Coasting into coastal tourisn

Lionel WIJESIRI

Sri Lanka’s coastal and marine resources, whether natural, human or cultural, are plentiful and diverse and have a high potential value for tourism. We have a diverse coastal environment with a variety of ecosystems. These include sandy beaches, coral reefs, rocky headlands, sand dunes, mangroves, wetlands, estuaries, lagoons and sea grasses. Our coastline is around 1,700 km, with territorial waters of a total area of 21,500 square km. These waters are filled with valuable aquatic resources including over 1,000 varieties of fish.

Coral reefs in Hikkaduwa

With such an inventory of world-class resources, we can easily have a growing stake in the attractive global market for coastal and marine tourism, with significant potential for growth.

In the Government’s Tourism Development Strategy (2011 – 2016), it is stated that “Tourism products will be diversified with special emphasis on eco-tourism. Adventure tours (safaris, jungle tours, mountain trekking) will be provided, tapping the tourism potential of the natural topography and the ecological values of the country. Underwater exploration, aquatic adventures and sports in the sea, natural water streams and reservoirs are some targeted activities to be promoted under the tourism development strategy. Boat riding facilities will be improved in major reservoirs and rivers. Facilities will be improved for exploring magnificent coral reefs, coastal fishing, and dolphin and whale watching. Bird watching opportunities will be popularised and improved.”

According to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority the 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. It is heartening to note that the Authority has understood the “balance.”

Sun, sand and surf

Coastal and marine tourism is widely regarded as one of the fastest growing areas of contemporary tourism. While our tourism development has been spatially focussed on the beach for much of the past 50 years, as witnessed for example, in the slogan of the three ‘s’ of tourism sun, sand, surf, the coastal and the marine environment as a whole has now become one of the new frontiers of the world’s tourism industry.

The exact numbers of coastal and marine tourists to our country remains unknown. Nevertheless, the selling of ‘sun, sand and surf experiences’, the development of beach resorts and the increasing popularity of marine tourism (e.g. ?shing, scuba diving, windsur?ng, and yachting) has all placed increased pressure on the coast, an area for which use may already be highly concentrated in terms of human settlements, ?shing and industrial location.

Sustainability

As with many other aspects of tourism, concerns over the adverse impacts on the physical environment and related dimensions of sustainable development have become substantial concerns in?uencing research on coastal and marine tourism.

Improvements in technology, including transport, e.g. tourist "submarines", and recreational technology, e.g. scuba diving, have also made our ocean more accessible to tourists than ever before. For example, coral reefs and areas which are in relatively easy reach of scuba divers have come to be widely regarded by the tourist servicing sector as signi?cant natural resources which can be developed through tourism.

With respect to using tourism as a tool for economic development, experts have increasingly argued that although marine parks or “designated areas” are established to help protect endangered ecosystems and maintain biological diversity, trade-offs exist between protection and use, and ways must be found to produce economic bene?ts from marine areas while still yielding protection bene?ts. This is regarded as a question of particular importance to coastal regions, for which coastal and marine tourism is an important, if not the major, component of the economy.

While the concept of sustainability has been one of the major factors influencing tourism research, the writer believes that concentration on the environmental dimensions of tourism in coastal and marine areas should also be a main focal points of tourism research in Sri Lanka.

Components

One major component of the coastal environment, which has been substantially affected by tourism, is the clearing of mangroves and estuaries for resorts. Mangroves and estuarine environments are extremely significant nursery areas for a variety of fish species. The loss of natural habitat due to dredging or infilling may therefore have a dramatic impact on fish catches. In addition, there may be substantial impacts on the whole of the estuarine food chain with a subsequent loss of ecological diversity.

Another obvious way in which tourism-related development has impacted the coastal environment is the adverse effect of tourist activities on coral reefs. Coral reefs are very vulnerable, and adverse human activities may result in a lower capacity to regenerate, or the death of entire coral colonies. In order to restrict such damage, Service providers must actively educate divers on the importance of maintaining correct buoyancy.

Management

The development of management strategies for coastal and marine tourism needs to be understood in light of the nature of the management problem, the scale at which the problem is addressed, and the relative extent of intervention by Government and private service providers. Our planning for tourism has traditionally focused on land-use zoning, site development, accommodation and building regulations, the density of tourist development, the presentation of cultural, historical and natural tourist features, and the provision of infrastructure including roads and sewage.

However, in recent years, tourism planning in South Asian countries has adapted and expanded to include broader environmental and socio-cultural concerns, and the need to develop and promote economic development strategies at local, regional and national scales, particularly within an increasingly globalised tourism environment. Planning for tourism therefore occurs in a number of forms (development, infrastructure, promotion and marketing); structures (dierent government and non-government organisations); scales (international, national, regional, local and sectorial) and times (dierent time scales for development, implementation and evaluation).

However, planning is rarely exclusively devoted to tourism per se. Instead, planning for tourism tends to be an integration of economic, social and environmental considerations reflecting the diversity of the factors which influence tourism development.

Policy positions

More and more research must be conducted on the most appropriate policy mix to achieve final objectives and there should be maximum monitoring and evaluation of policy measures.

Given the potential impacts of tourism on the coastal and marine environment it is therefore not surprising that organisations such as Environment and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has been trying to encourage sustainable forms of coastal development in Asia and the Pacific.

The policy positions of ESCAP reinforce the recognition that sustainable development of coastal and marine tourism is dependent on: (1) Good coastal management practices (particularly regarding proper sitting of tourism infrastructure and the provision of public access); (2) Clean water and air, and healthy coastal ecosystems; (3) Maintaining a safe and secure recreational environment through the management of coastal hazards (such as erosion, storms, fooods), and the provision of adequate levels of safety for boaters, swimmers, and other water users; (4) Beach restoration eorts that maintain the recreational and amenity values of beaches; and, (5) Sound policies for wildlife/sea life and habitat protection.

Therefore, one of the greatest challenges facing SLTDA is how to integrate tourism development within the ambit of coastal and marine management, and thus increase the likelihood of long-term sustainability of the coast and ocean as a whole.

Solving such dilemmas will clearly be of importance to our country in which this segment of tourism can play an important role in the national economic growth.

A key element is to ensure that the authorities are aware of the extensive research which has been undertaken on coastal and marine tourism, its management, planning and impacts. However, for many in the government and the private sector a more immediate factor may be the increased recognition that the enhancement of the environmental quality of coastal and marine areas provides a significant competitive edge in the tourism marketplace.