On tour, take environment with you

Lionel Wijesiri

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa recently launched a programme to provide Pradeshiya Sabhas with infrastructure facilities for garbage disposal in areas marked for tourism development. The objective is to create environment-friendly tourism regions in the country.

Sri Lanka’s first environmental tourism region was begun in a 700 acre-area in Bentota in 1970 with seven hotels comprising 630 rooms. It was followed by Kalpitiya, comprising 14 islets,. Pasikuda, Batticaloa, Kuchchuweli and Trincomalee. It is the Tourism Development Authority that undertook the well-planned development of these areas under Minister Rajapaksa’s guidance.

Benefits

The number of travellers taking environment-friendly tourism holidays is growing three times faster than those choosing mainstream trips and is predicted to make up five percent of the global holiday market by 2020, according to the latest research by five global tour operators. Environment-friendly tourism holidays have also shaken off their ‘socks and sandals’ image. Ordinary holidaymakers - not just a fringe minority - appear to have caught the habit.

In modern times, environment-friendly tourism is expected to help in achieving a number of benefits. It minimizes impact on natural resources, builds up environmental awareness, provides impetus and financial support for conservation, financially benefits and empowers local people and inculcates respect for local culture.

The International Eco-tourism Society has defined environmental-friendly tourism as the “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people”.

Local benefit

If environment-friendly tourism is to be worthy of its name, considerable effort must be made to effectively involve local inhabitants in tourism activities. Environment-friendly tourism can represent for these people a valid economic alternative, with the additional advantage that these inhabitants, through effective education and orientation, can be converted into efficient wardens and conservationists of these natural areas. They should be educated that their economic welfare and quality of life depends on the preservation of the natural qualities of their environment.

There is, therefore, a great need for educating the local populations about the hazards of careless cutting down of trees and destruction of wildlife or damage to nature and the socio-cultural environment. This irresponsible behaviour, besides causing erosion of fertile land, will also adversely affect the natural scenery and ecology of the areas, which is the main attraction for tourists.

Developing market

Tourist arrival statistics indicate the strong revival of tourism in Sri Lanka following the end of the separatist war. While the South Asian region recorded an 11 percent increase in tourist arrivals in 2011, Sri Lanka showed a remarkable growth of 48 percent. The arrivals have increased by 98 percent in 2011, when compared to the situation before the war ended in 2008. The World Travel Market 2011 Industry Report identifies Sri Lanka as one of the six emerging countries in tourism along with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Sri Lanka possesses several tourist attractions of immense potential. The diverse geography, and lush green valleys, white-water channels and, above all, its high mountains are the main environment-friendly tourism attractions of Sri Lanka.

Despite these attractions, the growth of environment-friendly tourism in Sri Lanka has grown relatively slowly.

The key players in the environment-friendly tourism business are the government (both Central and Local), the developers and the operators, the visitors, and the local community.

Each one of them has to be sensitive to the environment and local traditions and follow a set of guidelines for the successful development of environment-friendly tourism. In addition, non-governmental organizations and scientific and research institutions also have to play a key role in the development of environment-friendly tourism.

A management plan for each environment-friendly tourism area should be prepared by professional landscape architects and urban planners, in consultation with the local community as well as others directly concerned. Integrated planning should be adopted to avoid inter-sectorial and cross-sectorial conflict.

Responsibilities

The government should also need to shoulder some responsibilities. It has to regulate structures that create visual pollution, unaesthetic views and are non-compatible architecture and encourage use of local building material and structures befitting the local environment.

Specifying environmental, physical and social carrying capacities to limit development and ensuring continuous monitoring of adverse effects of tourism activities and initiate suitable corrective measures are two other important responsibilities.

In addition, the provision of visitor information and interpretation services covering particularly what to see, how to see it, and how to behave are also essential. This can be by way of brochures, leaflets, specialized guides, visitor information centres and such. The information should include codes of conduct to all visitors. One more role of the government is the launching of training programmes on environment-friendly tourism for tourism administrators, planners, operators and the general public

Finally, there is a role for others, such as scientific and research institutions and non-government organizations, in promoting environment-friendly tourism. They can create awareness, among all concerned, about the importance of sound eco-practices in tourism development and motivate the local community to increase their involvement in sustainable tourism activities. They also can organize training programmes to prepare the local people to take up various vocations related to environment-friendly tourism.

Motivations

In Sri Lanka, hotel and tourism developers and operators function in a relatively free environment. The country has already moved towards a market economy where commercial considerations dictate motivation for the private sector to take up various activities. Crass commercial considerations have, however, to be controlled by the government on behalf of the public. The environment has to be protected through awareness-generation, legislation, policy and administrative action. The travelling public is also becoming conscious of the need to protect the environment, to some extent at least. As a result, many enterprises in the hospitality sector have adopted environment-friendly practices like conserving energy and water and recycling unutilized outputs. These can be powerful marketing tools for hotel groups.

Civil society, too, has begun to exercise control over the environment.

We note from recent experiences that many non-government organizations have been generating awareness about environmentally destructive practices. Individuals have taken recourse to public interest litigation to stop environmentally destructive practices and the Sri Lankan judicial system has been very liberal in restraining environmentally hazardous activities.

At times, political parties also stop environmentally harmful practices by agitation and raising issues in democratic forums such as state legislatures. The print and electronic media have been very active in Sri Lanka in investigating environmentally injurious activities by highlighting such issues and creating public opinion for environmentally compatible practices.

Engine of growth

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that his government envisions building tourism as an industry playing a significant role in the economic advancement of the country whilst preserving the country’s cultural values, ethos and its rich natural endowment. Sustainable Tourism Development Project (STDP) is the result of this thinking. The overall objective of the STDP, which is in line with the government’s vision, is to strengthen the institutional framework of the tourism sector and to facilitate environmentally and socially sound tourism investments.

Definitely, environment-friendly tourism projects will prove to be an engine of growth in Sri Lankan economy. It will provide for the generation of income, wealth and employment, and help in the sustainable development of remote areas. Due to heavy tourist traffic in some areas, the cultural and environmental assets of the community are under threat. Although this phenomenon is not widespread in Sri Lanka, there is a need to take note of the possible negative influences of mass tourism so that timely preservation action can be taken and irreparable loss avoided.

The movement towards environment-friendly tourism is an opportunity to create more sustainable tourism by planning for regeneration of natural resources and by generating awareness in the host community whereby they are prepared and forearmed to deal with the negative impact of mass tourism.