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NETWONK vt1? Ilwite Network members to contribute to the NeMvrk Letter by sharing their work, icleas andpl.CJns through these pages. NEWS Communication is vital to the lIfe ofa Network especially when NOUNDUP physical distances cannot easily be bridged by doser (Ol7tacts. ALTERNATIVE NETWORK LETTER A Third World Tourism Critique Child Prostitution Consultation, Thailanci A consultation on the links between tourism and the growi'lg child Tourism, Environment and the law Drmtitution indu'>try was held (It Chiang Mai between May 1-5, 1990. For Private Circulation Only Vol. 6 No.2 luly 1990 the Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism,. it marked the conclusion Our schedule for the includes a national consultation on the links research project (overing Thailand, Philippines and Sri Lanka. Some reports between tourism environmental and legal issues, Aug 2, from othp( countries were also presented, including one on India by K T Suresh at Bangalore. n Sunday june 10th, I joined a group of concerned Filipinos on a visit of Equations. Tourism in Algeria to Pagsanjan, a tourist resort famed for its water rapids, and notorious We would be glad to hear from people or institutions involved in any by Chris Mcivor Action stratct!,i(-'s from thf' mnSLJ Itation wi II form the next phase of of these areas who would like to participate, especially make a written Ofor male child prostitution or pedophilia. The 2-hour jeepney (the th is importilnt project, of which wi II be available from ECTWT, POBox or visual contribution. Ph iIippi nes' unique form of public transport) ride from Manila passes through ,'N ot so many years ago Tamanrasset was nothing but a shanty town;' 24, Chorakhebud, 10230, Thailand. some lovely countryside, notably the laguna backwaters. This will be a major event, and we expect oal1icioants from all over commented the manager of one of the new hotels that have been The purpose of our visit to Pagsanjarl, however, WdS far from being touristic. Tourism and Racism, Hawaii. USA as well as abroad, to be present. built there in the last few years. "There was no electricity or running Tourism offid:ils in Manila have recently woken up to problems water, hotels or roads;' he continued, "but now that the tourists have started The annual "on~ultation of the North American Network for Responsible and decided that the be~t way to tackle them wou!d be to denounce coming this town has prospered to become one of the richest in the southern Tourism (NANET) wi I! be held October 26-30, 1990, looking at issues of Racism destination. 'Pagsanjan is no longer a Fi lipino attraction, don't of Algeria:' This sentiment is one that is echoed by many of the merchants in Tourism. Collaborators include the nevvly formed Ilawaii Ecumenical ~here: they wamed the intemational travel trade. No problem, traders of the community whose bU5ine~ses have thrived with the arrival COillition on fourism (f IECOT). Write to NANET, 2 Kensington Road, San Resources moved elsewhere in the 7,OOO-odd islands. of numerous French, German, Swiss and Italian tourists, Every year between An,elmo, CA 94960, USA. There is a problem, though: the boatmen who depended on tourists for their October and April they converge'on the town to visit the famous Hoggar region Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism, 2nd Edition, Valene Smith livelihood were left high and dry. They got organised soon enough, but of the country. The growth of tourism however is not confined to Tamanrasset University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989. discovered it was not just the tourism ministry they had to face. A variety of but has also spread to many of the other communities in the Algerian Sahara, Tourism in South India The second edition of a volume of essays includes postscripts written after and other bodies now counted among those who were clearly not an area which has become in recent years one of the most popular tourist 10 years by the authors of the first. The essays by Dennison Nash and Nelson friends. Far from India though it is, the signs of Asia are unmistakable. propositions in North Africa. 1991 has been declared \7isit India Year by the Tourism Ministry Graburn in the introductory 'theoretical overview' are excellent, and have been the boatmen, whose demand is simply: its neighbours 10 the west and east, Morocco and Tunisia, in New Delhi. Apart from the massive boost given to adventure left unchanged. Theron Nunez was unable to review his anthropological we need tourists, so we want them back. But not the pedophiles. On June 12th, been slow to develop its tourist potential. Commented one government and recreation tourism. several areas have now been marRed perspectives on tourism (final chapter) owing to ill-health, but an eoilogue was took out a rally in Manila, which was also celebrating Independence Day. in Tamanrasset, "In 1962, after independence, Algeria has little time to think for special promotional efforts. amon\l them the Southern written and discussed with Nunez by his student James lett. we were not present then, we heard that 'major demands have been about tourism. The country was geared to rebuilding itself, developing its Indian states, Rnmvn for their miles of sandy sea·fronts, game industries, providing education for its children. ':At the same time;' he concluded, Most of the authors appear to be quite positive about the tourism industry, met' as a result. sanctuaries, temples and 'friendly smilin"r people. EQUATIONS In Thailand, the government does not officially recognise the existence of "the war left bitter memories in the minds of most and we were not has begun a programme of documentation. networt2ing and sounding almost like apologists. One even concludes (rather unacademically) prostitution. though it is freely advertised even in daily newspapers under the open our arms to tourists from a country which had killed half a million consultation in order to develop coordinated action on the issue. that 'tourism is a bit of an escape from our local problems... to the carefree times mhpm'l~nl<; 'massage parlours' or 'escort services'. It must have taken Public Also the large resources of oil and natural gas which began to be Every month. we will produce a set of ne\.'17S clippings (xeroxed), of childhood when someone else had to do the worrying for us, and extracted during the late 60's and 70's meant that Algerian demand for foreign and distribute to a limited group of people. Write to us if you is here to stay!' One wonders if this has something to do with the fact currency was not so pressing as its neighbours and so tourism was largely wish to receive these (at cost), and if you would liRe to participate by the editor) that i many travel industry conferences regularly schedule one Just One Planet ignored as a means of bringing money into the country. Now the Algerian ------in related activities later this year. or two sessions on tourism research, and anthropologists thus find employment Government,. having recognized the lucrative potential of this sector and the as industry consultants'. Health Minister Marut Bunnag an incredible degree of political tightrope need for the tourist industry to find new unspoiled pastures, has opened up walking to appear at the Cleopatra Massage Parlour early this year, to advise its southern region by building hotels in most of the major towns, organizing Cultural Survival Quarterly, Vol 14, Nos 1 & 2, 1990, 11 Divinity Avenue. Tourism and Socio-Cultural Chan~e, Warsaw 'masseuses' to use condoms while having sex with their customers. While the tourist agencies and travel bureaus and encouraging home crafts like carpet ambridgf' MA 02HB, USA. r.,n-.n.,;"" to contain the spread of AIDS in Thailand deserves total support, The Institute oilourism in Warsaw has initiated a international study and cloth manufacture. Most of the communities have also been provided Entitled 'I:3reaking out of the Tourist Trap: these two issues contain a wealth of answer lies in other, more coruprehen5ive stratf'gies, elirfftPfj on the relationship betwf'en tourism and socio-cultural The study spans with airfields, and flights from Paris to the south of the country are now information on the socia-cultural changes wrought by tourism in ecologically the kind of tourism that brings Thailand a major part of its exchange a 12-ycdl period from 1990 to 2002, and compares in both tourism and possible. and sensitive regions (Ladakh, Tanaloraja, Greenland). Some earnings. ~~evertheless the arrival of thousands of touri<;ts every year is not other industrial sectors. Write to Dr julian Bystrzanows'" Institute Returning to India, I learned that the Environment Ministry has in to that is universally welcomed throughout the south. Commented one resident 9a, 02·511 Warsaw, Poland. anthropologists consider tourism as inviolable academic territory. and some of the articles reflect this imbalance, though most are of high the tourism authorities, and that hotels will now be built allover the country's ofT.:lmanrasset, "In reality only a few people prO'ipered with the opening Caribbean Tourism Conference, Trinidad and beaches at the 200-metre high tide line, reduced from 500 metres. The Tourism up of tourism in our area. Most of these:' he claimed, "come from out,>iele the Tourism and Ecology: The Impact of Travel on a Fragile Earth, i'.A '\.JET/CRT. Thf' Caribbean Tourism Organisation, in collaboration with the Government Ministry's Visit India 1991 campaign appears to be directed to community, the businessmen, entrepreneurs, merchants from the north who Kensington Road, San Anselmo, CA 94960 .. USA, 1990. oiTrinid.ld and Tobago, the World Tourism Organisation, and others, is beaches and other ecologically fragile zones. have the money to build hotels, tourist agencies and souvenir sr,ops:' Even thE' staff who run the hotels, the who ferry tourists around the area are flot an intl'rnational Conference on Tourism and Socia-cultural Change in The report of Consultation V of the North American Network brings together Gabriela Petra da Rosd has recently sent us dcopy of her study on the mutual guide~ loca s, complained another, since the owner's of the nf'W establishments favour Caribbean, june 25-25, 1990, at Trinidad andlobago. The list of various reports and resources on tourism and ecology issues, thredt that the tourism indw,try in Goa and the Kaiga power plant po"e to each their people over the original inhabitants. includes Rev Allan Kirton, executive member of the [CTWT. focussing on the USA. other. While it is bound to arouse controver~y, WP nevertheles~ feel it is an aspect of the emerging debate on both nuclear and tourism i"sues At the same time the electricity, running water, dnd roads that were largely Center for Solidarity Tourism, Manila The Nuclear Industry: The Death of Tourism in Goa, Gabriella Petra da Rosa, introduced into the community' a~.l rf'sult of touri~m are noticeably lacki ng Cvan Policy Research Cell, India, May 1990,33 pp. fonrd dl/N'It' ,o"rd. pagl? I BOOK REVIEW in the outlying aredS of Tamanrasset which house the majority of its original Karnataka's Massive project residents. The centre of town, "our tourist show-piece" as one person called The government of Karnataka has decided to seek financial assistance from the Exodus Revisited to his own values, industry, leisure and future designs. His own it, and the hotels, cafes and shops that surround it form asmall private enclave Overseas Economic C(H)peration Fund (OECF) of Japan for a Rs 162.40 crore The Tourist. A New Theory of the Leisure Class. Dean MacCannell, New past within the West, and the past and present of all others, he of development, all the more disturbing because of the poverty which surrounds tourism development project, out of which Rs 62.40 crores would be in the York, Schocken Books Inc., 1976; London, The Macmillan PressUd., 1976, interprets and reconstructs into modern cultural heritage. it. Many townspeople have also suffered because of the rise in prices which private sector. The objective is to make Karnataka a major tourist destination X 214 pp. In Chapter 2, MacCannell analyses the sightseeing process have come from increased demand and the presence of new, richer customers. in the '90s. within its structure of attraction, a relationship between the MacCannell has achieved in 'The Tourist' what social scientists "With the rush to build new hotels, shops etc., the price of a plot of land has The state Tourism, Information and tourist, the sight and the marker. The tourist himself does not increased tenfold;' commented another resident. "None of us can afford to build of the structuralist school and functionalist lineage, from Emile analyse the sight. he apprehends at the spontaneous level of his said that the government had Durkheim to Louis Dumont, failed to arrive at, viz. the deep a decent house even if we manage to buy sufficient ground since had subsequently scaled it down, keeping in view the resources constraint. consciousness the sight in its otherness. MacCannell relates it materials, which we have to import from the north, have also risen in price:' structure that holds Western civilization together. An ethno Over Rs 8 crores had been allocated to the department oftourism, Karnataka to the differentiation of the experience deep at heart in the In the market-place staple foods like flour, sugar, milkpowder and tea are also graphy of modern SOciety eluded them. "Modern SOciety is just exercise. What is important is the semiotic of attraction, a process more expensive. At times of food shortage, which is quite frequent due to the State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) for adding more rOOmS to too complex; history has intervened and smashed its structure", its existing hotels, inducting fresh buses into the fleet, constructing roadside by which a sight - a sign which represents something to distance oflamanrasset from the north of the country and the difficulty of recalls MacCannell in his introduction (p.l), a brief statement of someone - is converted into a marker of profound meaning. transporting goods across the desert, it is the hotels that are always provided facilities, developing adventure tourism and for publicity and training. Important Professor Levi-Strauss at Maxim's Restaurant in Paris in 1968. "No first since they have the money to procure any remaining stocks. As a fairs and festivals would also be supported by the department of tourism so matter how hard one searched, one would never find a coherent His final chapter takes up again the issues of theory and consequence of these factors the majority of people who have little or no access as to attract foreign and Indian tourists. system of relations in modern society". The structural method in re-presenting the world: its people, institutions and to the spin-offs from tourism are materially worse off than before its arrival, a A unique feature of the project according to Mr Moi Iy, was the proposal to functionalist framework of Parsons, celebrating American values, through the eyes of modernity and extends it to the Third phenomenon witnessed in many of the towns in the Algerian Sahara which reserve for the private sector certain activities like setting up new hotels and holism, was too harmonious for a conflict-ridden world. His own World' - an unconscious exercise, an exercise of pleasure and have seen a similar expansion in recent years. running luxury cars and amusement parks. The private sector could also image making. Going beyond it and behind it - to the deep students abandoned it for other methods of interaction and structures - MacCannell restores the 'sacredness' of the At the same time the older people of these towns have come to resent the organise luxury cruises, starting from Goa and going down the western coast, exchange in everyday experiences. They abandoned the totality while stopping at places like Karwar, Malpe, Mangalore and Kovalam, so that experience, its unity and holism, With sacredness returns arrival in their community of thousands of tourists many of whom show little of society. Class analysts were always there in the Marxist fold. religion by the back door, so to say, and establishes the hierarchy respect for the traditions and customs of the inhabitants around them. ''l\s a the tourists could sample different cuisines and cultures, including art forms Primitive accumulation of colonial practise and imperialist of values and stability of the world order. The invisible religion oractising Muslim:' complained one resident from EI Golea, atown further north like Yakshagana and Kathakali domination of finance capital explained the modern structure themselves The minister noted that an attempt was being made to get funds from the of secular man (as Thomas Luckmann pu tit) is traced back to its of society in classical and neo-Marxist traditions. But that was roots and made visible in the tourist and his sightseeing. OECF for such ventures by the private sector. The project, he added, was likely and is too economistic and reductive an explanation. Their to be implemented over a five-year period coinciding with the Eighth Plan. reformers found so many bundles of signifiers in SOciety that w. R. O'Silva The KSTDC managing director, Mr Shantanu Consul, noted that a study by they mistook trees for the forest. Louis Dumont came to India, (Or D'Silva teaches Social Anthropology at Goa University) a leading consultancy firm had estimated that based on the originally projected the representative of non-modern world, in search of mirror investments of Rs 209.37 crores, the project would generate a return of Rs 755 images and foils of reflection, to re-establish a sense of identity crores within 10 years of commencement of implementation, including a direct in modern civilisation. Strange Bedfellows return of over Rs 354 crores and an indirect one (by way of spin ofts like The Politics of Tourism in Asia. linda K Richter. University of Hawaii employment generation following larger tourist inflows) of over Rs 401 crores. MacCannell seems to succeed in this book in restoring unity to modernity. Amidst the disorganized fragments, "alienating, Press, 2840 Kolowalu St., Honolulu, HI 96822. 1989.x + 263 pp, $24. The net value added on the investment of Rs 209.37 crores would, he said. work Cloth. Notes, bibliography, index, list of abbreviations, tables. out to 1:1.2. wasteful, violent, superficial, unplanned, unstable and in authentic" (p.2), he discovers a unity. Not that all humans are Tourism, all innocence on first glance, is in fact a near relative THE ECONOMIC TIMES, 24 February, 1990 essentially the same 'underneath/, but that all cultures are of some serious global activities, foreign policy and foreign composed of the same elements in different combinations. relations. It is indeed, as authe>r Richter states, a "crude but The unity is established through an analysis of what Mac reliable barometer of international relations," This book is based Incentives to Hotels Cannell calls middle-class culture or modern mass leisure. It is "on the premise that tourism is a highly political phenomenon, summarized in the universalizing experience of the tourist. the implications of which have been only rarely perceived and The government has decided to give a package of incentives to Modern values expressed through tourist culture bring out the almost nowhere fully understood." the hotel industry in an effort to accelerate the development of total design of society in a single framework. To that extent the tourism infrastructure in the country. The book does much more than simply pose interesting and old divisions between Communist East and Capitalist West on seldom-considered facts: tourism is the largest industry in the The incentives include exempting new approved hotels set up the one hand, and the new divisions between the developed our streets, drinking beer in our hotels and clicking cameras at in the hill stations and other areas from expenditure tax for 10 world; tourism has been used as a political weapon by the United chi Idren:' Invariably as a result of tourism alcohol has become . years. These hotels will also be given 50 per cent exemption from world and the Third World on the other hand, are transcended. States; tourism precedes the normalization of relations between in the south, which more than anything has angered parents who are worried income tax. He derives from the touristic sightseeing, culturally, values two countries. The book is significant because it goes on to ask habit. In a region of the countrv where embodied in work-in-general rather than from the production These decisions were taken at the first meeting of the cabinet not only "why?" but also "so what?", Islam is still very much in evidence this issue has become a real system, materially, the value of commodities. Conversion of the committee on export strategy and performan.ce presided over by The case studies of areas mostly explored firsthand by the between the advocates of "modernism" and those who wish to preserve the the Prime Minister, Mr V P Singh. work of others into 'do-it-yourself amusement, or shift from society as it is. author through her travels and interviews, consider the People's The Commerce and Tourism Ministry, Mr Arun Nehru, said material production to cultural production of values, unites Republic of China, the Philippines (under both Marcos and Also the increasing wage differences between those involved in the traditional the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) will be modernity. Aquino), Thailand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the activities of the area, like agriculture and herding, and those fortunate enough permitted to import 300 air-conditioning units for use in tourist Tourist, in MacCannell, has two meanings. It designates actual Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan, and form the central core of the to profit from tourism has introduced a note of further discord into once settled coaches at a concessional duty of 50 per cent. Restrictions on tourists. sight-seers, going round the world in search of book. Richter considers the reasons a government uses tourism and close-knit communities. The traditional hospitality of the Sahara, complain photography of historical and archaeological monuments will experience. There is another sense in which the tourist repre to advance its policies and the political and economic problems many residents, is changing to something more selfish and commercial. also be relaxed. sents the modern-man-in-general and thereby becomes its value within a country that can prevent tourism from functioning as Incidents of theft and robbery have also increased in recent years resulting in Under the package, the tourism ministry will undertake an centre. expected. These seven chapters are nicely framed by an intro an expansion of the police force throughout the southern region. "We are intensive development of few suitable sites which have potential throughout the south;' commented one resident of The tourist differentiates the whole world into a duction on the politics of tourism and a final chapter on for adventure and beach tourism. This will be done in co Development and modernization are roughly the same as alternative strategies (or tourism development. for the better. Even our operation with the concerned state governments. have become commercialized differentiation. Sightseeing becomes the ritual performance The 46-page bibliography is composed mostly of books and The government is also likely to take some decisions in the are less acelebration of our traditions, agesture of respect towards our ancestors both at home, the world of earlyindustrialization, and the world articles, but it also includes lists of official publications, videos, near future regarding simplification of immigration and visa than a means of hringing us monty Tourism it is true has brought hard at large, the world of pilgrimage. The Sightseeing middle class speeches, and interviews. procedures. into the country;/ he concluded, "but the results are not as beneficial as holds this experience together into a single whole. In this government and the businessmen would like to maintain:' • TIMES OF INDIA, 10 April, 1990 exercise the middle class sightseer subordinates the other people from Third World Resources, Vol. .'i (2), 19B'; 10 3 Hippies in Gokarna US Ecologists Tour India Affliction and Reproach :; I In Quotes ", : ! The scum of Western Society the unwashed, scantily clad hippies Linking the Narmada Valley Dams, the Tehri Dam, the Bhopal gas tragedy, a r!il The alternative is inescapable: either I am a traveller in team of eight American environmentalists questioned the role of US corporate seem to be focusing their attention towards other safe havens, Goa having Stephen Haseler. Lecturer, City Polytechnic. London become a bit too hot for them. ancient times, a nd faced with aprodigious spectacle which involvement and the us GCNerriment'~ support lor World Bank projects in India, would be almost entirely unintelligible to me and might, Expressing support for community based organisations and protests such as "j don't like the idea that we are subjects, Why should we be And the Ilew safe haven they have found is among one of the holiest indeed, provoke me to mockery or disgust; or 1 am a in the Narmada Valley, the team called on the Indian Government and the World anyone's subjects'! We should all be citizens, I can't think of a spots of Hindu mythology - Gokarna. A small sleepy town on the west traveller ofour own day, hastening in search ofa vanished Bank to pursue a socially and environmentally just development policy_ single advanta~e in hiMng a monarchy in a modem country The coast in Karnataka, Gokarna houses the famous Mahabaleshwar temple reality; In either case I am the loser - and more heavily ar~ument that it brin~s in tourists is overdone. Countries like "Indian environmentalists are absolutely right to question development where ttindus perform the last rites of their near and dear ones. Much than one might suppose; for today, as 1 go groping among priorities here'; said team member Richard Krejsa. "In the United States and France conNnue to attract tourists. Anyway do we want to be to the disgust of these pilgrims, hordes of semi-nude hippies can be seen the shadows, 1 miss, inevitably, the spectacle that is now seen as a theme park. a coumry where people look at for our throughout the world these megd-projects tend to cause mega-disaslers': us sunning themselves on the beach which is hardly a stone's throw from takingshape. Aiyeyes, orperhaps my degree ofhumanity, antique and quaint ways?" the temple. do not equip me to witness that spectacle; and in the The group met with Governmental officials, environmental activists and local residents, finding fault with Union Carbide's handling of the gas tragedy, the "t)ut its good for us', says Abdul Rashid, 45, a coconut vendor at the centuries to come, when another traveller revisits this Editorial in THE TIMES OF INOlA, 23 february. 1990 same place, he too maygroan aloud at the disappearance World Bank's unyielding support for the '\Iarmada Valley Development Project beach at whose makeshift stall at least ten of these 'rebels' sit munching That cultural crosstalk knows no boundaries is su~gested by the and the Indian GCNernment's pursuit of central ised high technology and capital tender coconut between puffs at strong smelling chillums. ofmuch that 1should have set down, but cannot. I am the case of the new world visitor to india who gushed delight at victim ofa double infirmity: what I see is an afflication to intensive development projects. Surprisingly the local populace seem Lo share his view. The tiny town having seen the Aqa Khan by moonlight. Another case ofJet me; and what I do not see; a reproach. the Narmada Valley, the group learned of the determination of the now boasts of a couple of swank ice-cream parlours where one can relish lag relates to the tourist couple who. on arriving at the historic residents not to be displaced. Neither the World Bank nor the Indian fresh pistanchio ice cream or watch latest Western thrillers on one of the - Claude Levi-Strauss, in Tristes Tropiques battlefield ofRunnymede ofMagna Carta fame, asked the guide Government had consulted the local population before beginning work on the numerous close circuit television networks that have sprung up. when that celebrated document had been signed. and were told dam. 1215. Whereupon the husband consulted his watch and sj~hed. Although many of these hippies are those outcasts who have moved No relocation plans had been formulated and the project is underway "Gee, Martha. We just missed it by 10 minutes" out from neighbouring Goa after the friendly State raised its eyebrows Golden Triangle although good land is not available as compensation for more than two lakh at their vagabond and lawless tactics, the proximity of Gokarna (l85 people of the river valley, The group saw the current protests at the Narmada kilometres from \:>anjim) is obviously a boon for them. The agreement by the military authorities of Thailand and Burma to jointly Valley as a logical response to the situation. "When the people are locked out The Great Elephant March "We'll never come to Goa, Your police are brutes;' exclaimed 2&year develop the 'golden triangle' could transform the remote opium-producing of the decision making process, they have no other option, but to take matters old self-styled sanyasin Michelle, But the lady, who was clad in the shortest region on their common border. into their own hands'~ commented team member Sara Nelson. Dear Tourist Friend, of short,,; and a hosom-hugging 'I~shirt was at a loss when Questioned Ifthe plan materialises, the poppy fields of Northern Thailand and Burma Referring to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Dr Andy Smith of the American Baptist While we identify your real spirit (certainly Wf' believe the humanness is not as to what police brutality she suffered during her one month jaunt at could give way to tourism and development projects. Church said "Carbide officials have systematically evaded the enormity of this totally dried up, be it in the North or the South) to know our culture, we invite Calangute. Thai military officials who returned from a trip to Rangoou said the project disaster, They have misled the public and little relief has reached the victims': your attention to some danger signals that our tourism business According to a local police officer liquor and other soft drugs like grass involves developing tOUl ism and 'other businesses' to give farmers an alternative In Tehri the team heard at least four dynamite blasts at the dam site Kerala, as any other people, has its own culture. Dialogue among different and charas are regularly transported from Goa to aid, as he put it to poppy cultivation, opium and heroin prodilction. a moratorium on construction. cultures, is necessary and healthy. But when culture i~ made instant and ~old meditation. A tall frenchman clad in crisp saffron sits at the gate of the "It is our hope that such a joint undertaking will promote the tourist industry "The problems we have observed in India are not isolated. They are occurring for dollars, it is an entirely different matter. Festivals, pooram, folk arts, all are temple, eyes closed in the bliss of approaching nilvana. "He comes Quite in the golden triangle to benefit all three countries;' said Gen Pat Akanibutr, in aimost all areas of the world'; said Josh Kariiner, an environmental journalist part and parcel of our culture. In every culture every festival or folk art has its often;' explains the temple priest "but unfortunately we cannot let him Inspector-General of the Thai armed forces. with the team. "Citizens' groups are actively addressing these issues not only own context. For example, Trichur Pooram festival is of April-May, On am is of in:' Fearing the ire of the orthodox, the doors of the temple have virtually in India and the US, but also in Latin America, Europe, South East Asia and August-September. They have their own socio-historical reasons. When a folk been barred to all whites, THE HERALD, Panjim, 18 March, 1990 Africa': art or pooram is taken out of a particular cultural context it loses its essence But Gokama is a poor substitute for golden Goa. And they will come and soul. The people who perform them do it artificially. They can't infuse their VENTURE TOURS, New Delhi rushing back to Goa when the local hospitality wears off alongwith their into such buffooneries, So what is exhibited as culture is soulless dead new found taste tor 'nirvana'. Packaged Bliss matter, The state is eager to earn some dollars, since its are few up THE HERALD (Panjim), 19 March, 1990 The problem with paradise is that it soon becomes boring. to fill Established religions have never satisfactorily answered the r Pacific Paradise I the economic, social and cultural vaccum, created its own anti-people question, 'What do people do in Heaven?' The disembodied development No mistake about it, Christopher Cocl;?er's task as Tonga's chief I spirituality of the Christian Heaven and the interminable group tourism promoter is a hefty one. True. the South Pacific islands Kerala was rich in natural resources, Tourism lk Aids in Thailand sex of the Islamic paradise are enervating prospects for all but offer everything Tahiti has in the way ofpalms and beaches, even the resources dwindled. Now the state i~ short confirmed quietist mystics or inexhaustible satyrs. The human jfa political storm is clouding them at the moment. Stm. yearly of grains, short of vegetables, short of all necessities, Our agricultu re is stunted. The survey of the policies and actions taken by the Thai authorities mind seems unable to conceive of any purely pleasurable arrivals of 11.000 'Visitors by air and 13,000 by sea to King Industrial growth is stagnant Only the tertiary sector comprising education, and public organisations to monitor and prevent the spread of AIDS activity (or blissful inactivity) that would not eventually pall. We Taufa'ahau lI.1poU lV's domain is causing hospitality among the health etc. is inueasing. All our resources have hepn dGlllled. In its placr: the in the sphere of commercialized sex indicated that these have been should not expect the tourist industry to have solved the problem well-proportioned Polynesians to wear thin Sunny Tongans state is flooded with modern consumer articles, In short Kerala is a almost exclusively oriented to the local sex workeIS, male or that has defeated the world's theologians - even if it does claim recoil from phalanxes of camera-clicking tourists who invade of multinationals and transnationals. More than three million female, rather than their customers, whose health and conduct to offer us a variety of paradises to suit every pocket. their privacy and. ignoring the Sunday laws, get restless on the unemployed ... remain virtually unchecked. This approach is congruent with past ordained day of rest. But Cocker. 26 is stout ofheart. By way The state instead of trying to solve the social and economic issues that haunt policies regarding prostitution in Thailand, Ever since it was first from The Colden Hordes, Louis Turner & John Ash ofan 'Awareness Program" aimed at school-children he says, the people, make the people more fools and ask them to sing and dance to outlawed in 1960, virtually the only persons against whom the law "We presenr a general overview of the significan t benefits of untimely culture calls, This is in the name of culture, in the name of tourism! was applied were the prostitutes themselves. ProcureIS, brothel tourism" A graduate of hocel training in Brisbane, he is also The state tries to hille the real state of the people by staging Great Elephant owners and customeIS were rarely, ifevec apprehended or punished Blinkered Vision nudging Tongans "to improve cheir host-guest relationship," Marches, It is betrayal of the people dnd ppople'<, culture. for their role in the furthering of prostitution. When AIDS appeared Those policymakers who make tourism policy by simply Plans are afoot for a new international terminal and JOo-room on the scene, the authorities were similarly reluctant to take any Dear tourist friend, we request you to note the real motive behind the Great repeating a common formula may think they have provided the hotel at the airport. "Tonga has not reached the stage ofresisting actions which could inconvenience the tourists and thus negatively Marches, Please take pains to explore the real state of our oeoDle and answer, but without comparing, searching and probing the tourism," says Cocker thoughtfully "But we don't want to do affect the tourist industry. by initiating such a normative stefl, we experience of other societies, that answer is surely limited and that too much" ..... ",,1'" .. ,,:,,11 'h~ ,,'~r>p dnd enter Into a new dawn at hik Cantil, in Alii/dIs uf Tourism Re!Jear<.iI, Vol. i5, 1~68 '-.V'-oG...l.U 1't \....J.J V'-J ", .lV..i..1~. ASIAWEEK, 20 April, 1990 Prathikarana Sangham, (A Movement for People\ Cause) from The Politics of Tourism in Asia, linda K Richter 16- Vanchi Lodge, Trichur-21. Kerala 4 9 Tourism and Politics Saving the Sphinx Austrian Campaign Dear Editor, by Frederick Noronha By Deborah Pugh The Austrian Hotel, Restaurant and Personal Service Workers' Union (HGPD) I have been following with interest the letters and your editorial of launched a campaign at the height of the summer tourist season to inform After surviving for 4,8(X) years, one of the world's oldest monuments, the March 12 concerning tourism in Goa and Jam forced to the conclusion Goa's new Government, the first non-COngress(l) one in a decade, is much and domestic tourists of the poor social and workim:!. conditions in the Sphinx, is under assault from the advance of civilisation - threatened that you cannot decide whether you want tourists or not. concerned about tourism's impact on this small State .... At least, this was and tourist industry. by rising human sewage, smoke and car exhausts. Now Egypt has a Concerning the use of drugs of aJJ kinds, J whole-heartedlyagree the impression sought to be conveyed after the P.1lF. (Progressive the union's '~ustria Bus" toured the country's major tourist centres, programme to save the monument. that this needs stamping out entirely, though whether this causes as Democratic Front) ministry took over here at the end of March. as well as border crossings, train stations and airports, with the aim of informing much harm to the locals as the cheap sale of Fenni I would think Deputy Chief Minister Ramakant Khalap stressed this concern more After years of argument over the future of the Pyramids, and what to the maximum number of holiday-makers of the below-standard conditions for el(lremeiy doubtful. I have seen far more drunken waiters, dhobis, taxi than once, immediately on taking over. (Khalap remains the supremo of do about damage to the Sphinx in particular, the Egyptian Antiquities workers in the hospitality industry, and asking them to support the union's drivers etc. than I have ever seen "hepped up hippies:' the new ruling coalition's dominant M G Party partner.) He also echoed Organisation (EAO) has embarked on a new renovation programme. This demand for better conditions, including a five-day working week. Concerning nudism -what is it about the Indian mentality that regards the worries some here feel over the manner in which Goa is projected has coincided with the recent inauguration of a sewage draining scheme Union members and supporters passed out the following leaflet, in English, a nubile, young woman without clothes as shocking, when it can to lure tourists. for the Pyramids area, the first practical step to protect the 4,8O(}year French, Italian and German: contemplate a bare posterior excreting iIi full public gaze on the side But then, this is only one side to the picture. old Sphinx from rising sewage water. Dear Holiday-Makers! of the road with complete calmness which an European sees as The magnificent limestone figure, on the outskirts of Cairo said to Thank. you for chOOSing Austria for yourholidays. We sincerely hope that completely disgusting. Even while Khalap spoke, Goa's (then) interim P.IlF. Chief Minister Churchill A1emao made it a point to stress the "need" Goa has for tourism. depict the Pharaoh Chephren, has been deteriorating ever since a you like our country and feel at home here. I have never seen anything more ridiculous than the sight oflocal protective covering of sand was removed from its 240-feet high body in Austria is a country that is proud ofthe job security and high standards In the background also, there are other factors which have an important women who go into the sea to bathe fully clothed, complete with saris. 19205. Its exposure took place just as rapid industrtal, agricultural and of welfare it offers to its workers, even though a large part of those bearing on the situation. The other point ofcontention - the hiring ofmotorbikes. Why can't tourism development began in Egypt. Each sector has added to the employed in the tourist industry are excluded from these benefits. 1burism's impact on local politicians remains stron~ for one thing. And, Did you know that most employees in the hotel and catering business, the company or persons hiring out the vehicles be responsible for physical pressures on Egypt's heritage of Pharaonic, Roman, Christian those people who make your stay comfortable, are not entitled to two free ensuring that the hirer has the correct documents, crash helmets etc., as seen from the functioning of similar economically-powerful lobbies and Islamic monument'i. in Goa's recent past. such an influence is not restricted solely to the days a week? as is done throughout the rest ofthe world. Though in a country where The sewage draining scheme is aimed at cleaning up the squatter Did you know that wages in the hotel and catering business are among party alone or to just the opposition benches. any kind oflicence can be obtained for modest bribe, it is difficult to settlement at Nazlet Essimman, which has mushroomed over the last the lowest in Austria? see why it ma(ters! Apart from Alemao, at least two Congress(l) former Ministers (Luizinho decade in the shadow of the Pyramids, drawn by the dollars of the And did you know that employers have for years made promises to the Concerning harassment by the police. I entirely agree with the Editor, Faleiro and Dr Wilfred de Souza, the latter now Goa's Opposition leader) union to improve welfare and working conditions in the hotel and catering thousands of tourists who arrive daily in their huge tour buses. Waste business, but have consistently failed to keep their promises? this is the fault ofthe Europeans for tolerating it. I find in dealing with have a cosy relationship with the State's tourism industry. Directly or water from the village is absorbed by the porous limestone from which indirectly, they are tied to some major hotel projects here. Then, one top We ask your understanding for our protest activities which areintended the police that ifone is kind but firm in the old colonial manner, they the Sphinx is carved and which eventually crumbles the rock. to improve the conditions of working and living for workers in the hotel will immediately back off. And never ever offer them money. Although M G Party functionary also has proprietorial interests in a prominent Panaji Apart from the rtsing water table and the polluting effect of the tour and catering business. After all, they wjJJ be in your interest as well: the the present force is far too young to remember the old days, they can hotel. Further, if some newspaper reports and activists are to be believed, buses, the settlement's sewage and fires generate "chemical pollutants tourist industry needs content and committed employees to tum out still recognise a Sahib when spoke to with authority. major five-star hotels have already begun playing a role in financing guests into our friends. We would be grateful ifyou could support us vis candidates for panchayat and even Assembly elections in some areas. three times greater than the limit permitted in archaeological areas;' says a-vis your hotel or restaurant operator. To revert to my original argument only you people in Goa can decide Dr Fekli Hassan, an archaeologist heading the panel of experts studying whether you want tourists or not, but ifas you state you are receiving And, irony of ironies. The 'concerned' P.1lF. Government is now headed We wish you happy holidays and we hope to see you again at your next by none other than Dr Luis Proto Barbosa, the bugbear of activists the area's problems. bad publicity in papers as important as the Sunday Times in U.K. then stay in Austria! working on the tourism issue here. Barbosa, a prominent member of the you certainly won't get them. Hassan has a vision of the Pyramid'S terrain as a "sanctuary". But his The HGPD reports it received widespread sympathy and support from foreign previous Congress(l) Government, was tourism minister in mid-1987.1t vision is bitterly opposed by the commercial interests it would curb. Much tourists and the Austrian public as the '~ustria Bus" toured the country. The It is not in the nature ofEuropeans to suffer harassment in Asian was at that time that the controversial Goa tourism 'master plan' was of the squatter settlement would be removed, including the trashy shop action was also supported by many trade unions abroad. In the view of National countries. And ifyou wish to earn foreign currency and to build up sought to be pushed through, leading to the birth of anti-luxury-tourism selling "authentic" Pharaonic souvenirs. The huge tour buses belching Officer Karl Prokes, the action helped to build up international solidarity: a thriving Industry, one thing is certain, you won't get rich from the protest groups like the Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fauz (JGF). middlec1ass Indian tourists who visit Goa. Its up to you, the decision fumes would be banned from the immediate vicinity and replaced with "Holiday-makers in Austria are also workers, who in their professional lives in is yours. Goa has also seen a large-sc.ale intermingling of political blood among an electric car shuttle service. their own countries rely on their trade unions. In our Austria-bus action, we leaders of the three dominant State parties of the Eighties - the (then) Specialists recognise that it is not enough to protect only the immediate have therefore built on this spirit of international trade union solidaritv. ruling Congress(I), the M G Party and the erstwhile Goa Congress. This Paul Scott, Bombay in HERALD (Goa), 17 March, 1990 environment of the Sphinx: air pollution in Cairo is so intense that a wide The IUF, in an emergency resolution approved by the 21st Con! is relevant, inasmuch as it has made policies and protagonists of different ranging programme is required. The Government is already committed its full support for the continuing struggle of the HGPD "for better social and parties now appear rather indistinguishable quite often. to limit pollution by installing filters on the three state cement factortes. working conditions, in particular for the introduction of two consecutive Sikkim and Darjeeling Generally it has been seen that the approving next if not an active prod, located only a few miles from the Giza plateau on which the Sphinx off per week for employees in the hotel and restaurant sector:' from New Delhi has been a key emboldening factor for egging on Goa's crouches. These factories spew out a staggering 2,CXX) tonnes of cement IUF NEWS BULLETIN, September/October, 198'3 The Union Government is considering West Bengal's proposal overambitious tourism plans. Now, once again, we have the central dust daily. to do away with existing restrictions on foreigners visiting certain National Front (Nf) government paternalistically taking the PDF But no action has been taken to reduce the car pollution. The high Mail Order Brides areas of Darjeeling and Sikkim to encourage tourism in this part government under its win~ to perhaps replicate the relationship which sulphur petrol used by the city's one million cars emit sulphuric and nitric of the country. the earlier Congress(l) State Government had with Delhi. The Philippine Congress is cracking down on child sex and the mail-order-bride Mr Manish Beht Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, said a number emissions which attack the surface of the Sphinx and other monuments, business. One small consolation perhaps awaits those concerned about the of foreian tourists were expected to participate in the inter producing a thin crust, says Dr EI Goresy, an Egyptian scientist. "With A house of representatives committee endorsed a bill this week that would impact of tourism in this State. The P.IlF. can less afford to put on airs festival in Sikkim during April. Tourists would the first sand storm, these thin layers are sandblasted and a fresh surface terms of 10 to 20 years for adults who have sex with children of arrogance - as compared to the Congress(l) after a decade-long rule be given temporary permiSSion to attend the fortnight-long becomes exposed:' , )Id. Another committee sought to ban nP\lII<;;n;mPr ArhlPrti.:pmpntc; in Goa. Not only did the present ruling coalition assume office in an for mail-order-brides festival. This constant removal of the surface has led to a loss of detail of the unusual way, but its political stability is also being doubted by some The advertisements offer foreign husbands to Filipinos, many of who end Mr BehI announced that the Centre proposed to invest Rs 11.19 Sphinx features which will soon be impossible to restore. Work will begin quarters. up virtual slaves in Japan, Europe, Australia or the United States. crores in West Bengal in 1990-91 for developing tourist spots in soon on bonding the cracks which give rise to serious concern, especially But still, a strong stake remains to project tourism's 'benefits' in a "The proposed Bill did not bar marriage between foreigners and Filipinos, the state. He said the development of Sunderbans and Sagar since part of a shoulder fell off two years ago, prompting the dismissals grossly-overrated manner in Goa. So was the case, in past years, with the but was an attempt to curb the business in young and often ill-educated Filipinos island would be centred on Calcutta. of the then chairman of the EAO. It was surprising to learn that despite adverse criticism about mining and mechanised fishing industries here. When those industries attraded by advertisements to a life abroad;' Congresswomdn Lorna Verano said. Calcutta, the city generated 30 per cent additional foreign were given dirt-cheap land leases or over-generous subsidies, they too Tourism is currently Egypt's number two foreign currency earner, The House committee on justice endorsed a separate Bill to protect children, tourists in 1989-90. More people would visit Calcutta if some new were talked of as the panacea for this State's economy. generating over US $2 billion in 1989. Having heavily backed Egypt's particularly from foreign paedophiles. tourist industry, the Wortd Bank is nervously alert to the fact that an Egypt hotels in the three-star range were built in the Whatever the (,1l5e, one still hopes that the PDF's initial assurances and If approved by the full House, the Bi II wou Id bar foreigners from clSSCX iati ng concern is genuine, and not merely a populist step simply meant to gain with decayed antiquities will attract few tourists. with children under 15 unless there is a blood relationship or a Ift!al link. TIMES OF INDIA, 16 April, 1990 the much·needed support. INDIAN EXPRESS, 13 March, 1990 TIMES OF INDIA, rphnhlrv, 1'19{: 8 5 BUSOL: I Lessons lost Colombo's Bid Bordi Says 'No' Teatime at Motels Until recently, Mayor Ramon Lobo and Company's development scheme for Indian tourism officials wrestling with unfavourable international Bordi, a lovely seaside village in Thane district, is resisting the The Khaitans of Macneill and Magor fame appear to have taken over the role the city to make it a fantasy resort for Japanese tourists raised nothing but only look south to see how much worse things can get. Sri inroads made by the tourism industry and builders from Bombay. of paterfamilias of the entire tea industry in Assam. eyebrows. But the current "tourist" development plan seems to be creating panic resort paradise, has vi rtually dropped out of global destination lists due to its seven year civil war. Since late last year, however, business has picked up, thanks to a The village has grown up in a Gandhian tradition, and is a major Khaitan of the group announced that Macneill and Magor will put reaction~ and raising a number of issues that should be resolved immediately. concerted effort by the public and private sectors. In the central town of Kandy the education centre. Not even a cinema theatre or a liquor bar has up a string of motels along National Highway 46 in the state, which means The Sodo Planning, Inc. - aJapanese golf course builder, with Mayor Lobo, venerable Queen's Hotel had at one point closed half its 100 rooms. It now sports been allowed to come up there. nearly the entire tea growing area in Assam will be covered. some city councillors, and a board member of the Baguio Water District, as afresh coat ui pai nt, and shortsclad visitors stream through its Victorian-era lobby. The villagers are now opposing the proposal of the Maha Announced almost off the cuff by Dipak, the project is still in the embryonic local incorporators-presented a bold proposition to build a 28 Indeed, in much of Sri Lanka tourists are increasing and cash registers are ringing rashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) to convert stage but he knows what he wants. His plan is to have a motel at every 8 to and a 180-room hotel right in the middle of the Busol watershed. louder. the local government PWD rest house into a tourist resort. They 10 km interval on the national highway. The idea was not rejected outright as an impertinence by the regional office in 1982 when 407,230 visitors spent nearly $150 million. But fear that the tranquil character of the village will be affected by of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Regardless mareds died in ethnic riots in Colombo and elsewhere in the country. In fact, so carried away was he by his own idea that he ordered right there ruined our reputation;' says Priantha Fernando, marketing director the onslaught of tourists. Some construction companies from and then the cordoning off a plot of land for the first of the motels at Addabari of legal impediments, the DENR gives the impression that the offer is negotiable Bombay are also proposing to build lUXury houses to provide an as it awaits the opinion of a national team of watershed management experts for the state Tourist Board. Arrivals had plummeted below 200,000 by 19R7, and tea estate, belonging to his group. to inspect the area and study the feasibility of the proposal. earnings to about $80 million. An estimated 17,000 job~ were wiped out. UThatwas escape for the rich from the metropolis during the week-end. the bottom;' 5ays proprietor Saman Ranasinghe, who had to close his souvenir shop Not content with that, he also picked the site for the second such motel. His The Manila experts' opinion would be superfluous. Already, it is the consensus Land prices here have shot up as builders are on a buying spree choice is the Behora tea estate, another M & M property. Both sites are located at a beach resort in western Negombo town. In 1988 terrorists intensified attacks, and it is feared that the village may no longer have the chikoo of those in the forestry sector that a forest cover is superior to grass cover in and the board itself had to advise foreigners to leave. at vantage points, at important road junctions on NH 46. the maintenance of the watershed. Furthermore, observers note that no golf orchards for whieh it is famous. Since November, however, things have improved. Arrivals in the last has already thought of spawning a new company course has ever yet served as a watershed anywhere in the world. Yet we 1989 were 2,000 more than a year ago - the first significant gain in a The villagers in Bordi are not opposed to tourism per se. They styled Assam Valley Motels Limited. It will take land on lease from the tea estates, hope to be the exception. Camp John Hay, which occupies a considerable Tourist Board chairman Prema Fernando expects more than 250,000 visitor.; th,e say thousands of school students come to Bordi for holidays and put up the motels and manage them too. The idea is to run the show single percentage of the city's land area, including a forested park, is a water llser. Most recent ones have been West Europeans on package tours to beaches. stay on the camping grounds on the beach. They welcome these handedly but Assam Vallf'Y Motels won't shrink from taking help, if necessary, So is the Country Club. Ifthis were so, we would not only be inviting competition don't even come to Colombo;' mmplai ns Lanka Oberoi manager Ranil Bibile. With little tourists. What they object to is nOise, vandalism and liquor. to the city' meager water resources, which an international resort will be. We less than 20% occupancy, many of the capital's big hotels have resorted to from ITC whose Welcomgroup has made a super success of its hoteliering would also be risking the management of a critical watershed to the goodwill undercutting. Resort areas, meanwhile, are bursting. "If predictions are right, there Bordi has one of the most lovely sea fronts in Maharashtra. And business. But the role of ITC wi II be limited to that of a TTldnagement consultant of the golf course builders. won't be enough rooms in Kandy;' says Queens's boss Leslie de Soyza. Hotels in the best view of the sea is had by the educational institutions with in running the motels. The watershed reservation in question supplies about a third of the current Negombo and coastal Bentota and Hikkaduwa are almost fully booked. huge playgrounds that dot the coastline. domestic water consumption of city residents. If the Sodo plan does have its The upturn is still too small for Tourist Board chairman Fernando. He reckons the Mr Feroze irani, a horticulturist in Bordi, said that with tourism BUSINESS STANDARD, H February, 1990 industry needs about 600,000 tourists ayear "so it can pay back (loans):' The board advocates, it seems to be because the group at least proposes an alternative would come many unhealthy tendencies. "Our girls who can hopes to attract bigger-spending tourists. rearing Soviet-bloc competition for its to the mismanaged state of affairs at Busol. It doesn't matter that Sodo makes traditional West European market, Sri Lanka is also turning to East Asia. Last walk safely at night on the beach today will no longer be able its alternative sound a bit too simple. The Japanese outfit promises to do us 16,000 visitors camp from Hongkong, the fa<;test-growing market. to do so;' he said. Gangotri Close Down the service of reforesting the watershed in places and fencing off the area against over 1988. Colombo has persuaded Tokyo to remove "unsafe destination" Mr Vijay Mhatre, sarpanch, said the local gram panchayat had squatters and ancestral land claimants. The displaced can be employed as tags from Sri Ianka brochures, though the warning is still officially in effect. Fernando planted nearly 35,000 trees on the beach to prevent construction The Gangotri region of the Himalayan range in Uttar Pradesh may be closed down for showing signs of ecological degradation, according to caddies and hotel workers! ha, another ace. "Much of the industry is private sector;' says he, "and it has shown of tourist facilities by outsiders. "What the village needs is better It is a reality that all of Baguio's watersheds are occupied and that watershed considerable resi Iience:' educational infrastructure, like an engineering college, not Capt. M S Kohli, Chainnan, Himalayan Adventure Trust, New Delhi. management is plagued with the problem of so-called "squatters" and ancestral ASIAWEEK, 2 March, 1990 luxury bungalows and beer bars;' he said. Capt. Kohli said here that the Government of India had closed the land claimants. But the Busol watershed issue should be treated in all its "Nanda Devi Sanctuary" in the indian Himalayas about five years ago and Fbur years ago, nearly 20 acres of prime land facing the sea at complexity; otherwise adangerous precedent will be set to compound occupancy of the watersheds is decisively acted upon with a solution that is had declared the "Valley of flowers" as a national park. Chikhla Village, 4 km away, was acquired. However, no effort has existing problems. acceptable to the people and until land use poliCies are rationalized, it is not "We are now intending to close down the Gangotri area, which receives Sadly, it seems lost on the concerned policy makers that the Busol case realistic to expect a fence would keep away "squatters" from Busol or from any been made yet to begin construction causing fear that the land may be used to build a luxury hotel. over 70 expeditions every year and is showing signs of strain and actually represents more than an environmental and a watershed management watershed. ecological degradations because of its carrying people beyond capacity;' problem. The crisis over Busol raises basic questions regarding resource Government's resources management policies can only be implementable Mrs Malti Churi, principal of the Soonawal school, also opposes he said. management and development, which should urgently be addressed if similar to the extent that they the genuine needs of the people. And here, the proposed coastal highway as it would spoil the beauty and fit Capt. KohlL who is also president of the Indian Mountaineering issues will be avoided. conservation and development issues are ultimately linked. calm of the village and bring in avoidable traffic. Foundation, said the Nepalese Government would also do well to close The city's foreign investment attraction policy will certainly increase demand Watershed degradation is caused by both direct and indirect effects of poor A taste of what upper class tourism can do was provided by an down the Mount Everest area and the south sanctuary of Mount for large tracts of land. But where the majority of the city is government policies outside the forestry sector. It is significant that no review of the city's lAS official some years ago. As part of an adventure, he drove his Annapurna "for rest", at least for a couple of years, to give them chances reservation and where the rest is for the subdivision needs of non-residents, land use policy has yet been attempted within a comprehen<;ive framework jeep far into the sea during low tide. to revive. what with the influx of rural folk fleeing from poverty and militariLation in the that weighs the competing demands on the remaining land and forests, that countryside, is it to be the policy to prioritize land for the recreation needs of lays down policies that are integrated and compatible with existing realities. TIMES Of INDIA, 19 December, 1989 INDIAN EXPRESS, 6 February, 1990 toreigners? Are watersheds up for sale? The Americans decreed the Baguio townsite as a recreation center to support Do the concerned agencies feel a complete absence of control over the a population of no more than 30,000. Baguio now supports a population of water5hed problems that they would consider abdicating their functions to the over 200,000. JGF at International Tourism Fair (lTB), Berlin private sector? If so, then the other watersheds which are exactly in the same So far, the action on Busol is to announce' its reforestation. This is state as Busol dre equally vulnerable to being auctioned off to any wise guy commendable. But so long as the land problem is not faced squarely and the jamboree ofthe tourism industry (March 6-13) witnessed some unusual activity who can offer a pat solution to the lingering problems of the sector. illegal cutting of tree~ is unchecked, tree planting, whenever we get reminded this year. Sergio Carvalho and Roland Martins of the Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fauz (Goa's If the Sodo proposition should be considered at all, why not consider also of the critical state of the area, will not ensure its viabilitv as a water source. anti-tourism 'army') turned up, armed with evidence that West German investment the counterproposal of the watershed occupants to plant and tend 2,000 trees Trees do need to be tended. with others) is a prime cause for ecological destruction in Goa's burgeoning tourism per family in the area-with arrangements to sufficiently address long-term It might be that because of local opposition, Sodo will withdraw its hotel business. Invited to participate at ITB '90 by the 'Tourism with Insight' group in ecological and watershed management concerns? proposition. It shouldn't mean, however, that the issues can be left unresolved Europe, Sergio and Roland were pursued by their Minister for Tourism, Dr Willy D'Souza, Although the DENR has jurisdiction over watershed, the Sodo is negotiating until the next crisis. If there is anything to the preposterous offer of the Japanese who followed through with counter-propaganda at hastily-convened press conferences. to buy Busol from the current occupants. Does this in effect concedeovvnership firm to take-over Busol, it is that a more effective watershed management The press was not entirely convinced, so it's one more round to the JGF, who were awarded to the "illegal occupants"? What happens if for some reason the people decide alternative should be worked out together by the concerned government a solidarity award by their hosts. to sell? agencies in the light of realities. This might be the only way to quash any further It is the ambiguity of policies over private land c.laims in the watersheds that designs on our mismanaged water sources by gentlemen conspirators in is encouraging land speculation in Busol and elsewhere-which is not to say Hall and the Bagulo Water District. that there could be no valid ancestral land claims in these areas. Unless the C. S. Gamiao in BANTAYAN, Philippines, July-September, 1989 6 7 Destination South INDIA ~.!;7t..·I~.·~·1 News & Views Club Mediterranee Speakers at a recent seminar in Madras on "Tourism Promotion ~ The union finance ministry has recently given clearance to 'Club Mediterranee, in South India" were effusively optimistic about the Southern a French company developi ng 'most exclusive' beach resorts in different parts States luring hordes of foreign tourists in the near future. The Caving in of the world, for two projects in India - one in Tamil Nadu and another in Goa. optimism is not without reason. Besides the conventional sun Ooty: Now or Never The Maharashtra government is presently working on a 10-year master plan Speaking at a workshop on "Development of tourist potential in South India" sea -sand mix, there are a host of historical, religious and scenic Calling Ooty the Queen of the Hill Stations has become ajoke now. It is, indeed to boost tourism and has planned to build all infrastructure in all holiday resorts B K Goswami, Director General, Central Department of Tourism (CDT), said attractions that can match the best elsewhere. That such a high an insult to the Hill Station today. One look at the main stretch of the town in the near future. that four more projects to develop beach resorts in the country were in the potential area for tourism has so far remained untapped is from the Boat House to the Botanical Gardens would confirm this. Perennial surprising. shortage of water, open drainage, uncleared garbage, over crowded streets and The plan includes afforestation of many holiday resorts by establishinga body called 'Cave Development Authority: The MTDC has already asked the He said that Club Mediterranee, which would have a tie-up with the Taj In the last couple of years some corrective measures have been over flowing traffic, a rash of ~gly constructions, incredibly horrible roads, government to declare Ajanta, Etlora and Elephanta as "No growth zone'~ Group, would also put in equity. The Tamil Nadu project is expected to be initiated and, consequently, some benefits have started flowing. encroachments everywhere Ooty unmistakably is CHOKING, GASPING, located somewhere between Madras and Pondicherry. What is important, however, is the course of action the four DYING. Apart from the present three hill stations the MTDC wi II throw open another Southern States should pursue in the coming years. The first task The putrefaction has already started. Overpowering stench of drainage and three such stations in the state. The places are Chikaldara near Amravati, THE INDEPENDENT, 20 February, 1990 is to identify the target group. This is important because of the garbage hangs over the main thoroughfares. Even Charing Cross, once the centre Chapurdara before the Gujarat border and Kass near Satara. emerging competition from the ASEAN countries. Malaysia is piece on the Queen's Crown, has not been spared. fREE PRESS JOURNAL, 12 February 1990 currently celebrating the "Fascinating Malaysia Year". Next year, Time is fast running out for Ooty. If immediate steps are not taken to check which incidentally coincides with "Visit India Year" it is Indo this rot, Ooty may be lost for ever. It is NOW OR NEVER for Ooty, Watersports Dons VI Hoteliers nesia's turn, the theme being "Enchanting Indonesia". This There are, of course, no soft options open to the administration. It has to, regional challenge has relevance to India as a whole, though its necessarily,-taKe some tough decisions. We hope the proposed Hill Area The Pathiramanal island in the Vembanad lake would be developed into atourist Two senior bureaucrats, Tourism Secretary Manish Behl and Ani! Bordia, is likely to be more on the Southern States. Any promo Conservation Authority will provide adequate financial &statutory support to resort for which a master plan has been prepared, acco;d ing to Kerala's Tourism secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, are heading tional programme the Southern States contemplate must take the administration to carry out a massive cleaning up operation. Some Director K Jayakumar. for a confrontation. The issue: whether or not to convert Shimla's this into account. suggestions: A boat jetty and a multipurpose pavilion would be constructed as part of the Viceregal lodge - which has been housing the Indian Institute of 1. Declare a moratorium of at least five years on all constructions for first stage of the master plan. Cottages would be constructed later. A tourist Advanced Studies since 1966 - into a hotel. Editorial, INDIAN EXPRESS, 12 March, 1990 commercial purposes, especially hotels. boat was also proposed to be launched for taking tourists to the island. Earlier proposals to convert the lodge-apart of which is the official 2. Restrict the number of tourist buses that enter Ooty every day through hefty INDIAN EXPRESS, 10 January, 1990 summer residence of the President - into a hotel were opposed by the entry fees, traffic restrictions inside the town etc. institute. Now, the Tourism Department wants the public sector India 3. Evict the encroachers on pavements and do not allow them to return. Keep Tourism Development Corporation to spend more than Rs 10 crore to Assam Tourism them out for a year and the tendency will weaken. 100 (rore Resort revamp the Rs 100 crore property. Butthe Education Department is not 4. A master plan should be drawn up to augment and maintain the various A host of tourist and entertainment complexes are to come up in Tamil Nadu amused. public amenities water! drainage, roads, etc. - of the town to meet the Restrictions on foreiqn tourist entry coupled with paucity of led by Rs 100 crore beach resort at Vattakottai near Kanyakumari promoted by With Bordia supporting the dons and Behl equally keen on setting demands of its over one lakh residents and the thousands of visitors every funds has retarded the qrawth oftourism in Ao:;sam. accordinq Japanese company. up the hotel. a heated tussle is on the cards. day. to the state tourism director. Mr Anil13aruah. A delegation from Japan wi II be in Madras to discuss the detai Is ofthe project 5. Earmark a portion of the HADP funds for the special needs of Ooty. according to Tourism Minister K P Kandaswamy. ·INDIA TODAY, 15 February, 1990 Referred to as "the Shanqri-Ia" ofthe north-east and famous 6. In view of the ecological Significance of Nilgiris, the administration should He said a Rs 20 crore children's amusement complex with electronic gadgets for its one-homed rhinos. Assam became Jess accessible to explore the possibility of securing grants from international bodies like the would come up at the Island Grounds in Madras, promoted by some foreiqners folJowinq the introduction of the restricted area World Bank for its proper upkeep. permit (RAP) in 196P durinq the Chinese aqqression. industrialists, while a Kerala-based entrepreneur had been granted permission to construc:t acentrally-funded Rs 15 crore amusement complex at Tambaram. The total foreiqn tourist inflow to A<;sam was only 1.000 in Save Nifgiris Campaign, NEWS LETTER, March, 1990 Five-Star Competition Another entrepreneur had submitted plans for a Rs 10 crore amusement centre 1980 as aqainst the all India fiqure ofabou t 800,000 Mr 13aruah on the Mahabalipuram coast and the Government was giving him all said, addinq. the numberdropped to 3P in 1983 when it was The five-star hotels business continues to boom. At least 18 corporate groups encouragement. nearly 900,000 at the national level. I.e Meredian 'IaRe-Over are competing to construct ahotel on a prime 4.5 acre plot in the capital. Those Mr Kandaswamy said the Government was keen to go in for such amusement that have pre-qualified include the Tatas (Taj chain), the Oberois, Asian (Hyatt), With relaxation ofrestrictions and introduction of qroup The employees of Le Meredian! who have been on strike since January 18, are complexes in every major city like Coimbatore! Madurai and Tiruchi over the IT( (WelcomgroupJ and Regent. Also in the fray are the Ansals, the Hong Kong tourism, there has been a qradual nse in the number of happy at the prospect of government take-over of the Rs 100 crore hotel. The next five years. based Harilelas, Shaw Wallace and Unitech Builders which has tied up with foreiqn tourists. But their movements are confjned to the notice cancelling the licence was served by the New Delhi Municipal INDIAN EXPRESS, 1 April, 1990 the Edwardian group of UK. At the same time, Welcomgroup and Srinivasa Kaziranqa national park. the Manas tiqer project and Cqmmittee to the management of the hotel after receiving clearance from the Resorts have also decided to jointly set up a Rs 25 crore hotel in Hyderabad. Guwahati city. Mr 13aruah said. Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi. Operation Hardsell INDIA TODAY, 28 February, 1990 However. the stare with its scenic extravanganza. a mosaic The licence has been cancelled on the ground~ that the hotel has defaulted ofcolourfulpeople andwildlife with PP of the 40 endanqered in the payment of Rs 25 crores to the NDMe. "The management has been The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) of late has species attrac ts tourists within the country; especiaJly durinq requested to peacefully hand over the possession of the hotel within a week launched a massive campaign to promote tourist places in the state. Sleek ad the tourist season from November to April. to the NDMe; a s€nior official of the civic body pointed out. in all the major dailies, colourful information brochures and glossy Foreign Hotel Chain posters printed on art paper invite tourists to various beach resorts, forts and Tourism has also been hit by the Bodo aq/cation in the State The official explained that when the hotel was under construction the hotel monuments scattered allover the state. A Hongkong-based hotel chain and two other prominent hotel chains in the and the closure Mana5 riqer reserve to tourists. management was given a moratorium to pay the earlier licencing fees in 30 of The estimated budget to promote tourism in Maharashtra is ahefty Rs 3crore, country have shovvn interest in setting up hotels in Kerala. The Hongkong-based instalments. The licence fee was fixed at Rs 2.68 crores yearly or 21% of total Despite a11 odds. the tourism department and the Assam out of which Rs 1 crore has been allotted for publicity alone. Starting from a group held talks with the State Tourism Department officials on lanuarv 26 in turnover, whichever was higher. Tourism Development Corporation have made determined measly Rs 15 lakh a couple of years back, irs quite a leap. Trivandrum to finalise the project. efforts to promote tourism, A Rs PO crore Disneyland-type The official said that this option was up to September 1988 after which the Bringing in culture to promote tourism was yet another new angle given by The Director General of Tourism, Government of India! Mr B K Goswami "amusement park" spread. over about 200 acres of land is hotel was required to pay advance licence fees, like other hotels. The sum. the tourism planners. First in the line, was the Ellora Dance Festival, a festival told newsmen that Kerala has enormous potential to attract aJarge number of remained Rs 2.68 crores per year. 'The hotel authorities have not paid this for taking shape, similar to the Khajuraho Dance Festival. From a very low profile in the tourists from abroad if infra-structural facilities are expanded here, The 1988 and 1989': he said. "Today Rs 6.80 crores and interest of Rs 4 crores is beginning, it is now included in the international tourtsrn calendar of the marathon which was a "success" would be made a regular feature in the due by the hotel management for immediate payment to the NDMe: with the involvement of foreign tourists. THE TIMES OF INDIA, 14 December, 1989 Government of India THE STATESMAN! 8 March 1990 THE DAILY, ~ March, 1990 INDIAN EXPRESS, 21 January. 1990 6 7 Destination South INDIA ~.!;7t..·I~.·~·1 News & Views Club Mediterranee Speakers at a recent seminar in Madras on "Tourism Promotion ~ The union finance ministry has recently given clearance to 'Club Mediterranee, in South India" were effusively optimistic about the Southern a French company developi ng 'most exclusive' beach resorts in different parts States luring hordes of foreign tourists in the near future. The Caving in of the world, for two projects in India - one in Tamil Nadu and another in Goa. optimism is not without reason. Besides the conventional sun Ooty: Now or Never The Maharashtra government is presently working on a 10-year master plan Speaking at a workshop on "Development of tourist potential in South India" sea -sand mix, there are a host of historical, religious and scenic Calling Ooty the Queen of the Hill Stations has become ajoke now. It is, indeed to boost tourism and has planned to build all infrastructure in all holiday resorts B K Goswami, Director General, Central Department of Tourism (CDT), said attractions that can match the best elsewhere. That such a high an insult to the Hill Station today. One look at the main stretch of the town in the near future. that four more projects to develop beach resorts in the country were in the potential area for tourism has so far remained untapped is from the Boat House to the Botanical Gardens would confirm this. Perennial surprising. shortage of water, open drainage, uncleared garbage, over crowded streets and The plan includes afforestation of many holiday resorts by establishinga body called 'Cave Development Authority: The MTDC has already asked the He said that Club Mediterranee, which would have a tie-up with the Taj In the last couple of years some corrective measures have been over flowing traffic, a rash of ~gly constructions, incredibly horrible roads, government to declare Ajanta, Etlora and Elephanta as "No growth zone'~ Group, would also put in equity. The Tamil Nadu project is expected to be initiated and, consequently, some benefits have started flowing. encroachments everywhere Ooty unmistakably is CHOKING, GASPING, located somewhere between Madras and Pondicherry. What is important, however, is the course of action the four DYING. Apart from the present three hill stations the MTDC wi II throw open another Southern States should pursue in the coming years. The first task The putrefaction has already started. Overpowering stench of drainage and three such stations in the state. The places are Chikaldara near Amravati, THE INDEPENDENT, 20 February, 1990 is to identify the target group. This is important because of the garbage hangs over the main thoroughfares. Even Charing Cross, once the centre Chapurdara before the Gujarat border and Kass near Satara. emerging competition from the ASEAN countries. Malaysia is piece on the Queen's Crown, has not been spared. fREE PRESS JOURNAL, 12 February 1990 currently celebrating the "Fascinating Malaysia Year". Next year, Time is fast running out for Ooty. If immediate steps are not taken to check which incidentally coincides with "Visit India Year" it is Indo this rot, Ooty may be lost for ever. It is NOW OR NEVER for Ooty, Watersports Dons VI Hoteliers nesia's turn, the theme being "Enchanting Indonesia". This There are, of course, no soft options open to the administration. It has to, regional challenge has relevance to India as a whole, though its necessarily,-taKe some tough decisions. We hope the proposed Hill Area The Pathiramanal island in the Vembanad lake would be developed into atourist Two senior bureaucrats, Tourism Secretary Manish Behl and Ani! Bordia, is likely to be more on the Southern States. Any promo Conservation Authority will provide adequate financial &statutory support to resort for which a master plan has been prepared, acco;d ing to Kerala's Tourism secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, are heading tional programme the Southern States contemplate must take the administration to carry out a massive cleaning up operation. Some Director K Jayakumar. for a confrontation. The issue: whether or not to convert Shimla's this into account. suggestions: A boat jetty and a multipurpose pavilion would be constructed as part of the Viceregal lodge - which has been housing the Indian Institute of 1. Declare a moratorium of at least five years on all constructions for first stage of the master plan. Cottages would be constructed later. A tourist Advanced Studies since 1966 - into a hotel. Editorial, INDIAN EXPRESS, 12 March, 1990 commercial purposes, especially hotels. boat was also proposed to be launched for taking tourists to the island. Earlier proposals to convert the lodge-apart of which is the official 2. Restrict the number of tourist buses that enter Ooty every day through hefty INDIAN EXPRESS, 10 January, 1990 summer residence of the President - into a hotel were opposed by the entry fees, traffic restrictions inside the town etc. institute. Now, the Tourism Department wants the public sector India 3. Evict the encroachers on pavements and do not allow them to return. Keep Tourism Development Corporation to spend more than Rs 10 crore to Assam Tourism them out for a year and the tendency will weaken. 100 (rore Resort revamp the Rs 100 crore property. Butthe Education Department is not 4. A master plan should be drawn up to augment and maintain the various A host of tourist and entertainment complexes are to come up in Tamil Nadu amused. public amenities water! drainage, roads, etc. - of the town to meet the Restrictions on foreiqn tourist entry coupled with paucity of led by Rs 100 crore beach resort at Vattakottai near Kanyakumari promoted by With Bordia supporting the dons and Behl equally keen on setting demands of its over one lakh residents and the thousands of visitors every funds has retarded the qrawth oftourism in Ao:;sam. accordinq Japanese company. up the hotel. a heated tussle is on the cards. day. to the state tourism director. Mr Anil13aruah. A delegation from Japan wi II be in Madras to discuss the detai Is ofthe project 5. Earmark a portion of the HADP funds for the special needs of Ooty. according to Tourism Minister K P Kandaswamy. ·INDIA TODAY, 15 February, 1990 Referred to as "the Shanqri-Ia" ofthe north-east and famous 6. In view of the ecological Significance of Nilgiris, the administration should He said a Rs 20 crore children's amusement complex with electronic gadgets for its one-homed rhinos. Assam became Jess accessible to explore the possibility of securing grants from international bodies like the would come up at the Island Grounds in Madras, promoted by some foreiqners folJowinq the introduction of the restricted area World Bank for its proper upkeep. permit (RAP) in 196P durinq the Chinese aqqression. industrialists, while a Kerala-based entrepreneur had been granted permission to construc:t acentrally-funded Rs 15 crore amusement complex at Tambaram. The total foreiqn tourist inflow to A<;sam was only 1.000 in Save Nifgiris Campaign, NEWS LETTER, March, 1990 Five-Star Competition Another entrepreneur had submitted plans for a Rs 10 crore amusement centre 1980 as aqainst the all India fiqure ofabou t 800,000 Mr 13aruah on the Mahabalipuram coast and the Government was giving him all said, addinq. the numberdropped to 3P in 1983 when it was The five-star hotels business continues to boom. At least 18 corporate groups encouragement. nearly 900,000 at the national level. I.e Meredian 'IaRe-Over are competing to construct ahotel on a prime 4.5 acre plot in the capital. Those Mr Kandaswamy said the Government was keen to go in for such amusement that have pre-qualified include the Tatas (Taj chain), the Oberois, Asian (Hyatt), With relaxation ofrestrictions and introduction of qroup The employees of Le Meredian! who have been on strike since January 18, are complexes in every major city like Coimbatore! Madurai and Tiruchi over the IT( (WelcomgroupJ and Regent. Also in the fray are the Ansals, the Hong Kong tourism, there has been a qradual nse in the number of happy at the prospect of government take-over of the Rs 100 crore hotel. The next five years. based Harilelas, Shaw Wallace and Unitech Builders which has tied up with foreiqn tourists. But their movements are confjned to the notice cancelling the licence was served by the New Delhi Municipal INDIAN EXPRESS, 1 April, 1990 the Edwardian group of UK. At the same time, Welcomgroup and Srinivasa Kaziranqa national park. the Manas tiqer project and Cqmmittee to the management of the hotel after receiving clearance from the Resorts have also decided to jointly set up a Rs 25 crore hotel in Hyderabad. Guwahati city. Mr 13aruah said. Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi. Operation Hardsell INDIA TODAY, 28 February, 1990 However. the stare with its scenic extravanganza. a mosaic The licence has been cancelled on the ground~ that the hotel has defaulted ofcolourfulpeople andwildlife with PP of the 40 endanqered in the payment of Rs 25 crores to the NDMe. "The management has been The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) of late has species attrac ts tourists within the country; especiaJly durinq requested to peacefully hand over the possession of the hotel within a week launched a massive campaign to promote tourist places in the state. Sleek ad the tourist season from November to April. to the NDMe; a s€nior official of the civic body pointed out. in all the major dailies, colourful information brochures and glossy Foreign Hotel Chain posters printed on art paper invite tourists to various beach resorts, forts and Tourism has also been hit by the Bodo aq/cation in the State The official explained that when the hotel was under construction the hotel monuments scattered allover the state. A Hongkong-based hotel chain and two other prominent hotel chains in the and the closure Mana5 riqer reserve to tourists. management was given a moratorium to pay the earlier licencing fees in 30 of The estimated budget to promote tourism in Maharashtra is ahefty Rs 3crore, country have shovvn interest in setting up hotels in Kerala. The Hongkong-based instalments. The licence fee was fixed at Rs 2.68 crores yearly or 21% of total Despite a11 odds. the tourism department and the Assam out of which Rs 1 crore has been allotted for publicity alone. Starting from a group held talks with the State Tourism Department officials on lanuarv 26 in turnover, whichever was higher. Tourism Development Corporation have made determined measly Rs 15 lakh a couple of years back, irs quite a leap. Trivandrum to finalise the project. efforts to promote tourism, A Rs PO crore Disneyland-type The official said that this option was up to September 1988 after which the Bringing in culture to promote tourism was yet another new angle given by The Director General of Tourism, Government of India! Mr B K Goswami "amusement park" spread. over about 200 acres of land is hotel was required to pay advance licence fees, like other hotels. The sum. the tourism planners. First in the line, was the Ellora Dance Festival, a festival told newsmen that Kerala has enormous potential to attract aJarge number of remained Rs 2.68 crores per year. 'The hotel authorities have not paid this for taking shape, similar to the Khajuraho Dance Festival. From a very low profile in the tourists from abroad if infra-structural facilities are expanded here, The 1988 and 1989': he said. "Today Rs 6.80 crores and interest of Rs 4 crores is beginning, it is now included in the international tourtsrn calendar of the marathon which was a "success" would be made a regular feature in the due by the hotel management for immediate payment to the NDMe: with the involvement of foreign tourists. THE TIMES OF INDIA, 14 December, 1989 Government of India THE STATESMAN! 8 March 1990 THE DAILY, ~ March, 1990 INDIAN EXPRESS, 21 January. 1990 8 5 BUSOL: I Lessons lost Colombo's Bid Bordi Says 'No' Teatime at Motels Until recently, Mayor Ramon Lobo and Company's development scheme for Indian tourism officials wrestling with unfavourable international Bordi, a lovely seaside village in Thane district, is resisting the The Khaitans of Macneill and Magor fame appear to have taken over the role the city to make it a fantasy resort for Japanese tourists raised nothing but only look south to see how much worse things can get. Sri inroads made by the tourism industry and builders from Bombay. of paterfamilias of the entire tea industry in Assam. eyebrows. But the current "tourist" development plan seems to be creating panic resort paradise, has vi rtually dropped out of global destination lists due to its seven year civil war. Since late last year, however, business has picked up, thanks to a The village has grown up in a Gandhian tradition, and is a major Khaitan of the group announced that Macneill and Magor will put reaction~ and raising a number of issues that should be resolved immediately. concerted effort by the public and private sectors. In the central town of Kandy the education centre. Not even a cinema theatre or a liquor bar has up a string of motels along National Highway 46 in the state, which means The Sodo Planning, Inc. - aJapanese golf course builder, with Mayor Lobo, venerable Queen's Hotel had at one point closed half its 100 rooms. It now sports been allowed to come up there. nearly the entire tea growing area in Assam will be covered. some city councillors, and a board member of the Baguio Water District, as afresh coat ui pai nt, and shortsclad visitors stream through its Victorian-era lobby. The villagers are now opposing the proposal of the Maha Announced almost off the cuff by Dipak, the project is still in the embryonic local incorporators-presented a bold proposition to build a 28 Indeed, in much of Sri Lanka tourists are increasing and cash registers are ringing rashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) to convert stage but he knows what he wants. His plan is to have a motel at every 8 to and a 180-room hotel right in the middle of the Busol watershed. louder. the local government PWD rest house into a tourist resort. They 10 km interval on the national highway. The idea was not rejected outright as an impertinence by the regional office in 1982 when 407,230 visitors spent nearly $150 million. But fear that the tranquil character of the village will be affected by of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Regardless mareds died in ethnic riots in Colombo and elsewhere in the country. In fact, so carried away was he by his own idea that he ordered right there ruined our reputation;' says Priantha Fernando, marketing director the onslaught of tourists. Some construction companies from and then the cordoning off a plot of land for the first of the motels at Addabari of legal impediments, the DENR gives the impression that the offer is negotiable Bombay are also proposing to build lUXury houses to provide an as it awaits the opinion of a national team of watershed management experts for the state Tourist Board. Arrivals had plummeted below 200,000 by 19R7, and tea estate, belonging to his group. to inspect the area and study the feasibility of the proposal. earnings to about $80 million. An estimated 17,000 job~ were wiped out. UThatwas escape for the rich from the metropolis during the week-end. the bottom;' 5ays proprietor Saman Ranasinghe, who had to close his souvenir shop Not content with that, he also picked the site for the second such motel. His The Manila experts' opinion would be superfluous. Already, it is the consensus Land prices here have shot up as builders are on a buying spree choice is the Behora tea estate, another M & M property. Both sites are located at a beach resort in western Negombo town. In 1988 terrorists intensified attacks, and it is feared that the village may no longer have the chikoo of those in the forestry sector that a forest cover is superior to grass cover in and the board itself had to advise foreigners to leave. at vantage points, at important road junctions on NH 46. the maintenance of the watershed. Furthermore, observers note that no golf orchards for whieh it is famous. Since November, however, things have improved. Arrivals in the last has already thought of spawning a new company course has ever yet served as a watershed anywhere in the world. Yet we 1989 were 2,000 more than a year ago - the first significant gain in a The villagers in Bordi are not opposed to tourism per se. They styled Assam Valley Motels Limited. It will take land on lease from the tea estates, hope to be the exception. Camp John Hay, which occupies a considerable Tourist Board chairman Prema Fernando expects more than 250,000 visitor.; th,e say thousands of school students come to Bordi for holidays and put up the motels and manage them too. The idea is to run the show single percentage of the city's land area, including a forested park, is a water llser. Most recent ones have been West Europeans on package tours to beaches. stay on the camping grounds on the beach. They welcome these handedly but Assam Vallf'Y Motels won't shrink from taking help, if necessary, So is the Country Club. Ifthis were so, we would not only be inviting competition don't even come to Colombo;' mmplai ns Lanka Oberoi manager Ranil Bibile. With little tourists. What they object to is nOise, vandalism and liquor. to the city' meager water resources, which an international resort will be. We less than 20% occupancy, many of the capital's big hotels have resorted to from ITC whose Welcomgroup has made a super success of its hoteliering would also be risking the management of a critical watershed to the goodwill undercutting. Resort areas, meanwhile, are bursting. "If predictions are right, there Bordi has one of the most lovely sea fronts in Maharashtra. And business. But the role of ITC wi II be limited to that of a TTldnagement consultant of the golf course builders. won't be enough rooms in Kandy;' says Queens's boss Leslie de Soyza. Hotels in the best view of the sea is had by the educational institutions with in running the motels. The watershed reservation in question supplies about a third of the current Negombo and coastal Bentota and Hikkaduwa are almost fully booked. huge playgrounds that dot the coastline. domestic water consumption of city residents. If the Sodo plan does have its The upturn is still too small for Tourist Board chairman Fernando. He reckons the Mr Feroze irani, a horticulturist in Bordi, said that with tourism BUSINESS STANDARD, H February, 1990 industry needs about 600,000 tourists ayear "so it can pay back (loans):' The board advocates, it seems to be because the group at least proposes an alternative would come many unhealthy tendencies. "Our girls who can hopes to attract bigger-spending tourists. rearing Soviet-bloc competition for its to the mismanaged state of affairs at Busol. It doesn't matter that Sodo makes traditional West European market, Sri Lanka is also turning to East Asia. Last walk safely at night on the beach today will no longer be able its alternative sound a bit too simple. The Japanese outfit promises to do us 16,000 visitors camp from Hongkong, the fa<;test-growing market. to do so;' he said. Gangotri Close Down the service of reforesting the watershed in places and fencing off the area against over 1988. Colombo has persuaded Tokyo to remove "unsafe destination" Mr Vijay Mhatre, sarpanch, said the local gram panchayat had squatters and ancestral land claimants. The displaced can be employed as tags from Sri Ianka brochures, though the warning is still officially in effect. Fernando planted nearly 35,000 trees on the beach to prevent construction The Gangotri region of the Himalayan range in Uttar Pradesh may be closed down for showing signs of ecological degradation, according to caddies and hotel workers! ha, another ace. "Much of the industry is private sector;' says he, "and it has shown of tourist facilities by outsiders. "What the village needs is better It is a reality that all of Baguio's watersheds are occupied and that watershed considerable resi Iience:' educational infrastructure, like an engineering college, not Capt. M S Kohli, Chainnan, Himalayan Adventure Trust, New Delhi. management is plagued with the problem of so-called "squatters" and ancestral ASIAWEEK, 2 March, 1990 luxury bungalows and beer bars;' he said. Capt. Kohli said here that the Government of India had closed the land claimants. But the Busol watershed issue should be treated in all its "Nanda Devi Sanctuary" in the indian Himalayas about five years ago and Fbur years ago, nearly 20 acres of prime land facing the sea at complexity; otherwise adangerous precedent will be set to compound occupancy of the watersheds is decisively acted upon with a solution that is had declared the "Valley of flowers" as a national park. Chikhla Village, 4 km away, was acquired. However, no effort has existing problems. acceptable to the people and until land use poliCies are rationalized, it is not "We are now intending to close down the Gangotri area, which receives Sadly, it seems lost on the concerned policy makers that the Busol case realistic to expect a fence would keep away "squatters" from Busol or from any been made yet to begin construction causing fear that the land may be used to build a luxury hotel. over 70 expeditions every year and is showing signs of strain and actually represents more than an environmental and a watershed management watershed. ecological degradations because of its carrying people beyond capacity;' problem. The crisis over Busol raises basic questions regarding resource Government's resources management policies can only be implementable Mrs Malti Churi, principal of the Soonawal school, also opposes he said. management and development, which should urgently be addressed if similar to the extent that they the genuine needs of the people. And here, the proposed coastal highway as it would spoil the beauty and fit Capt. KohlL who is also president of the Indian Mountaineering issues will be avoided. conservation and development issues are ultimately linked. calm of the village and bring in avoidable traffic. Foundation, said the Nepalese Government would also do well to close The city's foreign investment attraction policy will certainly increase demand Watershed degradation is caused by both direct and indirect effects of poor A taste of what upper class tourism can do was provided by an down the Mount Everest area and the south sanctuary of Mount for large tracts of land. But where the majority of the city is government policies outside the forestry sector. It is significant that no review of the city's lAS official some years ago. As part of an adventure, he drove his Annapurna "for rest", at least for a couple of years, to give them chances reservation and where the rest is for the subdivision needs of non-residents, land use policy has yet been attempted within a comprehen<;ive framework jeep far into the sea during low tide. to revive. what with the influx of rural folk fleeing from poverty and militariLation in the that weighs the competing demands on the remaining land and forests, that countryside, is it to be the policy to prioritize land for the recreation needs of lays down policies that are integrated and compatible with existing realities. TIMES Of INDIA, 19 December, 1989 INDIAN EXPRESS, 6 February, 1990 toreigners? Are watersheds up for sale? The Americans decreed the Baguio townsite as a recreation center to support Do the concerned agencies feel a complete absence of control over the a population of no more than 30,000. Baguio now supports a population of water5hed problems that they would consider abdicating their functions to the over 200,000. JGF at International Tourism Fair (lTB), Berlin private sector? If so, then the other watersheds which are exactly in the same So far, the action on Busol is to announce' its reforestation. This is state as Busol dre equally vulnerable to being auctioned off to any wise guy commendable. But so long as the land problem is not faced squarely and the jamboree ofthe tourism industry (March 6-13) witnessed some unusual activity who can offer a pat solution to the lingering problems of the sector. illegal cutting of tree~ is unchecked, tree planting, whenever we get reminded this year. Sergio Carvalho and Roland Martins of the Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fauz (Goa's If the Sodo proposition should be considered at all, why not consider also of the critical state of the area, will not ensure its viabilitv as a water source. anti-tourism 'army') turned up, armed with evidence that West German investment the counterproposal of the watershed occupants to plant and tend 2,000 trees Trees do need to be tended. with others) is a prime cause for ecological destruction in Goa's burgeoning tourism per family in the area-with arrangements to sufficiently address long-term It might be that because of local opposition, Sodo will withdraw its hotel business. Invited to participate at ITB '90 by the 'Tourism with Insight' group in ecological and watershed management concerns? proposition. It shouldn't mean, however, that the issues can be left unresolved Europe, Sergio and Roland were pursued by their Minister for Tourism, Dr Willy D'Souza, Although the DENR has jurisdiction over watershed, the Sodo is negotiating until the next crisis. If there is anything to the preposterous offer of the Japanese who followed through with counter-propaganda at hastily-convened press conferences. to buy Busol from the current occupants. Does this in effect concedeovvnership firm to take-over Busol, it is that a more effective watershed management The press was not entirely convinced, so it's one more round to the JGF, who were awarded to the "illegal occupants"? What happens if for some reason the people decide alternative should be worked out together by the concerned government a solidarity award by their hosts. to sell? agencies in the light of realities. This might be the only way to quash any further It is the ambiguity of policies over private land c.laims in the watersheds that designs on our mismanaged water sources by gentlemen conspirators in is encouraging land speculation in Busol and elsewhere-which is not to say Hall and the Bagulo Water District. that there could be no valid ancestral land claims in these areas. Unless the C. S. Gamiao in BANTAYAN, Philippines, July-September, 1989 4 9 Tourism and Politics Saving the Sphinx Austrian Campaign Dear Editor, by Frederick Noronha By Deborah Pugh The Austrian Hotel, Restaurant and Personal Service Workers' Union (HGPD) I have been following with interest the letters and your editorial of launched a campaign at the height of the summer tourist season to inform After surviving for 4,8(X) years, one of the world's oldest monuments, the March 12 concerning tourism in Goa and Jam forced to the conclusion Goa's new Government, the first non-COngress(l) one in a decade, is much and domestic tourists of the poor social and workim:!. conditions in the Sphinx, is under assault from the advance of civilisation - threatened that you cannot decide whether you want tourists or not. concerned about tourism's impact on this small State .... At least, this was and tourist industry. by rising human sewage, smoke and car exhausts. Now Egypt has a Concerning the use of drugs of aJJ kinds, J whole-heartedlyagree the impression sought to be conveyed after the P.1lF. (Progressive the union's '~ustria Bus" toured the country's major tourist centres, programme to save the monument. that this needs stamping out entirely, though whether this causes as Democratic Front) ministry took over here at the end of March. as well as border crossings, train stations and airports, with the aim of informing much harm to the locals as the cheap sale of Fenni I would think Deputy Chief Minister Ramakant Khalap stressed this concern more After years of argument over the future of the Pyramids, and what to the maximum number of holiday-makers of the below-standard conditions for el(lremeiy doubtful. I have seen far more drunken waiters, dhobis, taxi than once, immediately on taking over. (Khalap remains the supremo of do about damage to the Sphinx in particular, the Egyptian Antiquities workers in the hospitality industry, and asking them to support the union's drivers etc. than I have ever seen "hepped up hippies:' the new ruling coalition's dominant M G Party partner.) He also echoed Organisation (EAO) has embarked on a new renovation programme. This demand for better conditions, including a five-day working week. Concerning nudism -what is it about the Indian mentality that regards the worries some here feel over the manner in which Goa is projected has coincided with the recent inauguration of a sewage draining scheme Union members and supporters passed out the following leaflet, in English, a nubile, young woman without clothes as shocking, when it can to lure tourists. for the Pyramids area, the first practical step to protect the 4,8O(}year French, Italian and German: contemplate a bare posterior excreting iIi full public gaze on the side But then, this is only one side to the picture. old Sphinx from rising sewage water. Dear Holiday-Makers! of the road with complete calmness which an European sees as The magnificent limestone figure, on the outskirts of Cairo said to Thank. you for chOOSing Austria for yourholidays. We sincerely hope that completely disgusting. Even while Khalap spoke, Goa's (then) interim P.IlF. Chief Minister Churchill A1emao made it a point to stress the "need" Goa has for tourism. depict the Pharaoh Chephren, has been deteriorating ever since a you like our country and feel at home here. I have never seen anything more ridiculous than the sight oflocal protective covering of sand was removed from its 240-feet high body in Austria is a country that is proud ofthe job security and high standards In the background also, there are other factors which have an important women who go into the sea to bathe fully clothed, complete with saris. 19205. Its exposure took place just as rapid industrtal, agricultural and of welfare it offers to its workers, even though a large part of those bearing on the situation. The other point ofcontention - the hiring ofmotorbikes. Why can't tourism development began in Egypt. Each sector has added to the employed in the tourist industry are excluded from these benefits. 1burism's impact on local politicians remains stron~ for one thing. And, Did you know that most employees in the hotel and catering business, the company or persons hiring out the vehicles be responsible for physical pressures on Egypt's heritage of Pharaonic, Roman, Christian those people who make your stay comfortable, are not entitled to two free ensuring that the hirer has the correct documents, crash helmets etc., as seen from the functioning of similar economically-powerful lobbies and Islamic monument'i. in Goa's recent past. such an influence is not restricted solely to the days a week? as is done throughout the rest ofthe world. Though in a country where The sewage draining scheme is aimed at cleaning up the squatter Did you know that wages in the hotel and catering business are among party alone or to just the opposition benches. any kind oflicence can be obtained for modest bribe, it is difficult to settlement at Nazlet Essimman, which has mushroomed over the last the lowest in Austria? see why it ma(ters! Apart from Alemao, at least two Congress(l) former Ministers (Luizinho decade in the shadow of the Pyramids, drawn by the dollars of the And did you know that employers have for years made promises to the Concerning harassment by the police. I entirely agree with the Editor, Faleiro and Dr Wilfred de Souza, the latter now Goa's Opposition leader) union to improve welfare and working conditions in the hotel and catering thousands of tourists who arrive daily in their huge tour buses. Waste business, but have consistently failed to keep their promises? this is the fault ofthe Europeans for tolerating it. I find in dealing with have a cosy relationship with the State's tourism industry. Directly or water from the village is absorbed by the porous limestone from which indirectly, they are tied to some major hotel projects here. Then, one top We ask your understanding for our protest activities which areintended the police that ifone is kind but firm in the old colonial manner, they the Sphinx is carved and which eventually crumbles the rock. to improve the conditions of working and living for workers in the hotel will immediately back off. And never ever offer them money. Although M G Party functionary also has proprietorial interests in a prominent Panaji Apart from the rtsing water table and the polluting effect of the tour and catering business. After all, they wjJJ be in your interest as well: the the present force is far too young to remember the old days, they can hotel. Further, if some newspaper reports and activists are to be believed, buses, the settlement's sewage and fires generate "chemical pollutants tourist industry needs content and committed employees to tum out still recognise a Sahib when spoke to with authority. major five-star hotels have already begun playing a role in financing guests into our friends. We would be grateful ifyou could support us vis candidates for panchayat and even Assembly elections in some areas. three times greater than the limit permitted in archaeological areas;' says a-vis your hotel or restaurant operator. To revert to my original argument only you people in Goa can decide Dr Fekli Hassan, an archaeologist heading the panel of experts studying whether you want tourists or not, but ifas you state you are receiving And, irony of ironies. The 'concerned' P.1lF. Government is now headed We wish you happy holidays and we hope to see you again at your next by none other than Dr Luis Proto Barbosa, the bugbear of activists the area's problems. bad publicity in papers as important as the Sunday Times in U.K. then stay in Austria! working on the tourism issue here. Barbosa, a prominent member of the you certainly won't get them. Hassan has a vision of the Pyramid'S terrain as a "sanctuary". But his The HGPD reports it received widespread sympathy and support from foreign previous Congress(l) Government, was tourism minister in mid-1987.1t vision is bitterly opposed by the commercial interests it would curb. Much tourists and the Austrian public as the '~ustria Bus" toured the country. The It is not in the nature ofEuropeans to suffer harassment in Asian was at that time that the controversial Goa tourism 'master plan' was of the squatter settlement would be removed, including the trashy shop action was also supported by many trade unions abroad. In the view of National countries. And ifyou wish to earn foreign currency and to build up sought to be pushed through, leading to the birth of anti-luxury-tourism selling "authentic" Pharaonic souvenirs. The huge tour buses belching Officer Karl Prokes, the action helped to build up international solidarity: a thriving Industry, one thing is certain, you won't get rich from the protest groups like the Jagrut Goenkaranchi Fauz (JGF). middlec1ass Indian tourists who visit Goa. Its up to you, the decision fumes would be banned from the immediate vicinity and replaced with "Holiday-makers in Austria are also workers, who in their professional lives in is yours. Goa has also seen a large-sc.ale intermingling of political blood among an electric car shuttle service. their own countries rely on their trade unions. In our Austria-bus action, we leaders of the three dominant State parties of the Eighties - the (then) Specialists recognise that it is not enough to protect only the immediate have therefore built on this spirit of international trade union solidaritv. ruling Congress(I), the M G Party and the erstwhile Goa Congress. This Paul Scott, Bombay in HERALD (Goa), 17 March, 1990 environment of the Sphinx: air pollution in Cairo is so intense that a wide The IUF, in an emergency resolution approved by the 21st Con! is relevant, inasmuch as it has made policies and protagonists of different ranging programme is required. The Government is already committed its full support for the continuing struggle of the HGPD "for better social and parties now appear rather indistinguishable quite often. to limit pollution by installing filters on the three state cement factortes. working conditions, in particular for the introduction of two consecutive Sikkim and Darjeeling Generally it has been seen that the approving next if not an active prod, located only a few miles from the Giza plateau on which the Sphinx off per week for employees in the hotel and restaurant sector:' from New Delhi has been a key emboldening factor for egging on Goa's crouches. These factories spew out a staggering 2,CXX) tonnes of cement IUF NEWS BULLETIN, September/October, 198'3 The Union Government is considering West Bengal's proposal overambitious tourism plans. Now, once again, we have the central dust daily. to do away with existing restrictions on foreigners visiting certain National Front (Nf) government paternalistically taking the PDF But no action has been taken to reduce the car pollution. The high Mail Order Brides areas of Darjeeling and Sikkim to encourage tourism in this part government under its win~ to perhaps replicate the relationship which sulphur petrol used by the city's one million cars emit sulphuric and nitric of the country. the earlier Congress(l) State Government had with Delhi. The Philippine Congress is cracking down on child sex and the mail-order-bride Mr Manish Beht Secretary, Ministry of Tourism, said a number emissions which attack the surface of the Sphinx and other monuments, business. One small consolation perhaps awaits those concerned about the of foreian tourists were expected to participate in the inter producing a thin crust, says Dr EI Goresy, an Egyptian scientist. "With A house of representatives committee endorsed a bill this week that would impact of tourism in this State. The P.IlF. can less afford to put on airs festival in Sikkim during April. Tourists would the first sand storm, these thin layers are sandblasted and a fresh surface terms of 10 to 20 years for adults who have sex with children of arrogance - as compared to the Congress(l) after a decade-long rule be given temporary permiSSion to attend the fortnight-long becomes exposed:' , )Id. Another committee sought to ban nP\lII<;;n;mPr ArhlPrti.:pmpntc; in Goa. Not only did the present ruling coalition assume office in an for mail-order-brides festival. This constant removal of the surface has led to a loss of detail of the unusual way, but its political stability is also being doubted by some The advertisements offer foreign husbands to Filipinos, many of who end Mr BehI announced that the Centre proposed to invest Rs 11.19 Sphinx features which will soon be impossible to restore. Work will begin quarters. up virtual slaves in Japan, Europe, Australia or the United States. crores in West Bengal in 1990-91 for developing tourist spots in soon on bonding the cracks which give rise to serious concern, especially But still, a strong stake remains to project tourism's 'benefits' in a "The proposed Bill did not bar marriage between foreigners and Filipinos, the state. He said the development of Sunderbans and Sagar since part of a shoulder fell off two years ago, prompting the dismissals grossly-overrated manner in Goa. So was the case, in past years, with the but was an attempt to curb the business in young and often ill-educated Filipinos island would be centred on Calcutta. of the then chairman of the EAO. It was surprising to learn that despite adverse criticism about mining and mechanised fishing industries here. When those industries attraded by advertisements to a life abroad;' Congresswomdn Lorna Verano said. Calcutta, the city generated 30 per cent additional foreign were given dirt-cheap land leases or over-generous subsidies, they too Tourism is currently Egypt's number two foreign currency earner, The House committee on justice endorsed a separate Bill to protect children, tourists in 1989-90. More people would visit Calcutta if some new were talked of as the panacea for this State's economy. generating over US $2 billion in 1989. Having heavily backed Egypt's particularly from foreign paedophiles. tourist industry, the Wortd Bank is nervously alert to the fact that an Egypt hotels in the three-star range were built in the Whatever the (,1l5e, one still hopes that the PDF's initial assurances and If approved by the full House, the Bi II wou Id bar foreigners from clSSCX iati ng concern is genuine, and not merely a populist step simply meant to gain with decayed antiquities will attract few tourists. with children under 15 unless there is a blood relationship or a Ift!al link. TIMES OF INDIA, 16 April, 1990 the much·needed support. INDIAN EXPRESS, 13 March, 1990 TIMES OF INDIA, rphnhlrv, 1'19{: 10 3 Hippies in Gokarna US Ecologists Tour India Affliction and Reproach :; I In Quotes ", : ! The scum of Western Society the unwashed, scantily clad hippies Linking the Narmada Valley Dams, the Tehri Dam, the Bhopal gas tragedy, a r!il The alternative is inescapable: either I am a traveller in team of eight American environmentalists questioned the role of US corporate seem to be focusing their attention towards other safe havens, Goa having Stephen Haseler. Lecturer, City Polytechnic. London become a bit too hot for them. ancient times, a nd faced with aprodigious spectacle which involvement and the us GCNerriment'~ support lor World Bank projects in India, would be almost entirely unintelligible to me and might, Expressing support for community based organisations and protests such as "j don't like the idea that we are subjects, Why should we be And the Ilew safe haven they have found is among one of the holiest indeed, provoke me to mockery or disgust; or 1 am a in the Narmada Valley, the team called on the Indian Government and the World anyone's subjects'! We should all be citizens, I can't think of a spots of Hindu mythology - Gokarna. A small sleepy town on the west traveller ofour own day, hastening in search ofa vanished Bank to pursue a socially and environmentally just development policy_ single advanta~e in hiMng a monarchy in a modem country The coast in Karnataka, Gokarna houses the famous Mahabaleshwar temple reality; In either case I am the loser - and more heavily ar~ument that it brin~s in tourists is overdone. Countries like "Indian environmentalists are absolutely right to question development where ttindus perform the last rites of their near and dear ones. Much than one might suppose; for today, as 1 go groping among priorities here'; said team member Richard Krejsa. "In the United States and France conNnue to attract tourists. Anyway do we want to be to the disgust of these pilgrims, hordes of semi-nude hippies can be seen the shadows, 1 miss, inevitably, the spectacle that is now seen as a theme park. a coumry where people look at for our throughout the world these megd-projects tend to cause mega-disaslers': us sunning themselves on the beach which is hardly a stone's throw from takingshape. Aiyeyes, orperhaps my degree ofhumanity, antique and quaint ways?" the temple. do not equip me to witness that spectacle; and in the The group met with Governmental officials, environmental activists and local residents, finding fault with Union Carbide's handling of the gas tragedy, the "t)ut its good for us', says Abdul Rashid, 45, a coconut vendor at the centuries to come, when another traveller revisits this Editorial in THE TIMES OF INOlA, 23 february. 1990 same place, he too maygroan aloud at the disappearance World Bank's unyielding support for the '\Iarmada Valley Development Project beach at whose makeshift stall at least ten of these 'rebels' sit munching That cultural crosstalk knows no boundaries is su~gested by the and the Indian GCNernment's pursuit of central ised high technology and capital tender coconut between puffs at strong smelling chillums. ofmuch that 1should have set down, but cannot. I am the case of the new world visitor to india who gushed delight at victim ofa double infirmity: what I see is an afflication to intensive development projects. Surprisingly the local populace seem Lo share his view. The tiny town having seen the Aqa Khan by moonlight. Another case ofJet me; and what I do not see; a reproach. the Narmada Valley, the group learned of the determination of the now boasts of a couple of swank ice-cream parlours where one can relish lag relates to the tourist couple who. on arriving at the historic residents not to be displaced. Neither the World Bank nor the Indian fresh pistanchio ice cream or watch latest Western thrillers on one of the - Claude Levi-Strauss, in Tristes Tropiques battlefield ofRunnymede ofMagna Carta fame, asked the guide Government had consulted the local population before beginning work on the numerous close circuit television networks that have sprung up. when that celebrated document had been signed. and were told dam. 1215. Whereupon the husband consulted his watch and sj~hed. Although many of these hippies are those outcasts who have moved No relocation plans had been formulated and the project is underway "Gee, Martha. We just missed it by 10 minutes" out from neighbouring Goa after the friendly State raised its eyebrows Golden Triangle although good land is not available as compensation for more than two lakh at their vagabond and lawless tactics, the proximity of Gokarna (l85 people of the river valley, The group saw the current protests at the Narmada kilometres from \:>anjim) is obviously a boon for them. The agreement by the military authorities of Thailand and Burma to jointly Valley as a logical response to the situation. "When the people are locked out The Great Elephant March "We'll never come to Goa, Your police are brutes;' exclaimed 2&year develop the 'golden triangle' could transform the remote opium-producing of the decision making process, they have no other option, but to take matters old self-styled sanyasin Michelle, But the lady, who was clad in the shortest region on their common border. into their own hands'~ commented team member Sara Nelson. Dear Tourist Friend, of short,,; and a hosom-hugging 'I~shirt was at a loss when Questioned Ifthe plan materialises, the poppy fields of Northern Thailand and Burma Referring to the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Dr Andy Smith of the American Baptist While we identify your real spirit (certainly Wf' believe the humanness is not as to what police brutality she suffered during her one month jaunt at could give way to tourism and development projects. Church said "Carbide officials have systematically evaded the enormity of this totally dried up, be it in the North or the South) to know our culture, we invite Calangute. Thai military officials who returned from a trip to Rangoou said the project disaster, They have misled the public and little relief has reached the victims': your attention to some danger signals that our tourism business According to a local police officer liquor and other soft drugs like grass involves developing tOUl ism and 'other businesses' to give farmers an alternative In Tehri the team heard at least four dynamite blasts at the dam site Kerala, as any other people, has its own culture. Dialogue among different and charas are regularly transported from Goa to aid, as he put it to poppy cultivation, opium and heroin prodilction. a moratorium on construction. cultures, is necessary and healthy. But when culture i~ made instant and ~old meditation. A tall frenchman clad in crisp saffron sits at the gate of the "It is our hope that such a joint undertaking will promote the tourist industry "The problems we have observed in India are not isolated. They are occurring for dollars, it is an entirely different matter. Festivals, pooram, folk arts, all are temple, eyes closed in the bliss of approaching nilvana. "He comes Quite in the golden triangle to benefit all three countries;' said Gen Pat Akanibutr, in aimost all areas of the world'; said Josh Kariiner, an environmental journalist part and parcel of our culture. In every culture every festival or folk art has its often;' explains the temple priest "but unfortunately we cannot let him Inspector-General of the Thai armed forces. with the team. "Citizens' groups are actively addressing these issues not only own context. For example, Trichur Pooram festival is of April-May, On am is of in:' Fearing the ire of the orthodox, the doors of the temple have virtually in India and the US, but also in Latin America, Europe, South East Asia and August-September. They have their own socio-historical reasons. When a folk been barred to all whites, THE HERALD, Panjim, 18 March, 1990 Africa': art or pooram is taken out of a particular cultural context it loses its essence But Gokama is a poor substitute for golden Goa. And they will come and soul. The people who perform them do it artificially. They can't infuse their VENTURE TOURS, New Delhi rushing back to Goa when the local hospitality wears off alongwith their into such buffooneries, So what is exhibited as culture is soulless dead new found taste tor 'nirvana'. Packaged Bliss matter, The state is eager to earn some dollars, since its are few up THE HERALD (Panjim), 19 March, 1990 The problem with paradise is that it soon becomes boring. to fill Established religions have never satisfactorily answered the r Pacific Paradise I the economic, social and cultural vaccum, created its own anti-people question, 'What do people do in Heaven?' The disembodied development No mistake about it, Christopher Cocl;?er's task as Tonga's chief I spirituality of the Christian Heaven and the interminable group tourism promoter is a hefty one. True. the South Pacific islands Kerala was rich in natural resources, Tourism lk Aids in Thailand sex of the Islamic paradise are enervating prospects for all but offer everything Tahiti has in the way ofpalms and beaches, even the resources dwindled. Now the state i~ short confirmed quietist mystics or inexhaustible satyrs. The human jfa political storm is clouding them at the moment. Stm. yearly of grains, short of vegetables, short of all necessities, Our agricultu re is stunted. The survey of the policies and actions taken by the Thai authorities mind seems unable to conceive of any purely pleasurable arrivals of 11.000 'Visitors by air and 13,000 by sea to King Industrial growth is stagnant Only the tertiary sector comprising education, and public organisations to monitor and prevent the spread of AIDS activity (or blissful inactivity) that would not eventually pall. We Taufa'ahau lI.1poU lV's domain is causing hospitality among the health etc. is inueasing. All our resources have hepn dGlllled. In its placr: the in the sphere of commercialized sex indicated that these have been should not expect the tourist industry to have solved the problem well-proportioned Polynesians to wear thin Sunny Tongans state is flooded with modern consumer articles, In short Kerala is a almost exclusively oriented to the local sex workeIS, male or that has defeated the world's theologians - even if it does claim recoil from phalanxes of camera-clicking tourists who invade of multinationals and transnationals. More than three million female, rather than their customers, whose health and conduct to offer us a variety of paradises to suit every pocket. their privacy and. ignoring the Sunday laws, get restless on the unemployed ... remain virtually unchecked. This approach is congruent with past ordained day of rest. But Cocker. 26 is stout ofheart. By way The state instead of trying to solve the social and economic issues that haunt policies regarding prostitution in Thailand, Ever since it was first from The Colden Hordes, Louis Turner & John Ash ofan 'Awareness Program" aimed at school-children he says, the people, make the people more fools and ask them to sing and dance to outlawed in 1960, virtually the only persons against whom the law "We presenr a general overview of the significan t benefits of untimely culture calls, This is in the name of culture, in the name of tourism! was applied were the prostitutes themselves. ProcureIS, brothel tourism" A graduate of hocel training in Brisbane, he is also The state tries to hille the real state of the people by staging Great Elephant owners and customeIS were rarely, ifevec apprehended or punished Blinkered Vision nudging Tongans "to improve cheir host-guest relationship," Marches, It is betrayal of the people dnd ppople'<, culture. for their role in the furthering of prostitution. When AIDS appeared Those policymakers who make tourism policy by simply Plans are afoot for a new international terminal and JOo-room on the scene, the authorities were similarly reluctant to take any Dear tourist friend, we request you to note the real motive behind the Great repeating a common formula may think they have provided the hotel at the airport. "Tonga has not reached the stage ofresisting actions which could inconvenience the tourists and thus negatively Marches, Please take pains to explore the real state of our oeoDle and answer, but without comparing, searching and probing the tourism," says Cocker thoughtfully "But we don't want to do affect the tourist industry. by initiating such a normative stefl, we experience of other societies, that answer is surely limited and that too much" ..... ",,1'" .. ,,:,,11 'h~ ,,'~r>p dnd enter Into a new dawn at hik Cantil, in Alii/dIs uf Tourism Re!Jear<.iI, Vol. i5, 1~68 '-.V'-oG...l.U 1't \....J.J V'-J ", .lV..i..1~. ASIAWEEK, 20 April, 1990 Prathikarana Sangham, (A Movement for People\ Cause) from The Politics of Tourism in Asia, linda K Richter 16- Vanchi Lodge, Trichur-21. Kerala 2 11 ,o"rd. pagl? I BOOK REVIEW in the outlying aredS of Tamanrasset which house the majority of its original Karnataka's Massive project residents. The centre of town, "our tourist show-piece" as one person called The government of Karnataka has decided to seek financial assistance from the Exodus Revisited to his own values, industry, leisure and future designs. His own it, and the hotels, cafes and shops that surround it form asmall private enclave Overseas Economic C(H)peration Fund (OECF) of Japan for a Rs 162.40 crore The Tourist. A New Theory of the Leisure Class. Dean MacCannell, New past within the West, and the past and present of all others, he of development, all the more disturbing because of the poverty which surrounds tourism development project, out of which Rs 62.40 crores would be in the York, Schocken Books Inc., 1976; London, The Macmillan PressUd., 1976, interprets and reconstructs into modern cultural heritage. it. Many townspeople have also suffered because of the rise in prices which private sector. The objective is to make Karnataka a major tourist destination X 214 pp. In Chapter 2, MacCannell analyses the sightseeing process have come from increased demand and the presence of new, richer customers. in the '90s. within its structure of attraction, a relationship between the MacCannell has achieved in 'The Tourist' what social scientists "With the rush to build new hotels, shops etc., the price of a plot of land has The state Tourism, Information and tourist, the sight and the marker. The tourist himself does not increased tenfold;' commented another resident. "None of us can afford to build of the structuralist school and functionalist lineage, from Emile analyse the sight. he apprehends at the spontaneous level of his said that the government had Durkheim to Louis Dumont, failed to arrive at, viz. the deep a decent house even if we manage to buy sufficient ground since had subsequently scaled it down, keeping in view the resources constraint. consciousness the sight in its otherness. MacCannell relates it materials, which we have to import from the north, have also risen in price:' structure that holds Western civilization together. An ethno Over Rs 8 crores had been allocated to the department oftourism, Karnataka to the differentiation of the experience deep at heart in the In the market-place staple foods like flour, sugar, milkpowder and tea are also graphy of modern SOciety eluded them. "Modern SOciety is just exercise. What is important is the semiotic of attraction, a process more expensive. At times of food shortage, which is quite frequent due to the State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) for adding more rOOmS to too complex; history has intervened and smashed its structure", its existing hotels, inducting fresh buses into the fleet, constructing roadside by which a sight - a sign which represents something to distance oflamanrasset from the north of the country and the difficulty of recalls MacCannell in his introduction (p.l), a brief statement of someone - is converted into a marker of profound meaning. transporting goods across the desert, it is the hotels that are always provided facilities, developing adventure tourism and for publicity and training. Important Professor Levi-Strauss at Maxim's Restaurant in Paris in 1968. "No first since they have the money to procure any remaining stocks. As a fairs and festivals would also be supported by the department of tourism so matter how hard one searched, one would never find a coherent His final chapter takes up again the issues of theory and consequence of these factors the majority of people who have little or no access as to attract foreign and Indian tourists. system of relations in modern society". The structural method in re-presenting the world: its people, institutions and to the spin-offs from tourism are materially worse off than before its arrival, a A unique feature of the project according to Mr Moi Iy, was the proposal to functionalist framework of Parsons, celebrating American values, through the eyes of modernity and extends it to the Third phenomenon witnessed in many of the towns in the Algerian Sahara which reserve for the private sector certain activities like setting up new hotels and holism, was too harmonious for a conflict-ridden world. His own World' - an unconscious exercise, an exercise of pleasure and have seen a similar expansion in recent years. running luxury cars and amusement parks. The private sector could also image making. Going beyond it and behind it - to the deep students abandoned it for other methods of interaction and structures - MacCannell restores the 'sacredness' of the At the same time the older people of these towns have come to resent the organise luxury cruises, starting from Goa and going down the western coast, exchange in everyday experiences. They abandoned the totality while stopping at places like Karwar, Malpe, Mangalore and Kovalam, so that experience, its unity and holism, With sacredness returns arrival in their community of thousands of tourists many of whom show little of society. Class analysts were always there in the Marxist fold. religion by the back door, so to say, and establishes the hierarchy respect for the traditions and customs of the inhabitants around them. ''l\s a the tourists could sample different cuisines and cultures, including art forms Primitive accumulation of colonial practise and imperialist of values and stability of the world order. The invisible religion oractising Muslim:' complained one resident from EI Golea, atown further north like Yakshagana and Kathakali domination of finance capital explained the modern structure themselves The minister noted that an attempt was being made to get funds from the of secular man (as Thomas Luckmann pu tit) is traced back to its of society in classical and neo-Marxist traditions. But that was roots and made visible in the tourist and his sightseeing. OECF for such ventures by the private sector. The project, he added, was likely and is too economistic and reductive an explanation. Their to be implemented over a five-year period coinciding with the Eighth Plan. reformers found so many bundles of signifiers in SOciety that w. R. O'Silva The KSTDC managing director, Mr Shantanu Consul, noted that a study by they mistook trees for the forest. Louis Dumont came to India, (Or D'Silva teaches Social Anthropology at Goa University) a leading consultancy firm had estimated that based on the originally projected the representative of non-modern world, in search of mirror investments of Rs 209.37 crores, the project would generate a return of Rs 755 images and foils of reflection, to re-establish a sense of identity crores within 10 years of commencement of implementation, including a direct in modern civilisation. Strange Bedfellows return of over Rs 354 crores and an indirect one (by way of spin ofts like The Politics of Tourism in Asia. linda K Richter. University of Hawaii employment generation following larger tourist inflows) of over Rs 401 crores. MacCannell seems to succeed in this book in restoring unity to modernity. Amidst the disorganized fragments, "alienating, Press, 2840 Kolowalu St., Honolulu, HI 96822. 1989.x + 263 pp, $24. The net value added on the investment of Rs 209.37 crores would, he said. work Cloth. Notes, bibliography, index, list of abbreviations, tables. out to 1:1.2. wasteful, violent, superficial, unplanned, unstable and in authentic" (p.2), he discovers a unity. Not that all humans are Tourism, all innocence on first glance, is in fact a near relative THE ECONOMIC TIMES, 24 February, 1990 essentially the same 'underneath/, but that all cultures are of some serious global activities, foreign policy and foreign composed of the same elements in different combinations. relations. It is indeed, as authe>r Richter states, a "crude but The unity is established through an analysis of what Mac reliable barometer of international relations," This book is based Incentives to Hotels Cannell calls middle-class culture or modern mass leisure. It is "on the premise that tourism is a highly political phenomenon, summarized in the universalizing experience of the tourist. the implications of which have been only rarely perceived and The government has decided to give a package of incentives to Modern values expressed through tourist culture bring out the almost nowhere fully understood." the hotel industry in an effort to accelerate the development of total design of society in a single framework. To that extent the tourism infrastructure in the country. The book does much more than simply pose interesting and old divisions between Communist East and Capitalist West on seldom-considered facts: tourism is the largest industry in the The incentives include exempting new approved hotels set up the one hand, and the new divisions between the developed our streets, drinking beer in our hotels and clicking cameras at in the hill stations and other areas from expenditure tax for 10 world; tourism has been used as a political weapon by the United chi Idren:' Invariably as a result of tourism alcohol has become . years. These hotels will also be given 50 per cent exemption from world and the Third World on the other hand, are transcended. States; tourism precedes the normalization of relations between in the south, which more than anything has angered parents who are worried income tax. He derives from the touristic sightseeing, culturally, values two countries. The book is significant because it goes on to ask habit. In a region of the countrv where embodied in work-in-general rather than from the production These decisions were taken at the first meeting of the cabinet not only "why?" but also "so what?", Islam is still very much in evidence this issue has become a real system, materially, the value of commodities. Conversion of the committee on export strategy and performan.ce presided over by The case studies of areas mostly explored firsthand by the between the advocates of "modernism" and those who wish to preserve the the Prime Minister, Mr V P Singh. work of others into 'do-it-yourself amusement, or shift from society as it is. author through her travels and interviews, consider the People's The Commerce and Tourism Ministry, Mr Arun Nehru, said material production to cultural production of values, unites Republic of China, the Philippines (under both Marcos and Also the increasing wage differences between those involved in the traditional the India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) will be modernity. Aquino), Thailand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the activities of the area, like agriculture and herding, and those fortunate enough permitted to import 300 air-conditioning units for use in tourist Tourist, in MacCannell, has two meanings. It designates actual Maldives, Nepal, and Bhutan, and form the central core of the to profit from tourism has introduced a note of further discord into once settled coaches at a concessional duty of 50 per cent. Restrictions on tourists. sight-seers, going round the world in search of book. Richter considers the reasons a government uses tourism and close-knit communities. The traditional hospitality of the Sahara, complain photography of historical and archaeological monuments will experience. There is another sense in which the tourist repre to advance its policies and the political and economic problems many residents, is changing to something more selfish and commercial. also be relaxed. sents the modern-man-in-general and thereby becomes its value within a country that can prevent tourism from functioning as Incidents of theft and robbery have also increased in recent years resulting in Under the package, the tourism ministry will undertake an centre. expected. These seven chapters are nicely framed by an intro an expansion of the police force throughout the southern region. "We are intensive development of few suitable sites which have potential throughout the south;' commented one resident of The tourist differentiates the whole world into a duction on the politics of tourism and a final chapter on for adventure and beach tourism. This will be done in co Development and modernization are roughly the same as alternative strategies (or tourism development. for the better. Even our operation with the concerned state governments. have become commercialized differentiation. Sightseeing becomes the ritual performance The 46-page bibliography is composed mostly of books and The government is also likely to take some decisions in the are less acelebration of our traditions, agesture of respect towards our ancestors both at home, the world of earlyindustrialization, and the world articles, but it also includes lists of official publications, videos, near future regarding simplification of immigration and visa than a means of hringing us monty Tourism it is true has brought hard at large, the world of pilgrimage. The Sightseeing middle class speeches, and interviews. procedures. into the country;/ he concluded, "but the results are not as beneficial as holds this experience together into a single whole. In this government and the businessmen would like to maintain:' • TIMES OF INDIA, 10 April, 1990 exercise the middle class sightseer subordinates the other people from Third World Resources, Vol. .'i (2), 19B'; 12 NETWONK vt1? Ilwite Network members to contribute to the NeMvrk Letter by sharing their work, icleas andpl.CJns through these pages. NEWS Communication is vital to the lIfe ofa Network especially when NOUNDUP physical distances cannot easily be bridged by doser (Ol7tacts. ALTERNATIVE NETWORK LETTER A Third World Tourism Critique Child Prostitution Consultation, Thailanci A consultation on the links between tourism and the growi'lg child Tourism, Environment and the law Drmtitution indu'>try was held (It Chiang Mai between May 1-5, 1990. For Private Circulation Only Vol. 6 No.2 luly 1990 the Ecumenical Coalition on Third World Tourism,. it marked the conclusion Our schedule for the includes a national consultation on the links research project (overing Thailand, Philippines and Sri Lanka. Some reports between tourism environmental and legal issues, Aug 2, from othp( countries were also presented, including one on India by K T Suresh at Bangalore. n Sunday june 10th, I joined a group of concerned Filipinos on a visit of Equations. Tourism in Algeria to Pagsanjan, a tourist resort famed for its water rapids, and notorious We would be glad to hear from people or institutions involved in any by Chris Mcivor Action stratct!,i(-'s from thf' mnSLJ Itation wi II form the next phase of of these areas who would like to participate, especially make a written Ofor male child prostitution or pedophilia. The 2-hour jeepney (the th is importilnt project, of which wi II be available from ECTWT, POBox or visual contribution. Ph iIippi nes' unique form of public transport) ride from Manila passes through ,'N ot so many years ago Tamanrasset was nothing but a shanty town;' 24, Chorakhebud, 10230, Thailand. some lovely countryside, notably the laguna backwaters. This will be a major event, and we expect oal1icioants from all over commented the manager of one of the new hotels that have been The purpose of our visit to Pagsanjarl, however, WdS far from being touristic. Tourism and Racism, Hawaii. USA as well as abroad, to be present. built there in the last few years. "There was no electricity or running Tourism offid:ils in Manila have recently woken up to problems water, hotels or roads;' he continued, "but now that the tourists have started The annual "on~ultation of the North American Network for Responsible and decided that the be~t way to tackle them wou!d be to denounce coming this town has prospered to become one of the richest in the southern Tourism (NANET) wi I! be held October 26-30, 1990, looking at issues of Racism destination. 'Pagsanjan is no longer a Fi lipino attraction, don't of Algeria:' This sentiment is one that is echoed by many of the merchants in Tourism. Collaborators include the nevvly formed Ilawaii Ecumenical ~here: they wamed the intemational travel trade. No problem, traders of the community whose bU5ine~ses have thrived with the arrival COillition on fourism (f IECOT). Write to NANET, 2 Kensington Road, San Resources moved elsewhere in the 7,OOO-odd islands. of numerous French, German, Swiss and Italian tourists, Every year between An,elmo, CA 94960, USA. There is a problem, though: the boatmen who depended on tourists for their October and April they converge'on the town to visit the famous Hoggar region Hosts and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism, 2nd Edition, Valene Smith livelihood were left high and dry. They got organised soon enough, but of the country. The growth of tourism however is not confined to Tamanrasset University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989. discovered it was not just the tourism ministry they had to face. A variety of but has also spread to many of the other communities in the Algerian Sahara, Tourism in South India The second edition of a volume of essays includes postscripts written after and other bodies now counted among those who were clearly not an area which has become in recent years one of the most popular tourist 10 years by the authors of the first. The essays by Dennison Nash and Nelson friends. Far from India though it is, the signs of Asia are unmistakable. propositions in North Africa. 1991 has been declared \7isit India Year by the Tourism Ministry Graburn in the introductory 'theoretical overview' are excellent, and have been the boatmen, whose demand is simply: its neighbours 10 the west and east, Morocco and Tunisia, in New Delhi. Apart from the massive boost given to adventure left unchanged. Theron Nunez was unable to review his anthropological we need tourists, so we want them back. But not the pedophiles. On June 12th, been slow to develop its tourist potential. Commented one government and recreation tourism. several areas have now been marRed perspectives on tourism (final chapter) owing to ill-health, but an eoilogue was took out a rally in Manila, which was also celebrating Independence Day. in Tamanrasset, "In 1962, after independence, Algeria has little time to think for special promotional efforts. amon\l them the Southern written and discussed with Nunez by his student James lett. we were not present then, we heard that 'major demands have been about tourism. The country was geared to rebuilding itself, developing its Indian states, Rnmvn for their miles of sandy sea·fronts, game industries, providing education for its children. ':At the same time;' he concluded, Most of the authors appear to be quite positive about the tourism industry, met' as a result. sanctuaries, temples and 'friendly smilin"r people. EQUATIONS In Thailand, the government does not officially recognise the existence of "the war left bitter memories in the minds of most and we were not has begun a programme of documentation. networt2ing and sounding almost like apologists. One even concludes (rather unacademically) prostitution. though it is freely advertised even in daily newspapers under the open our arms to tourists from a country which had killed half a million consultation in order to develop coordinated action on the issue. that 'tourism is a bit of an escape from our local problems... to the carefree times mhpm'l~nl<; 'massage parlours' or 'escort services'. It must have taken Public Also the large resources of oil and natural gas which began to be Every month. we will produce a set of ne\.'17S clippings (xeroxed), of childhood when someone else had to do the worrying for us, and extracted during the late 60's and 70's meant that Algerian demand for foreign and distribute to a limited group of people. Write to us if you is here to stay!' One wonders if this has something to do with the fact currency was not so pressing as its neighbours and so tourism was largely wish to receive these (at cost), and if you would liRe to participate by the editor) that i many travel industry conferences regularly schedule one Just One Planet ignored as a means of bringing money into the country. Now the Algerian ------in related activities later this year. or two sessions on tourism research, and anthropologists thus find employment Government,. having recognized the lucrative potential of this sector and the as industry consultants'. Health Minister Marut Bunnag an incredible degree of political tightrope need for the tourist industry to find new unspoiled pastures, has opened up walking to appear at the Cleopatra Massage Parlour early this year, to advise its southern region by building hotels in most of the major towns, organizing Cultural Survival Quarterly, Vol 14, Nos 1 & 2, 1990, 11 Divinity Avenue. Tourism and Socio-Cultural Chan~e, Warsaw 'masseuses' to use condoms while having sex with their customers. While the tourist agencies and travel bureaus and encouraging home crafts like carpet ambridgf' MA 02HB, USA. r.,n-.n.,;"" to contain the spread of AIDS in Thailand deserves total support, The Institute oilourism in Warsaw has initiated a international study and cloth manufacture. Most of the communities have also been provided Entitled 'I:3reaking out of the Tourist Trap: these two issues contain a wealth of answer lies in other, more coruprehen5ive stratf'gies, elirfftPfj on the relationship betwf'en tourism and socio-cultural The study spans with airfields, and flights from Paris to the south of the country are now information on the socia-cultural changes wrought by tourism in ecologically the kind of tourism that brings Thailand a major part of its exchange a 12-ycdl period from 1990 to 2002, and compares in both tourism and possible. and sensitive regions (Ladakh, Tanaloraja, Greenland). Some earnings. ~~evertheless the arrival of thousands of touri<;ts every year is not other industrial sectors. Write to Dr julian Bystrzanows'" Institute Returning to India, I learned that the Environment Ministry has in to that is universally welcomed throughout the south. Commented one resident 9a, 02·511 Warsaw, Poland. anthropologists consider tourism as inviolable academic territory. and some of the articles reflect this imbalance, though most are of high the tourism authorities, and that hotels will now be built allover the country's ofT.:lmanrasset, "In reality only a few people prO'ipered with the opening Caribbean Tourism Conference, Trinidad and beaches at the 200-metre high tide line, reduced from 500 metres. The Tourism up of tourism in our area. Most of these:' he claimed, "come from out,>iele the Tourism and Ecology: The Impact of Travel on a Fragile Earth, i'.A '\.JET/CRT. Thf' Caribbean Tourism Organisation, in collaboration with the Government Ministry's Visit India 1991 campaign appears to be directed to community, the businessmen, entrepreneurs, merchants from the north who Kensington Road, San Anselmo, CA 94960 .. USA, 1990. oiTrinid.ld and Tobago, the World Tourism Organisation, and others, is beaches and other ecologically fragile zones. have the money to build hotels, tourist agencies and souvenir sr,ops:' Even thE' staff who run the hotels, the who ferry tourists around the area are flot an intl'rnational Conference on Tourism and Socia-cultural Change in The report of Consultation V of the North American Network brings together Gabriela Petra da Rosd has recently sent us dcopy of her study on the mutual guide~ loca s, complained another, since the owner's of the nf'W establishments favour Caribbean, june 25-25, 1990, at Trinidad andlobago. The list of various reports and resources on tourism and ecology issues, thredt that the tourism indw,try in Goa and the Kaiga power plant po"e to each their people over the original inhabitants. includes Rev Allan Kirton, executive member of the [CTWT. focussing on the USA. other. While it is bound to arouse controver~y, WP nevertheles~ feel it is an aspect of the emerging debate on both nuclear and tourism i"sues At the same time the electricity, running water, dnd roads that were largely Center for Solidarity Tourism, Manila The Nuclear Industry: The Death of Tourism in Goa, Gabriella Petra da Rosa, introduced into the community' a~.l rf'sult of touri~m are noticeably lacki ng Cvan Policy Research Cell, India, May 1990,33 pp. fonrd dl/N'It'