times, we have a group of thinking people who are able to present most appropriate, sustainable and innovative designs. The urge to grow tall and reach the sky as fast as possible, seem to be with some segments of our leadership whose planning horizons only stretch out to be between elections. They need to prove themselves, show fast and glittering results to impress to safeguard their positions with the leadership.

We hear of politicians, even those with sound credentials, accuse conservation activists as been the bane of economic growth. “These types keep investors away” is how they are described. There are many among investors and business persons who are also out for the kill. Their planning horizons extend to the next project and then on to the next. The consideration is only on how much profit can be made now and then with that stored away, move on to the next. The nation’s interest is on the back-burners and only fast gain and their own survival is up in-front. We indeed need foreign investors, but not all and sundry who come in with the first proposal and are ready to oil palms. We must have patience to seek the best and be transparent about the process with which we select them. In tourism too, we must learn to say no, like we have said to others who seek to impose their will on us. We shall soon realise that the best among investors, who are in it for the long- term will appreciate our position and seek to support us.

What that would mean are quality products and services, higher returns and yield, less forex leakages, more sustainable environmental outcomes and direct benefits to local communities. We see on our midst those who are in the industry for nothing but short-term gain. They build, operate, enhance share value with fast cash making schemes and sell to make a kill and in the process do lots of damage to the destination and its image.

Sri Lanka tourism has a visitor arrivals target of 2.5 million to be achieved by 2016, as set in the ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ - Way Forward’, vision and strategy document.  That to me is a modest and reasonable expectation of our tourism and can be the ‘limit in the sky’ for us. While that target and the higher yields we must aim at, would give our economy and the nation what our natural, cultural and social resource base can reasonably withstand, our attention must be placed on how we pace towards that target. 2016 is six years away and that to most it is the long-term. What we must be cautious about are those whose expectation horizons are limited to a year or two, for they will want to reap benefits as some seem to call ‘the lost opportunities of the past three decades’, with fast forward rapid action. A good example is the lack of the intensity of this rush of investors to areas of the North and the East, where necessities are greater but immediate gain is limited.

We must remember that the same vision and strategy outlines a more equitable development of our nation’s economy. The thinking is similar to that proposed a decade or so ago, by the King of Thailand as the ‘Sufficiency Economy’ model for a country’s development. That however did not take root in that country as intended. It proposed a middle path balancing personal gain in investment with that of the wider society, placing national interest over self-interest.

We can indeed reach the skies if we play it right. But that sky must be blue and not fog-ridden. It must be a sky that will allow the sun to shine on all citizens alike. We must take time to reach that sky and not be in a hurry. Then and then only will the sky be our limit.  

 

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