20

We invite Network members to contribute to the Network Letter NETWORK by sharing their work ideas and plans through these pages

NEWS Communication is vital to the life of a Network especially when ROUNDUP physical distances cannot easily be bridged by closer contacts

Global Tourism Activists Meet CypntS Representatives from several countries will be meeting for the first time at

September 28 to October 2 1991 Plans are well underway for the meeting during which matters relating to the structure and functioning of the EQUATIONS at worll international tourism critique networks will be discussed Apart from individual

Durin~ the Government-sponsored India Tourism Year we haveorganisations existing networks such as NANET TENTWI and constituent members of ECTWT will be present ECTWT and TEN are joint coordinators ~un a number of new projects Elsewhere in this newsletter with the Middle East Conference of Churches playing host in Cyprus you Win read a summary report of a 21-day Visit to the southwest

coastal states (Kamataba and Kerala) as well as a resPQnse toaConsultation on Tourism as a Challen~e to Re~ions Goa series of articles (by Hand CGantzer) re~din~ tourismmiddotactivismECTWT together with the Archdiocese of Goa and the Catholic Bishops

Conference of India proposes to hold this consultation November 4-9 1991 in Goa We are also involved in activities planned later this year About 60 participants are expected The consultation aims to achieve a at M~ore Tamil Nadu and Ban~l()fe Towards the end of the perspective and planned response to the challenge that tourism presents to year we hope to convene a meetinqfor Delhi-based peopJewho all religions especially in India Write to Fr Desmond de Souza ECTWT do Redemptorist Fathers 876 Alto Porvorim Goa 403 521

National Forum on the Impact of Tourism Philippines

expreSsed an interest in our activities

The Center for Solidarity Tourism Manila toget~erwith several Filipino NGOs has formed the Phi Iippine Support Group for Victi ms ofTourism The Support Resources Group coordinated by CST plans to hold a 2-week national forum in Manila to facilitate the long and difficult task of organising the victims of tourism and Third World Tourism Research 1950-1984 by H Leo Theuns Peter Lang prepare them to take an active role in meeting the challenges posed Publkation~ jupiterstr Ii Cl-3000 Bern Ii 283p~ 1991 Dates to be announced while funding is being sought Contributions to Norma This resource book with its over 2000 entries reveals the growing interest in Tinambacan CST 444 Guadalupe Bliss Makati Metro Manila one specialised research area tourism in the developing nations This ENVIROfOUR VIENNA 1992 bibliography hopes to facilitate and promote research on tourism in developing

countries a subject of utmost importance due to its nature and immenseThe International Society for Environmental Protection is conferel1ce on strategies for reducing the environmental impact potential for growth

Vienna November 1992 It aims to analyse the impact of tourism TOE-DOC No l wurism Development amp Environment Project ECTW7professional travel on the environment and to evaluate the effects of POBox 24 Chorakheboa Bangkok 10230 60p~ june 1991 environmental measures addressing d wide range of issues ISEp founded

This first issue is a documentation consisting of selected newspaper clippingsrenowned scientists in 1987 includes in its aims the elaboration of

and articles on development and environmental issues related to tourism Partecological economic and sociological strategies for the preservation and

of EGVVTs project on Tourism Development and the Environment this issuecreation of a humane environment for all people Write to Dr Susanne

of TOE-DOC focusses on a general view of trends in tourism policy andBurgstaller ISEP Marxergasse 3 A-1030 Vienna Austria

development cases of socially and environmentally degrading tourism projects Otherfumms articles on debates and activities towards sustainable development and also Tourism as a social concern will be raised at 2 forums planned in Thailand a section Golf Course Monitor~ First at the NGOs parallel meeting during the World BankllMF General

Tourism in the Peoples Republic of ChinabyAnna Gerstlache Renate AreigAssembly in October 1991 Second at the PP21 (Peoples Plan for the 21st Eva Sternkld 7iJurism ~7 Centrally Planned Economies Case Study No 2next year While we do not yet have further details of either it is obvious ECTW7 POBox 2~ Chorakheblla Bangkok 1021088pp 1991that tourism has to be increasingly recognised as an issue linked with other

social concerns and events such as these provide the networks of tourism This study examines the initial use of tourism by the Peoples Republic to gain

critique opportunities to do so in an effective integrative way more political recognition in the world by presenting successful socialist achievements Though it started with an alternative politically oriented Sustainable Tourism fco Institute Costa Rica to tourism it ultimately fell victim to the massive powers of the

The Eco Institute wants to bring a sustainable development approach to Costd international tourism industry China today stands as one of the only nations Ricas tourism industry before it is too late The plan has 3elements to convene to have experienced both the alternative approach of limited and controlled a task force-think tank to develop themes and affect public policy act as a tourism as well as mass tourism The Chinese experience would be of relevance watchdog reviewing tourism projects and developfund small-scale pilot to those other centrally planned economies which aim to integrate this sector

demonstrating the benefits of sustainable development The threeshy into th~ir overall economic devElopement year project wi II be coordinated by Deirdre Evans-Pritchilrd who has extensive experience in tourism research Bananas Beaches amp Bases Making Feminist Sense of International Politics

byCynthia Enloe UniversityoCaliornia Pres~ Berkee) 94720 244pp 1989 The author takes a second look at familiar scenes- governments restricting

Please note the correct numbers at which to contact us imported goods bankers negotiating foreign loans soldiers serving overseas Phone 812-542313 and show that the real landscape is not exclusively male She also challenges

Tplp) AJr-fUOO nn IIIJ (ATTN 007) ~~Q~~ 1h~~ (~i~t(tc~ lnt~~~~~~Gr~ r ~hC IOn the Beach Sexism and Tourism she focusses on structural-Fax 812-542627 (ATTN 020)217890 (EQ U AJlONS)) I

Cable EQUATIONS BANGAlORE-560 038 INDIA ~ dimensions of tourism to drive home her arguments about the gender bias

Puhlislud by Equitable Tourism Options (EQUATIONS) 96 H Colony Indiranagar Stage Bangalore 560 038 INDIA

Dtrip and JYpestrting Revisuality Typesetting and Graphic Design 4211 Lavelle Road Bangalore INDIA

ALTERNATIVE NETWORK LETTER A Third World Tourism Critique

For Private Circulation Only Vol 7 No2 October 1991

Dear Reader The Key to MustangGreetings from yet another republic thats going bananas

By Manjulhree ThapaThe mandarins at South Block (that awesome seat of power in New Delhi) are at it again Voted into power by a narrow margin in the recent elections the new government is taking no chances sweeping economic reforms are underway in a complete break from the past

Liberalisation is the key we are told and the Indian economy must be freed from its shackles In a succession of quick and dramatic announcements our currency was devalued twice industrial licensing abolished (by and large) multinationals afforded free entry into key sectors and fertilizer subsidies slashed

Prices rose The word went out stagflation is likely to grab us by the seats of our pants necessitating another ueV31U3UU pushing India to the brink of economic chaos where cost-push inflation devaluation in an eternal merry-go-round

Questions Who cuts the cake Who gets the crumbs WIll breadlines make headlines

Critics of t~ new economic policies have accused the government of wilting ower Mustang home of the Thakalis with its district capital at Jomsom

epressure of the World Bank and IMF organisations which are currently has gradually been transformed by trekkers on the nnapurna Circuit1Lpilgrims to Muktinath and apple ~ A Letter from bullbull In contrast the Bhutia inhabitants of Upper Mustang the ancient

of Lo live much as their forbears did for centuries farming in the spring considering Indias plea for massive loans to offset a critical balance of payment~ their animals to high pastures in the summer and engaging in trade in the winter situation A charge hotly denied by our policy-makers though our economic For the Loba from Upper Mustang change has often taken away not brought reforms parallel those initiated by other developing nations indebted to the benefits Since 1959 the Chinese Government has prevented access to the WBiIMF traditional grazing grounds north of the border so livestock has dwindled And so emerges the golden dawn of a new economic era Among the too 10 Because farming on the wind-sept desert land remains as unyielding as ever industries slated for this futuristic push are tourism and food processing seasonal migration has increasingly become a necessity Cultural poverty has that I hear someone say - food processing Gentle reader that~ just an come hand in hand with material poverty There are fewer artisans and the Lobas euphemism for what is known elsewhere as agribusiness which in case you gumpas seem neglected and in need of repair havent heard the jingle is good~usiness is big business is Mustang up from Kagbeni village two hours north of Jomsom is

restricted territory to non-Nepal is The government has given running water The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is to most villages and brought in a few health posts and schools and the pricein its final stages at Geneva where an international agreement on agricultural of rice is subsidised Clearly such measures are inadequate and cannot production and trade is being finalised The European Community (and to a substitute for the development activity and alternate sources of income lesser extent the LJS) are opposing reforms to current agricultural policy in from tourism that the Loba sees when he looks south And he is asking for effect this allows rich nations to dump their produce on poorer countries the same detri menta I to the interests of Thi rd World farmers and exporters If the richer Except for a brief period in the early 19505 Upper Mustang has been closed nations go ahead with their plans it will be a recipe for continufd food off from the south and obviously the north Its special geographical situationdependency and mass hunger in the South according to one observer of being surrounded on three sides by Tibet made upper Mustang the ideal Questions Can tourism as an issue be viewed independently of macroshy base for the Tibetan resistance to carry out operations against the Chinese Under developments nationally and globally In a post-glasnost world can we CQntd overleaf

continue to ignore an unipolar reality Who calls the shots in such a world at the IMFWB in GATT in tourism et al How do we resPoilCl to slIch INSIDE questions When Tourisms Profits Go Abroad 5 Lest we get lets ask ourselves more of such questolis Please Dont Come to Goa B

jnVf~tilllS ill Yldl-Deveio[Jlllt=fli 14 vuerulouslv yours Summary Findings 16 Paul Gonsalves

contd from page 1

pressure from Beijing Kathmandu disbanded the guerrillas and made Upper off-limits

the Khampa marauders have been forgotten the Nepali government continues to close off the area north of Kagbeni Perhaps the restrictions remain due to bureaucratic inertia and a long-standing and perhaps ill-founded fear of ruffling Chinese feathers

Among those advocating the opening of Mustang are many inhabitants of Upper Mustang from the walled township of Lo Manthang and villages such as Charang Chemi and Sama

Over 90 per cent of the people of the upper areas want Mustang to be opened asserts Jabyang Bista who lives in the northernmost village of Chosyere Maybe some people in southern Mustang want it closed but the people in the north want it opened

Opening Upper Lo could make the villages of lower Mustang mere nightshystops for tourists headed for the Tibetan culture of the north Understandably some lodge-owners in Tukuche Jomsom and Marpha prefer to keep the northern areas closed Most however recognise the windfall that could accrue to the whole area from the opening

Thus when King Birendra made an unoffi~ial visit in January 1990 the 16 Pradhan Panchas of Upper and Lower Mustang presented him with the that the north be opened Unfortunately the Lobas have little with no ethnic representation during the years of the Panchayat rule

Most believe that the promise of an untouched Tibetan culture more Tibetan than Tibet itself will lure Westerners in search of new Himalayan destinations Travel agents in Kathmandu eager to cash in are pushing for an early opening

Tek Chandra Pokharel President of the Nepal Association of Travel Agents believes that tourists eagerness to enter Mustang would prompt them to pay high rates Also because Mustang lies in a rain shadow area it could be promoted as a viable destination during the monsoon the low tourist season

The government meanwhile continues to show ambivalence Damodar Gautam Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism till recently agreed that isolating Mustang from the world I will push it further into darkness He has advocated opening all of Nepals restricted areas

Understandably the Tourism Ministry advocates Mustangs opening but the decision rests with the Ministry of Home Affairs The government would not open Mustang before establishing proper trails police checkposts health posts a communications network and lodges However no move has yet been made towards building such infrastructure

There are some who agree against exposing upper Mustangs fragile ecology and culture to the consumerist world outside

Bishnu Raj Hirachan says that the desert environment cannot support the demands of tourism People will sell their firewood for a little bit of money without realising the long term problems this creates

The ecology of Upper Lo certainly requires detailed from Chuksang and Chele north ofKagbeni have to hike tvvo days forests near Samar for thei r firewood The inhabitants around Lo Mmthmo

use dung Both sources of fuel are dVindling Hemanta Mishra chief ofthe King Mahendr Trust for Nature Conservation

in Kathmandu argues that Mustangs culture one of the last reoresenting old Buddhism should be protected Besides he contends the itself will benefit little from opening first travel agencies

and then othpr outside communities but not the Loba The important question then is not whether Mustang should be opened

but how and when Is high-costool-iolume

would

TOUrism a more attractive or the ctgtme one-come all

Some advocate controlled tourism but in and for different ends Those in the high-end of Kathmandus propose [owshyvolume access which they say protect the and cultural environments as well as bring most benefit-but to whom

A V Jim Edwards chairman of the Tiger Mountain travel group suggests the government charge an entry fee of around US $100 per person and laB)w Gilly a few travel agencies with the highest foreign currency turnover to take in a iimited number of persons

There are other more creative if unlikely proposals Keshab Lamichane who

2

runs Nepal Cultural Experience a special interest tour operator submitted a proposal several years ago to conduct exclusive tours in the restricted area for high class tourists Among other things Lamichane proposed that three houses of the King of Mustang be turned into a museum and that programmes be organised- to ed ucate travellers about the natural and cultural heritage of the region According to Lamichane his plan would maximise income while minimising the adverse cultural effects of tourism Let the local people the quality of their lives but let them not wear ties

Some Lobas advocate decentralised locally controlled tourism Tashi Zampa suggests that a law be passed curtailing the rights of people from outside to buy property or to run business in upper Mustang Only that would ensure that the people of the area benefit from tourism

Another Loba Kelsang Tashi is confident that the Loba can learn to handle tourism when it arrives liThe younger generations are not like their have seen the way things are in the rest of the country They have studied Even the Sherpas did not know how to run business in the beginning Like we will learn Tashis wife Chimi Dolkar is convinced that Upper Mustang must be opened Some can be porters those who are able will run hotels Right now even those want to cannot earn money She says the suggested entry fee into Upper Mustang should go directly into development programmes for the

of all the talk of proper infrastructure in all likelihood Upper Lo open without any preparation when the time comes Neither the

nor the Tourism Ministry have taken steps to prepare Loba inevitable openi ng A study of the effect of opening Ladakh TIbet

Bhutan Southern Dolpo and Kanchenjunga as well as the ample sociological studies of the Sherpas since the 1960s should provide valuable material for discussion and action

On how best to open up the area many heads will have to come together government officials of the various ministries the representatives of Upper and Lovver Mustang the travel trade conservationists and specialists in the relevant academic disciplines A commission comprising of such individuals with a workable mandate might be the first step towards a proximate and sensible plan of action

HIMAL MarApr 1991

In Quotes

The indian association of tour operators has ur~ed the ~ovemment to rationaiise the steep hillte in hotel tariff and -waive expenditure tax onbiqand medium size hotels saying that this would badly hit the foreiQn tourist inflow While Indias foreiQn exchanlJe earnings remained static at $12 billion durinq the past five years Indonesia which had also gone tn for il bi9 IMP loan to tide over its BOP crisis has more than doubled its tourism earnin~s and Malaysia and Thailand hod raised it three fold

Instead of making it mandatory for hotels to fix tariff on dollar rates the government should have linllted tariff to a baslltet of currency

The tour operators association has also termed as discrimishynatory the imposition of expenditure tax on hotels charging room tariff of more than Rs 400 per day

t I ECONOMIC TIMES 27 August 1991

L

Tourism in Goa (conld from pag 10)

metro cities like Bombay and Calcutta it can easily exist in the relative anonymity of mass tourism resorts

The resistance to tourism in Goa has never stated that there should be no tourism at all There are several groups who oppose mindless tourism (not just the 4 mentioned by the Gantzers) each of whom have obiectives and approaches However what all of them are asking for - even

is for acheck on unbalanced development In fact this is that the Gantzers argue in favour of in a recent article unrelated to

(Indian Expressj 18691) Thev suggest the need for a Tourism Areas Protection Act and define its

Yet in one of their articles (Navhind the agitators have gone to court because these cases could drag on One might well ask what is the purpose of the law existing or proposed - and where it is not abided by what are the means of enforcing

The articles also seek to create on aura of doubt about the motive behind the resistance More than once we are casually informed that foreign money is involved (a small group of agitators some admittedly supported by foreign funds) To my knowledge this is furthest from the truth Those who have opposed tourism in Goa have consciously avoided a foreign-funded label That they are linked with people internationally who are concerned about the impacts of disastrous tourism is a fact this is not the same as being foreign funded

However there is an important issue to be considered the hotel industry is open today to 51 percent multinational holdings and in the case of NRls 100 percent These investments and their profits are fully repatriable a result of the massive liberalisation in Indian tourism policy (Whether such a policy actually retains the foreign exchange it supposedly brings in would be interesting to examine but is beyond the scope of the present discussion)

The Indian middle-class can be illogically moralistic on some matters the Gantzers refer to this when commenting on the sex and drugs issue Foreign money is another such While it is perfectly acceptable for industry to merrily profit from loads of foreign invested dollars and deutsche marks it is not so in the case of people who raise questions often at great personal risk While deriding this double-edged morality of our people it is ironic that the authors appeal to this quality in their foreign money comments

When all is said and done it is hard to understand why these articles come down so harshly on the very legitimate questions raised abouttourism in Goa After all the Gantzers have raised similar questions at variolJs times In late 1986 they wrote we have travelled extensively across our mountains and we have seen the havoc being wreaked by distant DeoDle in power who have no awareness or concern for

than in UPs ham-handed 6990)

issues which hold good in Uttar Pradesh somehow become iiTelevant when thev reach GO nsteari of dismissing the ~pILprvirllJ and

their views have also beffl Correa committee appointtd by the Goa g(~ernment recommended

that the government withdraw its Mamiddot~ter Pian for Tourism (proposed in June 1987) which was done in 1988 There are other such instances

I have on purpose avoided - by and large - referring to the varied and complex questions thrown up by the resistance to touriml in Goa These are issues intricately intertwined with wider issues such as political histOlY pmtshycolonial culture and identity and more recently the directions of Goas economic development I have merely dealt with one aspect (related to economic development) that of national tourism pniicv

The Gantzer pieces resuit from thrpe weeks of research in Goa during the pre-Lent Carnival which in recent years has been turned into a tourist spectacle Those who have expressed their doubts about tOlrism are resident in Goa

19

If these doubts are groundless if the agitators have either been misled or have deliberately distorted facts why botheLwith them at all If the agitators opinions are a lot of poppycock why is it necessary to write six articles (at least) about these matters

Questions persist

Travels in Five Tibets (conrd from plgp12)

quest the accounts are cliched unreflective survivals of a bygone genre~ (his exceptions are David Snellgrove Peter Matthiessen and Andrew Harvey among others)

Tourism literature particularly adventure tomism literature is booming of course beckoning tourists to the last hidden place This literature says Bishop has had profound influence on the shaping of the contemporary images of Tibetan landscape and cu Iture What th is infl uence is and why contemporary images no longer constitute a Western collective imagining Bishop does not explain One feels he has been confined by his own academic model of the creation evolution and dissolution of a sacred place

The current interest in Tibet although primarily touristic would seem to indicate that Tibet is not yet an empty vessel~ It is regretted that Bishop has not looked a little closer at the travel writing of the 1970s and 80s at two schools in particular the contemporary descendants of the spiritual quest literature and the new travel-realism writers of Britain Ireland and Eastern Europe

Bishop is correct in stating that the focus of the spiritual quest was displaced with the movement of high lamas to the West However he seems unaware of the literary result of that movement The lamas Western students have been translating and practicing Tibetan Buddhism for the last 15 or 20 years They are knowledgeable about Tibetan history iconography and the lineages of teachings and their vision of Tibet IS informed by the great Tibetan literary tradition itself Their writing like Keith Dowmans The Power-Places olCentral Tibetl based on a ninth-century Tibetan pilgrims guider has incorporated the Tibetans vision of their own culture

The new hard-boiled school of travel writing well represented in the periodic Mvel editions of the British magazine Granta is in part achild of war journalism in part a product of Europes powerful ecological and democratic consciousness It is hyper and sensitive to the nuance of recent history These writers have ~~bull ~bullbull~ Tibet as they have touched other countries in pain Cambodic

The travel-realism writers will see Tibet with its bones while the Buddhisl wriiers will explore Tibet with full knowledge of its and religious tradition Both will create fH V imaginal olaces ard the will be

J Fnderick is travpl wnlu and editor of Shangri-La the in-flight rlagazine of Royal Nepal Airlines

(Reprinted from HIMAl MayJune 1990)

~ ----~-- ---shy

Yiy~~V7trn~IN f711)JpJbr~YJJtI)~1J w~Wy4sectj11)1

l-rlWJ J

I

contd from page 1

pressure from Beijing Kathmandu disbanded the guerrillas and made Upper off-limits

the Khampa marauders have been forgotten the Nepali government continues to close off the area north of Kagbeni Perhaps the restrictions remain due to bureaucratic inertia and a long-standing and perhaps ill-founded fear of ruffling Chinese feathers

Among those advocating the opening of Mustang are many inhabitants of Upper Mustang from the walled township of Lo Manthang and villages such as Charang Chemi and Sama

Over 90 per cent of the people of the upper areas want Mustang to be opened asserts Jabyang Bista who lives in the northernmost village of Chosyere Maybe some people in southern Mustang want it closed but the people in the north want it opened

Opening Upper Lo could make the villages of lower Mustang mere nightshystops for tourists headed for the Tibetan culture of the north Understandably some lodge-owners in Tukuche Jomsom and Marpha prefer to keep the northern areas closed Most however recognise the windfall that could accrue to the whole area from the opening

Thus when King Birendra made an unoffi~ial visit in January 1990 the 16 Pradhan Panchas of Upper and Lower Mustang presented him with the that the north be opened Unfortunately the Lobas have little with no ethnic representation during the years of the Panchayat rule

Most believe that the promise of an untouched Tibetan culture more Tibetan than Tibet itself will lure Westerners in search of new Himalayan destinations Travel agents in Kathmandu eager to cash in are pushing for an early opening

Tek Chandra Pokharel President of the Nepal Association of Travel Agents believes that tourists eagerness to enter Mustang would prompt them to pay high rates Also because Mustang lies in a rain shadow area it could be promoted as a viable destination during the monsoon the low tourist season

The government meanwhile continues to show ambivalence Damodar Gautam Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism till recently agreed that isolating Mustang from the world I will push it further into darkness He has advocated opening all of Nepals restricted areas

Understandably the Tourism Ministry advocates Mustangs opening but the decision rests with the Ministry of Home Affairs The government would not open Mustang before establishing proper trails police checkposts health posts a communications network and lodges However no move has yet been made towards building such infrastructure

There are some who agree against exposing upper Mustangs fragile ecology and culture to the consumerist world outside

Bishnu Raj Hirachan says that the desert environment cannot support the demands of tourism People will sell their firewood for a little bit of money without realising the long term problems this creates

The ecology of Upper Lo certainly requires detailed from Chuksang and Chele north ofKagbeni have to hike tvvo days forests near Samar for thei r firewood The inhabitants around Lo Mmthmo

use dung Both sources of fuel are dVindling Hemanta Mishra chief ofthe King Mahendr Trust for Nature Conservation

in Kathmandu argues that Mustangs culture one of the last reoresenting old Buddhism should be protected Besides he contends the itself will benefit little from opening first travel agencies

and then othpr outside communities but not the Loba The important question then is not whether Mustang should be opened

but how and when Is high-costool-iolume

would

TOUrism a more attractive or the ctgtme one-come all

Some advocate controlled tourism but in and for different ends Those in the high-end of Kathmandus propose [owshyvolume access which they say protect the and cultural environments as well as bring most benefit-but to whom

A V Jim Edwards chairman of the Tiger Mountain travel group suggests the government charge an entry fee of around US $100 per person and laB)w Gilly a few travel agencies with the highest foreign currency turnover to take in a iimited number of persons

There are other more creative if unlikely proposals Keshab Lamichane who

2

runs Nepal Cultural Experience a special interest tour operator submitted a proposal several years ago to conduct exclusive tours in the restricted area for high class tourists Among other things Lamichane proposed that three houses of the King of Mustang be turned into a museum and that programmes be organised- to ed ucate travellers about the natural and cultural heritage of the region According to Lamichane his plan would maximise income while minimising the adverse cultural effects of tourism Let the local people the quality of their lives but let them not wear ties

Some Lobas advocate decentralised locally controlled tourism Tashi Zampa suggests that a law be passed curtailing the rights of people from outside to buy property or to run business in upper Mustang Only that would ensure that the people of the area benefit from tourism

Another Loba Kelsang Tashi is confident that the Loba can learn to handle tourism when it arrives liThe younger generations are not like their have seen the way things are in the rest of the country They have studied Even the Sherpas did not know how to run business in the beginning Like we will learn Tashis wife Chimi Dolkar is convinced that Upper Mustang must be opened Some can be porters those who are able will run hotels Right now even those want to cannot earn money She says the suggested entry fee into Upper Mustang should go directly into development programmes for the

of all the talk of proper infrastructure in all likelihood Upper Lo open without any preparation when the time comes Neither the

nor the Tourism Ministry have taken steps to prepare Loba inevitable openi ng A study of the effect of opening Ladakh TIbet

Bhutan Southern Dolpo and Kanchenjunga as well as the ample sociological studies of the Sherpas since the 1960s should provide valuable material for discussion and action

On how best to open up the area many heads will have to come together government officials of the various ministries the representatives of Upper and Lovver Mustang the travel trade conservationists and specialists in the relevant academic disciplines A commission comprising of such individuals with a workable mandate might be the first step towards a proximate and sensible plan of action

HIMAL MarApr 1991

In Quotes

The indian association of tour operators has ur~ed the ~ovemment to rationaiise the steep hillte in hotel tariff and -waive expenditure tax onbiqand medium size hotels saying that this would badly hit the foreiQn tourist inflow While Indias foreiQn exchanlJe earnings remained static at $12 billion durinq the past five years Indonesia which had also gone tn for il bi9 IMP loan to tide over its BOP crisis has more than doubled its tourism earnin~s and Malaysia and Thailand hod raised it three fold

Instead of making it mandatory for hotels to fix tariff on dollar rates the government should have linllted tariff to a baslltet of currency

The tour operators association has also termed as discrimishynatory the imposition of expenditure tax on hotels charging room tariff of more than Rs 400 per day

t I ECONOMIC TIMES 27 August 1991

L

Tourism in Goa (conld from pag 10)

metro cities like Bombay and Calcutta it can easily exist in the relative anonymity of mass tourism resorts

The resistance to tourism in Goa has never stated that there should be no tourism at all There are several groups who oppose mindless tourism (not just the 4 mentioned by the Gantzers) each of whom have obiectives and approaches However what all of them are asking for - even

is for acheck on unbalanced development In fact this is that the Gantzers argue in favour of in a recent article unrelated to

(Indian Expressj 18691) Thev suggest the need for a Tourism Areas Protection Act and define its

Yet in one of their articles (Navhind the agitators have gone to court because these cases could drag on One might well ask what is the purpose of the law existing or proposed - and where it is not abided by what are the means of enforcing

The articles also seek to create on aura of doubt about the motive behind the resistance More than once we are casually informed that foreign money is involved (a small group of agitators some admittedly supported by foreign funds) To my knowledge this is furthest from the truth Those who have opposed tourism in Goa have consciously avoided a foreign-funded label That they are linked with people internationally who are concerned about the impacts of disastrous tourism is a fact this is not the same as being foreign funded

However there is an important issue to be considered the hotel industry is open today to 51 percent multinational holdings and in the case of NRls 100 percent These investments and their profits are fully repatriable a result of the massive liberalisation in Indian tourism policy (Whether such a policy actually retains the foreign exchange it supposedly brings in would be interesting to examine but is beyond the scope of the present discussion)

The Indian middle-class can be illogically moralistic on some matters the Gantzers refer to this when commenting on the sex and drugs issue Foreign money is another such While it is perfectly acceptable for industry to merrily profit from loads of foreign invested dollars and deutsche marks it is not so in the case of people who raise questions often at great personal risk While deriding this double-edged morality of our people it is ironic that the authors appeal to this quality in their foreign money comments

When all is said and done it is hard to understand why these articles come down so harshly on the very legitimate questions raised abouttourism in Goa After all the Gantzers have raised similar questions at variolJs times In late 1986 they wrote we have travelled extensively across our mountains and we have seen the havoc being wreaked by distant DeoDle in power who have no awareness or concern for

than in UPs ham-handed 6990)

issues which hold good in Uttar Pradesh somehow become iiTelevant when thev reach GO nsteari of dismissing the ~pILprvirllJ and

their views have also beffl Correa committee appointtd by the Goa g(~ernment recommended

that the government withdraw its Mamiddot~ter Pian for Tourism (proposed in June 1987) which was done in 1988 There are other such instances

I have on purpose avoided - by and large - referring to the varied and complex questions thrown up by the resistance to touriml in Goa These are issues intricately intertwined with wider issues such as political histOlY pmtshycolonial culture and identity and more recently the directions of Goas economic development I have merely dealt with one aspect (related to economic development) that of national tourism pniicv

The Gantzer pieces resuit from thrpe weeks of research in Goa during the pre-Lent Carnival which in recent years has been turned into a tourist spectacle Those who have expressed their doubts about tOlrism are resident in Goa

19

If these doubts are groundless if the agitators have either been misled or have deliberately distorted facts why botheLwith them at all If the agitators opinions are a lot of poppycock why is it necessary to write six articles (at least) about these matters

Questions persist

Travels in Five Tibets (conrd from plgp12)

quest the accounts are cliched unreflective survivals of a bygone genre~ (his exceptions are David Snellgrove Peter Matthiessen and Andrew Harvey among others)

Tourism literature particularly adventure tomism literature is booming of course beckoning tourists to the last hidden place This literature says Bishop has had profound influence on the shaping of the contemporary images of Tibetan landscape and cu Iture What th is infl uence is and why contemporary images no longer constitute a Western collective imagining Bishop does not explain One feels he has been confined by his own academic model of the creation evolution and dissolution of a sacred place

The current interest in Tibet although primarily touristic would seem to indicate that Tibet is not yet an empty vessel~ It is regretted that Bishop has not looked a little closer at the travel writing of the 1970s and 80s at two schools in particular the contemporary descendants of the spiritual quest literature and the new travel-realism writers of Britain Ireland and Eastern Europe

Bishop is correct in stating that the focus of the spiritual quest was displaced with the movement of high lamas to the West However he seems unaware of the literary result of that movement The lamas Western students have been translating and practicing Tibetan Buddhism for the last 15 or 20 years They are knowledgeable about Tibetan history iconography and the lineages of teachings and their vision of Tibet IS informed by the great Tibetan literary tradition itself Their writing like Keith Dowmans The Power-Places olCentral Tibetl based on a ninth-century Tibetan pilgrims guider has incorporated the Tibetans vision of their own culture

The new hard-boiled school of travel writing well represented in the periodic Mvel editions of the British magazine Granta is in part achild of war journalism in part a product of Europes powerful ecological and democratic consciousness It is hyper and sensitive to the nuance of recent history These writers have ~~bull ~bullbull~ Tibet as they have touched other countries in pain Cambodic

The travel-realism writers will see Tibet with its bones while the Buddhisl wriiers will explore Tibet with full knowledge of its and religious tradition Both will create fH V imaginal olaces ard the will be

J Fnderick is travpl wnlu and editor of Shangri-La the in-flight rlagazine of Royal Nepal Airlines

(Reprinted from HIMAl MayJune 1990)

~ ----~-- ---shy

Yiy~~V7trn~IN f711)JpJbr~YJJtI)~1J w~Wy4sectj11)1

l-rlWJ J

I

18

History of A Small Place Caren Kaplan

Jamaica Ki ncaids A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics of displacement Kincaid locates Antigua the island where she was born as not only a small place on the map but a place in history In the process of remapping this location Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage points

InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semishycollapse Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like something else She explores the contradictions of representation by investigating the stakes in each position available in that location Who benefits from perpetuating the representation of paradise Who benefits from the raw sewage in the pretty bay the erosion of Antiguan culture the condos and timeshysharesSince the exotic food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the same plane as the tourist A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of modernitys representational imperatives

Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and counter-discourse of Antiguas relationship with the rest of the world In this text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one at least on the part of the native The text is addressed to you the past present or potential tourist The narrator Kincaid however is not truly a native anymore since she lives and writes in the United States This displaced position gives Kincaids text a particular value it mediates the very oppositions it constructs breaks open contradictions makes connections For example the subject position of native is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity as Kincaid illustrates a point made by Arjun Appadurai the opposition between native and tourist is constructed by a transnational culture of tourism-that is the native is constructed and incarcerated by the anthropological discourse of western travel Kincaids poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions like native and traveler even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized identities

The story of Antiguas colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of the authors personal history Her memories become a counter-narrative to official histories and public relations campaigns Yet Kincaid is equally frustrated with island approaches to time and history She writes

To the people in a small place the division of Time into the Pasf the Presentand the Future does notexist An event that occurred one hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as if it were happening at this very moment And then an event that is occurring at th5 very moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as if it had happened one hundred years ago

Rather than impose linear teleological time in the form of conventional history Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and experience honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism She maps even as she tells in the process inventing a historical poetics of displacement Antigua as chronotope collapses linear imperial time masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and experience

The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami New York and London The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism Antiguans in their small place on the map and in history are inextricably linked to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home This map of transnational global conditions is in part the work of the text It is this strategy of insisting on Antiguas tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating for specific localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics of displacement Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation Edward Said has described this impulse as cartogaphic arguing that the rolttrf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination It is necessary he suggests to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not pristine and prehistorical but historically constituted by present concerns

In describing one small place in the vast world Kincaids memories construct acounter-narrative that resists nostalgia and universality in favor of a historical and geographical investigation of location in the expanded global sense

Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol 3 No 1 (1991)

Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)

structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture

While the organisation does not directly promote tourism says INTACHs Harshad Kumari it does contain the concept of tourism insofar as it has to do with the countrys heritage under its umbrella We believe in local people being able to use their old structures not just in restoring them for the heck of it Once a building is saved restoration takes care of itself she says citing successful examples in Jaisalmer Bikaner and Jodhpur

Right now the sort of tourism thats happening is not benefitting the local people at all she feels adding By linking heritage and tourism we should make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town

Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition and the musical nights in Jhalawar apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight into local culture than the package-tour may well be a step towards greater cultural awareness

SUNDAY 3 March 1991

Serve them right (contd from page 7)

comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison it will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten chewed and swallowed up - reminiscent to the untrained eye of d large choru~ of eaters in acircus or a magic show Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his shoes in Gold Rush

No despite the economic problems engendered by unification is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some their calories from porcelain (In any case theres always beer to fall back upon if need be) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery - plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes An Indian who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate thrown away after use as the prototype of the paper or plastic plate might think that crockery made of bread is a genuine innovation But he would do well to remember that plantain-leaf plates as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall knows are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away The difference betveen India and Germany then is essentially this we feed our cows with dispo~able

whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates

Editorial DECCAN HERALD 7 March 1991

Summary Findings (contd trom page 16)

there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products On the supply side this is matched by the need for foreign exchange

4 This will make the task of seeking alternatives (such as avariety ot alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive In asense the Third World cannot do without tourism in the present stage of economic development By the same logic domestic tourism is not a viable proposition either

5 The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent limitations that is if it proves to be economically not viable Therefore this points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies of the industry its linkages the convergence of different state interentior-s and so on In particular we need to examine the links of tourism with changes in land use patterns in the coastal

Letter to EQUATIONS Dear friends Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent discussion with Suresh in Calcutta 1 For EQUATIONS advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of

Tourism it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the costshybenefit analysis of Tourism ie taking into account the high impore content ofelite tourism the capital-intensive bias and also the various impacts (such as on the emnronment) what picturefinally emerges It is important to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed approach and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily mean anything Huwever in ones dealings with guvernment etc this is something they understand But all the limitations to this approach also have to be simultaneously propagated Actually using cost-benefit approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game Just by changing some assumptions one could get a different result Corrversely a desirable or good project can never make it is based on the market mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes and destroys alternatives

let as in the Tehri dam case it does help to get into this One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India

elsewhere and bring this together Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism projects and more ambitiously for the state or national level

2 Ultimately given what one is campaigning against it is a losing battie in the short-run But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other strategies which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle and taking on work in the area of ltalternatives~ Thus design ofedushycatiot1al curricula and carrying )u educational programmes (jor say students and youth) on critiques of tourism on responsible travel as learning and interacting with diverse peoples places and cultures

Actually both the campaigning against and the articulation and attempting of (alternatives have to be undertaken From a social perspective one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams But such common perpective coming together and taking on of roles within a common perspective interaction and exchange is all too rare in our (voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within ones organisation which only destroys you This needs to be reflected on Because even concentrating on one stream alone is basically countershyproductive So haw can all the various efforts that allmiddot need to be simultaneously undertaken be realised

At the very least within one organisation one may find that rather than get burnt out just fighting against one pulls out and takes on the (alternatives itself as a means of retaining sanity learning and being energised

Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources to reaching out to political parties MPs MLAs gcrvernment officials ltlobbying This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task and full of all kinds of dangers But it is also something that needs to be systematically done part of the (long-run efforts mentioned earlier

I write all this because J myselfam concerned ffbnut lile Tourism very glad to find a group such ~hai

I strongly closer and inte1lCtiosz betWeen activistgrodps is badly netded an alternalive culture in the voluntary sector ~ ana JeWuse jjIjseq am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you What to do From the little knuw about EQUATIONS and its work I have strong admiration for your efforts I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself as one ofyou one ofthe larger struggle all ofus in our awn way are involved in

_rlease lel me kn071i what jYJU think Your 3irrcerev V Calcutta_

3

Pay for Environment

The travel industry environmentalists and officials from developing countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses will have to pay much more

A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific Asia Travel Association

Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty he told the conference which ended on April 14 It makes perfect sense that visitors should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions he said

Much of the worlds remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash is a higher priority than conservation The travel industry must show governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit speakers stressed

bullA Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial companies and a logging firm with strong political backing

It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque now seconded to the WWF Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up with financial clout Roque said which conference speakers believed the tourist industry could provide

Despite the fears of conservationists tourism and ecology need not be mutually exclusive said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd a pioneer in nature tours in the Himalayas Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part of the same picture

Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more money from fewer tourists Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating cash for community projects and preservation

Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas Firms competing for high-volume business were bound to cut costs Choegyal said and environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints

Traditional life in Indonesias overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the expense of the environment said the nations tourist planning chief himself Balinese Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-

and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large I Gede Ardika said

A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter to locals Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product as much as they feel part-ownership researcher Charles Tambiah said

pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines blasted apart (- dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from needed to feed their families Tourism as aspot of affluence and

luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b( slJtain6-jp development he said

But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWFs Bunting He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature reserve Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and so were very familiar with trails and watering spots The animals they used to hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see

5di~gE5tlt-d tourists themselyes couid be 11) illlJ1(Jve

environment in the developing world CCI AprMay 199

4

The Jumbos are Coming by I Rajeswary

There was a time when elephants and lions rhinoceroses and hipposhypotamuses roamed wild and free in the forests and savannah of Uganda The Chief attractions of the Pearl of Africa as it is known

were its national parks and wildlife including 30000 elephants Up unti 11972 tourism was Ugandas third most important foreign exchange earner after coffee and cotton In 1971 it drew 85000 visitors who spend US $27 million

But tourism ground to a halt between 1972 and 1979 during Idi Amins turbulent reign Guns and ammunition were easily available and Amins triggershy

soldiers who were given afree run of national parks slaughtered whole of elephants for ivory By 1982 the elephant population in Queen

Elizabeth National Park had dwindled to 152 down from 3000 in the 19705 In 1980 concerned over the decline of wildlife and tourism the government

that ousted Idi Amin turned to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) for help in training a 40-man anti-poaching strike force The new unit produced immediate results in Murchison Falls Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo Valley national parks

In Murchison Falls the number of elephant carcasses encountered on ranger patrols dropped from 120 in 1980 to none in 1982 and the elephant herd there is now slowly increasing The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth Park has quadrupled

When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 his administration sought additional UN DP assistance to rehabilitate the countrys wildlife and national parks As part of a $17 million project carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) 49 two-way radios were distributed to Ugandas

Park and game officials For the first time all national park officials can communicate with each other and to their headquarters in Kampala the capital

With the help of mobile radios rangers here in the Ishasha area - the southernmost section of Queen Elizabeth Park - have arrested 66 poachers since the project was launched two years ago In Africa says Tanzanian Raphael Jingu the FAOUNDP projects chief technical adviser anti-poaching forms the backbone of wildlife management

The poachers who are usually armed and operate their own four-wheel drive vehicles mainly seek hippopotamuses buffaloes and Uganda Kobs aform of deer unique to Uganda These days elephants are largely spared because of the stiff penalties if caught IlPoachers flee when they see our rangers say Abu Baker Juma the Ishasha sector game warden Being able to co-ordinate our

with radios gives us a huge tactical advantage Statistics bear Mr Juma out In 1988 there were 209 poaching incidents in

the park dropping to 156 in 1989 a decline of 25 per cent In fact says Dr Eric Edroma Uganda National Parks director animals which used to run when they saw people now stand and gaze at them because they are not afraid

Ugandas rangers and wardens constantly live on edge Last October in a shoot-out at Murchison Falls Park 30 poachers were killed I am very of my rangers says Dr Edroma fiT hey are well trained and equipped Sometimes hOlNeVer his men are not so lucky Recently knife-wielding relatives of a poacher who had been arrested earlier attacked a ranger from Ishasha in a market place The ranger lost a finger in the attack T~ work of the rangers and wardens in protecting wildlife is only one part

of a larger government effort to revive tourism Officials in this land-locked country are well aware that they must compete with neighbouring Kenya which currently attracts the lions share of visitors seeking African safaris

Because services at most Ugandan hotels and lodges in the parks are minimal at best the government asked WTO with UNDP fundi ng to draft amaster plan to renovate hotels re-surface pot-holed roads and upgrade the skills of those in the hotel industry ls Ugandas economic and social conditions tourism can become the countrys main foreign exchange earner says Mr jingu

Even without such improvements the number of visitors to Uganda rose from 8622 in 1982 to almost 40000 in 1986 The increase is due at least partially to the fact that poaching is down and the parks themselves are now better managed Tourist arrival figures since 1986 are not available

Mr Jingu credits the new order in the parks to UNDP-financed intensive

training courses that gave 300 rangers and 300 park wardens a chance to upgrade their technical and managerial skills In addition four wardens were sent on fellowships to the College of African Wildlife and Management in Tanzania Africas first centre devoted to wildlife conservation

UNDP also recruited a United Nations Volunteer Mohamed Bereteh a wildlife management specialist from Sierra Leone His assignment to educate Ugandans living within Queen Elizabeth Park about the need to preserve big game Mr Mohamed relies on films to impress upon viewers who include primary and secondary school students the importance of conservation But his task is complicated by traditional beliefs Some Ugandans believe that a womans fertility increases if she eats hippo meat says Mr Mohamed lnd aman is considered less of aman if he does not provide hippo meat for his wife

But Mr Mohameds message is slowly getting through Last year two such sessions led by Mr Mohamed were well attended The Ugandans used to view these workshops as agovernment scam to nab poachers he says What turned them around was seeing actual footage of their natural wildlife heritage and what poaching could do to them

UN DPs assistance ends in December Officials want the project extended 1 The government is interested in conservation but we have limited resources says Dr Edrorna in explaining why his government has yet to contribute its share of $53000 to the project It has other priorities If the extension is not forthcoming it will be a real tragedY

An important long term strategy says Mr Jingu is to convince people living within the parks that they can profit from managing and protecting wildlife on thei r own initiative The government wants to adopt an approach to community participation in wildlife management that has already been tested in Zimbabwe Under this arrangement the government entrusts a section of national park to the villagers who live there provided they follow specific regulations hunting is permitted only in designated areas only a limited number of animals can be hunted at anyone time and tourists who want to hunt must pay a fee to the vi lIagers who are allowed to set the price Th i s gives villagers a major incentive to turn in any poachers

It has worked in Zimbabwe says Mr Jingu and Iam sure it can work herel If the necessary funds are forth--com ing Uganda may soon have aconservation policy that employs both the carrot and the stick

WORLD DEVELOPMENT (UNDP) March 1991

Massive MP Campaign by Rakesh Khar

Temptations 50 irresistiblej that you will fall for them Forts that still echo past glories Palaces that stiil shimmer with grandeur Love still in passionate embrace in stone FOIesis with wildlife in natural display Get away to the centre of it all Madhya Pradesh (viP) - the heart of India The sightseers paradi5e with many a beautiful

Thus speaks a colourfully designed booklet The booklet forms a part of a massive campaign afoot to launch the state in a big way on the tourism map of the country So here is astate with 40 backward districts offering fun lovers the natural wonders scenic splendours and a lot more beautifully wrapped up in 26 economical and convenient packages

Tourism in Madhya Pradesh has come of age The MP State Tourism Development Corporation ended 1989-90 on abright note Not only did it show agross profit of Rs 3883 lakhs but it also showed a net profit of Rs 133 lakhs The corporation expects to end 1990-91 showing gross profit of Rs 60 lakhs and a net profit of Rs 5 lakhs says Mr G 5 Chahal a senior official

Faced with the arduous task of promoting tourism in astate which symbolises utter backwardness the corporation has succeeded in establishing Madhya Pradesh as a front-runner tourist destination through the extensive promotional campaigns conducted in and outside the state The corporation claims to have also consolidated its pioneering activity of organising package tours

order to create better awareness of the rich folklore and folk traditions as al~o itlt varied cultural heritage a numberoffairs and festivals have been selected for development and promotion These include the Panchmarhi festival Bhojpur

Orchha festival and Malwa festival ECONOMIC TIMES 16 April 1991

Nepal A Tourism Tragedy Tourism in Nepal is increasing by over 77 per cent a year it is the only hard currency earner for the worlds fourth poorest nation and is being promoted vigorously The result is predictable footpaths are destroyed sewage gets into rivers litter mountsj and forests disappear at an alarming rate 400000 ha of forest are cleared each year and each hectare cleared loses 3075 tons of soiLdevastating landslides and ffoods wreck both land and economy

The slopes ofthe worlds highest peaks in the Himalaya were once a pristine wilderness Desecration by climbers and trekkers has set in motioR their ecological degradation Until a decade or two ago it was a relativelv minor problem today it has reached disastrous proportions

The worstaffected region is around Everest There is so much junk that a full-scale expedition is needed to remove it says Chris Bonngton an Everest explorer In recent years climbing from the northeast ridge on the Tibet side has become the craze As a result Rongbukj the worlds highest monastery has become a toilet and rubbish dumb Once-cfear view of magnificent mountain vistas are now obscenely impeded by abandoned oxygen canisters paper foil and other garbage

Part ofthe problem lies in the growing number ofexpeditions to the top of Everest Each year there are more than 300 expeditions and 7O~OOO trekkers

the Himalaya Of these a large proportion are Everest climbers 13 in the current season The Nepal Government has more than 700 Everest climbing requests pending till 2003

The indian Mountaineering Association has laid down guidelines for anyone climbing in the Indian Himalaya it offers cash incentives to all expeditions which clean up their camps behind them The Himalaya Adventure Trust has astrictcode of conduct for trekkers and Nepal tourism authorities have made it mandatnry for expeditions to leave no litter

Though this has helped wdecrease the size ofexpedition teams the number ofteams remains high and is increasing 104 peaks in Nepal are open climbers 17 to joint expeditions and 5 reserved for Nepalese climbers 18 minor peaks are open to trekkers administered directly by the Nepa Mountaineering Association

Frustrated in its efforts to control the ecological impacts ofEverest climbing the Nepal GOvernment has finally decided that Everest can no longerbe climbed after 7994 Tourism authorities estimate that 50 fonnes of waste currently litter Everest slopes in the years since it was thrown open to the public in 1952

While this may help limit further destruction ofthe worlds highest peak the question ofthe existing garbage remains will Nepal decide to allow dean-up expeditions after 79941

Moreover it is not Everest alone which stands it danger of permanent destruction It is high time that Nepal (and other countries in the Himalayan region) came up with ajoint environment protection plan under the auspices ofan officially constituted environment protection authoritY laxes on mountain climbing could help to finance such a venture

Thi5 is what the article Mr Himalayan Environment seems to suggest

Mr Himalayan Environment The Swiss Alpine Club has recently appointed a permanent official

for the protection of the environment Shouldnt therE be at least one Ir Environment for the Himalayas He could easily be financed by a small head tax on all visitors

This is not a plea to stop tourism That would be impossible anyway It is a to regulate its future development far more strictly and that is not an easy

task If there is a lesson to be learnt from the experience of the Alps it is this protection of the mountai n environment needs determined action and hard work at all levels from the highest government authorities to the lowliest individual Interests of local people have to be catered for so that they have a vested Interest In protecting the environment The Swiss for examDle have an active programme of aid to mountain communities

Protection needs some down-ta-earth action Perhaps one way to start is to

17

talk less about the romantic attractions of mountai n wilderness areas and more bull about toilets garbage disposal ald fuel

Once there is a heavier investment in tourism in the Himalayas it will be difficult to fight destruction because money talks and loudly too Before this happens I suggest that the Himalayas should be divided - with the coshyoperation of all the Himalayan countries into three zones

The first would be open for intense tourism development climbers and trekkers would be welcome and infrastructure provided for them Come one come all

The second one would be open only by special permission to a limited number of climbers and scientists There are already a number of national these could be upgraded and perhaps even linked

The third one vould be inviolate and kept free of human intrusion It would be a or two above the national park status This raises some basic questions Do we want to preserve some corners of the earth free from mans interference or do we want to open up every bit of it to human exploitation Do we have the right to use up all the earth Or are we willing to leave some space for the snow leopards ghurrals and the abominable snowman

As Reinhold Messner wrote recently Man through the centuries has always chosen places which seemed special and declared them holy and untouchable There the Gods IivedToday more than ever we have a need for unexplored wilderness

And our Gods have always lived in the Himalayas

by Aamir Ali HIMAl 28 MayJune 1990

Upturning Virgin Soil

The term tourism development implies much more than running tourist bus services or the stray holiday resort Realising this - rather belatedly it must be said the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation

(MTDC) has recently rewritten its agenda Deviating from its traditional role of running resorts and bus services for tourists it has set its sights on the development of virgin land along the Konkan coast The corporation has identified 32 locations where international standard upmarket as vvell as budget hotels are expected to corne up within the next decade

In achange from its earlier policy MTDC is now planning to withdraw from operational activities and become a nodal agency for the development of tourism by undertaki ng a different set of activities Taking care of infrastructural

providi ng land offering basic amenities for motorists using national highways are some of the major plans chalked out by MTDC

The corporation has aPerspectiveGlvwth Plan basea on which it has asked for the allocation of funds from the Central government in the Eighth Five Year Plan Its plans involve roping in private developers to bui Id resortshotels and thereby develop the locations as tourist spots The land is provided by MTDCIWe get the land either through an allotment from the government or we acquire directly~ says Kawale

However MTDCs offer to private developers has not met with a great deal of enthusiasm According to Mukhtar Hussain of Suman Motels Ltd which runs five to six motels in Maharashtra (but arent bui Iding any on MTDC land) Their location lS for the promotion of tourism our location is for busi ness faei I ities Another private developer is more explicit when he say Basically the plots Which MTDC are offering are not developed locations They are beautifUl but ve arc sceptical about the availability of infrastructural facilities complain that not enough publicity has been given to MTDCs procedures This means that only linsiders have an opportunity to participate

Whilst MTDC plans to team-up with the concerned authorities for the of water electricity and roads private developers complain that most locations have no rail connections another negative factor Also they are not interested in the development of hotels as a majority of them are slated to fall into the two or three star category aimed at the tourist on abudget llso there is no assurance of a minimum level of room occupancy states a developer

BUSINESS INDIA 15-28 April 1991

16

Summary Findings Visit to Coastal KarnatakalKerala

by Equations Team May 1991

Team Manvel Alur K T Suresh Leo Saldanha amp M Shivakumar Dates May 10 - 16 Karnataka

May 17 - June 2 Kerala

Logistics In 21 days the team covered a vast coastline from Karwar in northern

Karnataka through to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu Shivkumar was asked to provide overall guidance to the team and he was accompanied by Manvel and Leo in Karnataka while Suresh joined him for the visit to KeralalKanyakumari

Dai Iy logs were written up and reports prepared i ndivid ually with Shivkumar providing a conceptual framework at the end

Prior to finalising our understanding of and responses to the visit 3 discussions were held with a group of rapporteurs Dr Duarte Baretto of the lSI Shri A Vasudevan of GRID and Shri C Antonisamy of Peace Trust Dindigul

A final report will be prepared by mid-July incorporating all the elements covered in the individual and group reports This will be the basis for followshyup action in Karnataka and Kerala west coast

Issues in Coastal KarnatakaKasargod

1 The traditional influence of the Catholic religious institutions today overshadowed by Hindu revivalism - evident in politics as well as institutions (temples)

2 The increasing economic dominance of the bankingfinancial sector especially of the Udupi Pai families in a wide range of industrial sectors Their traditional implications for tourismhotels (They have established a hotel management Institute in collaboration with ITOWelcomgroup Also a centre for folk artslcultural media)

3 The relatively higher rate of literacysuccess of literacy campaign in 0 K District and the economic relevance of the Gulf boom

4 Issues related to non-tourism development Karwar MCF Kaiga deforestation (Western ghats) etc These are of more immediate relevance to a number of people

5 The resistance of the people of Kanvarthirtha to a Kerala tourism development plan led by Mr Subhash Chandra aschool teacher at Bantwal He has asked for informationsupport from EQUATIONS

6 Although the beaches are not enti rely cond ucive to swimm ingwater sports there are several hotel projects coming up in the coastal region Since there has been a long tradition of pilgrimage to the various temples here it is likely that tourism promoters havetheir eyes on the Indian middle-class who can be persuaded to combine spiritual quests with worldly pleasures With the increasing disposable incomeavailable to this class the region does have tourism development potential Basic infrastructure is also available more readily in this region than in the rest of Karnataka The relevance of this can be identified from the interest expressed even by an NGO leader in promoting tourism in Honavar The ease with which our team could travel in the region and visit various temples and sites is another indication of the overall tourism developmental potentiaL

7 As of today there are very few organisational initiatives to examine tourism from a wholistic perspective amongst the local NGOs of the region Neither do any of the existing groups appear prepared to enter into a specific involvement on tourism issues in the immediate future since they have a variety of other pre-occupations

Responses a EQUATIONS plans to facilitate a seminar - workshop on tourism issues

in the region inviting a number of NGOs and others whom we visited For this we are seeking the help of interested local individuals

b EQUATIONS should also respond to the request of the Kanvarthirtha people We can begin by publicising the issues as well as by sharing information with Kanvarthirtha about tourism issues generally

c If EQUATIONS is to build an active relationship with concerned people in the region we must not only be in regular touch about tourism but also demonstrate an interest in local issues (other than tourism) which are of concern to them

Issues in Kerala 1 Kerala seems to be clearly oriented to tourism development and provides

support to the industry The private sector is actively encouraged in its efforts and the interventions of the state and its mechanisms could be stated as integration incorporation and even co-option This is evident from the District level upwards

2 Furthermore the state demonstrates demographic and socio-economic characteristics similar to parts of coastal Karnataka high rate of literacy influence of Gulf boom significance of religious institutions (though political bodies exercise considerable leverage as well) well-developed infrastructure and economic institutions

3 There is however afair amount of understanding of the tourism issue amongst intellectuals and NGO-related individuals in Kerala The historical development of political economy in the State is viewed as leading inevitably towards tourism development today

4 The link between Union Territories (Mahe - Lakshadweep) at the tourism level appears to be potentially significant It needs to be further exami ned

5 Tourism strategy at Lakshadweep appears to be high-cost high quality low density low infrastructure This is environment friendly elitist-alternative tourism with substantial revenue potential This would lead us to surmise that speciality tourism developments can be foreseen in future

6 Specifically we have been asked for the following i to produce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document ii to provide inputs to KIiTTs students iii to place tourism on the agenda of ECO-92 (Brazil) iv to collaborate with the International Collective in support of

Fisherworkers (HQ Madras) and v To share the report of our visit with those visited

Responses a EQUATIONS has agreed in principle to respond to KIiTTs request by

providing inputs on tourism critique We also hope KIiTTs will be able to support us by undertaking or sponsoring research on tourism in coastal Kerala and providing access to existing documentation

b To prodClce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document EQUATIONS should identify one or two persons in Kerala whose services can be uti lised in this regard

c EQUATIONS can collaborate with others as per the requests made d Following distribution of the report EQUATIONS could organise a meeting

of concerned people in Kerala

General Following the presentations of the reports to the rapporteurs and as a result

of the discussions which followed we arrived at a number of general conclusions and recommendations given below

1 That this experiment of visiting a region with a team constituted of several different people is in itself a model which could be further developed and explored Not only does the process help us gain aprimary database it has the effect also of creating a positive image of EQUATIONS Also it puts a responsibility on us to be reciprocal in the relationships we enter into during such visits

2 This particular visit- the first of its kind - is a turning point for EQUATIONS A number of new issues have been identified and we have met with several people who have expressed an interest in ourperspectives and future plans in the region In particular we see the potential for much greater involvement in Kerala As the tourism industry increasingly plays an important role in the Indian economy there is agreater need for awareness and mobilisation at various levels of society

3 The shift from elitist (traditional) tourism to recent mass tourism is a reflection of the economies of scale at work in the industry As there is a low demand (in the international market) for Third World agricultural-industrial products

contd on page 19

5

When Tourisms Profits Go Abroad by Robert Lacvllle

I had been working in the deepest bush along the Gambian river valley where womens groups are developing really effective credit with the support of Gambian field workers who are paid by British and American charitable agencies But after eight hours of bouncing around in a Land rover on dusty roads in the heat of the day I was exhausted and in need of a cold beer Well let me be truthful three cold beers Ice-cold

So I had a shower cleaned off three layers of red dust and went off to find three cold beers As I walked along humming to myself I was thinking of those women in Tankular with their fantastic garden and their vegetable marketing problem I reached the hotel patio and I stopped in amazement I had stepped out of rural Africa into fleshy Denmark Confronted by huge expanses of female Danish flesh I experienced asort of culture shock rather like a physical thump in the chest My thoughts of village underdevelopment were smothered by the hideous reality of human over-development The fat lady in the bikini was suffering from painful sunburn Her bright breasts bulged painfully out of her skimpy bra Her red back was peeling generously

I moved away and sat in the dark with a beer As I relieved my parched throat I had time to watch three teenaged Gambian girls modelling tie-dye shirts and shorts They were young and attractive I began to feel better to take an interest in the models Then I caught sighLof a pair of Scandanavian buttocks and shuddered I offered a silent prayer If that woman does decide to spend 12 dollars on a shirt and shorts in delicate tie-cloth please let it be for her granddaughter and not for herself At least if she buys some that will add income for awomens co-operative for the girl models for the hotels disk jockey Every piece of income helps Compared to the social disruption there is little enough benefit coming to the Gambia from its tourist industry

At breakfast I was fresher feeling less jaundiced about my Scandanavian neighbours This was made all the easier by the fact that the fat women were wearing more clothing than the previous evening Breakfast was generous There was salami and ham cheese and butter and jam all of it imported These products were eaten off imported china plates with nice warm bread rolls made with imported flour There was tea and coffee (imported) together with American cornflakes to eat with reconstituted imported Dutch powdered milk (you cannot mistake the taste however well they mix it to remove the gritty lumps) and English powdered sugar

My breakfast was somewhat spoiled by the dank smell of beer hangi ng over the dining room and the unsightly crates of beer Coke and Fanta (all imported ingredients in imported bottles) Even the tables and table cloths were imported (no tie-dye cloth here Im afraid) In fact as I looked around the dining room I could see no sign of local consumption except for the water water for bread water for beer water to dilute sickly coloured syrups water to wash up the mess made by the imported tourists

Gambian women grow tomatoes for the local tourist market They harvest their tomatoes and carry them on their heads for ten kilometres to sell to the hotels and then some soggy foreign procurement manager turns them away because he cannot be bothered Rather than buy Gambian Fresh he prefers to pay more for Spanish Tasteless The African bitter tomato is asort of aubergine which looks like a large ripening tomato It is good in stews But here I have found anew meaning for the expression bitter tomato top qual ity tomatoes which you cannot sell because the white man will not buy them That is acase for trade protection if ever one needed to be found The government should tax imported fresh food price-forcing the hotels to buy local chickens local eggs and local fruits and vegetables

For although the tourist industry has been developing these last few years the profits mai nly accrue outside the country Tour operators are paid in Europe They pay their bills in Europe airfares are paid to European airlines and hotel fees are mostly paid in Europe to the Scandanavian French German and Gambian investors who have built the hotels The employment benefit is of course considerable Waiters and cooks and bed makers are all Gambians (or Senegalese) so are the tie-dye ladies and their teenaged models the dancers and musicians the carvers and leather workers the tour guides and the taxi

drivers even though their employment is seasonal they feed theirfamilies and friends off the back of tourism and this must help up to 15 or 20 percent of The Gambias 800000 population But what does the government get out of tourism Government has a lot of costs related to tourism Tourists use and wear out the roads and bridges which Government must keep up Tourists must be supplied with petrol products (for cars for electricity generation) which consume large amounts of rare foreign exchange Tourists occupy large numbers of customs and immigration officials and police guard the tourist beaches day and night to ensure that no nasty scandals happen which would make juicy reading in the European press and damage the tourist business Tourism generates about 10 of Gambias foreign exchange earnings according to the Ministry ofTourism but that is not very much Apart from a Governments 6 bed tax sales tax on gasoline (which doesnt offset its foreign exchange cost to the Governmentl and the pound7 airport tax for each of the 60000 or so tourists the only benefit the country derives is from employment

Oh yes there is one other source of income Gambia Airways This company has the monopoly of handling rights at the airport and it is one of the few air companies in the world to make a profit (largely because it runs no aircraft they are not very profitable these days) Gambia Airways is therefore a moneymaker for the Gambia

But British Airways has decided that Gambia Airways is costing too much They do not like to PY Gambian taxes on aircraft fuel and they do not like paying charges for the airport for passenger and luggage and ticket handling etc 55 per cent of Gambias tourists come from Britain British Airways is not a small operation It runs charters and carries a fai r proportion of the British tourists as well as most of the Gambias air freight

Apart from the small tourism revenues all the foreign exchange used to buy aircraft fuel has to be bought with groundnuts Even the customs forms and the toilet paper in the airport transit lounge have to be paid for with foreign exchange Gambian peasant farmers grow ground nuts which are collected by the co-operatives and turned into oil or cattle cake which are largely exported to Britai n

The Gambia is a poor country and it needs British Airways to pay the real cost Yet rather than pay taxes or dues to the Gambian government British Airways is threatening to pullout Is it now British Government policy that British Airways should have its airports subsidised by Gambian peasant farmers What gall The British deadline for Gambian surrender is 27th May

I for one hope that the Gambian Minister of Tourism will call their bluff Sabena will be happy to take over the leading role in Gambian air transport and I dare say the Belgian business community will not be far behind Perhaps the new British High Commissioner to the Gambia will be taking his home leave on Sabena this year That would indeed be a bitter pill for British diplomacy Very galling

GUARDIAN 26 May 1991

Tourism Tragedy Too much too quickly is the usual reason for the conflict tourism development and the environment After 1988 a year for tourism Turkey planned to increase revenue from it$ tourists But problems followed Tourists found that dust and noise from halfmiddot built hotels disturbed their peaceful holiday Quickly built accommodation proved to be dangerous when in 1989 a 12middotyearmiddotold English girl was killed in a 26 foot fall after her hotel balcony in Bodrum collapsed In 1990 the amount of Escherichia coli a bacterium of faecal origin reached levels that made it dangerous to go swimming along the coast After criticisms from conservationists the Government is now aiming to diversify to take the pressure off coastal development with plans for inland skiing and nature holidays

Source Consumer Currents No 135 April 1991

6

Heritage ~ourism

A fter a preliminary fumble the oversized bulb which illuminate the police parade grounds in Jhalawar are dimmed throwing into sharp relief the makeshift stage which is humming with activity All evening

the grounds have been filling up with the local people who have greeted this three-day festival of music with as much enthusiasm as they do amela except that this time they will be treated to pure classical music in addition to their own traditional song and dance

Many of the people milling about the grounds were not present at the occasion Pandit Ravi Shankar began the festivities with an impassioned recital The choice of venue was also apt-the Bhawani Natyashala house) had been built in 1921 in the style of an opera house and is believed to be one among only five of its kind in the country

Over the years the Natyashala fell on bad days It came to be used without any regard for its antiquity or uniqueness of design in turn as a cinema hall and a badminton court

It took aformer district collectors effort to have the cinema closed and the court shifted and it now devolves upon the convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (lNTACH) Thakur Ranvir Singh to set about getting the theatre restored to its original state

For Rav Shankars recital it has been given a quick face-lift and its facade has been freshly painted The action has meanwhile shifted to the police grounds to accommodate more people (the theatre cannot seat too manv) and admit them to the secluded preserves of classical music and dance The is followed by recitals by Aminuddin Dagar and Naina Devi and aperformance by

Raghuraj Singh Hada hunched over the microphone placed unconventional Iv on the floor of the stage prepares to introduce the items on the agenda a flourish he presents a succession of performers drawn from the neighbouring towns of Kota and Boondi which with Jhalawar make up the distinctive Hadoti region in this corner of south-east Rajasthan

The night air is redolent with the sound of dhol and maneera as phad singers come on with their ditties followed by colourful tribal dancers and performers who manage incredible feats of balance and dexterity involving fire and swords Afolk singer from Boondi puts his signature to the show when he gets everyone in the audience even those who dont understand the language to join him in a well-remembered tune clapping along and singing infected by his stage presence

A ready interpreter sits in the front row next to Vasundhara this area and co-organiser of the event who is following proceedings with evident enjoyment The response is unprecedented she says I did not expect so many people

I am trying to promote a new concept in tourism-not the Jaipur-Udaipur kind where you are packaged for two or three days she says going on to elaborate Here people can laze and loll about the district at their own pace This is an experiment to see how the concept would work-to bring tourism out of its five-star cloister

For outsiders too the folk evening was a delight Away from the false confines of theapna utsavs this was folk art in its own space and place and it felt right Despite the rough edges and the lack of soohistication the

not the as authentic

an annual affair-an area to more people

What has begun as an experiment in Jhalawar is cautiously being explored in other parts of the state as heritage tourism~ The concept of palace hotels is only one facet of this INTACH has been pushing the idea of preserving medieval towns stemming the decay of years and curbing the rise of new-fangled

Contd on page 18

Penan~ Hill Condo-versy

Ahmad Chik lives with his family atop Penang Hill in the heart of Malayshysias Penang Island I like the quiet and serenity says the engineer who moved there from Kuala Lumpur three years ago He enjoys long walks

and magnificent views of George Town the harbour and the mainland Ahmad is one of about 1000 residents rich and poor of Penang Hill Visitors ride up in a 68-year-old funicular railway to savour the hills simple charms Untouched by the booming islands urban growth it is a symbol of Penangs beauty

So when a commercial plan for its development came to light it triggered an uproar among residents of the northwestern state The $167-million scheme by developer Bukit Pi nang Leisure envisioned a200-room hotel condominiums

shopping-entertainment-recreation complex an adventure theme j was given last September

minister Lim Chong Eu who set aside 364 hectares Leisure is asubsidiary of Berjaya Corp a MalaYSian company

with interests in manufacturing lotteries insurance and property Vincent Tan Chee Yioun Berjayas media-shy chief is said to have good political connections So do Bukit Pinilng Leisures other owners Yayasan Bumiputera Pulau Pinang with a 20 stake is headed by members of the national ruling coalitions New United Malays National Organisation Tan Kok Ping who owns 29 is reportedly close to ex-chief minister Lim He is a vice-chairman of Gerakan the party that leads the states ruling coalition

Lim approval has prompted a Save Penang Hill campaign 11 regard the hili as almost sacred says Ahmad a member of the Friends of Penang Hill Adds he liThe proposed development is abreach of the Town amp Country Plann-

Act Under the 1976 federal law a plan for development of Penang was completed in 1989 The Penang Island Structure Plan declared the hill an area of special character Its natural vegetation topography and character as a hill resort must be maintained and mnsfrvPci consultations before project has bypassed thiscrucial step he middotargues Members of the public resishydents schoolchildren who make trips up the hill- none of us were consulted

Neither reportedly was Lims cabinet liThe chief minister was pushing a project that was not popular and not very wise in the long term admits Choong Sim Poey another Gerakan vice-chairman The decision was made without sufficient consultation

Ecologist Leong Yueh Kwong of the Malayan Nature Society says development should be based on the Penang Island Structure Plan and be drawn up by the municipal council If the developer fits in with that local plan they could go ahead he remarks But acommercial developer shouldnt be the one to draw

the master plan Their slant will always be towards commercial Friends worrv that the hills cool temperature will rise with deforestation

happened at other Malaysian hill resorts Five maior water-catchment areas will also be affected the group

Kam U-Tee retired general manager the Penang Water Authority said in a letter to Berjaya that the catchments yield about 22 millions gallons of water aday It would cost at least $2AOO dai Iy to pump that volume from the mainland in addition to a $37-million outlay for headworks to raise the water level at source he said

Bukit Pinang Leisure has encounted another obstacle In September the federal Environment Department rejected the developers environmental impact assessment Director-General of Environment Abu Bakar Jaafar said the project would affect water supply and cause river siltation and soi I erosion The developer was advised to go back to the drawing board

Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon who took over from Lim in October and the state cabinet met the Friends in January He found the groups views generally constructive The government he said has urged the developer to take these views into serious consideration The Penang state government is committed to the preservation of Penang Hill Koh said However the facilities now

insufficient for the general public and the tourists conceptual plan that will

involve amuch smaller area Even if state authorities decide to approve it he added we may add new and even more stringent conditions to hold a public hearing on its proposal The developers concludes Koh Isti II have to cross quite a number of hurdlesProvided a compromise can be reached peace should once again prevail on Penang Hill

ASIAWEEK April 12 1991

Tread Gently by Phil Voysey

Tread flently yells the universal voice of reason over the cacophony of tourist dollar Here they come aflain to conquer moun cain trail and apple pie futile attempts to pound every last partide of dust into submission With especially desiflned Dunlop retreads

As always the dust rises up and seeps into delicate labyrinths of ego and grim determination

tolerable discomforr while rocks teasingly slide and shuffle from beneath the feet of DrbintrT

and enjoy a flood lauflh at the expense of twisted knee and bruised backside

Several concerned individuals can be seen furiously scrubbing the stream clean with Blue Omo while others scratch at the sweat and grime that has matted thouflhr and responsibility and watch as rivulets of bleached common sense trickle il1lO [he spinach patch of some innocent tourism

(l wonder if that woman paradinf around in her bikini top realises how absurd she looks agains[ the backflround of towerinf snow-capped mountain peaks)

Tread flently screams the universal vojce of reason

Pen -weer rupee is the childrens three chord delivered with supplicating eyes and like an overplayed pop sonflonfl afo sliDDed from the top 40 nobody is liSleninf Pizza apple collte is the modem classic with the timeless

(1 wonde[ if the local DJ with the studded nose [infs and the three malnutrieioned children understands the but then who listens to them anyway)

Tread gently screams the universal voice of reason as the needJe balances precariously over the newest sound and the turntable beqins to spin

HIMAl MarchApril 1991

Biased Action Whi Ie the Goa government issued noticed to 12 norms action was taken only against Leela Dalmia Resorts Taj Holiday Colonia Santa Maria and Charlston Hotel Leela Ventures unauthorised construction were removed or demolished while Averina International removed its fencing within the 200 metre line Notices were also issued by the Goa Southern Planning Development Agency and the central environmental ministry to Dalmia Resorts While Taj Holiday removed some of its illegal constructions others Iike the Thai Restaurant are still standing and the environment ministrys directives have been taken up in the NtW Deihi high court Charlston Hotels illegal construction has been partly demolished by the government

The Independent 20 Aug 91

15

Privatisation Spree in Kerala by K T Suresn

The Parayatan Mantralaya (Tourism Ministry) has at long last woken up to reality says a report in the Business Standard (11 May) And what is this realitv that we seem to have discovered

The reality that this report is referring to is the admission that private sector initiative is the panacea for the ilis of astagnating tourist profile The idea that is doing the rounds in the Mantralaya is that of cutting ITDC loose Which translates to selling 51 of government holdings in the Corporation to private investors The reasons stated for it are

Recent investments by the government have been pathetically inadequate The Corporations budget for 1991-92 is Rs 16 crores

The Corooration has not been able to put to use most of the funds it has estimate of Rs 155 crores for 1990-91 it was

an abysmal Rs 5 crore

they sit on some of the finest properties in the countrvITDC hotels dont compare well with the competition The Corporation has been gradually moving into the three-star and Yatri Nivas category of hoters Planners believe that this is where ITDC should settle down leaving the five-stars to the private sector

Meanwhile Kerala is being projected as the model to be emulated As apart of the privatisation of the tourism sector in Kerala initiated by the Left Front government the state-owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) proposes to di lute its equity by selling to the publ ic 40 of its shares Already the KTDC and the Taj group have jointly set up a new company the Taj-Kerala Hotels and Resorts Ltd which plans to start 13 projects with an investment of 100 crores Recent reports in the Economic Times suggest that the KTDC is also envisaging a tie-up witha leading international hotel chain for consultancy marketing and training (Compiled from various sources)

Roman Holiday

T he eternal city has decided to go ahead with a string of urban projects that will give it a new business and administration centre a genuine subway athird university and even amodern telephone

The scheme cost at 77 trillion lire is also expected to have the side-effect of saving Romes priceless historic monuments from slow death by pollution Under a recent law the Federal Government is to help underwrite the cost of transforming the eternal city into a modern Capital

Centrepiece of the ambitious scheme is the creation of what Antonio Gerace the official in charge of urban development at city hall calls lithe worlds biggest business district

For years one of the most pressing problems confronting this city has been the presence of Government ministries which employ 61000 people in historic quarters where exhaust fumes in narrow streets are destroying priceless monuments

INDIAN EXPRESS 15 May 1991

~~ ON lIjeRiGHT ~ MOOIJMewTAL emR ()( ~A1l0~At IMRJTeNle -- r-------~j

~~

Ponnappa in TIMES OF INDIA

Investing in Mal-Development The Crossing ofJapanese aDA and Resort Development

by Noda Misato

In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of Transport launched its 4-year Ten Million Project promoting overseas travel with the ambitious goals of building mutual understanding between the Japanese and other peoples accelerating internationalism among Japanese people improving the foreign trade imbalance and bringing economic prosperity to foreign countries The projects target ten million tourists by 1991 from which the name derived will be reached ayear before the target date This flood of tourist money has hopes especially in Asias chronically poor countries that the resort would boost their suffering economies A lot is expected of Japan which also brings an en0rmous amount of foreign aid ostensibly designed for economic development Given all this it should not be surprising that tourism is now being included as a part of ODA (Official Development Assistance)

In 1989 the Ministry of Transport publicized its Holiday Village Plans for total support in the development of international resorts This project was to aim at giving aid to support the systematic development of international resorts through the International Cooperation Association giving yen loans through the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) for tourist-related infrastructure and taking advantage of non-governmental fUnds and skills for the so-called superstructure such as hotels recreation facilities and the like This grand design clearly shows what attitude the Japanese government will take towards resort development in Third World countries and how it is going to use the existing aid system for tourism in a way similar to its approach in other sectors

In Aid of Tourism 1 Yen loans

According to a report from the OECF which administers ODA tied loans the total amount of yen loans for the period from 1966 to 1988 was 783 trillion

spread across 137 projects Less than 1 percent of that total roughly 30 yen made up 6 projects tategorized as tourism Notice however that

infrastructure projects such as road and airport construction which are needed to promote tourism are not included in the tourism category Such aid clearly show a transition from constructing superstructure facilities sucn as hotels to providing the surrounding infrastructure related to tourism and more recently to providing comprehensive and basic facilities for expanding tourism

A clear example of this type of loan is the provisional Project for Basic Facilities for Resorts in Thailand It is a regional development program to encourage employment and the acquisition of foreign currency primarily through promoting tourism The project will provide basic infrastructure such as roads communications waterworks etc for resorts in eight regions and their neighboring areas in Thailand The loan will be used to purchase equipment and pay expenses for consulting work and other services

2 Development research

JICA (the Japan International Cooperative Agency) a government agency whose mission includes monitoring technical assistance has begun to include tourism in its development research projects From the prominence given to it by the Japanese government one can easily infer that tourism now ranks with agriculture and manufacturing as an important sector for community development It is likely that any particular project based upon JICAs research will lead to an aid request from one of many recipient countries The Total Community Development Project of Malaysia now underway is an example of this phenomenon i~ action This project will identify potential areas for development in the eastern region of the Malay Peninsula and conduct feasibility studies for total community development programs using tourism as its main focus

- irclile~~ mu uvet)eas experb

A Seminar for the Promotion of Tourism is organized each year by )lCA bringing about 20 participants from allover the world to Japan for a group

14

training course In 1989 the twenty-fifth seminar was held with twenty participants from nineteen countries South Korea Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Thailand Pakistan Nepal Maldives Egypt Algeria Kenya Mauritius Tanzania Bahamas Cuba Mexico Venezuela Papua New Guinea and Greece Those invited are either gCNernment tourism administrators or from large commercial enterprises The International Tourism Promotion Association administers the two month seminar designed to-introduce the relevant Japanese administrative bodies their policies and the situation in the Japanese tourism industry During the same year Japan dispatched 15 tourism experts to developing countries three each to India Fiji and Mexico two to China one to oversee both Indonesia and Malaysia and another two to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Tourism as Maldevelopment In concluding this glance at institutiondl aid to tourism we find it hard to

be optimistic about the influence of resort development on Third World peoples through Japanese governmental aid This is especially worrisome in light of the present ~ituations of Japans ODA and domestic resort development Th us resort development causes the same problems as foreign aid-]esignated development in general Often the kind of projects are more appropriate for the donors than the receivers as can be seen in examples such as the construction of the National Historic Park in Indonesia which evicted the residents from the surrounding area even before any promises of sufficient compensation Furthermore the hosting of large scale tourism means a

outsiders all with different cultural backgrounds cascading in peoples daily lives The accompanying socio-cultural problems can no

longer be ignored How is Japan responding to these problems Promotional schemes alone only further aggravate the problem notwithstanding the high sounding language of Japanese government agencies

Those who promote tourism depend upon a pristine and scenic natural environment and diverse cultures both of which resort development is threatening to destroy

AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 22(4) 1991

Indonesias Hotel Conglomerates Indonesian conglomerates will dominate the tourism sector by the end of

next yea~ says a noted observer of the economy_ Conglomerates such as the Bimantara Rajawali Salim and Summa groups

will be among the countrys top 10 hoteliers next year along with pioneers in the sector Christianto Wibisono of the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDB) said

PDBI in a report said inadequate air transportation connecting Indonesia to other countries and the lessthan significant role of the local people might create problems for the development of the sector and cause it to lag behind that of other countries

The PDBI report said the current air seat capacity for international airlines serving routes to Indonesia was still smaller than which discourage visitors from travelling into the country

liThe governments protection of Garuda Indonesia the national flag carrie~ should not affect the flow of visitors into the country The permission granted to private airlines serving domestic routes to operate jet aircraft is expected to motivate Garuda to strengthen its position as an international airline more able to compete th~ report said bull

PDBI also called on the government to pay special attention to local people whose property was affe(ted by tourism projects

liThe government should protect these people for example by asking the tourist resort developers to provide shares for them In this way they will learn about business practices and earn capital gain This would be better than giving asmall portion of shares to them as an act of charity 20 years after the projects go into full operation it said

The PDBI report also said the government should take the local peoples partiCipation senousiy to prevent the eruptron ot social unrest because large tourist resorts in the country had been unfairly edging out small-scale and medium-size businesses

7

Happy Tourist Unhappy Traveller by Robert Shepherd

Pumpernickel Bakery in Thamel down town Kathmandu is a favourite spot for foreigners Even during off-season the bakerys garden tables fill quickly each morning The service is good the bread fresh the

croissants delicious and the coffee passable The staff members are unobtrusive and polite and with thei r brown faces a rarity in the restaurant where the rest of the people are foreign travellers

They are travellers and not tourists A young English woman on her way home from ayear abroad in Australia tried to explain the difference to me She said that travellers live like the people they travel the way the people travel and they are in touch with and have a feel fo~ the people The tourists on the other hand travel in air-conditioned buses live in five-star hotels and eat at overpriced restaurants And they never drink the water There are no tourists at Pumpernickel only travellers

Touring extensively around the world the long-term world travellers (WT) the majority of whom are North American Western European Japanese and Australian share a common ideology They view the Third World as their iaboratory and look upon themselves as romantic even intrepid adventurers They sneer at tourists and laugh at those who have remained back home in Peoria They share a common language English and even a common dress code in Nepal cheap cotton drawstring pants rubber sandals and printed tshyshirts The t-shirts are the public resumes in one giance one can discern who has come up from Kenya Bali Bangkok or Goa

World travellers adorn themselves with the handicrafts of this weeks locale In Kathmandu turquoise and silver rings bracelets earrings sheep-skin shoulder bags wool caps and vests It is said the jewelry is actually mass shyproduced in Lhasa The caps are Afghani and the vests are multi-coloured combinations with tassels hanging from the edges Who wears this stuff Not the Nepalis In Kathmandu they are the ones trying to dress like us

In their attempts to become native the world travellers often corrupt indigenous systems

At the bakery several Germans aSwede and an American couple are engaged in aheated discussion about exchange rates whicli is a favourite topic among WTs in addition to the black market They can quote the going rates for the dollar in Delhi Kathmandu Borneo or Burma Thev also know where to sell whiskey and cigarettes blue jeans and cameras

An Australian advised me See you buy your Indian rupees in Kathmandu get an air ticket to the border buy your Johnny Walkers and Marlboros at dutyshyfree and sell them for twice over what you paid once you land He continued ifyou are going on to Burma hold on to your stuff The country is quite screwed up and the people will buy anything youve got even the shirt off your back~ I wondered where he was headed 0h Im off to an ashram near Bangalore for a month of meditation Ashrams shrines and mosques are the traditional destinations tor Wls Those who iook for spirituai wisdom are aii young white educated affluent radical chic They search for meaning they overflow with good intention

One day in Kathmandus main bazaar area I noticed abackpacker haggling with an Indian selling oranges from a basket strapped to his bicycle How much the backpacker asked One orange three rupees said the Indian One rupee the westerner insisted Ithere~ He dropped the rupee into the basket and walked away pleased at his bargaining skills After all he had successfully acted just iike the people He has just had an experience~ Some Nepali bystanders cluck with sympathy for the indian Who swears in Hindi

Beneath the WTs talk about cross-cultural sensitivity ana experience is a sense of cultural imperialism that would have done ihe Victorians Notwithstanding their beatific expression world traveiiers are CUl-Ulival

practitioners of the mundane living In Nepal as elsewhere they compete at agame with the odds stacked heavily in theirfavour They use lheir economic

to secure shamelessly that which the society can olfer and than which i cannot and shOUld not also ofter

The-world traveller expects to find a unique culture in the exotic East onlY to wait in iine behind the same people whom they seemingly wanted to avoid

This is probably why many WTs openly shun their fellow travellers as saunter through the streets of Thamel They throw hostile glances at other foreigners whose only fault is to walk the same street

Tony Wheelers Lonely Planet guide books are one of the main reasons why the WTs end up in the same places The difference between this guidebook and others is that it targets a different audience and never describes themas tourists Tony Wheeler calls them travellers who want to see the country at ground level to breathe it experience it and live it He writes that tourists stay in Hiltons travellers do not Instead travellers should gO tramDing through the back alleys of the Third World and absorb exoticism has built a multi-national publishing business of this planet

What happens of course is that no world traveller is alone when he does Bali or Rangoon or Kathmandu After all they carry the same book They check in at the same hotels They eat in the same restaurants They discover the same hideaways off the well-trodden paths The traveller longs to discover the particular place to which no tourist or traveller has been Yet he keeps running into many others like himself

Western isation had consu med Japan Hong Kong Singapore and Bangkok But it has yet to hurdle the Himalayas In Nepal samosas and mo-mos are in fashion not Big Macs Yes Michael Jackson is popular among young people but Kumar Basnet and Nara~an Gopal still outsell him in the tape shoos The

of the countrys first escalator is frontpage news Into this other-world enters the world travellers They speak tngllsn are

obsessed with money and dress in odd peasant costumes Off they go to the mountains in search of experience The handful of Nepalis they come into contact with are guides and lodgeowners - whose burden it is to represent the society and culture

The East is not the West Religious linguistic and philosophical differences separate the two Yet world travellers alproach the East including countries like Nepal as if they were on a jaunt into the Parisian countryside They do not realise that Hnding a bathroom exchanging money buying hasish and

dinner does not constitute inter-cultural communication Frozen out of the cultures they travel _

among their own kind That is why they crowd the tourist ghettos Subdividing into factions they share their cultural illusions and seek to alleviate their secret boredom They trade tales and anecdotes over omelets and pizzas and they huddle together to watch American videos Make-believe hippie and aspiring Buddhist both wili be watching a scratched copy of Rambo

Truly the traveller is no different from the tourists He carries the same shackles an ignorance of the language the culture and the people and their idiosyncrasies However the tourists by recognising and accepting the differences between themselves and others admit that they are outsiders or

the premise that travel is a privilege and not the possibi lity of such an acknowledgment

cheaply and dreSSing like anative can transform them into cultural insiders V S Naipaul writes of them as those who wish themselves on societies more fragile than their ownwho in the end do no more than celebrate thei r own security

~iMAl SeptOct 1990

Serve them RIghi

Travellers from the time of Marco Polo and before have always been laden if not such exotic cargoes as peacocks ivory and

exotic tales of all the wondrous sights they have seen abroad Westerners sojourning in India have been known to remark that Indian railway stations seem to be peopied with non-travelling circuses of beggars and performers assembled precisely with the idea of causing wonderment among the travelling public Travellers on the German railways may soon see something that convinces them that the entire German people are a travelling circus Fori as the uninitiated stranger sits in the dining-car of a German train and sees the woifing of meat alia potatoes foiiowed by the reassuring gulping down of coffee the odds are he wont be prepared for what comes next If he is uckv enough to see what

crtli on pale 18

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

16

Summary Findings Visit to Coastal KarnatakalKerala

by Equations Team May 1991

Team Manvel Alur K T Suresh Leo Saldanha amp M Shivakumar Dates May 10 - 16 Karnataka

May 17 - June 2 Kerala

Logistics In 21 days the team covered a vast coastline from Karwar in northern

Karnataka through to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu Shivkumar was asked to provide overall guidance to the team and he was accompanied by Manvel and Leo in Karnataka while Suresh joined him for the visit to KeralalKanyakumari

Dai Iy logs were written up and reports prepared i ndivid ually with Shivkumar providing a conceptual framework at the end

Prior to finalising our understanding of and responses to the visit 3 discussions were held with a group of rapporteurs Dr Duarte Baretto of the lSI Shri A Vasudevan of GRID and Shri C Antonisamy of Peace Trust Dindigul

A final report will be prepared by mid-July incorporating all the elements covered in the individual and group reports This will be the basis for followshyup action in Karnataka and Kerala west coast

Issues in Coastal KarnatakaKasargod

1 The traditional influence of the Catholic religious institutions today overshadowed by Hindu revivalism - evident in politics as well as institutions (temples)

2 The increasing economic dominance of the bankingfinancial sector especially of the Udupi Pai families in a wide range of industrial sectors Their traditional implications for tourismhotels (They have established a hotel management Institute in collaboration with ITOWelcomgroup Also a centre for folk artslcultural media)

3 The relatively higher rate of literacysuccess of literacy campaign in 0 K District and the economic relevance of the Gulf boom

4 Issues related to non-tourism development Karwar MCF Kaiga deforestation (Western ghats) etc These are of more immediate relevance to a number of people

5 The resistance of the people of Kanvarthirtha to a Kerala tourism development plan led by Mr Subhash Chandra aschool teacher at Bantwal He has asked for informationsupport from EQUATIONS

6 Although the beaches are not enti rely cond ucive to swimm ingwater sports there are several hotel projects coming up in the coastal region Since there has been a long tradition of pilgrimage to the various temples here it is likely that tourism promoters havetheir eyes on the Indian middle-class who can be persuaded to combine spiritual quests with worldly pleasures With the increasing disposable incomeavailable to this class the region does have tourism development potential Basic infrastructure is also available more readily in this region than in the rest of Karnataka The relevance of this can be identified from the interest expressed even by an NGO leader in promoting tourism in Honavar The ease with which our team could travel in the region and visit various temples and sites is another indication of the overall tourism developmental potentiaL

7 As of today there are very few organisational initiatives to examine tourism from a wholistic perspective amongst the local NGOs of the region Neither do any of the existing groups appear prepared to enter into a specific involvement on tourism issues in the immediate future since they have a variety of other pre-occupations

Responses a EQUATIONS plans to facilitate a seminar - workshop on tourism issues

in the region inviting a number of NGOs and others whom we visited For this we are seeking the help of interested local individuals

b EQUATIONS should also respond to the request of the Kanvarthirtha people We can begin by publicising the issues as well as by sharing information with Kanvarthirtha about tourism issues generally

c If EQUATIONS is to build an active relationship with concerned people in the region we must not only be in regular touch about tourism but also demonstrate an interest in local issues (other than tourism) which are of concern to them

Issues in Kerala 1 Kerala seems to be clearly oriented to tourism development and provides

support to the industry The private sector is actively encouraged in its efforts and the interventions of the state and its mechanisms could be stated as integration incorporation and even co-option This is evident from the District level upwards

2 Furthermore the state demonstrates demographic and socio-economic characteristics similar to parts of coastal Karnataka high rate of literacy influence of Gulf boom significance of religious institutions (though political bodies exercise considerable leverage as well) well-developed infrastructure and economic institutions

3 There is however afair amount of understanding of the tourism issue amongst intellectuals and NGO-related individuals in Kerala The historical development of political economy in the State is viewed as leading inevitably towards tourism development today

4 The link between Union Territories (Mahe - Lakshadweep) at the tourism level appears to be potentially significant It needs to be further exami ned

5 Tourism strategy at Lakshadweep appears to be high-cost high quality low density low infrastructure This is environment friendly elitist-alternative tourism with substantial revenue potential This would lead us to surmise that speciality tourism developments can be foreseen in future

6 Specifically we have been asked for the following i to produce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document ii to provide inputs to KIiTTs students iii to place tourism on the agenda of ECO-92 (Brazil) iv to collaborate with the International Collective in support of

Fisherworkers (HQ Madras) and v To share the report of our visit with those visited

Responses a EQUATIONS has agreed in principle to respond to KIiTTs request by

providing inputs on tourism critique We also hope KIiTTs will be able to support us by undertaking or sponsoring research on tourism in coastal Kerala and providing access to existing documentation

b To prodClce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document EQUATIONS should identify one or two persons in Kerala whose services can be uti lised in this regard

c EQUATIONS can collaborate with others as per the requests made d Following distribution of the report EQUATIONS could organise a meeting

of concerned people in Kerala

General Following the presentations of the reports to the rapporteurs and as a result

of the discussions which followed we arrived at a number of general conclusions and recommendations given below

1 That this experiment of visiting a region with a team constituted of several different people is in itself a model which could be further developed and explored Not only does the process help us gain aprimary database it has the effect also of creating a positive image of EQUATIONS Also it puts a responsibility on us to be reciprocal in the relationships we enter into during such visits

2 This particular visit- the first of its kind - is a turning point for EQUATIONS A number of new issues have been identified and we have met with several people who have expressed an interest in ourperspectives and future plans in the region In particular we see the potential for much greater involvement in Kerala As the tourism industry increasingly plays an important role in the Indian economy there is agreater need for awareness and mobilisation at various levels of society

3 The shift from elitist (traditional) tourism to recent mass tourism is a reflection of the economies of scale at work in the industry As there is a low demand (in the international market) for Third World agricultural-industrial products

contd on page 19

5

When Tourisms Profits Go Abroad by Robert Lacvllle

I had been working in the deepest bush along the Gambian river valley where womens groups are developing really effective credit with the support of Gambian field workers who are paid by British and American charitable agencies But after eight hours of bouncing around in a Land rover on dusty roads in the heat of the day I was exhausted and in need of a cold beer Well let me be truthful three cold beers Ice-cold

So I had a shower cleaned off three layers of red dust and went off to find three cold beers As I walked along humming to myself I was thinking of those women in Tankular with their fantastic garden and their vegetable marketing problem I reached the hotel patio and I stopped in amazement I had stepped out of rural Africa into fleshy Denmark Confronted by huge expanses of female Danish flesh I experienced asort of culture shock rather like a physical thump in the chest My thoughts of village underdevelopment were smothered by the hideous reality of human over-development The fat lady in the bikini was suffering from painful sunburn Her bright breasts bulged painfully out of her skimpy bra Her red back was peeling generously

I moved away and sat in the dark with a beer As I relieved my parched throat I had time to watch three teenaged Gambian girls modelling tie-dye shirts and shorts They were young and attractive I began to feel better to take an interest in the models Then I caught sighLof a pair of Scandanavian buttocks and shuddered I offered a silent prayer If that woman does decide to spend 12 dollars on a shirt and shorts in delicate tie-cloth please let it be for her granddaughter and not for herself At least if she buys some that will add income for awomens co-operative for the girl models for the hotels disk jockey Every piece of income helps Compared to the social disruption there is little enough benefit coming to the Gambia from its tourist industry

At breakfast I was fresher feeling less jaundiced about my Scandanavian neighbours This was made all the easier by the fact that the fat women were wearing more clothing than the previous evening Breakfast was generous There was salami and ham cheese and butter and jam all of it imported These products were eaten off imported china plates with nice warm bread rolls made with imported flour There was tea and coffee (imported) together with American cornflakes to eat with reconstituted imported Dutch powdered milk (you cannot mistake the taste however well they mix it to remove the gritty lumps) and English powdered sugar

My breakfast was somewhat spoiled by the dank smell of beer hangi ng over the dining room and the unsightly crates of beer Coke and Fanta (all imported ingredients in imported bottles) Even the tables and table cloths were imported (no tie-dye cloth here Im afraid) In fact as I looked around the dining room I could see no sign of local consumption except for the water water for bread water for beer water to dilute sickly coloured syrups water to wash up the mess made by the imported tourists

Gambian women grow tomatoes for the local tourist market They harvest their tomatoes and carry them on their heads for ten kilometres to sell to the hotels and then some soggy foreign procurement manager turns them away because he cannot be bothered Rather than buy Gambian Fresh he prefers to pay more for Spanish Tasteless The African bitter tomato is asort of aubergine which looks like a large ripening tomato It is good in stews But here I have found anew meaning for the expression bitter tomato top qual ity tomatoes which you cannot sell because the white man will not buy them That is acase for trade protection if ever one needed to be found The government should tax imported fresh food price-forcing the hotels to buy local chickens local eggs and local fruits and vegetables

For although the tourist industry has been developing these last few years the profits mai nly accrue outside the country Tour operators are paid in Europe They pay their bills in Europe airfares are paid to European airlines and hotel fees are mostly paid in Europe to the Scandanavian French German and Gambian investors who have built the hotels The employment benefit is of course considerable Waiters and cooks and bed makers are all Gambians (or Senegalese) so are the tie-dye ladies and their teenaged models the dancers and musicians the carvers and leather workers the tour guides and the taxi

drivers even though their employment is seasonal they feed theirfamilies and friends off the back of tourism and this must help up to 15 or 20 percent of The Gambias 800000 population But what does the government get out of tourism Government has a lot of costs related to tourism Tourists use and wear out the roads and bridges which Government must keep up Tourists must be supplied with petrol products (for cars for electricity generation) which consume large amounts of rare foreign exchange Tourists occupy large numbers of customs and immigration officials and police guard the tourist beaches day and night to ensure that no nasty scandals happen which would make juicy reading in the European press and damage the tourist business Tourism generates about 10 of Gambias foreign exchange earnings according to the Ministry ofTourism but that is not very much Apart from a Governments 6 bed tax sales tax on gasoline (which doesnt offset its foreign exchange cost to the Governmentl and the pound7 airport tax for each of the 60000 or so tourists the only benefit the country derives is from employment

Oh yes there is one other source of income Gambia Airways This company has the monopoly of handling rights at the airport and it is one of the few air companies in the world to make a profit (largely because it runs no aircraft they are not very profitable these days) Gambia Airways is therefore a moneymaker for the Gambia

But British Airways has decided that Gambia Airways is costing too much They do not like to PY Gambian taxes on aircraft fuel and they do not like paying charges for the airport for passenger and luggage and ticket handling etc 55 per cent of Gambias tourists come from Britain British Airways is not a small operation It runs charters and carries a fai r proportion of the British tourists as well as most of the Gambias air freight

Apart from the small tourism revenues all the foreign exchange used to buy aircraft fuel has to be bought with groundnuts Even the customs forms and the toilet paper in the airport transit lounge have to be paid for with foreign exchange Gambian peasant farmers grow ground nuts which are collected by the co-operatives and turned into oil or cattle cake which are largely exported to Britai n

The Gambia is a poor country and it needs British Airways to pay the real cost Yet rather than pay taxes or dues to the Gambian government British Airways is threatening to pullout Is it now British Government policy that British Airways should have its airports subsidised by Gambian peasant farmers What gall The British deadline for Gambian surrender is 27th May

I for one hope that the Gambian Minister of Tourism will call their bluff Sabena will be happy to take over the leading role in Gambian air transport and I dare say the Belgian business community will not be far behind Perhaps the new British High Commissioner to the Gambia will be taking his home leave on Sabena this year That would indeed be a bitter pill for British diplomacy Very galling

GUARDIAN 26 May 1991

Tourism Tragedy Too much too quickly is the usual reason for the conflict tourism development and the environment After 1988 a year for tourism Turkey planned to increase revenue from it$ tourists But problems followed Tourists found that dust and noise from halfmiddot built hotels disturbed their peaceful holiday Quickly built accommodation proved to be dangerous when in 1989 a 12middotyearmiddotold English girl was killed in a 26 foot fall after her hotel balcony in Bodrum collapsed In 1990 the amount of Escherichia coli a bacterium of faecal origin reached levels that made it dangerous to go swimming along the coast After criticisms from conservationists the Government is now aiming to diversify to take the pressure off coastal development with plans for inland skiing and nature holidays

Source Consumer Currents No 135 April 1991

6

Heritage ~ourism

A fter a preliminary fumble the oversized bulb which illuminate the police parade grounds in Jhalawar are dimmed throwing into sharp relief the makeshift stage which is humming with activity All evening

the grounds have been filling up with the local people who have greeted this three-day festival of music with as much enthusiasm as they do amela except that this time they will be treated to pure classical music in addition to their own traditional song and dance

Many of the people milling about the grounds were not present at the occasion Pandit Ravi Shankar began the festivities with an impassioned recital The choice of venue was also apt-the Bhawani Natyashala house) had been built in 1921 in the style of an opera house and is believed to be one among only five of its kind in the country

Over the years the Natyashala fell on bad days It came to be used without any regard for its antiquity or uniqueness of design in turn as a cinema hall and a badminton court

It took aformer district collectors effort to have the cinema closed and the court shifted and it now devolves upon the convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (lNTACH) Thakur Ranvir Singh to set about getting the theatre restored to its original state

For Rav Shankars recital it has been given a quick face-lift and its facade has been freshly painted The action has meanwhile shifted to the police grounds to accommodate more people (the theatre cannot seat too manv) and admit them to the secluded preserves of classical music and dance The is followed by recitals by Aminuddin Dagar and Naina Devi and aperformance by

Raghuraj Singh Hada hunched over the microphone placed unconventional Iv on the floor of the stage prepares to introduce the items on the agenda a flourish he presents a succession of performers drawn from the neighbouring towns of Kota and Boondi which with Jhalawar make up the distinctive Hadoti region in this corner of south-east Rajasthan

The night air is redolent with the sound of dhol and maneera as phad singers come on with their ditties followed by colourful tribal dancers and performers who manage incredible feats of balance and dexterity involving fire and swords Afolk singer from Boondi puts his signature to the show when he gets everyone in the audience even those who dont understand the language to join him in a well-remembered tune clapping along and singing infected by his stage presence

A ready interpreter sits in the front row next to Vasundhara this area and co-organiser of the event who is following proceedings with evident enjoyment The response is unprecedented she says I did not expect so many people

I am trying to promote a new concept in tourism-not the Jaipur-Udaipur kind where you are packaged for two or three days she says going on to elaborate Here people can laze and loll about the district at their own pace This is an experiment to see how the concept would work-to bring tourism out of its five-star cloister

For outsiders too the folk evening was a delight Away from the false confines of theapna utsavs this was folk art in its own space and place and it felt right Despite the rough edges and the lack of soohistication the

not the as authentic

an annual affair-an area to more people

What has begun as an experiment in Jhalawar is cautiously being explored in other parts of the state as heritage tourism~ The concept of palace hotels is only one facet of this INTACH has been pushing the idea of preserving medieval towns stemming the decay of years and curbing the rise of new-fangled

Contd on page 18

Penan~ Hill Condo-versy

Ahmad Chik lives with his family atop Penang Hill in the heart of Malayshysias Penang Island I like the quiet and serenity says the engineer who moved there from Kuala Lumpur three years ago He enjoys long walks

and magnificent views of George Town the harbour and the mainland Ahmad is one of about 1000 residents rich and poor of Penang Hill Visitors ride up in a 68-year-old funicular railway to savour the hills simple charms Untouched by the booming islands urban growth it is a symbol of Penangs beauty

So when a commercial plan for its development came to light it triggered an uproar among residents of the northwestern state The $167-million scheme by developer Bukit Pi nang Leisure envisioned a200-room hotel condominiums

shopping-entertainment-recreation complex an adventure theme j was given last September

minister Lim Chong Eu who set aside 364 hectares Leisure is asubsidiary of Berjaya Corp a MalaYSian company

with interests in manufacturing lotteries insurance and property Vincent Tan Chee Yioun Berjayas media-shy chief is said to have good political connections So do Bukit Pinilng Leisures other owners Yayasan Bumiputera Pulau Pinang with a 20 stake is headed by members of the national ruling coalitions New United Malays National Organisation Tan Kok Ping who owns 29 is reportedly close to ex-chief minister Lim He is a vice-chairman of Gerakan the party that leads the states ruling coalition

Lim approval has prompted a Save Penang Hill campaign 11 regard the hili as almost sacred says Ahmad a member of the Friends of Penang Hill Adds he liThe proposed development is abreach of the Town amp Country Plann-

Act Under the 1976 federal law a plan for development of Penang was completed in 1989 The Penang Island Structure Plan declared the hill an area of special character Its natural vegetation topography and character as a hill resort must be maintained and mnsfrvPci consultations before project has bypassed thiscrucial step he middotargues Members of the public resishydents schoolchildren who make trips up the hill- none of us were consulted

Neither reportedly was Lims cabinet liThe chief minister was pushing a project that was not popular and not very wise in the long term admits Choong Sim Poey another Gerakan vice-chairman The decision was made without sufficient consultation

Ecologist Leong Yueh Kwong of the Malayan Nature Society says development should be based on the Penang Island Structure Plan and be drawn up by the municipal council If the developer fits in with that local plan they could go ahead he remarks But acommercial developer shouldnt be the one to draw

the master plan Their slant will always be towards commercial Friends worrv that the hills cool temperature will rise with deforestation

happened at other Malaysian hill resorts Five maior water-catchment areas will also be affected the group

Kam U-Tee retired general manager the Penang Water Authority said in a letter to Berjaya that the catchments yield about 22 millions gallons of water aday It would cost at least $2AOO dai Iy to pump that volume from the mainland in addition to a $37-million outlay for headworks to raise the water level at source he said

Bukit Pinang Leisure has encounted another obstacle In September the federal Environment Department rejected the developers environmental impact assessment Director-General of Environment Abu Bakar Jaafar said the project would affect water supply and cause river siltation and soi I erosion The developer was advised to go back to the drawing board

Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon who took over from Lim in October and the state cabinet met the Friends in January He found the groups views generally constructive The government he said has urged the developer to take these views into serious consideration The Penang state government is committed to the preservation of Penang Hill Koh said However the facilities now

insufficient for the general public and the tourists conceptual plan that will

involve amuch smaller area Even if state authorities decide to approve it he added we may add new and even more stringent conditions to hold a public hearing on its proposal The developers concludes Koh Isti II have to cross quite a number of hurdlesProvided a compromise can be reached peace should once again prevail on Penang Hill

ASIAWEEK April 12 1991

Tread Gently by Phil Voysey

Tread flently yells the universal voice of reason over the cacophony of tourist dollar Here they come aflain to conquer moun cain trail and apple pie futile attempts to pound every last partide of dust into submission With especially desiflned Dunlop retreads

As always the dust rises up and seeps into delicate labyrinths of ego and grim determination

tolerable discomforr while rocks teasingly slide and shuffle from beneath the feet of DrbintrT

and enjoy a flood lauflh at the expense of twisted knee and bruised backside

Several concerned individuals can be seen furiously scrubbing the stream clean with Blue Omo while others scratch at the sweat and grime that has matted thouflhr and responsibility and watch as rivulets of bleached common sense trickle il1lO [he spinach patch of some innocent tourism

(l wonder if that woman paradinf around in her bikini top realises how absurd she looks agains[ the backflround of towerinf snow-capped mountain peaks)

Tread flently screams the universal vojce of reason

Pen -weer rupee is the childrens three chord delivered with supplicating eyes and like an overplayed pop sonflonfl afo sliDDed from the top 40 nobody is liSleninf Pizza apple collte is the modem classic with the timeless

(1 wonde[ if the local DJ with the studded nose [infs and the three malnutrieioned children understands the but then who listens to them anyway)

Tread gently screams the universal voice of reason as the needJe balances precariously over the newest sound and the turntable beqins to spin

HIMAl MarchApril 1991

Biased Action Whi Ie the Goa government issued noticed to 12 norms action was taken only against Leela Dalmia Resorts Taj Holiday Colonia Santa Maria and Charlston Hotel Leela Ventures unauthorised construction were removed or demolished while Averina International removed its fencing within the 200 metre line Notices were also issued by the Goa Southern Planning Development Agency and the central environmental ministry to Dalmia Resorts While Taj Holiday removed some of its illegal constructions others Iike the Thai Restaurant are still standing and the environment ministrys directives have been taken up in the NtW Deihi high court Charlston Hotels illegal construction has been partly demolished by the government

The Independent 20 Aug 91

15

Privatisation Spree in Kerala by K T Suresn

The Parayatan Mantralaya (Tourism Ministry) has at long last woken up to reality says a report in the Business Standard (11 May) And what is this realitv that we seem to have discovered

The reality that this report is referring to is the admission that private sector initiative is the panacea for the ilis of astagnating tourist profile The idea that is doing the rounds in the Mantralaya is that of cutting ITDC loose Which translates to selling 51 of government holdings in the Corporation to private investors The reasons stated for it are

Recent investments by the government have been pathetically inadequate The Corporations budget for 1991-92 is Rs 16 crores

The Corooration has not been able to put to use most of the funds it has estimate of Rs 155 crores for 1990-91 it was

an abysmal Rs 5 crore

they sit on some of the finest properties in the countrvITDC hotels dont compare well with the competition The Corporation has been gradually moving into the three-star and Yatri Nivas category of hoters Planners believe that this is where ITDC should settle down leaving the five-stars to the private sector

Meanwhile Kerala is being projected as the model to be emulated As apart of the privatisation of the tourism sector in Kerala initiated by the Left Front government the state-owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) proposes to di lute its equity by selling to the publ ic 40 of its shares Already the KTDC and the Taj group have jointly set up a new company the Taj-Kerala Hotels and Resorts Ltd which plans to start 13 projects with an investment of 100 crores Recent reports in the Economic Times suggest that the KTDC is also envisaging a tie-up witha leading international hotel chain for consultancy marketing and training (Compiled from various sources)

Roman Holiday

T he eternal city has decided to go ahead with a string of urban projects that will give it a new business and administration centre a genuine subway athird university and even amodern telephone

The scheme cost at 77 trillion lire is also expected to have the side-effect of saving Romes priceless historic monuments from slow death by pollution Under a recent law the Federal Government is to help underwrite the cost of transforming the eternal city into a modern Capital

Centrepiece of the ambitious scheme is the creation of what Antonio Gerace the official in charge of urban development at city hall calls lithe worlds biggest business district

For years one of the most pressing problems confronting this city has been the presence of Government ministries which employ 61000 people in historic quarters where exhaust fumes in narrow streets are destroying priceless monuments

INDIAN EXPRESS 15 May 1991

~~ ON lIjeRiGHT ~ MOOIJMewTAL emR ()( ~A1l0~At IMRJTeNle -- r-------~j

~~

Ponnappa in TIMES OF INDIA

Investing in Mal-Development The Crossing ofJapanese aDA and Resort Development

by Noda Misato

In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of Transport launched its 4-year Ten Million Project promoting overseas travel with the ambitious goals of building mutual understanding between the Japanese and other peoples accelerating internationalism among Japanese people improving the foreign trade imbalance and bringing economic prosperity to foreign countries The projects target ten million tourists by 1991 from which the name derived will be reached ayear before the target date This flood of tourist money has hopes especially in Asias chronically poor countries that the resort would boost their suffering economies A lot is expected of Japan which also brings an en0rmous amount of foreign aid ostensibly designed for economic development Given all this it should not be surprising that tourism is now being included as a part of ODA (Official Development Assistance)

In 1989 the Ministry of Transport publicized its Holiday Village Plans for total support in the development of international resorts This project was to aim at giving aid to support the systematic development of international resorts through the International Cooperation Association giving yen loans through the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) for tourist-related infrastructure and taking advantage of non-governmental fUnds and skills for the so-called superstructure such as hotels recreation facilities and the like This grand design clearly shows what attitude the Japanese government will take towards resort development in Third World countries and how it is going to use the existing aid system for tourism in a way similar to its approach in other sectors

In Aid of Tourism 1 Yen loans

According to a report from the OECF which administers ODA tied loans the total amount of yen loans for the period from 1966 to 1988 was 783 trillion

spread across 137 projects Less than 1 percent of that total roughly 30 yen made up 6 projects tategorized as tourism Notice however that

infrastructure projects such as road and airport construction which are needed to promote tourism are not included in the tourism category Such aid clearly show a transition from constructing superstructure facilities sucn as hotels to providing the surrounding infrastructure related to tourism and more recently to providing comprehensive and basic facilities for expanding tourism

A clear example of this type of loan is the provisional Project for Basic Facilities for Resorts in Thailand It is a regional development program to encourage employment and the acquisition of foreign currency primarily through promoting tourism The project will provide basic infrastructure such as roads communications waterworks etc for resorts in eight regions and their neighboring areas in Thailand The loan will be used to purchase equipment and pay expenses for consulting work and other services

2 Development research

JICA (the Japan International Cooperative Agency) a government agency whose mission includes monitoring technical assistance has begun to include tourism in its development research projects From the prominence given to it by the Japanese government one can easily infer that tourism now ranks with agriculture and manufacturing as an important sector for community development It is likely that any particular project based upon JICAs research will lead to an aid request from one of many recipient countries The Total Community Development Project of Malaysia now underway is an example of this phenomenon i~ action This project will identify potential areas for development in the eastern region of the Malay Peninsula and conduct feasibility studies for total community development programs using tourism as its main focus

- irclile~~ mu uvet)eas experb

A Seminar for the Promotion of Tourism is organized each year by )lCA bringing about 20 participants from allover the world to Japan for a group

14

training course In 1989 the twenty-fifth seminar was held with twenty participants from nineteen countries South Korea Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Thailand Pakistan Nepal Maldives Egypt Algeria Kenya Mauritius Tanzania Bahamas Cuba Mexico Venezuela Papua New Guinea and Greece Those invited are either gCNernment tourism administrators or from large commercial enterprises The International Tourism Promotion Association administers the two month seminar designed to-introduce the relevant Japanese administrative bodies their policies and the situation in the Japanese tourism industry During the same year Japan dispatched 15 tourism experts to developing countries three each to India Fiji and Mexico two to China one to oversee both Indonesia and Malaysia and another two to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Tourism as Maldevelopment In concluding this glance at institutiondl aid to tourism we find it hard to

be optimistic about the influence of resort development on Third World peoples through Japanese governmental aid This is especially worrisome in light of the present ~ituations of Japans ODA and domestic resort development Th us resort development causes the same problems as foreign aid-]esignated development in general Often the kind of projects are more appropriate for the donors than the receivers as can be seen in examples such as the construction of the National Historic Park in Indonesia which evicted the residents from the surrounding area even before any promises of sufficient compensation Furthermore the hosting of large scale tourism means a

outsiders all with different cultural backgrounds cascading in peoples daily lives The accompanying socio-cultural problems can no

longer be ignored How is Japan responding to these problems Promotional schemes alone only further aggravate the problem notwithstanding the high sounding language of Japanese government agencies

Those who promote tourism depend upon a pristine and scenic natural environment and diverse cultures both of which resort development is threatening to destroy

AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 22(4) 1991

Indonesias Hotel Conglomerates Indonesian conglomerates will dominate the tourism sector by the end of

next yea~ says a noted observer of the economy_ Conglomerates such as the Bimantara Rajawali Salim and Summa groups

will be among the countrys top 10 hoteliers next year along with pioneers in the sector Christianto Wibisono of the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDB) said

PDBI in a report said inadequate air transportation connecting Indonesia to other countries and the lessthan significant role of the local people might create problems for the development of the sector and cause it to lag behind that of other countries

The PDBI report said the current air seat capacity for international airlines serving routes to Indonesia was still smaller than which discourage visitors from travelling into the country

liThe governments protection of Garuda Indonesia the national flag carrie~ should not affect the flow of visitors into the country The permission granted to private airlines serving domestic routes to operate jet aircraft is expected to motivate Garuda to strengthen its position as an international airline more able to compete th~ report said bull

PDBI also called on the government to pay special attention to local people whose property was affe(ted by tourism projects

liThe government should protect these people for example by asking the tourist resort developers to provide shares for them In this way they will learn about business practices and earn capital gain This would be better than giving asmall portion of shares to them as an act of charity 20 years after the projects go into full operation it said

The PDBI report also said the government should take the local peoples partiCipation senousiy to prevent the eruptron ot social unrest because large tourist resorts in the country had been unfairly edging out small-scale and medium-size businesses

7

Happy Tourist Unhappy Traveller by Robert Shepherd

Pumpernickel Bakery in Thamel down town Kathmandu is a favourite spot for foreigners Even during off-season the bakerys garden tables fill quickly each morning The service is good the bread fresh the

croissants delicious and the coffee passable The staff members are unobtrusive and polite and with thei r brown faces a rarity in the restaurant where the rest of the people are foreign travellers

They are travellers and not tourists A young English woman on her way home from ayear abroad in Australia tried to explain the difference to me She said that travellers live like the people they travel the way the people travel and they are in touch with and have a feel fo~ the people The tourists on the other hand travel in air-conditioned buses live in five-star hotels and eat at overpriced restaurants And they never drink the water There are no tourists at Pumpernickel only travellers

Touring extensively around the world the long-term world travellers (WT) the majority of whom are North American Western European Japanese and Australian share a common ideology They view the Third World as their iaboratory and look upon themselves as romantic even intrepid adventurers They sneer at tourists and laugh at those who have remained back home in Peoria They share a common language English and even a common dress code in Nepal cheap cotton drawstring pants rubber sandals and printed tshyshirts The t-shirts are the public resumes in one giance one can discern who has come up from Kenya Bali Bangkok or Goa

World travellers adorn themselves with the handicrafts of this weeks locale In Kathmandu turquoise and silver rings bracelets earrings sheep-skin shoulder bags wool caps and vests It is said the jewelry is actually mass shyproduced in Lhasa The caps are Afghani and the vests are multi-coloured combinations with tassels hanging from the edges Who wears this stuff Not the Nepalis In Kathmandu they are the ones trying to dress like us

In their attempts to become native the world travellers often corrupt indigenous systems

At the bakery several Germans aSwede and an American couple are engaged in aheated discussion about exchange rates whicli is a favourite topic among WTs in addition to the black market They can quote the going rates for the dollar in Delhi Kathmandu Borneo or Burma Thev also know where to sell whiskey and cigarettes blue jeans and cameras

An Australian advised me See you buy your Indian rupees in Kathmandu get an air ticket to the border buy your Johnny Walkers and Marlboros at dutyshyfree and sell them for twice over what you paid once you land He continued ifyou are going on to Burma hold on to your stuff The country is quite screwed up and the people will buy anything youve got even the shirt off your back~ I wondered where he was headed 0h Im off to an ashram near Bangalore for a month of meditation Ashrams shrines and mosques are the traditional destinations tor Wls Those who iook for spirituai wisdom are aii young white educated affluent radical chic They search for meaning they overflow with good intention

One day in Kathmandus main bazaar area I noticed abackpacker haggling with an Indian selling oranges from a basket strapped to his bicycle How much the backpacker asked One orange three rupees said the Indian One rupee the westerner insisted Ithere~ He dropped the rupee into the basket and walked away pleased at his bargaining skills After all he had successfully acted just iike the people He has just had an experience~ Some Nepali bystanders cluck with sympathy for the indian Who swears in Hindi

Beneath the WTs talk about cross-cultural sensitivity ana experience is a sense of cultural imperialism that would have done ihe Victorians Notwithstanding their beatific expression world traveiiers are CUl-Ulival

practitioners of the mundane living In Nepal as elsewhere they compete at agame with the odds stacked heavily in theirfavour They use lheir economic

to secure shamelessly that which the society can olfer and than which i cannot and shOUld not also ofter

The-world traveller expects to find a unique culture in the exotic East onlY to wait in iine behind the same people whom they seemingly wanted to avoid

This is probably why many WTs openly shun their fellow travellers as saunter through the streets of Thamel They throw hostile glances at other foreigners whose only fault is to walk the same street

Tony Wheelers Lonely Planet guide books are one of the main reasons why the WTs end up in the same places The difference between this guidebook and others is that it targets a different audience and never describes themas tourists Tony Wheeler calls them travellers who want to see the country at ground level to breathe it experience it and live it He writes that tourists stay in Hiltons travellers do not Instead travellers should gO tramDing through the back alleys of the Third World and absorb exoticism has built a multi-national publishing business of this planet

What happens of course is that no world traveller is alone when he does Bali or Rangoon or Kathmandu After all they carry the same book They check in at the same hotels They eat in the same restaurants They discover the same hideaways off the well-trodden paths The traveller longs to discover the particular place to which no tourist or traveller has been Yet he keeps running into many others like himself

Western isation had consu med Japan Hong Kong Singapore and Bangkok But it has yet to hurdle the Himalayas In Nepal samosas and mo-mos are in fashion not Big Macs Yes Michael Jackson is popular among young people but Kumar Basnet and Nara~an Gopal still outsell him in the tape shoos The

of the countrys first escalator is frontpage news Into this other-world enters the world travellers They speak tngllsn are

obsessed with money and dress in odd peasant costumes Off they go to the mountains in search of experience The handful of Nepalis they come into contact with are guides and lodgeowners - whose burden it is to represent the society and culture

The East is not the West Religious linguistic and philosophical differences separate the two Yet world travellers alproach the East including countries like Nepal as if they were on a jaunt into the Parisian countryside They do not realise that Hnding a bathroom exchanging money buying hasish and

dinner does not constitute inter-cultural communication Frozen out of the cultures they travel _

among their own kind That is why they crowd the tourist ghettos Subdividing into factions they share their cultural illusions and seek to alleviate their secret boredom They trade tales and anecdotes over omelets and pizzas and they huddle together to watch American videos Make-believe hippie and aspiring Buddhist both wili be watching a scratched copy of Rambo

Truly the traveller is no different from the tourists He carries the same shackles an ignorance of the language the culture and the people and their idiosyncrasies However the tourists by recognising and accepting the differences between themselves and others admit that they are outsiders or

the premise that travel is a privilege and not the possibi lity of such an acknowledgment

cheaply and dreSSing like anative can transform them into cultural insiders V S Naipaul writes of them as those who wish themselves on societies more fragile than their ownwho in the end do no more than celebrate thei r own security

~iMAl SeptOct 1990

Serve them RIghi

Travellers from the time of Marco Polo and before have always been laden if not such exotic cargoes as peacocks ivory and

exotic tales of all the wondrous sights they have seen abroad Westerners sojourning in India have been known to remark that Indian railway stations seem to be peopied with non-travelling circuses of beggars and performers assembled precisely with the idea of causing wonderment among the travelling public Travellers on the German railways may soon see something that convinces them that the entire German people are a travelling circus Fori as the uninitiated stranger sits in the dining-car of a German train and sees the woifing of meat alia potatoes foiiowed by the reassuring gulping down of coffee the odds are he wont be prepared for what comes next If he is uckv enough to see what

crtli on pale 18

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

6

Heritage ~ourism

A fter a preliminary fumble the oversized bulb which illuminate the police parade grounds in Jhalawar are dimmed throwing into sharp relief the makeshift stage which is humming with activity All evening

the grounds have been filling up with the local people who have greeted this three-day festival of music with as much enthusiasm as they do amela except that this time they will be treated to pure classical music in addition to their own traditional song and dance

Many of the people milling about the grounds were not present at the occasion Pandit Ravi Shankar began the festivities with an impassioned recital The choice of venue was also apt-the Bhawani Natyashala house) had been built in 1921 in the style of an opera house and is believed to be one among only five of its kind in the country

Over the years the Natyashala fell on bad days It came to be used without any regard for its antiquity or uniqueness of design in turn as a cinema hall and a badminton court

It took aformer district collectors effort to have the cinema closed and the court shifted and it now devolves upon the convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (lNTACH) Thakur Ranvir Singh to set about getting the theatre restored to its original state

For Rav Shankars recital it has been given a quick face-lift and its facade has been freshly painted The action has meanwhile shifted to the police grounds to accommodate more people (the theatre cannot seat too manv) and admit them to the secluded preserves of classical music and dance The is followed by recitals by Aminuddin Dagar and Naina Devi and aperformance by

Raghuraj Singh Hada hunched over the microphone placed unconventional Iv on the floor of the stage prepares to introduce the items on the agenda a flourish he presents a succession of performers drawn from the neighbouring towns of Kota and Boondi which with Jhalawar make up the distinctive Hadoti region in this corner of south-east Rajasthan

The night air is redolent with the sound of dhol and maneera as phad singers come on with their ditties followed by colourful tribal dancers and performers who manage incredible feats of balance and dexterity involving fire and swords Afolk singer from Boondi puts his signature to the show when he gets everyone in the audience even those who dont understand the language to join him in a well-remembered tune clapping along and singing infected by his stage presence

A ready interpreter sits in the front row next to Vasundhara this area and co-organiser of the event who is following proceedings with evident enjoyment The response is unprecedented she says I did not expect so many people

I am trying to promote a new concept in tourism-not the Jaipur-Udaipur kind where you are packaged for two or three days she says going on to elaborate Here people can laze and loll about the district at their own pace This is an experiment to see how the concept would work-to bring tourism out of its five-star cloister

For outsiders too the folk evening was a delight Away from the false confines of theapna utsavs this was folk art in its own space and place and it felt right Despite the rough edges and the lack of soohistication the

not the as authentic

an annual affair-an area to more people

What has begun as an experiment in Jhalawar is cautiously being explored in other parts of the state as heritage tourism~ The concept of palace hotels is only one facet of this INTACH has been pushing the idea of preserving medieval towns stemming the decay of years and curbing the rise of new-fangled

Contd on page 18

Penan~ Hill Condo-versy

Ahmad Chik lives with his family atop Penang Hill in the heart of Malayshysias Penang Island I like the quiet and serenity says the engineer who moved there from Kuala Lumpur three years ago He enjoys long walks

and magnificent views of George Town the harbour and the mainland Ahmad is one of about 1000 residents rich and poor of Penang Hill Visitors ride up in a 68-year-old funicular railway to savour the hills simple charms Untouched by the booming islands urban growth it is a symbol of Penangs beauty

So when a commercial plan for its development came to light it triggered an uproar among residents of the northwestern state The $167-million scheme by developer Bukit Pi nang Leisure envisioned a200-room hotel condominiums

shopping-entertainment-recreation complex an adventure theme j was given last September

minister Lim Chong Eu who set aside 364 hectares Leisure is asubsidiary of Berjaya Corp a MalaYSian company

with interests in manufacturing lotteries insurance and property Vincent Tan Chee Yioun Berjayas media-shy chief is said to have good political connections So do Bukit Pinilng Leisures other owners Yayasan Bumiputera Pulau Pinang with a 20 stake is headed by members of the national ruling coalitions New United Malays National Organisation Tan Kok Ping who owns 29 is reportedly close to ex-chief minister Lim He is a vice-chairman of Gerakan the party that leads the states ruling coalition

Lim approval has prompted a Save Penang Hill campaign 11 regard the hili as almost sacred says Ahmad a member of the Friends of Penang Hill Adds he liThe proposed development is abreach of the Town amp Country Plann-

Act Under the 1976 federal law a plan for development of Penang was completed in 1989 The Penang Island Structure Plan declared the hill an area of special character Its natural vegetation topography and character as a hill resort must be maintained and mnsfrvPci consultations before project has bypassed thiscrucial step he middotargues Members of the public resishydents schoolchildren who make trips up the hill- none of us were consulted

Neither reportedly was Lims cabinet liThe chief minister was pushing a project that was not popular and not very wise in the long term admits Choong Sim Poey another Gerakan vice-chairman The decision was made without sufficient consultation

Ecologist Leong Yueh Kwong of the Malayan Nature Society says development should be based on the Penang Island Structure Plan and be drawn up by the municipal council If the developer fits in with that local plan they could go ahead he remarks But acommercial developer shouldnt be the one to draw

the master plan Their slant will always be towards commercial Friends worrv that the hills cool temperature will rise with deforestation

happened at other Malaysian hill resorts Five maior water-catchment areas will also be affected the group

Kam U-Tee retired general manager the Penang Water Authority said in a letter to Berjaya that the catchments yield about 22 millions gallons of water aday It would cost at least $2AOO dai Iy to pump that volume from the mainland in addition to a $37-million outlay for headworks to raise the water level at source he said

Bukit Pinang Leisure has encounted another obstacle In September the federal Environment Department rejected the developers environmental impact assessment Director-General of Environment Abu Bakar Jaafar said the project would affect water supply and cause river siltation and soi I erosion The developer was advised to go back to the drawing board

Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon who took over from Lim in October and the state cabinet met the Friends in January He found the groups views generally constructive The government he said has urged the developer to take these views into serious consideration The Penang state government is committed to the preservation of Penang Hill Koh said However the facilities now

insufficient for the general public and the tourists conceptual plan that will

involve amuch smaller area Even if state authorities decide to approve it he added we may add new and even more stringent conditions to hold a public hearing on its proposal The developers concludes Koh Isti II have to cross quite a number of hurdlesProvided a compromise can be reached peace should once again prevail on Penang Hill

ASIAWEEK April 12 1991

Tread Gently by Phil Voysey

Tread flently yells the universal voice of reason over the cacophony of tourist dollar Here they come aflain to conquer moun cain trail and apple pie futile attempts to pound every last partide of dust into submission With especially desiflned Dunlop retreads

As always the dust rises up and seeps into delicate labyrinths of ego and grim determination

tolerable discomforr while rocks teasingly slide and shuffle from beneath the feet of DrbintrT

and enjoy a flood lauflh at the expense of twisted knee and bruised backside

Several concerned individuals can be seen furiously scrubbing the stream clean with Blue Omo while others scratch at the sweat and grime that has matted thouflhr and responsibility and watch as rivulets of bleached common sense trickle il1lO [he spinach patch of some innocent tourism

(l wonder if that woman paradinf around in her bikini top realises how absurd she looks agains[ the backflround of towerinf snow-capped mountain peaks)

Tread flently screams the universal vojce of reason

Pen -weer rupee is the childrens three chord delivered with supplicating eyes and like an overplayed pop sonflonfl afo sliDDed from the top 40 nobody is liSleninf Pizza apple collte is the modem classic with the timeless

(1 wonde[ if the local DJ with the studded nose [infs and the three malnutrieioned children understands the but then who listens to them anyway)

Tread gently screams the universal voice of reason as the needJe balances precariously over the newest sound and the turntable beqins to spin

HIMAl MarchApril 1991

Biased Action Whi Ie the Goa government issued noticed to 12 norms action was taken only against Leela Dalmia Resorts Taj Holiday Colonia Santa Maria and Charlston Hotel Leela Ventures unauthorised construction were removed or demolished while Averina International removed its fencing within the 200 metre line Notices were also issued by the Goa Southern Planning Development Agency and the central environmental ministry to Dalmia Resorts While Taj Holiday removed some of its illegal constructions others Iike the Thai Restaurant are still standing and the environment ministrys directives have been taken up in the NtW Deihi high court Charlston Hotels illegal construction has been partly demolished by the government

The Independent 20 Aug 91

15

Privatisation Spree in Kerala by K T Suresn

The Parayatan Mantralaya (Tourism Ministry) has at long last woken up to reality says a report in the Business Standard (11 May) And what is this realitv that we seem to have discovered

The reality that this report is referring to is the admission that private sector initiative is the panacea for the ilis of astagnating tourist profile The idea that is doing the rounds in the Mantralaya is that of cutting ITDC loose Which translates to selling 51 of government holdings in the Corporation to private investors The reasons stated for it are

Recent investments by the government have been pathetically inadequate The Corporations budget for 1991-92 is Rs 16 crores

The Corooration has not been able to put to use most of the funds it has estimate of Rs 155 crores for 1990-91 it was

an abysmal Rs 5 crore

they sit on some of the finest properties in the countrvITDC hotels dont compare well with the competition The Corporation has been gradually moving into the three-star and Yatri Nivas category of hoters Planners believe that this is where ITDC should settle down leaving the five-stars to the private sector

Meanwhile Kerala is being projected as the model to be emulated As apart of the privatisation of the tourism sector in Kerala initiated by the Left Front government the state-owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) proposes to di lute its equity by selling to the publ ic 40 of its shares Already the KTDC and the Taj group have jointly set up a new company the Taj-Kerala Hotels and Resorts Ltd which plans to start 13 projects with an investment of 100 crores Recent reports in the Economic Times suggest that the KTDC is also envisaging a tie-up witha leading international hotel chain for consultancy marketing and training (Compiled from various sources)

Roman Holiday

T he eternal city has decided to go ahead with a string of urban projects that will give it a new business and administration centre a genuine subway athird university and even amodern telephone

The scheme cost at 77 trillion lire is also expected to have the side-effect of saving Romes priceless historic monuments from slow death by pollution Under a recent law the Federal Government is to help underwrite the cost of transforming the eternal city into a modern Capital

Centrepiece of the ambitious scheme is the creation of what Antonio Gerace the official in charge of urban development at city hall calls lithe worlds biggest business district

For years one of the most pressing problems confronting this city has been the presence of Government ministries which employ 61000 people in historic quarters where exhaust fumes in narrow streets are destroying priceless monuments

INDIAN EXPRESS 15 May 1991

~~ ON lIjeRiGHT ~ MOOIJMewTAL emR ()( ~A1l0~At IMRJTeNle -- r-------~j

~~

Ponnappa in TIMES OF INDIA

Investing in Mal-Development The Crossing ofJapanese aDA and Resort Development

by Noda Misato

In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of Transport launched its 4-year Ten Million Project promoting overseas travel with the ambitious goals of building mutual understanding between the Japanese and other peoples accelerating internationalism among Japanese people improving the foreign trade imbalance and bringing economic prosperity to foreign countries The projects target ten million tourists by 1991 from which the name derived will be reached ayear before the target date This flood of tourist money has hopes especially in Asias chronically poor countries that the resort would boost their suffering economies A lot is expected of Japan which also brings an en0rmous amount of foreign aid ostensibly designed for economic development Given all this it should not be surprising that tourism is now being included as a part of ODA (Official Development Assistance)

In 1989 the Ministry of Transport publicized its Holiday Village Plans for total support in the development of international resorts This project was to aim at giving aid to support the systematic development of international resorts through the International Cooperation Association giving yen loans through the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) for tourist-related infrastructure and taking advantage of non-governmental fUnds and skills for the so-called superstructure such as hotels recreation facilities and the like This grand design clearly shows what attitude the Japanese government will take towards resort development in Third World countries and how it is going to use the existing aid system for tourism in a way similar to its approach in other sectors

In Aid of Tourism 1 Yen loans

According to a report from the OECF which administers ODA tied loans the total amount of yen loans for the period from 1966 to 1988 was 783 trillion

spread across 137 projects Less than 1 percent of that total roughly 30 yen made up 6 projects tategorized as tourism Notice however that

infrastructure projects such as road and airport construction which are needed to promote tourism are not included in the tourism category Such aid clearly show a transition from constructing superstructure facilities sucn as hotels to providing the surrounding infrastructure related to tourism and more recently to providing comprehensive and basic facilities for expanding tourism

A clear example of this type of loan is the provisional Project for Basic Facilities for Resorts in Thailand It is a regional development program to encourage employment and the acquisition of foreign currency primarily through promoting tourism The project will provide basic infrastructure such as roads communications waterworks etc for resorts in eight regions and their neighboring areas in Thailand The loan will be used to purchase equipment and pay expenses for consulting work and other services

2 Development research

JICA (the Japan International Cooperative Agency) a government agency whose mission includes monitoring technical assistance has begun to include tourism in its development research projects From the prominence given to it by the Japanese government one can easily infer that tourism now ranks with agriculture and manufacturing as an important sector for community development It is likely that any particular project based upon JICAs research will lead to an aid request from one of many recipient countries The Total Community Development Project of Malaysia now underway is an example of this phenomenon i~ action This project will identify potential areas for development in the eastern region of the Malay Peninsula and conduct feasibility studies for total community development programs using tourism as its main focus

- irclile~~ mu uvet)eas experb

A Seminar for the Promotion of Tourism is organized each year by )lCA bringing about 20 participants from allover the world to Japan for a group

14

training course In 1989 the twenty-fifth seminar was held with twenty participants from nineteen countries South Korea Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Thailand Pakistan Nepal Maldives Egypt Algeria Kenya Mauritius Tanzania Bahamas Cuba Mexico Venezuela Papua New Guinea and Greece Those invited are either gCNernment tourism administrators or from large commercial enterprises The International Tourism Promotion Association administers the two month seminar designed to-introduce the relevant Japanese administrative bodies their policies and the situation in the Japanese tourism industry During the same year Japan dispatched 15 tourism experts to developing countries three each to India Fiji and Mexico two to China one to oversee both Indonesia and Malaysia and another two to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Tourism as Maldevelopment In concluding this glance at institutiondl aid to tourism we find it hard to

be optimistic about the influence of resort development on Third World peoples through Japanese governmental aid This is especially worrisome in light of the present ~ituations of Japans ODA and domestic resort development Th us resort development causes the same problems as foreign aid-]esignated development in general Often the kind of projects are more appropriate for the donors than the receivers as can be seen in examples such as the construction of the National Historic Park in Indonesia which evicted the residents from the surrounding area even before any promises of sufficient compensation Furthermore the hosting of large scale tourism means a

outsiders all with different cultural backgrounds cascading in peoples daily lives The accompanying socio-cultural problems can no

longer be ignored How is Japan responding to these problems Promotional schemes alone only further aggravate the problem notwithstanding the high sounding language of Japanese government agencies

Those who promote tourism depend upon a pristine and scenic natural environment and diverse cultures both of which resort development is threatening to destroy

AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 22(4) 1991

Indonesias Hotel Conglomerates Indonesian conglomerates will dominate the tourism sector by the end of

next yea~ says a noted observer of the economy_ Conglomerates such as the Bimantara Rajawali Salim and Summa groups

will be among the countrys top 10 hoteliers next year along with pioneers in the sector Christianto Wibisono of the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDB) said

PDBI in a report said inadequate air transportation connecting Indonesia to other countries and the lessthan significant role of the local people might create problems for the development of the sector and cause it to lag behind that of other countries

The PDBI report said the current air seat capacity for international airlines serving routes to Indonesia was still smaller than which discourage visitors from travelling into the country

liThe governments protection of Garuda Indonesia the national flag carrie~ should not affect the flow of visitors into the country The permission granted to private airlines serving domestic routes to operate jet aircraft is expected to motivate Garuda to strengthen its position as an international airline more able to compete th~ report said bull

PDBI also called on the government to pay special attention to local people whose property was affe(ted by tourism projects

liThe government should protect these people for example by asking the tourist resort developers to provide shares for them In this way they will learn about business practices and earn capital gain This would be better than giving asmall portion of shares to them as an act of charity 20 years after the projects go into full operation it said

The PDBI report also said the government should take the local peoples partiCipation senousiy to prevent the eruptron ot social unrest because large tourist resorts in the country had been unfairly edging out small-scale and medium-size businesses

7

Happy Tourist Unhappy Traveller by Robert Shepherd

Pumpernickel Bakery in Thamel down town Kathmandu is a favourite spot for foreigners Even during off-season the bakerys garden tables fill quickly each morning The service is good the bread fresh the

croissants delicious and the coffee passable The staff members are unobtrusive and polite and with thei r brown faces a rarity in the restaurant where the rest of the people are foreign travellers

They are travellers and not tourists A young English woman on her way home from ayear abroad in Australia tried to explain the difference to me She said that travellers live like the people they travel the way the people travel and they are in touch with and have a feel fo~ the people The tourists on the other hand travel in air-conditioned buses live in five-star hotels and eat at overpriced restaurants And they never drink the water There are no tourists at Pumpernickel only travellers

Touring extensively around the world the long-term world travellers (WT) the majority of whom are North American Western European Japanese and Australian share a common ideology They view the Third World as their iaboratory and look upon themselves as romantic even intrepid adventurers They sneer at tourists and laugh at those who have remained back home in Peoria They share a common language English and even a common dress code in Nepal cheap cotton drawstring pants rubber sandals and printed tshyshirts The t-shirts are the public resumes in one giance one can discern who has come up from Kenya Bali Bangkok or Goa

World travellers adorn themselves with the handicrafts of this weeks locale In Kathmandu turquoise and silver rings bracelets earrings sheep-skin shoulder bags wool caps and vests It is said the jewelry is actually mass shyproduced in Lhasa The caps are Afghani and the vests are multi-coloured combinations with tassels hanging from the edges Who wears this stuff Not the Nepalis In Kathmandu they are the ones trying to dress like us

In their attempts to become native the world travellers often corrupt indigenous systems

At the bakery several Germans aSwede and an American couple are engaged in aheated discussion about exchange rates whicli is a favourite topic among WTs in addition to the black market They can quote the going rates for the dollar in Delhi Kathmandu Borneo or Burma Thev also know where to sell whiskey and cigarettes blue jeans and cameras

An Australian advised me See you buy your Indian rupees in Kathmandu get an air ticket to the border buy your Johnny Walkers and Marlboros at dutyshyfree and sell them for twice over what you paid once you land He continued ifyou are going on to Burma hold on to your stuff The country is quite screwed up and the people will buy anything youve got even the shirt off your back~ I wondered where he was headed 0h Im off to an ashram near Bangalore for a month of meditation Ashrams shrines and mosques are the traditional destinations tor Wls Those who iook for spirituai wisdom are aii young white educated affluent radical chic They search for meaning they overflow with good intention

One day in Kathmandus main bazaar area I noticed abackpacker haggling with an Indian selling oranges from a basket strapped to his bicycle How much the backpacker asked One orange three rupees said the Indian One rupee the westerner insisted Ithere~ He dropped the rupee into the basket and walked away pleased at his bargaining skills After all he had successfully acted just iike the people He has just had an experience~ Some Nepali bystanders cluck with sympathy for the indian Who swears in Hindi

Beneath the WTs talk about cross-cultural sensitivity ana experience is a sense of cultural imperialism that would have done ihe Victorians Notwithstanding their beatific expression world traveiiers are CUl-Ulival

practitioners of the mundane living In Nepal as elsewhere they compete at agame with the odds stacked heavily in theirfavour They use lheir economic

to secure shamelessly that which the society can olfer and than which i cannot and shOUld not also ofter

The-world traveller expects to find a unique culture in the exotic East onlY to wait in iine behind the same people whom they seemingly wanted to avoid

This is probably why many WTs openly shun their fellow travellers as saunter through the streets of Thamel They throw hostile glances at other foreigners whose only fault is to walk the same street

Tony Wheelers Lonely Planet guide books are one of the main reasons why the WTs end up in the same places The difference between this guidebook and others is that it targets a different audience and never describes themas tourists Tony Wheeler calls them travellers who want to see the country at ground level to breathe it experience it and live it He writes that tourists stay in Hiltons travellers do not Instead travellers should gO tramDing through the back alleys of the Third World and absorb exoticism has built a multi-national publishing business of this planet

What happens of course is that no world traveller is alone when he does Bali or Rangoon or Kathmandu After all they carry the same book They check in at the same hotels They eat in the same restaurants They discover the same hideaways off the well-trodden paths The traveller longs to discover the particular place to which no tourist or traveller has been Yet he keeps running into many others like himself

Western isation had consu med Japan Hong Kong Singapore and Bangkok But it has yet to hurdle the Himalayas In Nepal samosas and mo-mos are in fashion not Big Macs Yes Michael Jackson is popular among young people but Kumar Basnet and Nara~an Gopal still outsell him in the tape shoos The

of the countrys first escalator is frontpage news Into this other-world enters the world travellers They speak tngllsn are

obsessed with money and dress in odd peasant costumes Off they go to the mountains in search of experience The handful of Nepalis they come into contact with are guides and lodgeowners - whose burden it is to represent the society and culture

The East is not the West Religious linguistic and philosophical differences separate the two Yet world travellers alproach the East including countries like Nepal as if they were on a jaunt into the Parisian countryside They do not realise that Hnding a bathroom exchanging money buying hasish and

dinner does not constitute inter-cultural communication Frozen out of the cultures they travel _

among their own kind That is why they crowd the tourist ghettos Subdividing into factions they share their cultural illusions and seek to alleviate their secret boredom They trade tales and anecdotes over omelets and pizzas and they huddle together to watch American videos Make-believe hippie and aspiring Buddhist both wili be watching a scratched copy of Rambo

Truly the traveller is no different from the tourists He carries the same shackles an ignorance of the language the culture and the people and their idiosyncrasies However the tourists by recognising and accepting the differences between themselves and others admit that they are outsiders or

the premise that travel is a privilege and not the possibi lity of such an acknowledgment

cheaply and dreSSing like anative can transform them into cultural insiders V S Naipaul writes of them as those who wish themselves on societies more fragile than their ownwho in the end do no more than celebrate thei r own security

~iMAl SeptOct 1990

Serve them RIghi

Travellers from the time of Marco Polo and before have always been laden if not such exotic cargoes as peacocks ivory and

exotic tales of all the wondrous sights they have seen abroad Westerners sojourning in India have been known to remark that Indian railway stations seem to be peopied with non-travelling circuses of beggars and performers assembled precisely with the idea of causing wonderment among the travelling public Travellers on the German railways may soon see something that convinces them that the entire German people are a travelling circus Fori as the uninitiated stranger sits in the dining-car of a German train and sees the woifing of meat alia potatoes foiiowed by the reassuring gulping down of coffee the odds are he wont be prepared for what comes next If he is uckv enough to see what

crtli on pale 18

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

Investing in Mal-Development The Crossing ofJapanese aDA and Resort Development

by Noda Misato

In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of Transport launched its 4-year Ten Million Project promoting overseas travel with the ambitious goals of building mutual understanding between the Japanese and other peoples accelerating internationalism among Japanese people improving the foreign trade imbalance and bringing economic prosperity to foreign countries The projects target ten million tourists by 1991 from which the name derived will be reached ayear before the target date This flood of tourist money has hopes especially in Asias chronically poor countries that the resort would boost their suffering economies A lot is expected of Japan which also brings an en0rmous amount of foreign aid ostensibly designed for economic development Given all this it should not be surprising that tourism is now being included as a part of ODA (Official Development Assistance)

In 1989 the Ministry of Transport publicized its Holiday Village Plans for total support in the development of international resorts This project was to aim at giving aid to support the systematic development of international resorts through the International Cooperation Association giving yen loans through the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) for tourist-related infrastructure and taking advantage of non-governmental fUnds and skills for the so-called superstructure such as hotels recreation facilities and the like This grand design clearly shows what attitude the Japanese government will take towards resort development in Third World countries and how it is going to use the existing aid system for tourism in a way similar to its approach in other sectors

In Aid of Tourism 1 Yen loans

According to a report from the OECF which administers ODA tied loans the total amount of yen loans for the period from 1966 to 1988 was 783 trillion

spread across 137 projects Less than 1 percent of that total roughly 30 yen made up 6 projects tategorized as tourism Notice however that

infrastructure projects such as road and airport construction which are needed to promote tourism are not included in the tourism category Such aid clearly show a transition from constructing superstructure facilities sucn as hotels to providing the surrounding infrastructure related to tourism and more recently to providing comprehensive and basic facilities for expanding tourism

A clear example of this type of loan is the provisional Project for Basic Facilities for Resorts in Thailand It is a regional development program to encourage employment and the acquisition of foreign currency primarily through promoting tourism The project will provide basic infrastructure such as roads communications waterworks etc for resorts in eight regions and their neighboring areas in Thailand The loan will be used to purchase equipment and pay expenses for consulting work and other services

2 Development research

JICA (the Japan International Cooperative Agency) a government agency whose mission includes monitoring technical assistance has begun to include tourism in its development research projects From the prominence given to it by the Japanese government one can easily infer that tourism now ranks with agriculture and manufacturing as an important sector for community development It is likely that any particular project based upon JICAs research will lead to an aid request from one of many recipient countries The Total Community Development Project of Malaysia now underway is an example of this phenomenon i~ action This project will identify potential areas for development in the eastern region of the Malay Peninsula and conduct feasibility studies for total community development programs using tourism as its main focus

- irclile~~ mu uvet)eas experb

A Seminar for the Promotion of Tourism is organized each year by )lCA bringing about 20 participants from allover the world to Japan for a group

14

training course In 1989 the twenty-fifth seminar was held with twenty participants from nineteen countries South Korea Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Thailand Pakistan Nepal Maldives Egypt Algeria Kenya Mauritius Tanzania Bahamas Cuba Mexico Venezuela Papua New Guinea and Greece Those invited are either gCNernment tourism administrators or from large commercial enterprises The International Tourism Promotion Association administers the two month seminar designed to-introduce the relevant Japanese administrative bodies their policies and the situation in the Japanese tourism industry During the same year Japan dispatched 15 tourism experts to developing countries three each to India Fiji and Mexico two to China one to oversee both Indonesia and Malaysia and another two to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Tourism as Maldevelopment In concluding this glance at institutiondl aid to tourism we find it hard to

be optimistic about the influence of resort development on Third World peoples through Japanese governmental aid This is especially worrisome in light of the present ~ituations of Japans ODA and domestic resort development Th us resort development causes the same problems as foreign aid-]esignated development in general Often the kind of projects are more appropriate for the donors than the receivers as can be seen in examples such as the construction of the National Historic Park in Indonesia which evicted the residents from the surrounding area even before any promises of sufficient compensation Furthermore the hosting of large scale tourism means a

outsiders all with different cultural backgrounds cascading in peoples daily lives The accompanying socio-cultural problems can no

longer be ignored How is Japan responding to these problems Promotional schemes alone only further aggravate the problem notwithstanding the high sounding language of Japanese government agencies

Those who promote tourism depend upon a pristine and scenic natural environment and diverse cultures both of which resort development is threatening to destroy

AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 22(4) 1991

Indonesias Hotel Conglomerates Indonesian conglomerates will dominate the tourism sector by the end of

next yea~ says a noted observer of the economy_ Conglomerates such as the Bimantara Rajawali Salim and Summa groups

will be among the countrys top 10 hoteliers next year along with pioneers in the sector Christianto Wibisono of the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDB) said

PDBI in a report said inadequate air transportation connecting Indonesia to other countries and the lessthan significant role of the local people might create problems for the development of the sector and cause it to lag behind that of other countries

The PDBI report said the current air seat capacity for international airlines serving routes to Indonesia was still smaller than which discourage visitors from travelling into the country

liThe governments protection of Garuda Indonesia the national flag carrie~ should not affect the flow of visitors into the country The permission granted to private airlines serving domestic routes to operate jet aircraft is expected to motivate Garuda to strengthen its position as an international airline more able to compete th~ report said bull

PDBI also called on the government to pay special attention to local people whose property was affe(ted by tourism projects

liThe government should protect these people for example by asking the tourist resort developers to provide shares for them In this way they will learn about business practices and earn capital gain This would be better than giving asmall portion of shares to them as an act of charity 20 years after the projects go into full operation it said

The PDBI report also said the government should take the local peoples partiCipation senousiy to prevent the eruptron ot social unrest because large tourist resorts in the country had been unfairly edging out small-scale and medium-size businesses

7

Happy Tourist Unhappy Traveller by Robert Shepherd

Pumpernickel Bakery in Thamel down town Kathmandu is a favourite spot for foreigners Even during off-season the bakerys garden tables fill quickly each morning The service is good the bread fresh the

croissants delicious and the coffee passable The staff members are unobtrusive and polite and with thei r brown faces a rarity in the restaurant where the rest of the people are foreign travellers

They are travellers and not tourists A young English woman on her way home from ayear abroad in Australia tried to explain the difference to me She said that travellers live like the people they travel the way the people travel and they are in touch with and have a feel fo~ the people The tourists on the other hand travel in air-conditioned buses live in five-star hotels and eat at overpriced restaurants And they never drink the water There are no tourists at Pumpernickel only travellers

Touring extensively around the world the long-term world travellers (WT) the majority of whom are North American Western European Japanese and Australian share a common ideology They view the Third World as their iaboratory and look upon themselves as romantic even intrepid adventurers They sneer at tourists and laugh at those who have remained back home in Peoria They share a common language English and even a common dress code in Nepal cheap cotton drawstring pants rubber sandals and printed tshyshirts The t-shirts are the public resumes in one giance one can discern who has come up from Kenya Bali Bangkok or Goa

World travellers adorn themselves with the handicrafts of this weeks locale In Kathmandu turquoise and silver rings bracelets earrings sheep-skin shoulder bags wool caps and vests It is said the jewelry is actually mass shyproduced in Lhasa The caps are Afghani and the vests are multi-coloured combinations with tassels hanging from the edges Who wears this stuff Not the Nepalis In Kathmandu they are the ones trying to dress like us

In their attempts to become native the world travellers often corrupt indigenous systems

At the bakery several Germans aSwede and an American couple are engaged in aheated discussion about exchange rates whicli is a favourite topic among WTs in addition to the black market They can quote the going rates for the dollar in Delhi Kathmandu Borneo or Burma Thev also know where to sell whiskey and cigarettes blue jeans and cameras

An Australian advised me See you buy your Indian rupees in Kathmandu get an air ticket to the border buy your Johnny Walkers and Marlboros at dutyshyfree and sell them for twice over what you paid once you land He continued ifyou are going on to Burma hold on to your stuff The country is quite screwed up and the people will buy anything youve got even the shirt off your back~ I wondered where he was headed 0h Im off to an ashram near Bangalore for a month of meditation Ashrams shrines and mosques are the traditional destinations tor Wls Those who iook for spirituai wisdom are aii young white educated affluent radical chic They search for meaning they overflow with good intention

One day in Kathmandus main bazaar area I noticed abackpacker haggling with an Indian selling oranges from a basket strapped to his bicycle How much the backpacker asked One orange three rupees said the Indian One rupee the westerner insisted Ithere~ He dropped the rupee into the basket and walked away pleased at his bargaining skills After all he had successfully acted just iike the people He has just had an experience~ Some Nepali bystanders cluck with sympathy for the indian Who swears in Hindi

Beneath the WTs talk about cross-cultural sensitivity ana experience is a sense of cultural imperialism that would have done ihe Victorians Notwithstanding their beatific expression world traveiiers are CUl-Ulival

practitioners of the mundane living In Nepal as elsewhere they compete at agame with the odds stacked heavily in theirfavour They use lheir economic

to secure shamelessly that which the society can olfer and than which i cannot and shOUld not also ofter

The-world traveller expects to find a unique culture in the exotic East onlY to wait in iine behind the same people whom they seemingly wanted to avoid

This is probably why many WTs openly shun their fellow travellers as saunter through the streets of Thamel They throw hostile glances at other foreigners whose only fault is to walk the same street

Tony Wheelers Lonely Planet guide books are one of the main reasons why the WTs end up in the same places The difference between this guidebook and others is that it targets a different audience and never describes themas tourists Tony Wheeler calls them travellers who want to see the country at ground level to breathe it experience it and live it He writes that tourists stay in Hiltons travellers do not Instead travellers should gO tramDing through the back alleys of the Third World and absorb exoticism has built a multi-national publishing business of this planet

What happens of course is that no world traveller is alone when he does Bali or Rangoon or Kathmandu After all they carry the same book They check in at the same hotels They eat in the same restaurants They discover the same hideaways off the well-trodden paths The traveller longs to discover the particular place to which no tourist or traveller has been Yet he keeps running into many others like himself

Western isation had consu med Japan Hong Kong Singapore and Bangkok But it has yet to hurdle the Himalayas In Nepal samosas and mo-mos are in fashion not Big Macs Yes Michael Jackson is popular among young people but Kumar Basnet and Nara~an Gopal still outsell him in the tape shoos The

of the countrys first escalator is frontpage news Into this other-world enters the world travellers They speak tngllsn are

obsessed with money and dress in odd peasant costumes Off they go to the mountains in search of experience The handful of Nepalis they come into contact with are guides and lodgeowners - whose burden it is to represent the society and culture

The East is not the West Religious linguistic and philosophical differences separate the two Yet world travellers alproach the East including countries like Nepal as if they were on a jaunt into the Parisian countryside They do not realise that Hnding a bathroom exchanging money buying hasish and

dinner does not constitute inter-cultural communication Frozen out of the cultures they travel _

among their own kind That is why they crowd the tourist ghettos Subdividing into factions they share their cultural illusions and seek to alleviate their secret boredom They trade tales and anecdotes over omelets and pizzas and they huddle together to watch American videos Make-believe hippie and aspiring Buddhist both wili be watching a scratched copy of Rambo

Truly the traveller is no different from the tourists He carries the same shackles an ignorance of the language the culture and the people and their idiosyncrasies However the tourists by recognising and accepting the differences between themselves and others admit that they are outsiders or

the premise that travel is a privilege and not the possibi lity of such an acknowledgment

cheaply and dreSSing like anative can transform them into cultural insiders V S Naipaul writes of them as those who wish themselves on societies more fragile than their ownwho in the end do no more than celebrate thei r own security

~iMAl SeptOct 1990

Serve them RIghi

Travellers from the time of Marco Polo and before have always been laden if not such exotic cargoes as peacocks ivory and

exotic tales of all the wondrous sights they have seen abroad Westerners sojourning in India have been known to remark that Indian railway stations seem to be peopied with non-travelling circuses of beggars and performers assembled precisely with the idea of causing wonderment among the travelling public Travellers on the German railways may soon see something that convinces them that the entire German people are a travelling circus Fori as the uninitiated stranger sits in the dining-car of a German train and sees the woifing of meat alia potatoes foiiowed by the reassuring gulping down of coffee the odds are he wont be prepared for what comes next If he is uckv enough to see what

crtli on pale 18

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

Travels in Five Tibets The Myth of Shangri-La Peter Bishop University of California Press

Berkeley 1990

Review by John Frederick

The Myth ofShangri-La by Peter Bishop who teaches at the South Australian College of Advanced Education is a study ofTibet in the collective imagination of the British over a 200-year period It is not a study of the land and people but of a collection of imaginalTibets products of the travel literature from 1771 to 1969

Imaginal places are common to every society They are created reformed and dissolved according to changing social religious and gea-political consciousness Kailas for South Asian Hindus EI Dorado for sixteenth-century

and the Island of Origin for Hawaiians They are lands invested with a peoples dreams and aspirations peace wealth pleasure sanctity They are spun into being by storytellers poets film-makers and travel writers Some places are contemporary some ancient in all reality is subordinated to fantasy The modern Asian myth of America fal and rich diplomas and videos dropping from the trees has little relation to the hard work iron streets and

shopping malls experienced by Americans themselves Westerners in their turn willingly ignore the cultural degradation behind the pai nted masks and palm trees

For Westerners Tibet has been one imaginal place among many the Andes the sources of the Nile the Arctic the European Alps Bishop has chosen his topic well The centuries from the entrance of the first modern British traveller in 1774 to the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959 coincided almost exactly with the rise and fall of European particularly British aspirations Bishops examination of primarily British travel writing is intended to be a window into the changing aspirations the soul of modern

There has been and still is no single Tibet in the Western imagination There have been asuccession - evolving declining contradicting each other Bishop chooses to delineate five with reasonable historical justification and is careful to note that within each a myriad of smaller Tibets are subsumed

In the first from 1773 to 1792 Tibet developed in the British imagination from an undefined geographicaI location to a place the rudiments of a literary landscape aesthetic formed and from disillusionment with Christianity and Western spiritual ity there began a fascination with the Tibetan style of Buddhism at once highly literate and rational patently idolatrous and mystical Following the Gurkha invasions ofTibet the country was closed to travellers Bishop shows how the recurrent inaccessibility ofTibet contributed to its creation as asacred place and sealed Western fantasies into an almost closed vessell

the next two Tibets from 1792 to 1875 few travellers managed to cross the borders Alrnpst none reached Lhasa The British Empire expanded and with it expanded its geo-political imagination Britain looked outward Nineteenth-century rationalism provided idealised images of coherence unification and identity (of foreign civilisations) which belied intense internal social fragmentation and conflict

With India and the rest of the Empirer the Himalaya was systemically surveyed Brian Hodgson made his immense study of the geology customs languages

and zoology of the Himalaya Joseph Hooker and other naturalists on the closed borders ofTibet recording the mountain landscaoe with

scientific precision The genre of travel writing was forming in some confusion Mid-century

Rationalism lay in a rumpled bed with the transcendent visions of emergent European Romanticism The genre found cohesion in the publication of the fourth volume of John Ruskins Modern Painters in 1854 at the peak of British mountain enthusiasm when the Alps were the focus of physical challenge and the Himalaya the focus of mountain fantasy Ruskins landscape aesthetic combined careful observation and precise description with a subdued unromantic evocation of the inner experience of the landscape With Ruskin says Bishop the modern literary relationship of man and the wilderness

During the closing years of the nineteenth century the fourth Tibet once again entered trom every direction lnU)~5 one British lournallst exclaimed Tibet may be said to be at present in a state of siegeRussian French and British explorers vied with each other to cross the cold plateau and enter

12

Lhasa Few succeeded but most wrote about the attempt and the sub-genre of Tibet travel writing was born British bookshops displayed an array of mythical landscapes noble heroic journeys mystical pilgrimages high adventure and ethnological fantasies Forbidden Lhasa and its God-King the Dalai Lama were the axis mundi of the sacred place

For Victorian travellers the world was closing in Tibec almost alone seemed untouched The increasing sense of global unity was accompanied by a realisation of global fragility destruction loss The deforestation of the Himalaya was already causing concern and sadness even at this early date But perhaps the deepest sense of loss as well asource of irritation was caused by mass tourism and its effect on the wild places of the world Those who had suffered the wind and cold of the Tibetan plateau thought themselves not incorrectly an elite They were explorers not tourists struggling with contradictory desires to explore the land and to keep it untouched to preserve in the world one last sacred place

Until the twentieth century the fifth Tibet there was an essential unity in the travel writers visions and thus in the British collective fantasy From 1904 to 1959 Bishop sees afragmentation of the fantasy into four quite distinct and contradictory imaginal places Different visions were inevitable as information about Tibet accumulated as western travel writing evolved and as the writers responded personally to the pain or the two World Wars and the Great Depression of the 19305

One Ti bet was descendant from the long fasci nation with Buddh ism the land of the lamas and mystical accomplishment the land of spiritual perfection in a debased world This vision was exemplified by Alexander David-Neel and to Bishops credit the scholar Giuseppe Tucci In contrast there was the realistic Tibet of Spencer Chapman and others - pictures of mundane everyday life uninquisitive and anti-religious

The other two Tibets of the twentieth century were in Bishops consideration the final dissolving forms of the cultural fantasy the conclusion of the growing changing vision which he had traced over 200 years In these Tibet the geographical reality was disassociated with Tibet the imaginal place In 1949 the American tourism writer Lowell Thomas and his son visited Lhasa Lowell Junior depOsited upon the world a model of the Tibetan tourism fantasy shycultural resonance historical depth and sensitivity to landscape had disappeared beneath cliches and expressions of naive amazement The other Tibet the

was fixed in the public imagination by James Hiltons immensely popular Lost Horizon published in 1933 duringthe Depression Lost Horizon dramatised the disilfusionment of the West its spiritual emptiness and fears of social disorder The perfect land of Shangri-La reflected acute Western longings peace righteousness psychic fulfillment The collective fantasy of Tibet had become abstract the land had disappeared

Even before the exit of the Dalai Lama and the dismantling of traditional society Tibet itself had ceased to be the locus of the Tibet rnyth Realism had turned on the house lights and bared the mysteries the tourism writers had reduced the noble and remarkable to the banal and the vision had removed Shangri-La from earth altogether Tibet had become In Bishops words Ian empty vessel

The Myth ofShangri-La is a book for academics It is extraordinarily rich in analyses but is somewhat corlfused by a hazy methodology based in archetypal psychology Bishop examines travel texts with tools from avariety of disciplines Each examination is valid and revealing but all are jumbled together analytical perspectives change from paragraph to paragraph with no apparent order This is unfortunate for the book is ikelydestined for graduate library stacks rather than the audience upon which it could have made a profound impact travel writers themselves

The tools of French de-constructionism are skillfully used to place the texts within appropriate geo-political social and psychological contexts Humanistic geography such as Bachelards and Lowenthals work on the perception of place and landscape illuminates the evolution of the landscape aesthetic in travel

Bishop charts the development of the Western fascination and later obsession with Tibetan Buddhism and Eastern spirituality with great skill His several-page definition of the art of travel writing should be required for every travei writer One wishes each of these studies were a separate monograph

The book stops abruptly with a cursory conclusive chapter as if Bishop [enid on page 19

9

Horrors Under the Carpet by lynne Reid Banks

Well our Indian carpets finally arrived-tw 0 of them in a big parcel made of sacking It turned out the merchant in Agra who sold them to us was not quite telling us the truth

He said that due to a benign dispensation of the British government who wished to help Indias export trade there would be nothing more to pay for the carpets which would be delivered to our door He didnt bother to mention

demurrage and handling charges which came to nearly d third of the price We could have got them almost as cheaply in a sale of Indian

carpets here in Britain-I saw some in Piccadilly last month And of (nurse if wed bought them here it would have been easier not to

think about how they were made When you buy them from the factory theres no question of that The Indian merchant is at no pains to hide the children from you in fact he very cheerfully takes you to see them seven years old and upward huge-eyed thin as reeds hands flashing at the looms You are shown them you watch them work you photograph rilem Then you go and choose your carpet So you cant claim you didnt know Theres absolutely no excuse

Why then did we buy acarpet made with child labour This is the question I have been addressing ever since I got back to England where I promptly fel foul of a friend who works for Anti-Slavery International He didnt reproach me at all he simply handed me some pamphlets One was actually called Crpel Boys of India Another was Child-slaves I read them and felt as if I were waking from a bad dream-the bad dream of a visit to India

This has been designated (by the India Tourist Board) Visit India Year advice to anyone who is looking for a happy carefree holidav from which will return unchanged is dont Dont go there

Dont listen to all the friends who will tell you how wonderful it is It isnt wonderful Its a nightmare The only way to enjoy it is the way resolutely closing your eyes to everything except its ambivalent attractions

The worker-children are happy look they are smiling They are full of mischief Oh yes see that little imp He iikes to pick my pockets ma-dam And thats his daddy there working with him they work as a family School Of course thats the law they spend half-days in school and of course sir if we didnt this skill thev would have nothing no future As it is they earn well

for a carpet that takes them three months to make pound no That seems too little But for them it is a good living

And by buying you heip India You help us gain self-sufficiency and prosperity Dangerous Well yes the tuft-cutters be careful Occasionally they cut their hands But it is than starving in the streets Now corne outside madam sir and se~ how the carpets are washed with a special secret chemical The colours will never fade are Cl treasure you will keep forever to remind you of India Only when corne home when you awake from your Third World trance in which your values became distorted and think about it do you realise how true that IS

When I read the oamohlets and I~arned howvfl wfgte deceived bYtiJt these children reary olt [hey die aeblshy

bonded imd exploited and wretchetl dfe t~leir conditions and prospects wondered despaiiingly would be able to spread them on my floor and heardly

had never bought them I hoped they might be 10SI n iransit But theyve come We paid the VAT and unpacked them and iaid them Oil

our living-room floor They are so beautiful Like the women in Rajasthan n the fields in their gorgeous colourful clothes Like the cun of nuts and seeds and fruits on baskets and barrows ~ke 11- erribroidcrv silverware the silks the jewellery the ravchnn you outside the tourist sites Like the Taj hidden price-tag

Thf VAT was nothing The real bill has not been (he re3i bill is th~l compare myself to a man who goes to Bangkok and has sex vvith a child prostitute and says Ifdidnt pay her she would starve If did~it use her someonef

else would Thats the way things work here Does that man who is not much worse now than I am wake up when he comes horneo his norma life and I ~ _ t ~ 1 ~ Imiddot r bull bull ~ r

liI~ IVlllodl ~~elern VclIUe clIIU trllllK Ueal jUU W~il Vdgt I li1IIKHI~ on I look at my carpet every day and that is what I ask

GUARDIAN WEEKLYS May 1991

Mushroom Menace by Boney Thomas

First we had hashi sh and marijuana Then came brCMn sugar and designer drugs Now preventive authorities have woken up to a menace more ominous the magic mushroom The new narcotic is

consumers at a dangerous pace among the youth of south India Found during the monsoons in the pine forests of Kodaikanal this relatively

unknown mushroom is fast becoming a much sought after commodity among addicts with the active connivance of the underworld

two good rain showers mushrooms sprout all over in the rich dark feet of tall pine trees in Kodaikanal Soon the underworld is busy

organising its gathering distribution and sale Tourist from allover - both domestic and foreign arrive to experience a trip from these mushrooms

]0 get adequately high addicts consume about 12 mushrooms It is consumed by beating it with eggs to make an omelette It is mixed with shakes Twelve mushrooms would induce a hallucinatory stupor lasting for four to seven hours depending on the physical strength of the consumer

A few years ago none at Kodaikanal had ever heard of these mushrooms It is believed that a Swedish tourist who spotted them made enquiries with peddlers They were ignorant of its potential until then Another theory about its discovery is that someone had unwittingly picked up a few narcotic mushrooms and discovered its high after preparing a dish

Now-a-days some restaurants at Kodaikanal serve food mixed with mushrooms on the sly to discerning customers

At first the sale of these mushrooms depended wholly on climatic conditions As the procurement of the mush rooms began and ended with the monsoons the sale was seasonal But with more and more locals and tourists taking to them efforts were made to preserve them in order to extend the scope of sales

Soon sun-dried mushrooms made their appearance in the drug market But this method of preservation was abandoned as dried mushrooms retained only half their narcotic effect and hence sold at half the price After much trial and erro~ honey was found to be abetter medium of preservation it did not reduce the narcotic effect at all This helped increase its sale and distribution to far off regions like Goa and Kovalam

these mushrooms are peddled on a large scale there has been no reports ot police having booked anyone for possessing them These mushrooms are collected by plantation workers and then transferred to professional drug peddlers who are protected by the underworld There are virtually no obstacles in carti ng away the mushrooms from the pine forests Most preventive officers are not trained to distinguish the magic mushrooms the hctrmless edible

Soon the monsoon season will arrive bringing droves tourists o

lltodaikanai in search of haliuClnatory trips with magic mushrooms avaiiable in a natUial state ther is a possibility into nnJgs through them

INDiAN aPRESS 15 June 1991

MORE TOUR5l5 VSITSTAtE HALE51D

Accordi~~ to th~ state10urism Dept mope frel~o t(lOPlsts haJe ISlted this state inan 1ast ~e8r Of the siKteen fcrei9oers who 11ave visited the state so far -this ~ear one was from PaKi5tan two were from Sri Lanka and foor from

All fOur from Nepal however were minor CHrIS WIt100t DdSSDorts ihe remaillioQ- 1 u- nine lOOIe Amne5t~lntep31i0n3 cf1iGidS ~ lije iJJe7tI

POllna~~nH[S Of sectNIDIA

10 11

Tourism in Goa Questions Persist Paul S Gonsalves

O verthe last 5 months a numberof articles on tourism in Goa by the travel-writer couple Hugh and Colleen Gantzer have been published in various newspapers Goa has witnessed resistance to tourism

development for nearly 5years and the Gantzer articles argue that the resistance is ill-founded even politically motivated

So far I have come across 6 such articles 3 in aGoan daily (Navhind Times) one in the Economic Times (21491) and 2 in the Indian Express (233 and 236)

The average newspaper reader in India has heard little of the resistance in Goa Indeed the romantic view of Goa holds good for most Indians and so if on reading the Gantzer pieces one is told that a bunch of local agitators have been up to no good why that must be so Can we visit Goa during the next vacation

It is not so much what the Gantzers state that is of concern rather than what they do not I will simply place afew facts on record and let the readers decide whether there is substance in the claims of the resistance

Firstly the people of Goa are not alone in opposing tourism The debate on Third World Tourism is more than 30 years old internationally A recent bibliography by Leo Theuns (1991) lists 2166 entries until 7984 And the debate has become sharper in the years thence So has the resistance The Gantzers themselves gave an indication of this (increasing resistance) and the reasons thereof in ~n article in early 1989 The tourism industryS growing concern with uncontrolled tourism development in fragile socio-ecosystems brought forth platitudinous assurances from tourism planners But when they did nothing irate citizens reacted against such destructive development~ there is no sign from the Ministry (of Tourism) that the message has been heard and acted upon In 1989 such movements against unplanned tourism are likely to grow (Indian Express 10189)

While stating the positive co-relation between tourism and environment the Gantzers cite the examples of Sweden and Singapore India has neither the economic resources nor the political-legal mechanisms that both these countries have used to achieve a balance In fact while we might admire the peace and prosperity of our Th ird World neighbour Singapore there are many who wou Id decry the draconian laws which have made it so

Perhaps tourism can be positively integrated with environmental concerns even in Goa The point that the anti-tourism activists are at pains to make is that if tourism continues to grow (especialiy in the form of hotels and other coastal constructions) at its present rate in Goa very soon there will be no environment left for it to integrate with Again to quote an observation of the Gantzers in 1990 apprehensions thatthe Himachal board or tourism woulrl find ways to help hoteliers rather than tourists has cometrue it has not shown the remotest concern at the deteriorating environment (in Shimla and Manali)Jhere are other instances of the use of tourism to destroy the envi ronment wh ich attracts tourists in the fi rst place UP i particularly short~ sighted and viciousAnd so our beaches and mountains and other natural resources are in danger of being destroyed by crimina act and culpable negligence with the open connivance ofadministrators and politicians (Indian Express 9690)

The June 26th article suggests that the blame for Goas problems should be laid at the doorstep of a weak (local) government and short-sighted agitators not tourism A basic issue stated by the agitators is that it is Central tourism policy which has led to this state of affairs today policy geared to liberalisation without checks and controls A policy geared to maximise foreign investment without let or hindrance A policy which is in no sense a tourism policy but more precisely a hotel policy

As the Gantzers have had occasion to say ls we anticipated when (the National Committee on Tourism) was set up with a heavy bias towards hotels and hoteliers it has tended to confuse the interest of the hotels with those of tourism in general the Committee recommends the setting up of aTourism Finance Corporation when wpat they rfally hilvf in mind is a Hotel Finance Corporation The obvious obsession with this one segment of the tourism industry will make it suspect in the eyes of others But that isnt all The

INDIA ~

concessions and investment subsidies to all areas of high tourism interest will destroy every hill resort Developers will rush in and violate every rule ravage the ecology and leave despoiled mountains in their wake And indeed such developers are wreaking havoc even today (Indian Express 3181988)

Needless to add to date there have been no published studies of the carrying cClpacity of Indian tourism destinations leave alone environmental impact assessments If national tourism policy is implemented without defining external boundaries (that such studies can help establish) it is inevitable that environmental destruction will follow as predicted by the Gantzers in 1988

Although the recent articles castigate the agitators for not havi ng stati stical evidence for their claims there are at least two reports which lay a strong evidential basis (apart from the many documents published by those in the resistance) Harm Zebregs in his draft report of tourism and Goan economy (based on 3 months of field research in Goa) concludes that the earnings and employment projections of the industry are questionable Menezes and Lobo in a report of over 100 pages detail the corruption irregularities and malpractises in Goan tourism (Miriithu London 1991) And since the Ministry of Environment (under Mrs Maneka Gandhi) and the Bombay High Court have on occasion upheld the view that certain hotels have violated the law surely the Gantzers ought to castigate the arms of government as well

Moreover it is hardly essential in all matters of life to seek an evidential basis We are human beings and we can see and hear and feel and experience We do not need to read the Wholesale Price Index on a daily basis to realise that inflation is upon us

The Gantzers ridicule Bailancho Saad (a womens group) and others fortheir fear that tourism will lead to sexual exploitation of their women Why do such agitationists have such a low opinion of their women~ they query They quote a charming Thai lady who cannot understand why Indians do not accept extra-marital affairs as awomans right and suggest that what is okay in Thai land ought to be okay in India

However the issue is dearly not extra-maritai sex whether or not it is okay It is one of prostitution and its accompanying threat AIDS Perhaps we should also hear from another Thai pergton Mechai Viravaidya a well-known AIDS activist and now Minister of Tourism When the figures are projected to the entire Thai population a conservative estimate is 125000 HIV-positive individuals more than the total number of hospital beds in Thailand Estimates go as high as 400000 partly because no one can agree on the number of prostitutes in Thailand Surveys of commercial sex workers show that 40 to 72 percent of them were HIV-positive

Government and business hesitate to confront the linkage between AIDS and Thailands prostitution problem because it threatens tourist spending Hopefully with people like Dr Viravaidya at the helm of affairs Thailand ill avert a major tragedy one which threatens not just the tourism industry but Thai society itself Whatever choices Thailand makes for itself it is hardly an example India should emulate

And these fears are not entirely unfounded early this year Goan police uncovered a child prostitution racket in Margoa run by a Dr Freddy Peat with alleged international connections The similarity between this and the tv1ark Morgan affair in Thailand (which carne to light in 1989) are striking not least for their linkages with tourism

Prostitution is not the same as a casual extra-marital affair It is born out of economic need and fuelled by amarket demand Nobody claims that tourism is the only calise of prostitution but it certainly provides an environment for the demand to be expressed (by male and female travellers) and met without SOCIal restriction The social and economic status of Indian women by and large is such that tourism-led prostitution is a distinct possibility If it exists in

News amp Views

New Low

T he tourism industry is in a major panic as foreign tourist arrivals have taken an unprecedented plunge during the much trumpeted Visit India Year During the last six months it is estimated that the foreign tourist

arrivals have dropped by astaggering 40 per cent reducing the foreign currenlY brought in by close to Rs 1000 crore

This wili prove a body blow to the balance of payments situation and further aggravate the foreign exchange crisis which has been playing havoc with the countrys economy And even more alarmingly the tourist situation is not likely to improve in the immediate future

Most of the hoteliers conceded that that occupancy of their hotels by foreign tourists has plunged Reinforcing the point further Mr Indra Arya of Sita World Travels said that dose to 40 per cent of the international tourists incoming bookings were cancelled between January and March this year

Ms Prema Nair information officer in the mi nistry of tourism said that there has been a rapid decline in tourist arrivals this season with few seen in tourist offices and fewer making enquiries at ministry counters

Accusing fingers should not be pointed at the Gulf war severa of them pointed out While Thailltlnd which is celebrating its tourism year is doing exceedingly

for india it has been an unmitigated disaster But the type of tourists who arrive in Thailand and the tourist attractions that it offers are different from those of India asserted Mr C R V Rao director in the ministry of tourism

Despite another tourist season coming up during September-December 1991 the immediate future of tourism looks bleak With the violence breaking out in places like jammu and Kashmir Delhi Assam and Punjab northern india had already been removed from the tourist map of all vsitors The violence which broke out on the basis of the Mandai commission report and the Ayodhya controversy further undermined the rourism potential that these places offered

The focus during the past couple of years had been to include south India into the foreign tourists itinerary Now sources in the ministry of tourism concede that the sprouting up of LfTE violence in Tamil Nadu couki result in south India also being erascd from the map of the foreign tourist

As it is India has jllst been a mere dot-on the world tourist mJp attracting a meagre 04 per cent of the 415 million world tourist traffic Consequently the country has been tapping just 06 per cent of the coossal US $230 billion globai tourism industrv Now things are turning out from bad to worse

THE TIMES OF INDiA 15 June 1991

tourism Consultancy

T he Union GCNernment had deCIded to set up 2 national-level consultancy organisation for tourism projEcts lvIr 0 ~~ Davar Chairman Industrial Finance Corporation of India said recentlv

The proposed organisation would baSically aim at assisting entrepreneurs to build a base of their own in the location of their choice

Pointing out that the IFCI and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI) would offer more assistance for non-conventiona activities in tourism sector he hoped that the Union government would give tourism its rightful status in the Eighth Five Year Plan

Speaking on the occasion TFCI Managing Di rLuor Mr Subramanyam stressed the need to tap projects other than those helping the hotel industry to strengthen tourism in the country The TFCI had assisted six tourism projects in Karnataka The Corporation was conducting astudy on levies on tourism-related industries in different state~ and their efforts on tourism growth he added

Mr Davar said the planned economy in the country had failed to meet the needs of the people and called for rebuilding tht de-Iegilated economy The market economy needs a different set-up approach and tools and the country

in that direction Noting that the stage is set for the globalisation of economy Mr DiNar

cautioned against working in isolation If we work in isolation in any field we will be left behind

DECCAN HERALD 23 June 1991

Hotel Demolished

The Goa Government displayed its might at Cobrawaddo Calangute yesterday morning when a 250-strong demolition squad began razing to the ground the two-storeyed Chalston Hotel on the basis that it is an

illegal construction falling within 200 metres of the High Tide Line The curiosity of the hundreds of people who rushed to the area turned to

remorse however when they observed the questionable manner in which the action was carried out not giving the owner sufficient time to salvage their property worth over Rs 50 lakh

Eye-witnesses said that the task force dealt with the furniture and furnishings in the most barbaric fashion throwing them out of the windows

Items like air-conditioners were also pushed out of the window The most noticeable items were the beds which lay heaped in the debris some split apart others completely disintegrated According to the owner the demolition started without adequate time being provided for retrieving their belongings The total loss was estimated at nearly Rs 2 crore

Government officials said that the hotel was a real gone case as no conversion of land was done no PDA permission was sought there was no access road and that the structure violated the 200 metre ban from HTL

The demolition work b~gan in the morning with a bang with the squad in an apparent hurry to destroy the building in a days time Such was their missionary zeal that they denied the owners the sought after three hours time to salvage all the furniture Caught in the wild confusao were the hotel guests including a Madrasi filming company who were residing there at the time They were running helter-skelter as much toSave their lives as their filming equipment

When contacted the officials said that they were simply executing gLlVernment orders given to them only the previous night The demolition was to be carried out last year they said but the exercise was put off for several reasons

Asked for his reactions secretary town planning R S Sethi stated that the hotel did not deserve the slightest mercy Much as he sympathized with them he wondered why they went ahead with the construction after their conversiorshygrant was withdrawn by the government in 1981 The notice for demolition was served last year

He pointed out that the case was studied in depth by the Goa Government and the Environment Ministry There was no way Chalston Hotel could escape the demolition he added

He ao stated that if the proprietor had any valid documents they could have produced them before the Town and Country Plannings Board meeting held last month

Sethi also claimed that it is a misconception that they were only clamping dOVln on medium class hotels he affirmed that justice would be meted out

to all defaulters GOMANTAK TIMES 14 April 1971

Womens Voice

The Goa womens collective Bailancho Saad has charged that the present national touri~m policy being augmented by the Visit India Year and similar programmes would lead to an economic disaster and destabilise

the social and physical environment of the country In a critique of plans for the year currently being observed the Goa-based

Saad said culture was being commerriaised to suit touristic needs while festivals were being celebrated out of their milieu and time Stereotypes and distorted images of different regions were also being created they said

Heliskiing or International sea-food festivals aimed at the elite were an outrage on a nation like ours

Pointing out that Kashmir has been left out of the tour routes for the 1991 - Visit India Year the Saad said this indicated the fickle nature of tounsm

Committee has made some positively dangerous proposals giving tax eontd on page 19 should channel its resources and re-ork~nt its policies and programmes DECCAN HERALD 31 May 1991

10 11

Tourism in Goa Questions Persist Paul S Gonsalves

O verthe last 5 months a numberof articles on tourism in Goa by the travel-writer couple Hugh and Colleen Gantzer have been published in various newspapers Goa has witnessed resistance to tourism

development for nearly 5years and the Gantzer articles argue that the resistance is ill-founded even politically motivated

So far I have come across 6 such articles 3 in aGoan daily (Navhind Times) one in the Economic Times (21491) and 2 in the Indian Express (233 and 236)

The average newspaper reader in India has heard little of the resistance in Goa Indeed the romantic view of Goa holds good for most Indians and so if on reading the Gantzer pieces one is told that a bunch of local agitators have been up to no good why that must be so Can we visit Goa during the next vacation

It is not so much what the Gantzers state that is of concern rather than what they do not I will simply place afew facts on record and let the readers decide whether there is substance in the claims of the resistance

Firstly the people of Goa are not alone in opposing tourism The debate on Third World Tourism is more than 30 years old internationally A recent bibliography by Leo Theuns (1991) lists 2166 entries until 7984 And the debate has become sharper in the years thence So has the resistance The Gantzers themselves gave an indication of this (increasing resistance) and the reasons thereof in ~n article in early 1989 The tourism industryS growing concern with uncontrolled tourism development in fragile socio-ecosystems brought forth platitudinous assurances from tourism planners But when they did nothing irate citizens reacted against such destructive development~ there is no sign from the Ministry (of Tourism) that the message has been heard and acted upon In 1989 such movements against unplanned tourism are likely to grow (Indian Express 10189)

While stating the positive co-relation between tourism and environment the Gantzers cite the examples of Sweden and Singapore India has neither the economic resources nor the political-legal mechanisms that both these countries have used to achieve a balance In fact while we might admire the peace and prosperity of our Th ird World neighbour Singapore there are many who wou Id decry the draconian laws which have made it so

Perhaps tourism can be positively integrated with environmental concerns even in Goa The point that the anti-tourism activists are at pains to make is that if tourism continues to grow (especialiy in the form of hotels and other coastal constructions) at its present rate in Goa very soon there will be no environment left for it to integrate with Again to quote an observation of the Gantzers in 1990 apprehensions thatthe Himachal board or tourism woulrl find ways to help hoteliers rather than tourists has cometrue it has not shown the remotest concern at the deteriorating environment (in Shimla and Manali)Jhere are other instances of the use of tourism to destroy the envi ronment wh ich attracts tourists in the fi rst place UP i particularly short~ sighted and viciousAnd so our beaches and mountains and other natural resources are in danger of being destroyed by crimina act and culpable negligence with the open connivance ofadministrators and politicians (Indian Express 9690)

The June 26th article suggests that the blame for Goas problems should be laid at the doorstep of a weak (local) government and short-sighted agitators not tourism A basic issue stated by the agitators is that it is Central tourism policy which has led to this state of affairs today policy geared to liberalisation without checks and controls A policy geared to maximise foreign investment without let or hindrance A policy which is in no sense a tourism policy but more precisely a hotel policy

As the Gantzers have had occasion to say ls we anticipated when (the National Committee on Tourism) was set up with a heavy bias towards hotels and hoteliers it has tended to confuse the interest of the hotels with those of tourism in general the Committee recommends the setting up of aTourism Finance Corporation when wpat they rfally hilvf in mind is a Hotel Finance Corporation The obvious obsession with this one segment of the tourism industry will make it suspect in the eyes of others But that isnt all The

INDIA ~

concessions and investment subsidies to all areas of high tourism interest will destroy every hill resort Developers will rush in and violate every rule ravage the ecology and leave despoiled mountains in their wake And indeed such developers are wreaking havoc even today (Indian Express 3181988)

Needless to add to date there have been no published studies of the carrying cClpacity of Indian tourism destinations leave alone environmental impact assessments If national tourism policy is implemented without defining external boundaries (that such studies can help establish) it is inevitable that environmental destruction will follow as predicted by the Gantzers in 1988

Although the recent articles castigate the agitators for not havi ng stati stical evidence for their claims there are at least two reports which lay a strong evidential basis (apart from the many documents published by those in the resistance) Harm Zebregs in his draft report of tourism and Goan economy (based on 3 months of field research in Goa) concludes that the earnings and employment projections of the industry are questionable Menezes and Lobo in a report of over 100 pages detail the corruption irregularities and malpractises in Goan tourism (Miriithu London 1991) And since the Ministry of Environment (under Mrs Maneka Gandhi) and the Bombay High Court have on occasion upheld the view that certain hotels have violated the law surely the Gantzers ought to castigate the arms of government as well

Moreover it is hardly essential in all matters of life to seek an evidential basis We are human beings and we can see and hear and feel and experience We do not need to read the Wholesale Price Index on a daily basis to realise that inflation is upon us

The Gantzers ridicule Bailancho Saad (a womens group) and others fortheir fear that tourism will lead to sexual exploitation of their women Why do such agitationists have such a low opinion of their women~ they query They quote a charming Thai lady who cannot understand why Indians do not accept extra-marital affairs as awomans right and suggest that what is okay in Thai land ought to be okay in India

However the issue is dearly not extra-maritai sex whether or not it is okay It is one of prostitution and its accompanying threat AIDS Perhaps we should also hear from another Thai pergton Mechai Viravaidya a well-known AIDS activist and now Minister of Tourism When the figures are projected to the entire Thai population a conservative estimate is 125000 HIV-positive individuals more than the total number of hospital beds in Thailand Estimates go as high as 400000 partly because no one can agree on the number of prostitutes in Thailand Surveys of commercial sex workers show that 40 to 72 percent of them were HIV-positive

Government and business hesitate to confront the linkage between AIDS and Thailands prostitution problem because it threatens tourist spending Hopefully with people like Dr Viravaidya at the helm of affairs Thailand ill avert a major tragedy one which threatens not just the tourism industry but Thai society itself Whatever choices Thailand makes for itself it is hardly an example India should emulate

And these fears are not entirely unfounded early this year Goan police uncovered a child prostitution racket in Margoa run by a Dr Freddy Peat with alleged international connections The similarity between this and the tv1ark Morgan affair in Thailand (which carne to light in 1989) are striking not least for their linkages with tourism

Prostitution is not the same as a casual extra-marital affair It is born out of economic need and fuelled by amarket demand Nobody claims that tourism is the only calise of prostitution but it certainly provides an environment for the demand to be expressed (by male and female travellers) and met without SOCIal restriction The social and economic status of Indian women by and large is such that tourism-led prostitution is a distinct possibility If it exists in

News amp Views

New Low

T he tourism industry is in a major panic as foreign tourist arrivals have taken an unprecedented plunge during the much trumpeted Visit India Year During the last six months it is estimated that the foreign tourist

arrivals have dropped by astaggering 40 per cent reducing the foreign currenlY brought in by close to Rs 1000 crore

This wili prove a body blow to the balance of payments situation and further aggravate the foreign exchange crisis which has been playing havoc with the countrys economy And even more alarmingly the tourist situation is not likely to improve in the immediate future

Most of the hoteliers conceded that that occupancy of their hotels by foreign tourists has plunged Reinforcing the point further Mr Indra Arya of Sita World Travels said that dose to 40 per cent of the international tourists incoming bookings were cancelled between January and March this year

Ms Prema Nair information officer in the mi nistry of tourism said that there has been a rapid decline in tourist arrivals this season with few seen in tourist offices and fewer making enquiries at ministry counters

Accusing fingers should not be pointed at the Gulf war severa of them pointed out While Thailltlnd which is celebrating its tourism year is doing exceedingly

for india it has been an unmitigated disaster But the type of tourists who arrive in Thailand and the tourist attractions that it offers are different from those of India asserted Mr C R V Rao director in the ministry of tourism

Despite another tourist season coming up during September-December 1991 the immediate future of tourism looks bleak With the violence breaking out in places like jammu and Kashmir Delhi Assam and Punjab northern india had already been removed from the tourist map of all vsitors The violence which broke out on the basis of the Mandai commission report and the Ayodhya controversy further undermined the rourism potential that these places offered

The focus during the past couple of years had been to include south India into the foreign tourists itinerary Now sources in the ministry of tourism concede that the sprouting up of LfTE violence in Tamil Nadu couki result in south India also being erascd from the map of the foreign tourist

As it is India has jllst been a mere dot-on the world tourist mJp attracting a meagre 04 per cent of the 415 million world tourist traffic Consequently the country has been tapping just 06 per cent of the coossal US $230 billion globai tourism industrv Now things are turning out from bad to worse

THE TIMES OF INDiA 15 June 1991

tourism Consultancy

T he Union GCNernment had deCIded to set up 2 national-level consultancy organisation for tourism projEcts lvIr 0 ~~ Davar Chairman Industrial Finance Corporation of India said recentlv

The proposed organisation would baSically aim at assisting entrepreneurs to build a base of their own in the location of their choice

Pointing out that the IFCI and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI) would offer more assistance for non-conventiona activities in tourism sector he hoped that the Union government would give tourism its rightful status in the Eighth Five Year Plan

Speaking on the occasion TFCI Managing Di rLuor Mr Subramanyam stressed the need to tap projects other than those helping the hotel industry to strengthen tourism in the country The TFCI had assisted six tourism projects in Karnataka The Corporation was conducting astudy on levies on tourism-related industries in different state~ and their efforts on tourism growth he added

Mr Davar said the planned economy in the country had failed to meet the needs of the people and called for rebuilding tht de-Iegilated economy The market economy needs a different set-up approach and tools and the country

in that direction Noting that the stage is set for the globalisation of economy Mr DiNar

cautioned against working in isolation If we work in isolation in any field we will be left behind

DECCAN HERALD 23 June 1991

Hotel Demolished

The Goa Government displayed its might at Cobrawaddo Calangute yesterday morning when a 250-strong demolition squad began razing to the ground the two-storeyed Chalston Hotel on the basis that it is an

illegal construction falling within 200 metres of the High Tide Line The curiosity of the hundreds of people who rushed to the area turned to

remorse however when they observed the questionable manner in which the action was carried out not giving the owner sufficient time to salvage their property worth over Rs 50 lakh

Eye-witnesses said that the task force dealt with the furniture and furnishings in the most barbaric fashion throwing them out of the windows

Items like air-conditioners were also pushed out of the window The most noticeable items were the beds which lay heaped in the debris some split apart others completely disintegrated According to the owner the demolition started without adequate time being provided for retrieving their belongings The total loss was estimated at nearly Rs 2 crore

Government officials said that the hotel was a real gone case as no conversion of land was done no PDA permission was sought there was no access road and that the structure violated the 200 metre ban from HTL

The demolition work b~gan in the morning with a bang with the squad in an apparent hurry to destroy the building in a days time Such was their missionary zeal that they denied the owners the sought after three hours time to salvage all the furniture Caught in the wild confusao were the hotel guests including a Madrasi filming company who were residing there at the time They were running helter-skelter as much toSave their lives as their filming equipment

When contacted the officials said that they were simply executing gLlVernment orders given to them only the previous night The demolition was to be carried out last year they said but the exercise was put off for several reasons

Asked for his reactions secretary town planning R S Sethi stated that the hotel did not deserve the slightest mercy Much as he sympathized with them he wondered why they went ahead with the construction after their conversiorshygrant was withdrawn by the government in 1981 The notice for demolition was served last year

He pointed out that the case was studied in depth by the Goa Government and the Environment Ministry There was no way Chalston Hotel could escape the demolition he added

He ao stated that if the proprietor had any valid documents they could have produced them before the Town and Country Plannings Board meeting held last month

Sethi also claimed that it is a misconception that they were only clamping dOVln on medium class hotels he affirmed that justice would be meted out

to all defaulters GOMANTAK TIMES 14 April 1971

Womens Voice

The Goa womens collective Bailancho Saad has charged that the present national touri~m policy being augmented by the Visit India Year and similar programmes would lead to an economic disaster and destabilise

the social and physical environment of the country In a critique of plans for the year currently being observed the Goa-based

Saad said culture was being commerriaised to suit touristic needs while festivals were being celebrated out of their milieu and time Stereotypes and distorted images of different regions were also being created they said

Heliskiing or International sea-food festivals aimed at the elite were an outrage on a nation like ours

Pointing out that Kashmir has been left out of the tour routes for the 1991 - Visit India Year the Saad said this indicated the fickle nature of tounsm

Committee has made some positively dangerous proposals giving tax eontd on page 19 should channel its resources and re-ork~nt its policies and programmes DECCAN HERALD 31 May 1991

Travels in Five Tibets The Myth of Shangri-La Peter Bishop University of California Press

Berkeley 1990

Review by John Frederick

The Myth ofShangri-La by Peter Bishop who teaches at the South Australian College of Advanced Education is a study ofTibet in the collective imagination of the British over a 200-year period It is not a study of the land and people but of a collection of imaginalTibets products of the travel literature from 1771 to 1969

Imaginal places are common to every society They are created reformed and dissolved according to changing social religious and gea-political consciousness Kailas for South Asian Hindus EI Dorado for sixteenth-century

and the Island of Origin for Hawaiians They are lands invested with a peoples dreams and aspirations peace wealth pleasure sanctity They are spun into being by storytellers poets film-makers and travel writers Some places are contemporary some ancient in all reality is subordinated to fantasy The modern Asian myth of America fal and rich diplomas and videos dropping from the trees has little relation to the hard work iron streets and

shopping malls experienced by Americans themselves Westerners in their turn willingly ignore the cultural degradation behind the pai nted masks and palm trees

For Westerners Tibet has been one imaginal place among many the Andes the sources of the Nile the Arctic the European Alps Bishop has chosen his topic well The centuries from the entrance of the first modern British traveller in 1774 to the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959 coincided almost exactly with the rise and fall of European particularly British aspirations Bishops examination of primarily British travel writing is intended to be a window into the changing aspirations the soul of modern

There has been and still is no single Tibet in the Western imagination There have been asuccession - evolving declining contradicting each other Bishop chooses to delineate five with reasonable historical justification and is careful to note that within each a myriad of smaller Tibets are subsumed

In the first from 1773 to 1792 Tibet developed in the British imagination from an undefined geographicaI location to a place the rudiments of a literary landscape aesthetic formed and from disillusionment with Christianity and Western spiritual ity there began a fascination with the Tibetan style of Buddhism at once highly literate and rational patently idolatrous and mystical Following the Gurkha invasions ofTibet the country was closed to travellers Bishop shows how the recurrent inaccessibility ofTibet contributed to its creation as asacred place and sealed Western fantasies into an almost closed vessell

the next two Tibets from 1792 to 1875 few travellers managed to cross the borders Alrnpst none reached Lhasa The British Empire expanded and with it expanded its geo-political imagination Britain looked outward Nineteenth-century rationalism provided idealised images of coherence unification and identity (of foreign civilisations) which belied intense internal social fragmentation and conflict

With India and the rest of the Empirer the Himalaya was systemically surveyed Brian Hodgson made his immense study of the geology customs languages

and zoology of the Himalaya Joseph Hooker and other naturalists on the closed borders ofTibet recording the mountain landscaoe with

scientific precision The genre of travel writing was forming in some confusion Mid-century

Rationalism lay in a rumpled bed with the transcendent visions of emergent European Romanticism The genre found cohesion in the publication of the fourth volume of John Ruskins Modern Painters in 1854 at the peak of British mountain enthusiasm when the Alps were the focus of physical challenge and the Himalaya the focus of mountain fantasy Ruskins landscape aesthetic combined careful observation and precise description with a subdued unromantic evocation of the inner experience of the landscape With Ruskin says Bishop the modern literary relationship of man and the wilderness

During the closing years of the nineteenth century the fourth Tibet once again entered trom every direction lnU)~5 one British lournallst exclaimed Tibet may be said to be at present in a state of siegeRussian French and British explorers vied with each other to cross the cold plateau and enter

12

Lhasa Few succeeded but most wrote about the attempt and the sub-genre of Tibet travel writing was born British bookshops displayed an array of mythical landscapes noble heroic journeys mystical pilgrimages high adventure and ethnological fantasies Forbidden Lhasa and its God-King the Dalai Lama were the axis mundi of the sacred place

For Victorian travellers the world was closing in Tibec almost alone seemed untouched The increasing sense of global unity was accompanied by a realisation of global fragility destruction loss The deforestation of the Himalaya was already causing concern and sadness even at this early date But perhaps the deepest sense of loss as well asource of irritation was caused by mass tourism and its effect on the wild places of the world Those who had suffered the wind and cold of the Tibetan plateau thought themselves not incorrectly an elite They were explorers not tourists struggling with contradictory desires to explore the land and to keep it untouched to preserve in the world one last sacred place

Until the twentieth century the fifth Tibet there was an essential unity in the travel writers visions and thus in the British collective fantasy From 1904 to 1959 Bishop sees afragmentation of the fantasy into four quite distinct and contradictory imaginal places Different visions were inevitable as information about Tibet accumulated as western travel writing evolved and as the writers responded personally to the pain or the two World Wars and the Great Depression of the 19305

One Ti bet was descendant from the long fasci nation with Buddh ism the land of the lamas and mystical accomplishment the land of spiritual perfection in a debased world This vision was exemplified by Alexander David-Neel and to Bishops credit the scholar Giuseppe Tucci In contrast there was the realistic Tibet of Spencer Chapman and others - pictures of mundane everyday life uninquisitive and anti-religious

The other two Tibets of the twentieth century were in Bishops consideration the final dissolving forms of the cultural fantasy the conclusion of the growing changing vision which he had traced over 200 years In these Tibet the geographical reality was disassociated with Tibet the imaginal place In 1949 the American tourism writer Lowell Thomas and his son visited Lhasa Lowell Junior depOsited upon the world a model of the Tibetan tourism fantasy shycultural resonance historical depth and sensitivity to landscape had disappeared beneath cliches and expressions of naive amazement The other Tibet the

was fixed in the public imagination by James Hiltons immensely popular Lost Horizon published in 1933 duringthe Depression Lost Horizon dramatised the disilfusionment of the West its spiritual emptiness and fears of social disorder The perfect land of Shangri-La reflected acute Western longings peace righteousness psychic fulfillment The collective fantasy of Tibet had become abstract the land had disappeared

Even before the exit of the Dalai Lama and the dismantling of traditional society Tibet itself had ceased to be the locus of the Tibet rnyth Realism had turned on the house lights and bared the mysteries the tourism writers had reduced the noble and remarkable to the banal and the vision had removed Shangri-La from earth altogether Tibet had become In Bishops words Ian empty vessel

The Myth ofShangri-La is a book for academics It is extraordinarily rich in analyses but is somewhat corlfused by a hazy methodology based in archetypal psychology Bishop examines travel texts with tools from avariety of disciplines Each examination is valid and revealing but all are jumbled together analytical perspectives change from paragraph to paragraph with no apparent order This is unfortunate for the book is ikelydestined for graduate library stacks rather than the audience upon which it could have made a profound impact travel writers themselves

The tools of French de-constructionism are skillfully used to place the texts within appropriate geo-political social and psychological contexts Humanistic geography such as Bachelards and Lowenthals work on the perception of place and landscape illuminates the evolution of the landscape aesthetic in travel

Bishop charts the development of the Western fascination and later obsession with Tibetan Buddhism and Eastern spirituality with great skill His several-page definition of the art of travel writing should be required for every travei writer One wishes each of these studies were a separate monograph

The book stops abruptly with a cursory conclusive chapter as if Bishop [enid on page 19

9

Horrors Under the Carpet by lynne Reid Banks

Well our Indian carpets finally arrived-tw 0 of them in a big parcel made of sacking It turned out the merchant in Agra who sold them to us was not quite telling us the truth

He said that due to a benign dispensation of the British government who wished to help Indias export trade there would be nothing more to pay for the carpets which would be delivered to our door He didnt bother to mention

demurrage and handling charges which came to nearly d third of the price We could have got them almost as cheaply in a sale of Indian

carpets here in Britain-I saw some in Piccadilly last month And of (nurse if wed bought them here it would have been easier not to

think about how they were made When you buy them from the factory theres no question of that The Indian merchant is at no pains to hide the children from you in fact he very cheerfully takes you to see them seven years old and upward huge-eyed thin as reeds hands flashing at the looms You are shown them you watch them work you photograph rilem Then you go and choose your carpet So you cant claim you didnt know Theres absolutely no excuse

Why then did we buy acarpet made with child labour This is the question I have been addressing ever since I got back to England where I promptly fel foul of a friend who works for Anti-Slavery International He didnt reproach me at all he simply handed me some pamphlets One was actually called Crpel Boys of India Another was Child-slaves I read them and felt as if I were waking from a bad dream-the bad dream of a visit to India

This has been designated (by the India Tourist Board) Visit India Year advice to anyone who is looking for a happy carefree holidav from which will return unchanged is dont Dont go there

Dont listen to all the friends who will tell you how wonderful it is It isnt wonderful Its a nightmare The only way to enjoy it is the way resolutely closing your eyes to everything except its ambivalent attractions

The worker-children are happy look they are smiling They are full of mischief Oh yes see that little imp He iikes to pick my pockets ma-dam And thats his daddy there working with him they work as a family School Of course thats the law they spend half-days in school and of course sir if we didnt this skill thev would have nothing no future As it is they earn well

for a carpet that takes them three months to make pound no That seems too little But for them it is a good living

And by buying you heip India You help us gain self-sufficiency and prosperity Dangerous Well yes the tuft-cutters be careful Occasionally they cut their hands But it is than starving in the streets Now corne outside madam sir and se~ how the carpets are washed with a special secret chemical The colours will never fade are Cl treasure you will keep forever to remind you of India Only when corne home when you awake from your Third World trance in which your values became distorted and think about it do you realise how true that IS

When I read the oamohlets and I~arned howvfl wfgte deceived bYtiJt these children reary olt [hey die aeblshy

bonded imd exploited and wretchetl dfe t~leir conditions and prospects wondered despaiiingly would be able to spread them on my floor and heardly

had never bought them I hoped they might be 10SI n iransit But theyve come We paid the VAT and unpacked them and iaid them Oil

our living-room floor They are so beautiful Like the women in Rajasthan n the fields in their gorgeous colourful clothes Like the cun of nuts and seeds and fruits on baskets and barrows ~ke 11- erribroidcrv silverware the silks the jewellery the ravchnn you outside the tourist sites Like the Taj hidden price-tag

Thf VAT was nothing The real bill has not been (he re3i bill is th~l compare myself to a man who goes to Bangkok and has sex vvith a child prostitute and says Ifdidnt pay her she would starve If did~it use her someonef

else would Thats the way things work here Does that man who is not much worse now than I am wake up when he comes horneo his norma life and I ~ _ t ~ 1 ~ Imiddot r bull bull ~ r

liI~ IVlllodl ~~elern VclIUe clIIU trllllK Ueal jUU W~il Vdgt I li1IIKHI~ on I look at my carpet every day and that is what I ask

GUARDIAN WEEKLYS May 1991

Mushroom Menace by Boney Thomas

First we had hashi sh and marijuana Then came brCMn sugar and designer drugs Now preventive authorities have woken up to a menace more ominous the magic mushroom The new narcotic is

consumers at a dangerous pace among the youth of south India Found during the monsoons in the pine forests of Kodaikanal this relatively

unknown mushroom is fast becoming a much sought after commodity among addicts with the active connivance of the underworld

two good rain showers mushrooms sprout all over in the rich dark feet of tall pine trees in Kodaikanal Soon the underworld is busy

organising its gathering distribution and sale Tourist from allover - both domestic and foreign arrive to experience a trip from these mushrooms

]0 get adequately high addicts consume about 12 mushrooms It is consumed by beating it with eggs to make an omelette It is mixed with shakes Twelve mushrooms would induce a hallucinatory stupor lasting for four to seven hours depending on the physical strength of the consumer

A few years ago none at Kodaikanal had ever heard of these mushrooms It is believed that a Swedish tourist who spotted them made enquiries with peddlers They were ignorant of its potential until then Another theory about its discovery is that someone had unwittingly picked up a few narcotic mushrooms and discovered its high after preparing a dish

Now-a-days some restaurants at Kodaikanal serve food mixed with mushrooms on the sly to discerning customers

At first the sale of these mushrooms depended wholly on climatic conditions As the procurement of the mush rooms began and ended with the monsoons the sale was seasonal But with more and more locals and tourists taking to them efforts were made to preserve them in order to extend the scope of sales

Soon sun-dried mushrooms made their appearance in the drug market But this method of preservation was abandoned as dried mushrooms retained only half their narcotic effect and hence sold at half the price After much trial and erro~ honey was found to be abetter medium of preservation it did not reduce the narcotic effect at all This helped increase its sale and distribution to far off regions like Goa and Kovalam

these mushrooms are peddled on a large scale there has been no reports ot police having booked anyone for possessing them These mushrooms are collected by plantation workers and then transferred to professional drug peddlers who are protected by the underworld There are virtually no obstacles in carti ng away the mushrooms from the pine forests Most preventive officers are not trained to distinguish the magic mushrooms the hctrmless edible

Soon the monsoon season will arrive bringing droves tourists o

lltodaikanai in search of haliuClnatory trips with magic mushrooms avaiiable in a natUial state ther is a possibility into nnJgs through them

INDiAN aPRESS 15 June 1991

MORE TOUR5l5 VSITSTAtE HALE51D

Accordi~~ to th~ state10urism Dept mope frel~o t(lOPlsts haJe ISlted this state inan 1ast ~e8r Of the siKteen fcrei9oers who 11ave visited the state so far -this ~ear one was from PaKi5tan two were from Sri Lanka and foor from

All fOur from Nepal however were minor CHrIS WIt100t DdSSDorts ihe remaillioQ- 1 u- nine lOOIe Amne5t~lntep31i0n3 cf1iGidS ~ lije iJJe7tI

POllna~~nH[S Of sectNIDIA

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

10 11

Tourism in Goa Questions Persist Paul S Gonsalves

O verthe last 5 months a numberof articles on tourism in Goa by the travel-writer couple Hugh and Colleen Gantzer have been published in various newspapers Goa has witnessed resistance to tourism

development for nearly 5years and the Gantzer articles argue that the resistance is ill-founded even politically motivated

So far I have come across 6 such articles 3 in aGoan daily (Navhind Times) one in the Economic Times (21491) and 2 in the Indian Express (233 and 236)

The average newspaper reader in India has heard little of the resistance in Goa Indeed the romantic view of Goa holds good for most Indians and so if on reading the Gantzer pieces one is told that a bunch of local agitators have been up to no good why that must be so Can we visit Goa during the next vacation

It is not so much what the Gantzers state that is of concern rather than what they do not I will simply place afew facts on record and let the readers decide whether there is substance in the claims of the resistance

Firstly the people of Goa are not alone in opposing tourism The debate on Third World Tourism is more than 30 years old internationally A recent bibliography by Leo Theuns (1991) lists 2166 entries until 7984 And the debate has become sharper in the years thence So has the resistance The Gantzers themselves gave an indication of this (increasing resistance) and the reasons thereof in ~n article in early 1989 The tourism industryS growing concern with uncontrolled tourism development in fragile socio-ecosystems brought forth platitudinous assurances from tourism planners But when they did nothing irate citizens reacted against such destructive development~ there is no sign from the Ministry (of Tourism) that the message has been heard and acted upon In 1989 such movements against unplanned tourism are likely to grow (Indian Express 10189)

While stating the positive co-relation between tourism and environment the Gantzers cite the examples of Sweden and Singapore India has neither the economic resources nor the political-legal mechanisms that both these countries have used to achieve a balance In fact while we might admire the peace and prosperity of our Th ird World neighbour Singapore there are many who wou Id decry the draconian laws which have made it so

Perhaps tourism can be positively integrated with environmental concerns even in Goa The point that the anti-tourism activists are at pains to make is that if tourism continues to grow (especialiy in the form of hotels and other coastal constructions) at its present rate in Goa very soon there will be no environment left for it to integrate with Again to quote an observation of the Gantzers in 1990 apprehensions thatthe Himachal board or tourism woulrl find ways to help hoteliers rather than tourists has cometrue it has not shown the remotest concern at the deteriorating environment (in Shimla and Manali)Jhere are other instances of the use of tourism to destroy the envi ronment wh ich attracts tourists in the fi rst place UP i particularly short~ sighted and viciousAnd so our beaches and mountains and other natural resources are in danger of being destroyed by crimina act and culpable negligence with the open connivance ofadministrators and politicians (Indian Express 9690)

The June 26th article suggests that the blame for Goas problems should be laid at the doorstep of a weak (local) government and short-sighted agitators not tourism A basic issue stated by the agitators is that it is Central tourism policy which has led to this state of affairs today policy geared to liberalisation without checks and controls A policy geared to maximise foreign investment without let or hindrance A policy which is in no sense a tourism policy but more precisely a hotel policy

As the Gantzers have had occasion to say ls we anticipated when (the National Committee on Tourism) was set up with a heavy bias towards hotels and hoteliers it has tended to confuse the interest of the hotels with those of tourism in general the Committee recommends the setting up of aTourism Finance Corporation when wpat they rfally hilvf in mind is a Hotel Finance Corporation The obvious obsession with this one segment of the tourism industry will make it suspect in the eyes of others But that isnt all The

INDIA ~

concessions and investment subsidies to all areas of high tourism interest will destroy every hill resort Developers will rush in and violate every rule ravage the ecology and leave despoiled mountains in their wake And indeed such developers are wreaking havoc even today (Indian Express 3181988)

Needless to add to date there have been no published studies of the carrying cClpacity of Indian tourism destinations leave alone environmental impact assessments If national tourism policy is implemented without defining external boundaries (that such studies can help establish) it is inevitable that environmental destruction will follow as predicted by the Gantzers in 1988

Although the recent articles castigate the agitators for not havi ng stati stical evidence for their claims there are at least two reports which lay a strong evidential basis (apart from the many documents published by those in the resistance) Harm Zebregs in his draft report of tourism and Goan economy (based on 3 months of field research in Goa) concludes that the earnings and employment projections of the industry are questionable Menezes and Lobo in a report of over 100 pages detail the corruption irregularities and malpractises in Goan tourism (Miriithu London 1991) And since the Ministry of Environment (under Mrs Maneka Gandhi) and the Bombay High Court have on occasion upheld the view that certain hotels have violated the law surely the Gantzers ought to castigate the arms of government as well

Moreover it is hardly essential in all matters of life to seek an evidential basis We are human beings and we can see and hear and feel and experience We do not need to read the Wholesale Price Index on a daily basis to realise that inflation is upon us

The Gantzers ridicule Bailancho Saad (a womens group) and others fortheir fear that tourism will lead to sexual exploitation of their women Why do such agitationists have such a low opinion of their women~ they query They quote a charming Thai lady who cannot understand why Indians do not accept extra-marital affairs as awomans right and suggest that what is okay in Thai land ought to be okay in India

However the issue is dearly not extra-maritai sex whether or not it is okay It is one of prostitution and its accompanying threat AIDS Perhaps we should also hear from another Thai pergton Mechai Viravaidya a well-known AIDS activist and now Minister of Tourism When the figures are projected to the entire Thai population a conservative estimate is 125000 HIV-positive individuals more than the total number of hospital beds in Thailand Estimates go as high as 400000 partly because no one can agree on the number of prostitutes in Thailand Surveys of commercial sex workers show that 40 to 72 percent of them were HIV-positive

Government and business hesitate to confront the linkage between AIDS and Thailands prostitution problem because it threatens tourist spending Hopefully with people like Dr Viravaidya at the helm of affairs Thailand ill avert a major tragedy one which threatens not just the tourism industry but Thai society itself Whatever choices Thailand makes for itself it is hardly an example India should emulate

And these fears are not entirely unfounded early this year Goan police uncovered a child prostitution racket in Margoa run by a Dr Freddy Peat with alleged international connections The similarity between this and the tv1ark Morgan affair in Thailand (which carne to light in 1989) are striking not least for their linkages with tourism

Prostitution is not the same as a casual extra-marital affair It is born out of economic need and fuelled by amarket demand Nobody claims that tourism is the only calise of prostitution but it certainly provides an environment for the demand to be expressed (by male and female travellers) and met without SOCIal restriction The social and economic status of Indian women by and large is such that tourism-led prostitution is a distinct possibility If it exists in

News amp Views

New Low

T he tourism industry is in a major panic as foreign tourist arrivals have taken an unprecedented plunge during the much trumpeted Visit India Year During the last six months it is estimated that the foreign tourist

arrivals have dropped by astaggering 40 per cent reducing the foreign currenlY brought in by close to Rs 1000 crore

This wili prove a body blow to the balance of payments situation and further aggravate the foreign exchange crisis which has been playing havoc with the countrys economy And even more alarmingly the tourist situation is not likely to improve in the immediate future

Most of the hoteliers conceded that that occupancy of their hotels by foreign tourists has plunged Reinforcing the point further Mr Indra Arya of Sita World Travels said that dose to 40 per cent of the international tourists incoming bookings were cancelled between January and March this year

Ms Prema Nair information officer in the mi nistry of tourism said that there has been a rapid decline in tourist arrivals this season with few seen in tourist offices and fewer making enquiries at ministry counters

Accusing fingers should not be pointed at the Gulf war severa of them pointed out While Thailltlnd which is celebrating its tourism year is doing exceedingly

for india it has been an unmitigated disaster But the type of tourists who arrive in Thailand and the tourist attractions that it offers are different from those of India asserted Mr C R V Rao director in the ministry of tourism

Despite another tourist season coming up during September-December 1991 the immediate future of tourism looks bleak With the violence breaking out in places like jammu and Kashmir Delhi Assam and Punjab northern india had already been removed from the tourist map of all vsitors The violence which broke out on the basis of the Mandai commission report and the Ayodhya controversy further undermined the rourism potential that these places offered

The focus during the past couple of years had been to include south India into the foreign tourists itinerary Now sources in the ministry of tourism concede that the sprouting up of LfTE violence in Tamil Nadu couki result in south India also being erascd from the map of the foreign tourist

As it is India has jllst been a mere dot-on the world tourist mJp attracting a meagre 04 per cent of the 415 million world tourist traffic Consequently the country has been tapping just 06 per cent of the coossal US $230 billion globai tourism industrv Now things are turning out from bad to worse

THE TIMES OF INDiA 15 June 1991

tourism Consultancy

T he Union GCNernment had deCIded to set up 2 national-level consultancy organisation for tourism projEcts lvIr 0 ~~ Davar Chairman Industrial Finance Corporation of India said recentlv

The proposed organisation would baSically aim at assisting entrepreneurs to build a base of their own in the location of their choice

Pointing out that the IFCI and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI) would offer more assistance for non-conventiona activities in tourism sector he hoped that the Union government would give tourism its rightful status in the Eighth Five Year Plan

Speaking on the occasion TFCI Managing Di rLuor Mr Subramanyam stressed the need to tap projects other than those helping the hotel industry to strengthen tourism in the country The TFCI had assisted six tourism projects in Karnataka The Corporation was conducting astudy on levies on tourism-related industries in different state~ and their efforts on tourism growth he added

Mr Davar said the planned economy in the country had failed to meet the needs of the people and called for rebuilding tht de-Iegilated economy The market economy needs a different set-up approach and tools and the country

in that direction Noting that the stage is set for the globalisation of economy Mr DiNar

cautioned against working in isolation If we work in isolation in any field we will be left behind

DECCAN HERALD 23 June 1991

Hotel Demolished

The Goa Government displayed its might at Cobrawaddo Calangute yesterday morning when a 250-strong demolition squad began razing to the ground the two-storeyed Chalston Hotel on the basis that it is an

illegal construction falling within 200 metres of the High Tide Line The curiosity of the hundreds of people who rushed to the area turned to

remorse however when they observed the questionable manner in which the action was carried out not giving the owner sufficient time to salvage their property worth over Rs 50 lakh

Eye-witnesses said that the task force dealt with the furniture and furnishings in the most barbaric fashion throwing them out of the windows

Items like air-conditioners were also pushed out of the window The most noticeable items were the beds which lay heaped in the debris some split apart others completely disintegrated According to the owner the demolition started without adequate time being provided for retrieving their belongings The total loss was estimated at nearly Rs 2 crore

Government officials said that the hotel was a real gone case as no conversion of land was done no PDA permission was sought there was no access road and that the structure violated the 200 metre ban from HTL

The demolition work b~gan in the morning with a bang with the squad in an apparent hurry to destroy the building in a days time Such was their missionary zeal that they denied the owners the sought after three hours time to salvage all the furniture Caught in the wild confusao were the hotel guests including a Madrasi filming company who were residing there at the time They were running helter-skelter as much toSave their lives as their filming equipment

When contacted the officials said that they were simply executing gLlVernment orders given to them only the previous night The demolition was to be carried out last year they said but the exercise was put off for several reasons

Asked for his reactions secretary town planning R S Sethi stated that the hotel did not deserve the slightest mercy Much as he sympathized with them he wondered why they went ahead with the construction after their conversiorshygrant was withdrawn by the government in 1981 The notice for demolition was served last year

He pointed out that the case was studied in depth by the Goa Government and the Environment Ministry There was no way Chalston Hotel could escape the demolition he added

He ao stated that if the proprietor had any valid documents they could have produced them before the Town and Country Plannings Board meeting held last month

Sethi also claimed that it is a misconception that they were only clamping dOVln on medium class hotels he affirmed that justice would be meted out

to all defaulters GOMANTAK TIMES 14 April 1971

Womens Voice

The Goa womens collective Bailancho Saad has charged that the present national touri~m policy being augmented by the Visit India Year and similar programmes would lead to an economic disaster and destabilise

the social and physical environment of the country In a critique of plans for the year currently being observed the Goa-based

Saad said culture was being commerriaised to suit touristic needs while festivals were being celebrated out of their milieu and time Stereotypes and distorted images of different regions were also being created they said

Heliskiing or International sea-food festivals aimed at the elite were an outrage on a nation like ours

Pointing out that Kashmir has been left out of the tour routes for the 1991 - Visit India Year the Saad said this indicated the fickle nature of tounsm

Committee has made some positively dangerous proposals giving tax eontd on page 19 should channel its resources and re-ork~nt its policies and programmes DECCAN HERALD 31 May 1991

10 11

Tourism in Goa Questions Persist Paul S Gonsalves

O verthe last 5 months a numberof articles on tourism in Goa by the travel-writer couple Hugh and Colleen Gantzer have been published in various newspapers Goa has witnessed resistance to tourism

development for nearly 5years and the Gantzer articles argue that the resistance is ill-founded even politically motivated

So far I have come across 6 such articles 3 in aGoan daily (Navhind Times) one in the Economic Times (21491) and 2 in the Indian Express (233 and 236)

The average newspaper reader in India has heard little of the resistance in Goa Indeed the romantic view of Goa holds good for most Indians and so if on reading the Gantzer pieces one is told that a bunch of local agitators have been up to no good why that must be so Can we visit Goa during the next vacation

It is not so much what the Gantzers state that is of concern rather than what they do not I will simply place afew facts on record and let the readers decide whether there is substance in the claims of the resistance

Firstly the people of Goa are not alone in opposing tourism The debate on Third World Tourism is more than 30 years old internationally A recent bibliography by Leo Theuns (1991) lists 2166 entries until 7984 And the debate has become sharper in the years thence So has the resistance The Gantzers themselves gave an indication of this (increasing resistance) and the reasons thereof in ~n article in early 1989 The tourism industryS growing concern with uncontrolled tourism development in fragile socio-ecosystems brought forth platitudinous assurances from tourism planners But when they did nothing irate citizens reacted against such destructive development~ there is no sign from the Ministry (of Tourism) that the message has been heard and acted upon In 1989 such movements against unplanned tourism are likely to grow (Indian Express 10189)

While stating the positive co-relation between tourism and environment the Gantzers cite the examples of Sweden and Singapore India has neither the economic resources nor the political-legal mechanisms that both these countries have used to achieve a balance In fact while we might admire the peace and prosperity of our Th ird World neighbour Singapore there are many who wou Id decry the draconian laws which have made it so

Perhaps tourism can be positively integrated with environmental concerns even in Goa The point that the anti-tourism activists are at pains to make is that if tourism continues to grow (especialiy in the form of hotels and other coastal constructions) at its present rate in Goa very soon there will be no environment left for it to integrate with Again to quote an observation of the Gantzers in 1990 apprehensions thatthe Himachal board or tourism woulrl find ways to help hoteliers rather than tourists has cometrue it has not shown the remotest concern at the deteriorating environment (in Shimla and Manali)Jhere are other instances of the use of tourism to destroy the envi ronment wh ich attracts tourists in the fi rst place UP i particularly short~ sighted and viciousAnd so our beaches and mountains and other natural resources are in danger of being destroyed by crimina act and culpable negligence with the open connivance ofadministrators and politicians (Indian Express 9690)

The June 26th article suggests that the blame for Goas problems should be laid at the doorstep of a weak (local) government and short-sighted agitators not tourism A basic issue stated by the agitators is that it is Central tourism policy which has led to this state of affairs today policy geared to liberalisation without checks and controls A policy geared to maximise foreign investment without let or hindrance A policy which is in no sense a tourism policy but more precisely a hotel policy

As the Gantzers have had occasion to say ls we anticipated when (the National Committee on Tourism) was set up with a heavy bias towards hotels and hoteliers it has tended to confuse the interest of the hotels with those of tourism in general the Committee recommends the setting up of aTourism Finance Corporation when wpat they rfally hilvf in mind is a Hotel Finance Corporation The obvious obsession with this one segment of the tourism industry will make it suspect in the eyes of others But that isnt all The

INDIA ~

concessions and investment subsidies to all areas of high tourism interest will destroy every hill resort Developers will rush in and violate every rule ravage the ecology and leave despoiled mountains in their wake And indeed such developers are wreaking havoc even today (Indian Express 3181988)

Needless to add to date there have been no published studies of the carrying cClpacity of Indian tourism destinations leave alone environmental impact assessments If national tourism policy is implemented without defining external boundaries (that such studies can help establish) it is inevitable that environmental destruction will follow as predicted by the Gantzers in 1988

Although the recent articles castigate the agitators for not havi ng stati stical evidence for their claims there are at least two reports which lay a strong evidential basis (apart from the many documents published by those in the resistance) Harm Zebregs in his draft report of tourism and Goan economy (based on 3 months of field research in Goa) concludes that the earnings and employment projections of the industry are questionable Menezes and Lobo in a report of over 100 pages detail the corruption irregularities and malpractises in Goan tourism (Miriithu London 1991) And since the Ministry of Environment (under Mrs Maneka Gandhi) and the Bombay High Court have on occasion upheld the view that certain hotels have violated the law surely the Gantzers ought to castigate the arms of government as well

Moreover it is hardly essential in all matters of life to seek an evidential basis We are human beings and we can see and hear and feel and experience We do not need to read the Wholesale Price Index on a daily basis to realise that inflation is upon us

The Gantzers ridicule Bailancho Saad (a womens group) and others fortheir fear that tourism will lead to sexual exploitation of their women Why do such agitationists have such a low opinion of their women~ they query They quote a charming Thai lady who cannot understand why Indians do not accept extra-marital affairs as awomans right and suggest that what is okay in Thai land ought to be okay in India

However the issue is dearly not extra-maritai sex whether or not it is okay It is one of prostitution and its accompanying threat AIDS Perhaps we should also hear from another Thai pergton Mechai Viravaidya a well-known AIDS activist and now Minister of Tourism When the figures are projected to the entire Thai population a conservative estimate is 125000 HIV-positive individuals more than the total number of hospital beds in Thailand Estimates go as high as 400000 partly because no one can agree on the number of prostitutes in Thailand Surveys of commercial sex workers show that 40 to 72 percent of them were HIV-positive

Government and business hesitate to confront the linkage between AIDS and Thailands prostitution problem because it threatens tourist spending Hopefully with people like Dr Viravaidya at the helm of affairs Thailand ill avert a major tragedy one which threatens not just the tourism industry but Thai society itself Whatever choices Thailand makes for itself it is hardly an example India should emulate

And these fears are not entirely unfounded early this year Goan police uncovered a child prostitution racket in Margoa run by a Dr Freddy Peat with alleged international connections The similarity between this and the tv1ark Morgan affair in Thailand (which carne to light in 1989) are striking not least for their linkages with tourism

Prostitution is not the same as a casual extra-marital affair It is born out of economic need and fuelled by amarket demand Nobody claims that tourism is the only calise of prostitution but it certainly provides an environment for the demand to be expressed (by male and female travellers) and met without SOCIal restriction The social and economic status of Indian women by and large is such that tourism-led prostitution is a distinct possibility If it exists in

News amp Views

New Low

T he tourism industry is in a major panic as foreign tourist arrivals have taken an unprecedented plunge during the much trumpeted Visit India Year During the last six months it is estimated that the foreign tourist

arrivals have dropped by astaggering 40 per cent reducing the foreign currenlY brought in by close to Rs 1000 crore

This wili prove a body blow to the balance of payments situation and further aggravate the foreign exchange crisis which has been playing havoc with the countrys economy And even more alarmingly the tourist situation is not likely to improve in the immediate future

Most of the hoteliers conceded that that occupancy of their hotels by foreign tourists has plunged Reinforcing the point further Mr Indra Arya of Sita World Travels said that dose to 40 per cent of the international tourists incoming bookings were cancelled between January and March this year

Ms Prema Nair information officer in the mi nistry of tourism said that there has been a rapid decline in tourist arrivals this season with few seen in tourist offices and fewer making enquiries at ministry counters

Accusing fingers should not be pointed at the Gulf war severa of them pointed out While Thailltlnd which is celebrating its tourism year is doing exceedingly

for india it has been an unmitigated disaster But the type of tourists who arrive in Thailand and the tourist attractions that it offers are different from those of India asserted Mr C R V Rao director in the ministry of tourism

Despite another tourist season coming up during September-December 1991 the immediate future of tourism looks bleak With the violence breaking out in places like jammu and Kashmir Delhi Assam and Punjab northern india had already been removed from the tourist map of all vsitors The violence which broke out on the basis of the Mandai commission report and the Ayodhya controversy further undermined the rourism potential that these places offered

The focus during the past couple of years had been to include south India into the foreign tourists itinerary Now sources in the ministry of tourism concede that the sprouting up of LfTE violence in Tamil Nadu couki result in south India also being erascd from the map of the foreign tourist

As it is India has jllst been a mere dot-on the world tourist mJp attracting a meagre 04 per cent of the 415 million world tourist traffic Consequently the country has been tapping just 06 per cent of the coossal US $230 billion globai tourism industrv Now things are turning out from bad to worse

THE TIMES OF INDiA 15 June 1991

tourism Consultancy

T he Union GCNernment had deCIded to set up 2 national-level consultancy organisation for tourism projEcts lvIr 0 ~~ Davar Chairman Industrial Finance Corporation of India said recentlv

The proposed organisation would baSically aim at assisting entrepreneurs to build a base of their own in the location of their choice

Pointing out that the IFCI and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI) would offer more assistance for non-conventiona activities in tourism sector he hoped that the Union government would give tourism its rightful status in the Eighth Five Year Plan

Speaking on the occasion TFCI Managing Di rLuor Mr Subramanyam stressed the need to tap projects other than those helping the hotel industry to strengthen tourism in the country The TFCI had assisted six tourism projects in Karnataka The Corporation was conducting astudy on levies on tourism-related industries in different state~ and their efforts on tourism growth he added

Mr Davar said the planned economy in the country had failed to meet the needs of the people and called for rebuilding tht de-Iegilated economy The market economy needs a different set-up approach and tools and the country

in that direction Noting that the stage is set for the globalisation of economy Mr DiNar

cautioned against working in isolation If we work in isolation in any field we will be left behind

DECCAN HERALD 23 June 1991

Hotel Demolished

The Goa Government displayed its might at Cobrawaddo Calangute yesterday morning when a 250-strong demolition squad began razing to the ground the two-storeyed Chalston Hotel on the basis that it is an

illegal construction falling within 200 metres of the High Tide Line The curiosity of the hundreds of people who rushed to the area turned to

remorse however when they observed the questionable manner in which the action was carried out not giving the owner sufficient time to salvage their property worth over Rs 50 lakh

Eye-witnesses said that the task force dealt with the furniture and furnishings in the most barbaric fashion throwing them out of the windows

Items like air-conditioners were also pushed out of the window The most noticeable items were the beds which lay heaped in the debris some split apart others completely disintegrated According to the owner the demolition started without adequate time being provided for retrieving their belongings The total loss was estimated at nearly Rs 2 crore

Government officials said that the hotel was a real gone case as no conversion of land was done no PDA permission was sought there was no access road and that the structure violated the 200 metre ban from HTL

The demolition work b~gan in the morning with a bang with the squad in an apparent hurry to destroy the building in a days time Such was their missionary zeal that they denied the owners the sought after three hours time to salvage all the furniture Caught in the wild confusao were the hotel guests including a Madrasi filming company who were residing there at the time They were running helter-skelter as much toSave their lives as their filming equipment

When contacted the officials said that they were simply executing gLlVernment orders given to them only the previous night The demolition was to be carried out last year they said but the exercise was put off for several reasons

Asked for his reactions secretary town planning R S Sethi stated that the hotel did not deserve the slightest mercy Much as he sympathized with them he wondered why they went ahead with the construction after their conversiorshygrant was withdrawn by the government in 1981 The notice for demolition was served last year

He pointed out that the case was studied in depth by the Goa Government and the Environment Ministry There was no way Chalston Hotel could escape the demolition he added

He ao stated that if the proprietor had any valid documents they could have produced them before the Town and Country Plannings Board meeting held last month

Sethi also claimed that it is a misconception that they were only clamping dOVln on medium class hotels he affirmed that justice would be meted out

to all defaulters GOMANTAK TIMES 14 April 1971

Womens Voice

The Goa womens collective Bailancho Saad has charged that the present national touri~m policy being augmented by the Visit India Year and similar programmes would lead to an economic disaster and destabilise

the social and physical environment of the country In a critique of plans for the year currently being observed the Goa-based

Saad said culture was being commerriaised to suit touristic needs while festivals were being celebrated out of their milieu and time Stereotypes and distorted images of different regions were also being created they said

Heliskiing or International sea-food festivals aimed at the elite were an outrage on a nation like ours

Pointing out that Kashmir has been left out of the tour routes for the 1991 - Visit India Year the Saad said this indicated the fickle nature of tounsm

Committee has made some positively dangerous proposals giving tax eontd on page 19 should channel its resources and re-ork~nt its policies and programmes DECCAN HERALD 31 May 1991

Travels in Five Tibets The Myth of Shangri-La Peter Bishop University of California Press

Berkeley 1990

Review by John Frederick

The Myth ofShangri-La by Peter Bishop who teaches at the South Australian College of Advanced Education is a study ofTibet in the collective imagination of the British over a 200-year period It is not a study of the land and people but of a collection of imaginalTibets products of the travel literature from 1771 to 1969

Imaginal places are common to every society They are created reformed and dissolved according to changing social religious and gea-political consciousness Kailas for South Asian Hindus EI Dorado for sixteenth-century

and the Island of Origin for Hawaiians They are lands invested with a peoples dreams and aspirations peace wealth pleasure sanctity They are spun into being by storytellers poets film-makers and travel writers Some places are contemporary some ancient in all reality is subordinated to fantasy The modern Asian myth of America fal and rich diplomas and videos dropping from the trees has little relation to the hard work iron streets and

shopping malls experienced by Americans themselves Westerners in their turn willingly ignore the cultural degradation behind the pai nted masks and palm trees

For Westerners Tibet has been one imaginal place among many the Andes the sources of the Nile the Arctic the European Alps Bishop has chosen his topic well The centuries from the entrance of the first modern British traveller in 1774 to the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959 coincided almost exactly with the rise and fall of European particularly British aspirations Bishops examination of primarily British travel writing is intended to be a window into the changing aspirations the soul of modern

There has been and still is no single Tibet in the Western imagination There have been asuccession - evolving declining contradicting each other Bishop chooses to delineate five with reasonable historical justification and is careful to note that within each a myriad of smaller Tibets are subsumed

In the first from 1773 to 1792 Tibet developed in the British imagination from an undefined geographicaI location to a place the rudiments of a literary landscape aesthetic formed and from disillusionment with Christianity and Western spiritual ity there began a fascination with the Tibetan style of Buddhism at once highly literate and rational patently idolatrous and mystical Following the Gurkha invasions ofTibet the country was closed to travellers Bishop shows how the recurrent inaccessibility ofTibet contributed to its creation as asacred place and sealed Western fantasies into an almost closed vessell

the next two Tibets from 1792 to 1875 few travellers managed to cross the borders Alrnpst none reached Lhasa The British Empire expanded and with it expanded its geo-political imagination Britain looked outward Nineteenth-century rationalism provided idealised images of coherence unification and identity (of foreign civilisations) which belied intense internal social fragmentation and conflict

With India and the rest of the Empirer the Himalaya was systemically surveyed Brian Hodgson made his immense study of the geology customs languages

and zoology of the Himalaya Joseph Hooker and other naturalists on the closed borders ofTibet recording the mountain landscaoe with

scientific precision The genre of travel writing was forming in some confusion Mid-century

Rationalism lay in a rumpled bed with the transcendent visions of emergent European Romanticism The genre found cohesion in the publication of the fourth volume of John Ruskins Modern Painters in 1854 at the peak of British mountain enthusiasm when the Alps were the focus of physical challenge and the Himalaya the focus of mountain fantasy Ruskins landscape aesthetic combined careful observation and precise description with a subdued unromantic evocation of the inner experience of the landscape With Ruskin says Bishop the modern literary relationship of man and the wilderness

During the closing years of the nineteenth century the fourth Tibet once again entered trom every direction lnU)~5 one British lournallst exclaimed Tibet may be said to be at present in a state of siegeRussian French and British explorers vied with each other to cross the cold plateau and enter

12

Lhasa Few succeeded but most wrote about the attempt and the sub-genre of Tibet travel writing was born British bookshops displayed an array of mythical landscapes noble heroic journeys mystical pilgrimages high adventure and ethnological fantasies Forbidden Lhasa and its God-King the Dalai Lama were the axis mundi of the sacred place

For Victorian travellers the world was closing in Tibec almost alone seemed untouched The increasing sense of global unity was accompanied by a realisation of global fragility destruction loss The deforestation of the Himalaya was already causing concern and sadness even at this early date But perhaps the deepest sense of loss as well asource of irritation was caused by mass tourism and its effect on the wild places of the world Those who had suffered the wind and cold of the Tibetan plateau thought themselves not incorrectly an elite They were explorers not tourists struggling with contradictory desires to explore the land and to keep it untouched to preserve in the world one last sacred place

Until the twentieth century the fifth Tibet there was an essential unity in the travel writers visions and thus in the British collective fantasy From 1904 to 1959 Bishop sees afragmentation of the fantasy into four quite distinct and contradictory imaginal places Different visions were inevitable as information about Tibet accumulated as western travel writing evolved and as the writers responded personally to the pain or the two World Wars and the Great Depression of the 19305

One Ti bet was descendant from the long fasci nation with Buddh ism the land of the lamas and mystical accomplishment the land of spiritual perfection in a debased world This vision was exemplified by Alexander David-Neel and to Bishops credit the scholar Giuseppe Tucci In contrast there was the realistic Tibet of Spencer Chapman and others - pictures of mundane everyday life uninquisitive and anti-religious

The other two Tibets of the twentieth century were in Bishops consideration the final dissolving forms of the cultural fantasy the conclusion of the growing changing vision which he had traced over 200 years In these Tibet the geographical reality was disassociated with Tibet the imaginal place In 1949 the American tourism writer Lowell Thomas and his son visited Lhasa Lowell Junior depOsited upon the world a model of the Tibetan tourism fantasy shycultural resonance historical depth and sensitivity to landscape had disappeared beneath cliches and expressions of naive amazement The other Tibet the

was fixed in the public imagination by James Hiltons immensely popular Lost Horizon published in 1933 duringthe Depression Lost Horizon dramatised the disilfusionment of the West its spiritual emptiness and fears of social disorder The perfect land of Shangri-La reflected acute Western longings peace righteousness psychic fulfillment The collective fantasy of Tibet had become abstract the land had disappeared

Even before the exit of the Dalai Lama and the dismantling of traditional society Tibet itself had ceased to be the locus of the Tibet rnyth Realism had turned on the house lights and bared the mysteries the tourism writers had reduced the noble and remarkable to the banal and the vision had removed Shangri-La from earth altogether Tibet had become In Bishops words Ian empty vessel

The Myth ofShangri-La is a book for academics It is extraordinarily rich in analyses but is somewhat corlfused by a hazy methodology based in archetypal psychology Bishop examines travel texts with tools from avariety of disciplines Each examination is valid and revealing but all are jumbled together analytical perspectives change from paragraph to paragraph with no apparent order This is unfortunate for the book is ikelydestined for graduate library stacks rather than the audience upon which it could have made a profound impact travel writers themselves

The tools of French de-constructionism are skillfully used to place the texts within appropriate geo-political social and psychological contexts Humanistic geography such as Bachelards and Lowenthals work on the perception of place and landscape illuminates the evolution of the landscape aesthetic in travel

Bishop charts the development of the Western fascination and later obsession with Tibetan Buddhism and Eastern spirituality with great skill His several-page definition of the art of travel writing should be required for every travei writer One wishes each of these studies were a separate monograph

The book stops abruptly with a cursory conclusive chapter as if Bishop [enid on page 19

9

Horrors Under the Carpet by lynne Reid Banks

Well our Indian carpets finally arrived-tw 0 of them in a big parcel made of sacking It turned out the merchant in Agra who sold them to us was not quite telling us the truth

He said that due to a benign dispensation of the British government who wished to help Indias export trade there would be nothing more to pay for the carpets which would be delivered to our door He didnt bother to mention

demurrage and handling charges which came to nearly d third of the price We could have got them almost as cheaply in a sale of Indian

carpets here in Britain-I saw some in Piccadilly last month And of (nurse if wed bought them here it would have been easier not to

think about how they were made When you buy them from the factory theres no question of that The Indian merchant is at no pains to hide the children from you in fact he very cheerfully takes you to see them seven years old and upward huge-eyed thin as reeds hands flashing at the looms You are shown them you watch them work you photograph rilem Then you go and choose your carpet So you cant claim you didnt know Theres absolutely no excuse

Why then did we buy acarpet made with child labour This is the question I have been addressing ever since I got back to England where I promptly fel foul of a friend who works for Anti-Slavery International He didnt reproach me at all he simply handed me some pamphlets One was actually called Crpel Boys of India Another was Child-slaves I read them and felt as if I were waking from a bad dream-the bad dream of a visit to India

This has been designated (by the India Tourist Board) Visit India Year advice to anyone who is looking for a happy carefree holidav from which will return unchanged is dont Dont go there

Dont listen to all the friends who will tell you how wonderful it is It isnt wonderful Its a nightmare The only way to enjoy it is the way resolutely closing your eyes to everything except its ambivalent attractions

The worker-children are happy look they are smiling They are full of mischief Oh yes see that little imp He iikes to pick my pockets ma-dam And thats his daddy there working with him they work as a family School Of course thats the law they spend half-days in school and of course sir if we didnt this skill thev would have nothing no future As it is they earn well

for a carpet that takes them three months to make pound no That seems too little But for them it is a good living

And by buying you heip India You help us gain self-sufficiency and prosperity Dangerous Well yes the tuft-cutters be careful Occasionally they cut their hands But it is than starving in the streets Now corne outside madam sir and se~ how the carpets are washed with a special secret chemical The colours will never fade are Cl treasure you will keep forever to remind you of India Only when corne home when you awake from your Third World trance in which your values became distorted and think about it do you realise how true that IS

When I read the oamohlets and I~arned howvfl wfgte deceived bYtiJt these children reary olt [hey die aeblshy

bonded imd exploited and wretchetl dfe t~leir conditions and prospects wondered despaiiingly would be able to spread them on my floor and heardly

had never bought them I hoped they might be 10SI n iransit But theyve come We paid the VAT and unpacked them and iaid them Oil

our living-room floor They are so beautiful Like the women in Rajasthan n the fields in their gorgeous colourful clothes Like the cun of nuts and seeds and fruits on baskets and barrows ~ke 11- erribroidcrv silverware the silks the jewellery the ravchnn you outside the tourist sites Like the Taj hidden price-tag

Thf VAT was nothing The real bill has not been (he re3i bill is th~l compare myself to a man who goes to Bangkok and has sex vvith a child prostitute and says Ifdidnt pay her she would starve If did~it use her someonef

else would Thats the way things work here Does that man who is not much worse now than I am wake up when he comes horneo his norma life and I ~ _ t ~ 1 ~ Imiddot r bull bull ~ r

liI~ IVlllodl ~~elern VclIUe clIIU trllllK Ueal jUU W~il Vdgt I li1IIKHI~ on I look at my carpet every day and that is what I ask

GUARDIAN WEEKLYS May 1991

Mushroom Menace by Boney Thomas

First we had hashi sh and marijuana Then came brCMn sugar and designer drugs Now preventive authorities have woken up to a menace more ominous the magic mushroom The new narcotic is

consumers at a dangerous pace among the youth of south India Found during the monsoons in the pine forests of Kodaikanal this relatively

unknown mushroom is fast becoming a much sought after commodity among addicts with the active connivance of the underworld

two good rain showers mushrooms sprout all over in the rich dark feet of tall pine trees in Kodaikanal Soon the underworld is busy

organising its gathering distribution and sale Tourist from allover - both domestic and foreign arrive to experience a trip from these mushrooms

]0 get adequately high addicts consume about 12 mushrooms It is consumed by beating it with eggs to make an omelette It is mixed with shakes Twelve mushrooms would induce a hallucinatory stupor lasting for four to seven hours depending on the physical strength of the consumer

A few years ago none at Kodaikanal had ever heard of these mushrooms It is believed that a Swedish tourist who spotted them made enquiries with peddlers They were ignorant of its potential until then Another theory about its discovery is that someone had unwittingly picked up a few narcotic mushrooms and discovered its high after preparing a dish

Now-a-days some restaurants at Kodaikanal serve food mixed with mushrooms on the sly to discerning customers

At first the sale of these mushrooms depended wholly on climatic conditions As the procurement of the mush rooms began and ended with the monsoons the sale was seasonal But with more and more locals and tourists taking to them efforts were made to preserve them in order to extend the scope of sales

Soon sun-dried mushrooms made their appearance in the drug market But this method of preservation was abandoned as dried mushrooms retained only half their narcotic effect and hence sold at half the price After much trial and erro~ honey was found to be abetter medium of preservation it did not reduce the narcotic effect at all This helped increase its sale and distribution to far off regions like Goa and Kovalam

these mushrooms are peddled on a large scale there has been no reports ot police having booked anyone for possessing them These mushrooms are collected by plantation workers and then transferred to professional drug peddlers who are protected by the underworld There are virtually no obstacles in carti ng away the mushrooms from the pine forests Most preventive officers are not trained to distinguish the magic mushrooms the hctrmless edible

Soon the monsoon season will arrive bringing droves tourists o

lltodaikanai in search of haliuClnatory trips with magic mushrooms avaiiable in a natUial state ther is a possibility into nnJgs through them

INDiAN aPRESS 15 June 1991

MORE TOUR5l5 VSITSTAtE HALE51D

Accordi~~ to th~ state10urism Dept mope frel~o t(lOPlsts haJe ISlted this state inan 1ast ~e8r Of the siKteen fcrei9oers who 11ave visited the state so far -this ~ear one was from PaKi5tan two were from Sri Lanka and foor from

All fOur from Nepal however were minor CHrIS WIt100t DdSSDorts ihe remaillioQ- 1 u- nine lOOIe Amne5t~lntep31i0n3 cf1iGidS ~ lije iJJe7tI

POllna~~nH[S Of sectNIDIA

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

10 11

Tourism in Goa Questions Persist Paul S Gonsalves

O verthe last 5 months a numberof articles on tourism in Goa by the travel-writer couple Hugh and Colleen Gantzer have been published in various newspapers Goa has witnessed resistance to tourism

development for nearly 5years and the Gantzer articles argue that the resistance is ill-founded even politically motivated

So far I have come across 6 such articles 3 in aGoan daily (Navhind Times) one in the Economic Times (21491) and 2 in the Indian Express (233 and 236)

The average newspaper reader in India has heard little of the resistance in Goa Indeed the romantic view of Goa holds good for most Indians and so if on reading the Gantzer pieces one is told that a bunch of local agitators have been up to no good why that must be so Can we visit Goa during the next vacation

It is not so much what the Gantzers state that is of concern rather than what they do not I will simply place afew facts on record and let the readers decide whether there is substance in the claims of the resistance

Firstly the people of Goa are not alone in opposing tourism The debate on Third World Tourism is more than 30 years old internationally A recent bibliography by Leo Theuns (1991) lists 2166 entries until 7984 And the debate has become sharper in the years thence So has the resistance The Gantzers themselves gave an indication of this (increasing resistance) and the reasons thereof in ~n article in early 1989 The tourism industryS growing concern with uncontrolled tourism development in fragile socio-ecosystems brought forth platitudinous assurances from tourism planners But when they did nothing irate citizens reacted against such destructive development~ there is no sign from the Ministry (of Tourism) that the message has been heard and acted upon In 1989 such movements against unplanned tourism are likely to grow (Indian Express 10189)

While stating the positive co-relation between tourism and environment the Gantzers cite the examples of Sweden and Singapore India has neither the economic resources nor the political-legal mechanisms that both these countries have used to achieve a balance In fact while we might admire the peace and prosperity of our Th ird World neighbour Singapore there are many who wou Id decry the draconian laws which have made it so

Perhaps tourism can be positively integrated with environmental concerns even in Goa The point that the anti-tourism activists are at pains to make is that if tourism continues to grow (especialiy in the form of hotels and other coastal constructions) at its present rate in Goa very soon there will be no environment left for it to integrate with Again to quote an observation of the Gantzers in 1990 apprehensions thatthe Himachal board or tourism woulrl find ways to help hoteliers rather than tourists has cometrue it has not shown the remotest concern at the deteriorating environment (in Shimla and Manali)Jhere are other instances of the use of tourism to destroy the envi ronment wh ich attracts tourists in the fi rst place UP i particularly short~ sighted and viciousAnd so our beaches and mountains and other natural resources are in danger of being destroyed by crimina act and culpable negligence with the open connivance ofadministrators and politicians (Indian Express 9690)

The June 26th article suggests that the blame for Goas problems should be laid at the doorstep of a weak (local) government and short-sighted agitators not tourism A basic issue stated by the agitators is that it is Central tourism policy which has led to this state of affairs today policy geared to liberalisation without checks and controls A policy geared to maximise foreign investment without let or hindrance A policy which is in no sense a tourism policy but more precisely a hotel policy

As the Gantzers have had occasion to say ls we anticipated when (the National Committee on Tourism) was set up with a heavy bias towards hotels and hoteliers it has tended to confuse the interest of the hotels with those of tourism in general the Committee recommends the setting up of aTourism Finance Corporation when wpat they rfally hilvf in mind is a Hotel Finance Corporation The obvious obsession with this one segment of the tourism industry will make it suspect in the eyes of others But that isnt all The

INDIA ~

concessions and investment subsidies to all areas of high tourism interest will destroy every hill resort Developers will rush in and violate every rule ravage the ecology and leave despoiled mountains in their wake And indeed such developers are wreaking havoc even today (Indian Express 3181988)

Needless to add to date there have been no published studies of the carrying cClpacity of Indian tourism destinations leave alone environmental impact assessments If national tourism policy is implemented without defining external boundaries (that such studies can help establish) it is inevitable that environmental destruction will follow as predicted by the Gantzers in 1988

Although the recent articles castigate the agitators for not havi ng stati stical evidence for their claims there are at least two reports which lay a strong evidential basis (apart from the many documents published by those in the resistance) Harm Zebregs in his draft report of tourism and Goan economy (based on 3 months of field research in Goa) concludes that the earnings and employment projections of the industry are questionable Menezes and Lobo in a report of over 100 pages detail the corruption irregularities and malpractises in Goan tourism (Miriithu London 1991) And since the Ministry of Environment (under Mrs Maneka Gandhi) and the Bombay High Court have on occasion upheld the view that certain hotels have violated the law surely the Gantzers ought to castigate the arms of government as well

Moreover it is hardly essential in all matters of life to seek an evidential basis We are human beings and we can see and hear and feel and experience We do not need to read the Wholesale Price Index on a daily basis to realise that inflation is upon us

The Gantzers ridicule Bailancho Saad (a womens group) and others fortheir fear that tourism will lead to sexual exploitation of their women Why do such agitationists have such a low opinion of their women~ they query They quote a charming Thai lady who cannot understand why Indians do not accept extra-marital affairs as awomans right and suggest that what is okay in Thai land ought to be okay in India

However the issue is dearly not extra-maritai sex whether or not it is okay It is one of prostitution and its accompanying threat AIDS Perhaps we should also hear from another Thai pergton Mechai Viravaidya a well-known AIDS activist and now Minister of Tourism When the figures are projected to the entire Thai population a conservative estimate is 125000 HIV-positive individuals more than the total number of hospital beds in Thailand Estimates go as high as 400000 partly because no one can agree on the number of prostitutes in Thailand Surveys of commercial sex workers show that 40 to 72 percent of them were HIV-positive

Government and business hesitate to confront the linkage between AIDS and Thailands prostitution problem because it threatens tourist spending Hopefully with people like Dr Viravaidya at the helm of affairs Thailand ill avert a major tragedy one which threatens not just the tourism industry but Thai society itself Whatever choices Thailand makes for itself it is hardly an example India should emulate

And these fears are not entirely unfounded early this year Goan police uncovered a child prostitution racket in Margoa run by a Dr Freddy Peat with alleged international connections The similarity between this and the tv1ark Morgan affair in Thailand (which carne to light in 1989) are striking not least for their linkages with tourism

Prostitution is not the same as a casual extra-marital affair It is born out of economic need and fuelled by amarket demand Nobody claims that tourism is the only calise of prostitution but it certainly provides an environment for the demand to be expressed (by male and female travellers) and met without SOCIal restriction The social and economic status of Indian women by and large is such that tourism-led prostitution is a distinct possibility If it exists in

News amp Views

New Low

T he tourism industry is in a major panic as foreign tourist arrivals have taken an unprecedented plunge during the much trumpeted Visit India Year During the last six months it is estimated that the foreign tourist

arrivals have dropped by astaggering 40 per cent reducing the foreign currenlY brought in by close to Rs 1000 crore

This wili prove a body blow to the balance of payments situation and further aggravate the foreign exchange crisis which has been playing havoc with the countrys economy And even more alarmingly the tourist situation is not likely to improve in the immediate future

Most of the hoteliers conceded that that occupancy of their hotels by foreign tourists has plunged Reinforcing the point further Mr Indra Arya of Sita World Travels said that dose to 40 per cent of the international tourists incoming bookings were cancelled between January and March this year

Ms Prema Nair information officer in the mi nistry of tourism said that there has been a rapid decline in tourist arrivals this season with few seen in tourist offices and fewer making enquiries at ministry counters

Accusing fingers should not be pointed at the Gulf war severa of them pointed out While Thailltlnd which is celebrating its tourism year is doing exceedingly

for india it has been an unmitigated disaster But the type of tourists who arrive in Thailand and the tourist attractions that it offers are different from those of India asserted Mr C R V Rao director in the ministry of tourism

Despite another tourist season coming up during September-December 1991 the immediate future of tourism looks bleak With the violence breaking out in places like jammu and Kashmir Delhi Assam and Punjab northern india had already been removed from the tourist map of all vsitors The violence which broke out on the basis of the Mandai commission report and the Ayodhya controversy further undermined the rourism potential that these places offered

The focus during the past couple of years had been to include south India into the foreign tourists itinerary Now sources in the ministry of tourism concede that the sprouting up of LfTE violence in Tamil Nadu couki result in south India also being erascd from the map of the foreign tourist

As it is India has jllst been a mere dot-on the world tourist mJp attracting a meagre 04 per cent of the 415 million world tourist traffic Consequently the country has been tapping just 06 per cent of the coossal US $230 billion globai tourism industrv Now things are turning out from bad to worse

THE TIMES OF INDiA 15 June 1991

tourism Consultancy

T he Union GCNernment had deCIded to set up 2 national-level consultancy organisation for tourism projEcts lvIr 0 ~~ Davar Chairman Industrial Finance Corporation of India said recentlv

The proposed organisation would baSically aim at assisting entrepreneurs to build a base of their own in the location of their choice

Pointing out that the IFCI and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI) would offer more assistance for non-conventiona activities in tourism sector he hoped that the Union government would give tourism its rightful status in the Eighth Five Year Plan

Speaking on the occasion TFCI Managing Di rLuor Mr Subramanyam stressed the need to tap projects other than those helping the hotel industry to strengthen tourism in the country The TFCI had assisted six tourism projects in Karnataka The Corporation was conducting astudy on levies on tourism-related industries in different state~ and their efforts on tourism growth he added

Mr Davar said the planned economy in the country had failed to meet the needs of the people and called for rebuilding tht de-Iegilated economy The market economy needs a different set-up approach and tools and the country

in that direction Noting that the stage is set for the globalisation of economy Mr DiNar

cautioned against working in isolation If we work in isolation in any field we will be left behind

DECCAN HERALD 23 June 1991

Hotel Demolished

The Goa Government displayed its might at Cobrawaddo Calangute yesterday morning when a 250-strong demolition squad began razing to the ground the two-storeyed Chalston Hotel on the basis that it is an

illegal construction falling within 200 metres of the High Tide Line The curiosity of the hundreds of people who rushed to the area turned to

remorse however when they observed the questionable manner in which the action was carried out not giving the owner sufficient time to salvage their property worth over Rs 50 lakh

Eye-witnesses said that the task force dealt with the furniture and furnishings in the most barbaric fashion throwing them out of the windows

Items like air-conditioners were also pushed out of the window The most noticeable items were the beds which lay heaped in the debris some split apart others completely disintegrated According to the owner the demolition started without adequate time being provided for retrieving their belongings The total loss was estimated at nearly Rs 2 crore

Government officials said that the hotel was a real gone case as no conversion of land was done no PDA permission was sought there was no access road and that the structure violated the 200 metre ban from HTL

The demolition work b~gan in the morning with a bang with the squad in an apparent hurry to destroy the building in a days time Such was their missionary zeal that they denied the owners the sought after three hours time to salvage all the furniture Caught in the wild confusao were the hotel guests including a Madrasi filming company who were residing there at the time They were running helter-skelter as much toSave their lives as their filming equipment

When contacted the officials said that they were simply executing gLlVernment orders given to them only the previous night The demolition was to be carried out last year they said but the exercise was put off for several reasons

Asked for his reactions secretary town planning R S Sethi stated that the hotel did not deserve the slightest mercy Much as he sympathized with them he wondered why they went ahead with the construction after their conversiorshygrant was withdrawn by the government in 1981 The notice for demolition was served last year

He pointed out that the case was studied in depth by the Goa Government and the Environment Ministry There was no way Chalston Hotel could escape the demolition he added

He ao stated that if the proprietor had any valid documents they could have produced them before the Town and Country Plannings Board meeting held last month

Sethi also claimed that it is a misconception that they were only clamping dOVln on medium class hotels he affirmed that justice would be meted out

to all defaulters GOMANTAK TIMES 14 April 1971

Womens Voice

The Goa womens collective Bailancho Saad has charged that the present national touri~m policy being augmented by the Visit India Year and similar programmes would lead to an economic disaster and destabilise

the social and physical environment of the country In a critique of plans for the year currently being observed the Goa-based

Saad said culture was being commerriaised to suit touristic needs while festivals were being celebrated out of their milieu and time Stereotypes and distorted images of different regions were also being created they said

Heliskiing or International sea-food festivals aimed at the elite were an outrage on a nation like ours

Pointing out that Kashmir has been left out of the tour routes for the 1991 - Visit India Year the Saad said this indicated the fickle nature of tounsm

Committee has made some positively dangerous proposals giving tax eontd on page 19 should channel its resources and re-ork~nt its policies and programmes DECCAN HERALD 31 May 1991

Travels in Five Tibets The Myth of Shangri-La Peter Bishop University of California Press

Berkeley 1990

Review by John Frederick

The Myth ofShangri-La by Peter Bishop who teaches at the South Australian College of Advanced Education is a study ofTibet in the collective imagination of the British over a 200-year period It is not a study of the land and people but of a collection of imaginalTibets products of the travel literature from 1771 to 1969

Imaginal places are common to every society They are created reformed and dissolved according to changing social religious and gea-political consciousness Kailas for South Asian Hindus EI Dorado for sixteenth-century

and the Island of Origin for Hawaiians They are lands invested with a peoples dreams and aspirations peace wealth pleasure sanctity They are spun into being by storytellers poets film-makers and travel writers Some places are contemporary some ancient in all reality is subordinated to fantasy The modern Asian myth of America fal and rich diplomas and videos dropping from the trees has little relation to the hard work iron streets and

shopping malls experienced by Americans themselves Westerners in their turn willingly ignore the cultural degradation behind the pai nted masks and palm trees

For Westerners Tibet has been one imaginal place among many the Andes the sources of the Nile the Arctic the European Alps Bishop has chosen his topic well The centuries from the entrance of the first modern British traveller in 1774 to the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959 coincided almost exactly with the rise and fall of European particularly British aspirations Bishops examination of primarily British travel writing is intended to be a window into the changing aspirations the soul of modern

There has been and still is no single Tibet in the Western imagination There have been asuccession - evolving declining contradicting each other Bishop chooses to delineate five with reasonable historical justification and is careful to note that within each a myriad of smaller Tibets are subsumed

In the first from 1773 to 1792 Tibet developed in the British imagination from an undefined geographicaI location to a place the rudiments of a literary landscape aesthetic formed and from disillusionment with Christianity and Western spiritual ity there began a fascination with the Tibetan style of Buddhism at once highly literate and rational patently idolatrous and mystical Following the Gurkha invasions ofTibet the country was closed to travellers Bishop shows how the recurrent inaccessibility ofTibet contributed to its creation as asacred place and sealed Western fantasies into an almost closed vessell

the next two Tibets from 1792 to 1875 few travellers managed to cross the borders Alrnpst none reached Lhasa The British Empire expanded and with it expanded its geo-political imagination Britain looked outward Nineteenth-century rationalism provided idealised images of coherence unification and identity (of foreign civilisations) which belied intense internal social fragmentation and conflict

With India and the rest of the Empirer the Himalaya was systemically surveyed Brian Hodgson made his immense study of the geology customs languages

and zoology of the Himalaya Joseph Hooker and other naturalists on the closed borders ofTibet recording the mountain landscaoe with

scientific precision The genre of travel writing was forming in some confusion Mid-century

Rationalism lay in a rumpled bed with the transcendent visions of emergent European Romanticism The genre found cohesion in the publication of the fourth volume of John Ruskins Modern Painters in 1854 at the peak of British mountain enthusiasm when the Alps were the focus of physical challenge and the Himalaya the focus of mountain fantasy Ruskins landscape aesthetic combined careful observation and precise description with a subdued unromantic evocation of the inner experience of the landscape With Ruskin says Bishop the modern literary relationship of man and the wilderness

During the closing years of the nineteenth century the fourth Tibet once again entered trom every direction lnU)~5 one British lournallst exclaimed Tibet may be said to be at present in a state of siegeRussian French and British explorers vied with each other to cross the cold plateau and enter

12

Lhasa Few succeeded but most wrote about the attempt and the sub-genre of Tibet travel writing was born British bookshops displayed an array of mythical landscapes noble heroic journeys mystical pilgrimages high adventure and ethnological fantasies Forbidden Lhasa and its God-King the Dalai Lama were the axis mundi of the sacred place

For Victorian travellers the world was closing in Tibec almost alone seemed untouched The increasing sense of global unity was accompanied by a realisation of global fragility destruction loss The deforestation of the Himalaya was already causing concern and sadness even at this early date But perhaps the deepest sense of loss as well asource of irritation was caused by mass tourism and its effect on the wild places of the world Those who had suffered the wind and cold of the Tibetan plateau thought themselves not incorrectly an elite They were explorers not tourists struggling with contradictory desires to explore the land and to keep it untouched to preserve in the world one last sacred place

Until the twentieth century the fifth Tibet there was an essential unity in the travel writers visions and thus in the British collective fantasy From 1904 to 1959 Bishop sees afragmentation of the fantasy into four quite distinct and contradictory imaginal places Different visions were inevitable as information about Tibet accumulated as western travel writing evolved and as the writers responded personally to the pain or the two World Wars and the Great Depression of the 19305

One Ti bet was descendant from the long fasci nation with Buddh ism the land of the lamas and mystical accomplishment the land of spiritual perfection in a debased world This vision was exemplified by Alexander David-Neel and to Bishops credit the scholar Giuseppe Tucci In contrast there was the realistic Tibet of Spencer Chapman and others - pictures of mundane everyday life uninquisitive and anti-religious

The other two Tibets of the twentieth century were in Bishops consideration the final dissolving forms of the cultural fantasy the conclusion of the growing changing vision which he had traced over 200 years In these Tibet the geographical reality was disassociated with Tibet the imaginal place In 1949 the American tourism writer Lowell Thomas and his son visited Lhasa Lowell Junior depOsited upon the world a model of the Tibetan tourism fantasy shycultural resonance historical depth and sensitivity to landscape had disappeared beneath cliches and expressions of naive amazement The other Tibet the

was fixed in the public imagination by James Hiltons immensely popular Lost Horizon published in 1933 duringthe Depression Lost Horizon dramatised the disilfusionment of the West its spiritual emptiness and fears of social disorder The perfect land of Shangri-La reflected acute Western longings peace righteousness psychic fulfillment The collective fantasy of Tibet had become abstract the land had disappeared

Even before the exit of the Dalai Lama and the dismantling of traditional society Tibet itself had ceased to be the locus of the Tibet rnyth Realism had turned on the house lights and bared the mysteries the tourism writers had reduced the noble and remarkable to the banal and the vision had removed Shangri-La from earth altogether Tibet had become In Bishops words Ian empty vessel

The Myth ofShangri-La is a book for academics It is extraordinarily rich in analyses but is somewhat corlfused by a hazy methodology based in archetypal psychology Bishop examines travel texts with tools from avariety of disciplines Each examination is valid and revealing but all are jumbled together analytical perspectives change from paragraph to paragraph with no apparent order This is unfortunate for the book is ikelydestined for graduate library stacks rather than the audience upon which it could have made a profound impact travel writers themselves

The tools of French de-constructionism are skillfully used to place the texts within appropriate geo-political social and psychological contexts Humanistic geography such as Bachelards and Lowenthals work on the perception of place and landscape illuminates the evolution of the landscape aesthetic in travel

Bishop charts the development of the Western fascination and later obsession with Tibetan Buddhism and Eastern spirituality with great skill His several-page definition of the art of travel writing should be required for every travei writer One wishes each of these studies were a separate monograph

The book stops abruptly with a cursory conclusive chapter as if Bishop [enid on page 19

9

Horrors Under the Carpet by lynne Reid Banks

Well our Indian carpets finally arrived-tw 0 of them in a big parcel made of sacking It turned out the merchant in Agra who sold them to us was not quite telling us the truth

He said that due to a benign dispensation of the British government who wished to help Indias export trade there would be nothing more to pay for the carpets which would be delivered to our door He didnt bother to mention

demurrage and handling charges which came to nearly d third of the price We could have got them almost as cheaply in a sale of Indian

carpets here in Britain-I saw some in Piccadilly last month And of (nurse if wed bought them here it would have been easier not to

think about how they were made When you buy them from the factory theres no question of that The Indian merchant is at no pains to hide the children from you in fact he very cheerfully takes you to see them seven years old and upward huge-eyed thin as reeds hands flashing at the looms You are shown them you watch them work you photograph rilem Then you go and choose your carpet So you cant claim you didnt know Theres absolutely no excuse

Why then did we buy acarpet made with child labour This is the question I have been addressing ever since I got back to England where I promptly fel foul of a friend who works for Anti-Slavery International He didnt reproach me at all he simply handed me some pamphlets One was actually called Crpel Boys of India Another was Child-slaves I read them and felt as if I were waking from a bad dream-the bad dream of a visit to India

This has been designated (by the India Tourist Board) Visit India Year advice to anyone who is looking for a happy carefree holidav from which will return unchanged is dont Dont go there

Dont listen to all the friends who will tell you how wonderful it is It isnt wonderful Its a nightmare The only way to enjoy it is the way resolutely closing your eyes to everything except its ambivalent attractions

The worker-children are happy look they are smiling They are full of mischief Oh yes see that little imp He iikes to pick my pockets ma-dam And thats his daddy there working with him they work as a family School Of course thats the law they spend half-days in school and of course sir if we didnt this skill thev would have nothing no future As it is they earn well

for a carpet that takes them three months to make pound no That seems too little But for them it is a good living

And by buying you heip India You help us gain self-sufficiency and prosperity Dangerous Well yes the tuft-cutters be careful Occasionally they cut their hands But it is than starving in the streets Now corne outside madam sir and se~ how the carpets are washed with a special secret chemical The colours will never fade are Cl treasure you will keep forever to remind you of India Only when corne home when you awake from your Third World trance in which your values became distorted and think about it do you realise how true that IS

When I read the oamohlets and I~arned howvfl wfgte deceived bYtiJt these children reary olt [hey die aeblshy

bonded imd exploited and wretchetl dfe t~leir conditions and prospects wondered despaiiingly would be able to spread them on my floor and heardly

had never bought them I hoped they might be 10SI n iransit But theyve come We paid the VAT and unpacked them and iaid them Oil

our living-room floor They are so beautiful Like the women in Rajasthan n the fields in their gorgeous colourful clothes Like the cun of nuts and seeds and fruits on baskets and barrows ~ke 11- erribroidcrv silverware the silks the jewellery the ravchnn you outside the tourist sites Like the Taj hidden price-tag

Thf VAT was nothing The real bill has not been (he re3i bill is th~l compare myself to a man who goes to Bangkok and has sex vvith a child prostitute and says Ifdidnt pay her she would starve If did~it use her someonef

else would Thats the way things work here Does that man who is not much worse now than I am wake up when he comes horneo his norma life and I ~ _ t ~ 1 ~ Imiddot r bull bull ~ r

liI~ IVlllodl ~~elern VclIUe clIIU trllllK Ueal jUU W~il Vdgt I li1IIKHI~ on I look at my carpet every day and that is what I ask

GUARDIAN WEEKLYS May 1991

Mushroom Menace by Boney Thomas

First we had hashi sh and marijuana Then came brCMn sugar and designer drugs Now preventive authorities have woken up to a menace more ominous the magic mushroom The new narcotic is

consumers at a dangerous pace among the youth of south India Found during the monsoons in the pine forests of Kodaikanal this relatively

unknown mushroom is fast becoming a much sought after commodity among addicts with the active connivance of the underworld

two good rain showers mushrooms sprout all over in the rich dark feet of tall pine trees in Kodaikanal Soon the underworld is busy

organising its gathering distribution and sale Tourist from allover - both domestic and foreign arrive to experience a trip from these mushrooms

]0 get adequately high addicts consume about 12 mushrooms It is consumed by beating it with eggs to make an omelette It is mixed with shakes Twelve mushrooms would induce a hallucinatory stupor lasting for four to seven hours depending on the physical strength of the consumer

A few years ago none at Kodaikanal had ever heard of these mushrooms It is believed that a Swedish tourist who spotted them made enquiries with peddlers They were ignorant of its potential until then Another theory about its discovery is that someone had unwittingly picked up a few narcotic mushrooms and discovered its high after preparing a dish

Now-a-days some restaurants at Kodaikanal serve food mixed with mushrooms on the sly to discerning customers

At first the sale of these mushrooms depended wholly on climatic conditions As the procurement of the mush rooms began and ended with the monsoons the sale was seasonal But with more and more locals and tourists taking to them efforts were made to preserve them in order to extend the scope of sales

Soon sun-dried mushrooms made their appearance in the drug market But this method of preservation was abandoned as dried mushrooms retained only half their narcotic effect and hence sold at half the price After much trial and erro~ honey was found to be abetter medium of preservation it did not reduce the narcotic effect at all This helped increase its sale and distribution to far off regions like Goa and Kovalam

these mushrooms are peddled on a large scale there has been no reports ot police having booked anyone for possessing them These mushrooms are collected by plantation workers and then transferred to professional drug peddlers who are protected by the underworld There are virtually no obstacles in carti ng away the mushrooms from the pine forests Most preventive officers are not trained to distinguish the magic mushrooms the hctrmless edible

Soon the monsoon season will arrive bringing droves tourists o

lltodaikanai in search of haliuClnatory trips with magic mushrooms avaiiable in a natUial state ther is a possibility into nnJgs through them

INDiAN aPRESS 15 June 1991

MORE TOUR5l5 VSITSTAtE HALE51D

Accordi~~ to th~ state10urism Dept mope frel~o t(lOPlsts haJe ISlted this state inan 1ast ~e8r Of the siKteen fcrei9oers who 11ave visited the state so far -this ~ear one was from PaKi5tan two were from Sri Lanka and foor from

All fOur from Nepal however were minor CHrIS WIt100t DdSSDorts ihe remaillioQ- 1 u- nine lOOIe Amne5t~lntep31i0n3 cf1iGidS ~ lije iJJe7tI

POllna~~nH[S Of sectNIDIA

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

Travels in Five Tibets The Myth of Shangri-La Peter Bishop University of California Press

Berkeley 1990

Review by John Frederick

The Myth ofShangri-La by Peter Bishop who teaches at the South Australian College of Advanced Education is a study ofTibet in the collective imagination of the British over a 200-year period It is not a study of the land and people but of a collection of imaginalTibets products of the travel literature from 1771 to 1969

Imaginal places are common to every society They are created reformed and dissolved according to changing social religious and gea-political consciousness Kailas for South Asian Hindus EI Dorado for sixteenth-century

and the Island of Origin for Hawaiians They are lands invested with a peoples dreams and aspirations peace wealth pleasure sanctity They are spun into being by storytellers poets film-makers and travel writers Some places are contemporary some ancient in all reality is subordinated to fantasy The modern Asian myth of America fal and rich diplomas and videos dropping from the trees has little relation to the hard work iron streets and

shopping malls experienced by Americans themselves Westerners in their turn willingly ignore the cultural degradation behind the pai nted masks and palm trees

For Westerners Tibet has been one imaginal place among many the Andes the sources of the Nile the Arctic the European Alps Bishop has chosen his topic well The centuries from the entrance of the first modern British traveller in 1774 to the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959 coincided almost exactly with the rise and fall of European particularly British aspirations Bishops examination of primarily British travel writing is intended to be a window into the changing aspirations the soul of modern

There has been and still is no single Tibet in the Western imagination There have been asuccession - evolving declining contradicting each other Bishop chooses to delineate five with reasonable historical justification and is careful to note that within each a myriad of smaller Tibets are subsumed

In the first from 1773 to 1792 Tibet developed in the British imagination from an undefined geographicaI location to a place the rudiments of a literary landscape aesthetic formed and from disillusionment with Christianity and Western spiritual ity there began a fascination with the Tibetan style of Buddhism at once highly literate and rational patently idolatrous and mystical Following the Gurkha invasions ofTibet the country was closed to travellers Bishop shows how the recurrent inaccessibility ofTibet contributed to its creation as asacred place and sealed Western fantasies into an almost closed vessell

the next two Tibets from 1792 to 1875 few travellers managed to cross the borders Alrnpst none reached Lhasa The British Empire expanded and with it expanded its geo-political imagination Britain looked outward Nineteenth-century rationalism provided idealised images of coherence unification and identity (of foreign civilisations) which belied intense internal social fragmentation and conflict

With India and the rest of the Empirer the Himalaya was systemically surveyed Brian Hodgson made his immense study of the geology customs languages

and zoology of the Himalaya Joseph Hooker and other naturalists on the closed borders ofTibet recording the mountain landscaoe with

scientific precision The genre of travel writing was forming in some confusion Mid-century

Rationalism lay in a rumpled bed with the transcendent visions of emergent European Romanticism The genre found cohesion in the publication of the fourth volume of John Ruskins Modern Painters in 1854 at the peak of British mountain enthusiasm when the Alps were the focus of physical challenge and the Himalaya the focus of mountain fantasy Ruskins landscape aesthetic combined careful observation and precise description with a subdued unromantic evocation of the inner experience of the landscape With Ruskin says Bishop the modern literary relationship of man and the wilderness

During the closing years of the nineteenth century the fourth Tibet once again entered trom every direction lnU)~5 one British lournallst exclaimed Tibet may be said to be at present in a state of siegeRussian French and British explorers vied with each other to cross the cold plateau and enter

12

Lhasa Few succeeded but most wrote about the attempt and the sub-genre of Tibet travel writing was born British bookshops displayed an array of mythical landscapes noble heroic journeys mystical pilgrimages high adventure and ethnological fantasies Forbidden Lhasa and its God-King the Dalai Lama were the axis mundi of the sacred place

For Victorian travellers the world was closing in Tibec almost alone seemed untouched The increasing sense of global unity was accompanied by a realisation of global fragility destruction loss The deforestation of the Himalaya was already causing concern and sadness even at this early date But perhaps the deepest sense of loss as well asource of irritation was caused by mass tourism and its effect on the wild places of the world Those who had suffered the wind and cold of the Tibetan plateau thought themselves not incorrectly an elite They were explorers not tourists struggling with contradictory desires to explore the land and to keep it untouched to preserve in the world one last sacred place

Until the twentieth century the fifth Tibet there was an essential unity in the travel writers visions and thus in the British collective fantasy From 1904 to 1959 Bishop sees afragmentation of the fantasy into four quite distinct and contradictory imaginal places Different visions were inevitable as information about Tibet accumulated as western travel writing evolved and as the writers responded personally to the pain or the two World Wars and the Great Depression of the 19305

One Ti bet was descendant from the long fasci nation with Buddh ism the land of the lamas and mystical accomplishment the land of spiritual perfection in a debased world This vision was exemplified by Alexander David-Neel and to Bishops credit the scholar Giuseppe Tucci In contrast there was the realistic Tibet of Spencer Chapman and others - pictures of mundane everyday life uninquisitive and anti-religious

The other two Tibets of the twentieth century were in Bishops consideration the final dissolving forms of the cultural fantasy the conclusion of the growing changing vision which he had traced over 200 years In these Tibet the geographical reality was disassociated with Tibet the imaginal place In 1949 the American tourism writer Lowell Thomas and his son visited Lhasa Lowell Junior depOsited upon the world a model of the Tibetan tourism fantasy shycultural resonance historical depth and sensitivity to landscape had disappeared beneath cliches and expressions of naive amazement The other Tibet the

was fixed in the public imagination by James Hiltons immensely popular Lost Horizon published in 1933 duringthe Depression Lost Horizon dramatised the disilfusionment of the West its spiritual emptiness and fears of social disorder The perfect land of Shangri-La reflected acute Western longings peace righteousness psychic fulfillment The collective fantasy of Tibet had become abstract the land had disappeared

Even before the exit of the Dalai Lama and the dismantling of traditional society Tibet itself had ceased to be the locus of the Tibet rnyth Realism had turned on the house lights and bared the mysteries the tourism writers had reduced the noble and remarkable to the banal and the vision had removed Shangri-La from earth altogether Tibet had become In Bishops words Ian empty vessel

The Myth ofShangri-La is a book for academics It is extraordinarily rich in analyses but is somewhat corlfused by a hazy methodology based in archetypal psychology Bishop examines travel texts with tools from avariety of disciplines Each examination is valid and revealing but all are jumbled together analytical perspectives change from paragraph to paragraph with no apparent order This is unfortunate for the book is ikelydestined for graduate library stacks rather than the audience upon which it could have made a profound impact travel writers themselves

The tools of French de-constructionism are skillfully used to place the texts within appropriate geo-political social and psychological contexts Humanistic geography such as Bachelards and Lowenthals work on the perception of place and landscape illuminates the evolution of the landscape aesthetic in travel

Bishop charts the development of the Western fascination and later obsession with Tibetan Buddhism and Eastern spirituality with great skill His several-page definition of the art of travel writing should be required for every travei writer One wishes each of these studies were a separate monograph

The book stops abruptly with a cursory conclusive chapter as if Bishop [enid on page 19

9

Horrors Under the Carpet by lynne Reid Banks

Well our Indian carpets finally arrived-tw 0 of them in a big parcel made of sacking It turned out the merchant in Agra who sold them to us was not quite telling us the truth

He said that due to a benign dispensation of the British government who wished to help Indias export trade there would be nothing more to pay for the carpets which would be delivered to our door He didnt bother to mention

demurrage and handling charges which came to nearly d third of the price We could have got them almost as cheaply in a sale of Indian

carpets here in Britain-I saw some in Piccadilly last month And of (nurse if wed bought them here it would have been easier not to

think about how they were made When you buy them from the factory theres no question of that The Indian merchant is at no pains to hide the children from you in fact he very cheerfully takes you to see them seven years old and upward huge-eyed thin as reeds hands flashing at the looms You are shown them you watch them work you photograph rilem Then you go and choose your carpet So you cant claim you didnt know Theres absolutely no excuse

Why then did we buy acarpet made with child labour This is the question I have been addressing ever since I got back to England where I promptly fel foul of a friend who works for Anti-Slavery International He didnt reproach me at all he simply handed me some pamphlets One was actually called Crpel Boys of India Another was Child-slaves I read them and felt as if I were waking from a bad dream-the bad dream of a visit to India

This has been designated (by the India Tourist Board) Visit India Year advice to anyone who is looking for a happy carefree holidav from which will return unchanged is dont Dont go there

Dont listen to all the friends who will tell you how wonderful it is It isnt wonderful Its a nightmare The only way to enjoy it is the way resolutely closing your eyes to everything except its ambivalent attractions

The worker-children are happy look they are smiling They are full of mischief Oh yes see that little imp He iikes to pick my pockets ma-dam And thats his daddy there working with him they work as a family School Of course thats the law they spend half-days in school and of course sir if we didnt this skill thev would have nothing no future As it is they earn well

for a carpet that takes them three months to make pound no That seems too little But for them it is a good living

And by buying you heip India You help us gain self-sufficiency and prosperity Dangerous Well yes the tuft-cutters be careful Occasionally they cut their hands But it is than starving in the streets Now corne outside madam sir and se~ how the carpets are washed with a special secret chemical The colours will never fade are Cl treasure you will keep forever to remind you of India Only when corne home when you awake from your Third World trance in which your values became distorted and think about it do you realise how true that IS

When I read the oamohlets and I~arned howvfl wfgte deceived bYtiJt these children reary olt [hey die aeblshy

bonded imd exploited and wretchetl dfe t~leir conditions and prospects wondered despaiiingly would be able to spread them on my floor and heardly

had never bought them I hoped they might be 10SI n iransit But theyve come We paid the VAT and unpacked them and iaid them Oil

our living-room floor They are so beautiful Like the women in Rajasthan n the fields in their gorgeous colourful clothes Like the cun of nuts and seeds and fruits on baskets and barrows ~ke 11- erribroidcrv silverware the silks the jewellery the ravchnn you outside the tourist sites Like the Taj hidden price-tag

Thf VAT was nothing The real bill has not been (he re3i bill is th~l compare myself to a man who goes to Bangkok and has sex vvith a child prostitute and says Ifdidnt pay her she would starve If did~it use her someonef

else would Thats the way things work here Does that man who is not much worse now than I am wake up when he comes horneo his norma life and I ~ _ t ~ 1 ~ Imiddot r bull bull ~ r

liI~ IVlllodl ~~elern VclIUe clIIU trllllK Ueal jUU W~il Vdgt I li1IIKHI~ on I look at my carpet every day and that is what I ask

GUARDIAN WEEKLYS May 1991

Mushroom Menace by Boney Thomas

First we had hashi sh and marijuana Then came brCMn sugar and designer drugs Now preventive authorities have woken up to a menace more ominous the magic mushroom The new narcotic is

consumers at a dangerous pace among the youth of south India Found during the monsoons in the pine forests of Kodaikanal this relatively

unknown mushroom is fast becoming a much sought after commodity among addicts with the active connivance of the underworld

two good rain showers mushrooms sprout all over in the rich dark feet of tall pine trees in Kodaikanal Soon the underworld is busy

organising its gathering distribution and sale Tourist from allover - both domestic and foreign arrive to experience a trip from these mushrooms

]0 get adequately high addicts consume about 12 mushrooms It is consumed by beating it with eggs to make an omelette It is mixed with shakes Twelve mushrooms would induce a hallucinatory stupor lasting for four to seven hours depending on the physical strength of the consumer

A few years ago none at Kodaikanal had ever heard of these mushrooms It is believed that a Swedish tourist who spotted them made enquiries with peddlers They were ignorant of its potential until then Another theory about its discovery is that someone had unwittingly picked up a few narcotic mushrooms and discovered its high after preparing a dish

Now-a-days some restaurants at Kodaikanal serve food mixed with mushrooms on the sly to discerning customers

At first the sale of these mushrooms depended wholly on climatic conditions As the procurement of the mush rooms began and ended with the monsoons the sale was seasonal But with more and more locals and tourists taking to them efforts were made to preserve them in order to extend the scope of sales

Soon sun-dried mushrooms made their appearance in the drug market But this method of preservation was abandoned as dried mushrooms retained only half their narcotic effect and hence sold at half the price After much trial and erro~ honey was found to be abetter medium of preservation it did not reduce the narcotic effect at all This helped increase its sale and distribution to far off regions like Goa and Kovalam

these mushrooms are peddled on a large scale there has been no reports ot police having booked anyone for possessing them These mushrooms are collected by plantation workers and then transferred to professional drug peddlers who are protected by the underworld There are virtually no obstacles in carti ng away the mushrooms from the pine forests Most preventive officers are not trained to distinguish the magic mushrooms the hctrmless edible

Soon the monsoon season will arrive bringing droves tourists o

lltodaikanai in search of haliuClnatory trips with magic mushrooms avaiiable in a natUial state ther is a possibility into nnJgs through them

INDiAN aPRESS 15 June 1991

MORE TOUR5l5 VSITSTAtE HALE51D

Accordi~~ to th~ state10urism Dept mope frel~o t(lOPlsts haJe ISlted this state inan 1ast ~e8r Of the siKteen fcrei9oers who 11ave visited the state so far -this ~ear one was from PaKi5tan two were from Sri Lanka and foor from

All fOur from Nepal however were minor CHrIS WIt100t DdSSDorts ihe remaillioQ- 1 u- nine lOOIe Amne5t~lntep31i0n3 cf1iGidS ~ lije iJJe7tI

POllna~~nH[S Of sectNIDIA

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

8

Please dont come to Goa by Mario Cabral e Sa

Have you ever been to Goa And loved every bit of it Did you consider it an enjoyable and unforgettable experience Pat yourself on the back You are in very good company Evelyn Waugh liked Goa very much

Allen Villers was thrilled So were David Niven Roger Moore and Gregory Peck Trevor Howard would love to Iive for ever eating lobsters and drinking his favourite beverage on a Goan beach

But back to innocent questions Have you any mans to visit Goa again Pay heed to this advice given free and with the best of intentions please dont come to Goa Or you might find yourself agreeing in seif-commiseration with the private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network Between her first visit when she was young and a dreamer and her latest visit as a world-wise and established hack Goa had Iost her innocence And Goans no longer acted without aforethought malice

One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism particularly on small places like Goa And the first veiled warnings came through the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a UNDP team of experts who had come down in the 70s to advise the Goan administration on tourism strategies One of the documents was a Dutch study containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution cultural pollution which is irreversible _

Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a collective fixation Cabbies cheat remorselessly Touts and guides craftily exploit visitors Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge About 20 average-sized or 12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200 two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 per portion excluding taxes and additionals at five-star hotels of course they are priced at Rs 280 and more The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martins Beach Corner Even so the locals cant afford it It is also not uncommon for strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous substances like fish bones for instance

Recently a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs 5000 each by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes The clients wanted college girls Such clients are becoming sickeningly common in Goa And they almost uniformly end up stranded at night in a dark unlit alley near the towns best known girls hostel Serves them right yes But considerfor a minute that the cheats are the sons and on occasion daughters of perfectly respectable families with a hard-earned tradition in civility decency honesty and hospitality

Once revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders They would sing a song or two wish them a happy New Year and then proffer with aouch of elegance their collection boxes The coHections were scrupulously used for community purposes repairing a crumbling roadside oratory a tea party for orphans and destitutes or a parish youthhop Now roads are barricaded threats issued abuses hurled and money extorted And the money is used to buy booze or worse drugs

Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous so suddenly The reasons are many Unemployment is the most common denominator ennui the most frequent motivation And to top it all there is that nagging feeling that the land and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa The grievance is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism

Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force What they discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more and that as a result the 80 per cent are a sullen unhappy lot

Why you worry man Its peanuts for toem (tourists) man a tour operator told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign tourists

Call it loss of innocence if you will But a more apt conclusion might be that familiarity has bred contempt And as Mother Rabbit once said many a crude attempt

THE INDEPENDENT 3 April 1991

Colombo Closes Casinos By Ashwani Talwar

C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world Sri lanka has announced a total ban on all casinos in the country Although not quite Las Vegas Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to

gamble your money away Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city - were listed as tourist attractions Smaller casinos had been around for about a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the citys five star hotels also opening them Baccarat Black Jack and Roulette had helped set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties

But casinos remained a matter of controversy The government was under pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy was particu larly harsh in its criticism Critics however have not picked on casi nos alone During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and restaurants Their clientele includes school children and office workers who drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening Then there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television

The cabinet spokesman Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe told reporters that the necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the ban on all gambling establishments into effect Two government-owned hOWls have been already ordered to close down their casinos The Colombo police had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places but these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation

Some things will however continue as before Betting on horses is still okay and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good amount of money to the state treasury every year

Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million as annual levy from major casinos but little foreign exchange was involved The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino business the minister said He listed infiltration of the mafia prostitution and drug trafficking

THE TIMES OF INDIA 10 June 1991

JGF Condemns ICasinos The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has laquomdemned the attempted

moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca with the supposed clearance of the government of Goa

JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr Sunder Advani that the clearance for the casino will be given soon by the government The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence only because of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that be JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects in the State JGF also warned that it will not be too long before Sex Tourism will be justified as a revenue earner as in the case ofThailand

The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross envi ron mental violations

JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of the hotel by tourists and investors and calls upon people not to invest or patronise the Ramada Hotel

JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest gimmick of the Ramada Group to present a green and environment conscious image The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American Express and Nature Conservancy Washington to ensure this image with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and paying for their stay with an American Express card would be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation

HERALD Panjim 19 May 1991

13

KAIGA Will Tourists Really Boycott Goa The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry The case that she uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga The Kaiga Nuclear Complex in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms from Goas border

Will the nuclear power plant at Kaiga really result in a tourist slump in Goa Are ~Uropean and North American tourists really going to begin to think about boycotting Goa in the coming years - with the

operation of the Kaiga plant - in favour of other tropical and Hawaiian styled destination paradises which are not saddled with such ogres next door

Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss any such notions by suggesting that public opinion in North America and Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness the following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans Karnatakans and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned) Public reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive contamination has reached an all time high

As the Economist has suggested the North American and European publics attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect green politics and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott Adults including those who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes or driving fast cars -want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants

Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international tourist pool zones - for instance that in Austria Denmark and Norway public pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident

In the USA and Europe furthermore there are increasing signs that public and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either be fully closed down replaced by other power stations (using different energy sources) or converted to conventional power stations As The Economist has confirmed By ~priI9th 1990 a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n) place in Midland Michigan USA the commissioning of the worlds first power station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel Mr William McCormick the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation the plants main owner confidently predicts that other conversions will follow The reason is simple utilities across America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants

The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about everywhere Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the now gas-fired station at Mid land He hopes that CMS Energys pioneering effort at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for conversions (in the USA Europe and Japan) Mr McCormick even has a snappy marketing slogan We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade he declares

In Britain too as the Social and Community Planning Research Group recently ascertained through an extensive British Social Attitudes Survey the more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern rather than a reversal of it I n the report it was also found that the proportion of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35 in 1983 to 21 However almost half (49) of those questioned (in the most recent report) selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear reactors (ie As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned the statement wh ich comes closest to reflecting their own feelings is that is creates very serious risks for the future)

Indeed as the reports findings were to conclude Clearly there has been a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in all age groups (concerning the unsafe nature of nuclear power stations) The crucial point is that overall seven out of ten men and more than eight out of

ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power stations

Moreover in Sweden concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear power by 201oIn Spain public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that five reactors under construction have been cancelled In Italy too following a public referendum the countrys four remaining reactors have been closed down

Indeed as aconsequence of public pressure and opinion the political trend amongst those nations who provide the majority of the international tourist pool which visits Goa is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active recreational vocal and economic boycott of those areasnations who are actively promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations - at a feverish pace (ie India and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region)

As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist ~s green issues become international it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie greenery and sovereignty There will be international pressure for agreements to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea to transfer cash and technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up as opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as Indias whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core systems (eg the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently unstable As the Economists analyst has concluded Governments that are reluctant to sign will be pilloried (030390)

Given this background International tourist threats to boycott Goa once the Kaiga plant is commissioned should not be dismissed lightly Tourists from these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott en masse those holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant radio-active hazards The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station

In conclusion it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural analysts John Elkington Tom Burke and Julia Hales The average tourist (from North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the chemistry of the upper stratosphere but some forms of pollution like the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 have significantly dented the tourism industrys receipts

~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes for example In tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by more than 30 per cent In todays world such developments can spell economic ruin for countries (like Indias-my emphasis) that have hitched their fortunes to the international tourism industry to the point where such revenues are taken seriously (by the government) and the comings and goings of overseas visitors are watched intently

Goas Karnatakas and Keralas tourist trade indeed perhaps stand to be destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel a region in Byelorussia USSR As the Sunday Independent a widely read and respected British newspaper recently informed its readers of the fate of this region Gomel (is) a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place at this time of year (April 1990) when the pear trees are in blossom and the chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks

Today (however) Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth Gomel was once a (major) tourist centre Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk Locals discovering I was visiting in the town brought me flowers and chocolates Come again please come again they said

Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Valatava a contaminated area Gomel itself is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation only five curies per square kiloshymetre Were supposed to be grateful for that says Dr Zdota sneering at the acceptable norms of pollution set by the scientists Yet it is precisely this low sate level of radioactive contamination which has effectively destroyed the tourist trade and the economy of the region Will Goa Kerala and Karnataka be next

Investing in Mal-Development The Crossing ofJapanese aDA and Resort Development

by Noda Misato

In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of Transport launched its 4-year Ten Million Project promoting overseas travel with the ambitious goals of building mutual understanding between the Japanese and other peoples accelerating internationalism among Japanese people improving the foreign trade imbalance and bringing economic prosperity to foreign countries The projects target ten million tourists by 1991 from which the name derived will be reached ayear before the target date This flood of tourist money has hopes especially in Asias chronically poor countries that the resort would boost their suffering economies A lot is expected of Japan which also brings an en0rmous amount of foreign aid ostensibly designed for economic development Given all this it should not be surprising that tourism is now being included as a part of ODA (Official Development Assistance)

In 1989 the Ministry of Transport publicized its Holiday Village Plans for total support in the development of international resorts This project was to aim at giving aid to support the systematic development of international resorts through the International Cooperation Association giving yen loans through the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) for tourist-related infrastructure and taking advantage of non-governmental fUnds and skills for the so-called superstructure such as hotels recreation facilities and the like This grand design clearly shows what attitude the Japanese government will take towards resort development in Third World countries and how it is going to use the existing aid system for tourism in a way similar to its approach in other sectors

In Aid of Tourism 1 Yen loans

According to a report from the OECF which administers ODA tied loans the total amount of yen loans for the period from 1966 to 1988 was 783 trillion

spread across 137 projects Less than 1 percent of that total roughly 30 yen made up 6 projects tategorized as tourism Notice however that

infrastructure projects such as road and airport construction which are needed to promote tourism are not included in the tourism category Such aid clearly show a transition from constructing superstructure facilities sucn as hotels to providing the surrounding infrastructure related to tourism and more recently to providing comprehensive and basic facilities for expanding tourism

A clear example of this type of loan is the provisional Project for Basic Facilities for Resorts in Thailand It is a regional development program to encourage employment and the acquisition of foreign currency primarily through promoting tourism The project will provide basic infrastructure such as roads communications waterworks etc for resorts in eight regions and their neighboring areas in Thailand The loan will be used to purchase equipment and pay expenses for consulting work and other services

2 Development research

JICA (the Japan International Cooperative Agency) a government agency whose mission includes monitoring technical assistance has begun to include tourism in its development research projects From the prominence given to it by the Japanese government one can easily infer that tourism now ranks with agriculture and manufacturing as an important sector for community development It is likely that any particular project based upon JICAs research will lead to an aid request from one of many recipient countries The Total Community Development Project of Malaysia now underway is an example of this phenomenon i~ action This project will identify potential areas for development in the eastern region of the Malay Peninsula and conduct feasibility studies for total community development programs using tourism as its main focus

- irclile~~ mu uvet)eas experb

A Seminar for the Promotion of Tourism is organized each year by )lCA bringing about 20 participants from allover the world to Japan for a group

14

training course In 1989 the twenty-fifth seminar was held with twenty participants from nineteen countries South Korea Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Thailand Pakistan Nepal Maldives Egypt Algeria Kenya Mauritius Tanzania Bahamas Cuba Mexico Venezuela Papua New Guinea and Greece Those invited are either gCNernment tourism administrators or from large commercial enterprises The International Tourism Promotion Association administers the two month seminar designed to-introduce the relevant Japanese administrative bodies their policies and the situation in the Japanese tourism industry During the same year Japan dispatched 15 tourism experts to developing countries three each to India Fiji and Mexico two to China one to oversee both Indonesia and Malaysia and another two to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Tourism as Maldevelopment In concluding this glance at institutiondl aid to tourism we find it hard to

be optimistic about the influence of resort development on Third World peoples through Japanese governmental aid This is especially worrisome in light of the present ~ituations of Japans ODA and domestic resort development Th us resort development causes the same problems as foreign aid-]esignated development in general Often the kind of projects are more appropriate for the donors than the receivers as can be seen in examples such as the construction of the National Historic Park in Indonesia which evicted the residents from the surrounding area even before any promises of sufficient compensation Furthermore the hosting of large scale tourism means a

outsiders all with different cultural backgrounds cascading in peoples daily lives The accompanying socio-cultural problems can no

longer be ignored How is Japan responding to these problems Promotional schemes alone only further aggravate the problem notwithstanding the high sounding language of Japanese government agencies

Those who promote tourism depend upon a pristine and scenic natural environment and diverse cultures both of which resort development is threatening to destroy

AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 22(4) 1991

Indonesias Hotel Conglomerates Indonesian conglomerates will dominate the tourism sector by the end of

next yea~ says a noted observer of the economy_ Conglomerates such as the Bimantara Rajawali Salim and Summa groups

will be among the countrys top 10 hoteliers next year along with pioneers in the sector Christianto Wibisono of the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDB) said

PDBI in a report said inadequate air transportation connecting Indonesia to other countries and the lessthan significant role of the local people might create problems for the development of the sector and cause it to lag behind that of other countries

The PDBI report said the current air seat capacity for international airlines serving routes to Indonesia was still smaller than which discourage visitors from travelling into the country

liThe governments protection of Garuda Indonesia the national flag carrie~ should not affect the flow of visitors into the country The permission granted to private airlines serving domestic routes to operate jet aircraft is expected to motivate Garuda to strengthen its position as an international airline more able to compete th~ report said bull

PDBI also called on the government to pay special attention to local people whose property was affe(ted by tourism projects

liThe government should protect these people for example by asking the tourist resort developers to provide shares for them In this way they will learn about business practices and earn capital gain This would be better than giving asmall portion of shares to them as an act of charity 20 years after the projects go into full operation it said

The PDBI report also said the government should take the local peoples partiCipation senousiy to prevent the eruptron ot social unrest because large tourist resorts in the country had been unfairly edging out small-scale and medium-size businesses

7

Happy Tourist Unhappy Traveller by Robert Shepherd

Pumpernickel Bakery in Thamel down town Kathmandu is a favourite spot for foreigners Even during off-season the bakerys garden tables fill quickly each morning The service is good the bread fresh the

croissants delicious and the coffee passable The staff members are unobtrusive and polite and with thei r brown faces a rarity in the restaurant where the rest of the people are foreign travellers

They are travellers and not tourists A young English woman on her way home from ayear abroad in Australia tried to explain the difference to me She said that travellers live like the people they travel the way the people travel and they are in touch with and have a feel fo~ the people The tourists on the other hand travel in air-conditioned buses live in five-star hotels and eat at overpriced restaurants And they never drink the water There are no tourists at Pumpernickel only travellers

Touring extensively around the world the long-term world travellers (WT) the majority of whom are North American Western European Japanese and Australian share a common ideology They view the Third World as their iaboratory and look upon themselves as romantic even intrepid adventurers They sneer at tourists and laugh at those who have remained back home in Peoria They share a common language English and even a common dress code in Nepal cheap cotton drawstring pants rubber sandals and printed tshyshirts The t-shirts are the public resumes in one giance one can discern who has come up from Kenya Bali Bangkok or Goa

World travellers adorn themselves with the handicrafts of this weeks locale In Kathmandu turquoise and silver rings bracelets earrings sheep-skin shoulder bags wool caps and vests It is said the jewelry is actually mass shyproduced in Lhasa The caps are Afghani and the vests are multi-coloured combinations with tassels hanging from the edges Who wears this stuff Not the Nepalis In Kathmandu they are the ones trying to dress like us

In their attempts to become native the world travellers often corrupt indigenous systems

At the bakery several Germans aSwede and an American couple are engaged in aheated discussion about exchange rates whicli is a favourite topic among WTs in addition to the black market They can quote the going rates for the dollar in Delhi Kathmandu Borneo or Burma Thev also know where to sell whiskey and cigarettes blue jeans and cameras

An Australian advised me See you buy your Indian rupees in Kathmandu get an air ticket to the border buy your Johnny Walkers and Marlboros at dutyshyfree and sell them for twice over what you paid once you land He continued ifyou are going on to Burma hold on to your stuff The country is quite screwed up and the people will buy anything youve got even the shirt off your back~ I wondered where he was headed 0h Im off to an ashram near Bangalore for a month of meditation Ashrams shrines and mosques are the traditional destinations tor Wls Those who iook for spirituai wisdom are aii young white educated affluent radical chic They search for meaning they overflow with good intention

One day in Kathmandus main bazaar area I noticed abackpacker haggling with an Indian selling oranges from a basket strapped to his bicycle How much the backpacker asked One orange three rupees said the Indian One rupee the westerner insisted Ithere~ He dropped the rupee into the basket and walked away pleased at his bargaining skills After all he had successfully acted just iike the people He has just had an experience~ Some Nepali bystanders cluck with sympathy for the indian Who swears in Hindi

Beneath the WTs talk about cross-cultural sensitivity ana experience is a sense of cultural imperialism that would have done ihe Victorians Notwithstanding their beatific expression world traveiiers are CUl-Ulival

practitioners of the mundane living In Nepal as elsewhere they compete at agame with the odds stacked heavily in theirfavour They use lheir economic

to secure shamelessly that which the society can olfer and than which i cannot and shOUld not also ofter

The-world traveller expects to find a unique culture in the exotic East onlY to wait in iine behind the same people whom they seemingly wanted to avoid

This is probably why many WTs openly shun their fellow travellers as saunter through the streets of Thamel They throw hostile glances at other foreigners whose only fault is to walk the same street

Tony Wheelers Lonely Planet guide books are one of the main reasons why the WTs end up in the same places The difference between this guidebook and others is that it targets a different audience and never describes themas tourists Tony Wheeler calls them travellers who want to see the country at ground level to breathe it experience it and live it He writes that tourists stay in Hiltons travellers do not Instead travellers should gO tramDing through the back alleys of the Third World and absorb exoticism has built a multi-national publishing business of this planet

What happens of course is that no world traveller is alone when he does Bali or Rangoon or Kathmandu After all they carry the same book They check in at the same hotels They eat in the same restaurants They discover the same hideaways off the well-trodden paths The traveller longs to discover the particular place to which no tourist or traveller has been Yet he keeps running into many others like himself

Western isation had consu med Japan Hong Kong Singapore and Bangkok But it has yet to hurdle the Himalayas In Nepal samosas and mo-mos are in fashion not Big Macs Yes Michael Jackson is popular among young people but Kumar Basnet and Nara~an Gopal still outsell him in the tape shoos The

of the countrys first escalator is frontpage news Into this other-world enters the world travellers They speak tngllsn are

obsessed with money and dress in odd peasant costumes Off they go to the mountains in search of experience The handful of Nepalis they come into contact with are guides and lodgeowners - whose burden it is to represent the society and culture

The East is not the West Religious linguistic and philosophical differences separate the two Yet world travellers alproach the East including countries like Nepal as if they were on a jaunt into the Parisian countryside They do not realise that Hnding a bathroom exchanging money buying hasish and

dinner does not constitute inter-cultural communication Frozen out of the cultures they travel _

among their own kind That is why they crowd the tourist ghettos Subdividing into factions they share their cultural illusions and seek to alleviate their secret boredom They trade tales and anecdotes over omelets and pizzas and they huddle together to watch American videos Make-believe hippie and aspiring Buddhist both wili be watching a scratched copy of Rambo

Truly the traveller is no different from the tourists He carries the same shackles an ignorance of the language the culture and the people and their idiosyncrasies However the tourists by recognising and accepting the differences between themselves and others admit that they are outsiders or

the premise that travel is a privilege and not the possibi lity of such an acknowledgment

cheaply and dreSSing like anative can transform them into cultural insiders V S Naipaul writes of them as those who wish themselves on societies more fragile than their ownwho in the end do no more than celebrate thei r own security

~iMAl SeptOct 1990

Serve them RIghi

Travellers from the time of Marco Polo and before have always been laden if not such exotic cargoes as peacocks ivory and

exotic tales of all the wondrous sights they have seen abroad Westerners sojourning in India have been known to remark that Indian railway stations seem to be peopied with non-travelling circuses of beggars and performers assembled precisely with the idea of causing wonderment among the travelling public Travellers on the German railways may soon see something that convinces them that the entire German people are a travelling circus Fori as the uninitiated stranger sits in the dining-car of a German train and sees the woifing of meat alia potatoes foiiowed by the reassuring gulping down of coffee the odds are he wont be prepared for what comes next If he is uckv enough to see what

crtli on pale 18

6

Heritage ~ourism

A fter a preliminary fumble the oversized bulb which illuminate the police parade grounds in Jhalawar are dimmed throwing into sharp relief the makeshift stage which is humming with activity All evening

the grounds have been filling up with the local people who have greeted this three-day festival of music with as much enthusiasm as they do amela except that this time they will be treated to pure classical music in addition to their own traditional song and dance

Many of the people milling about the grounds were not present at the occasion Pandit Ravi Shankar began the festivities with an impassioned recital The choice of venue was also apt-the Bhawani Natyashala house) had been built in 1921 in the style of an opera house and is believed to be one among only five of its kind in the country

Over the years the Natyashala fell on bad days It came to be used without any regard for its antiquity or uniqueness of design in turn as a cinema hall and a badminton court

It took aformer district collectors effort to have the cinema closed and the court shifted and it now devolves upon the convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (lNTACH) Thakur Ranvir Singh to set about getting the theatre restored to its original state

For Rav Shankars recital it has been given a quick face-lift and its facade has been freshly painted The action has meanwhile shifted to the police grounds to accommodate more people (the theatre cannot seat too manv) and admit them to the secluded preserves of classical music and dance The is followed by recitals by Aminuddin Dagar and Naina Devi and aperformance by

Raghuraj Singh Hada hunched over the microphone placed unconventional Iv on the floor of the stage prepares to introduce the items on the agenda a flourish he presents a succession of performers drawn from the neighbouring towns of Kota and Boondi which with Jhalawar make up the distinctive Hadoti region in this corner of south-east Rajasthan

The night air is redolent with the sound of dhol and maneera as phad singers come on with their ditties followed by colourful tribal dancers and performers who manage incredible feats of balance and dexterity involving fire and swords Afolk singer from Boondi puts his signature to the show when he gets everyone in the audience even those who dont understand the language to join him in a well-remembered tune clapping along and singing infected by his stage presence

A ready interpreter sits in the front row next to Vasundhara this area and co-organiser of the event who is following proceedings with evident enjoyment The response is unprecedented she says I did not expect so many people

I am trying to promote a new concept in tourism-not the Jaipur-Udaipur kind where you are packaged for two or three days she says going on to elaborate Here people can laze and loll about the district at their own pace This is an experiment to see how the concept would work-to bring tourism out of its five-star cloister

For outsiders too the folk evening was a delight Away from the false confines of theapna utsavs this was folk art in its own space and place and it felt right Despite the rough edges and the lack of soohistication the

not the as authentic

an annual affair-an area to more people

What has begun as an experiment in Jhalawar is cautiously being explored in other parts of the state as heritage tourism~ The concept of palace hotels is only one facet of this INTACH has been pushing the idea of preserving medieval towns stemming the decay of years and curbing the rise of new-fangled

Contd on page 18

Penan~ Hill Condo-versy

Ahmad Chik lives with his family atop Penang Hill in the heart of Malayshysias Penang Island I like the quiet and serenity says the engineer who moved there from Kuala Lumpur three years ago He enjoys long walks

and magnificent views of George Town the harbour and the mainland Ahmad is one of about 1000 residents rich and poor of Penang Hill Visitors ride up in a 68-year-old funicular railway to savour the hills simple charms Untouched by the booming islands urban growth it is a symbol of Penangs beauty

So when a commercial plan for its development came to light it triggered an uproar among residents of the northwestern state The $167-million scheme by developer Bukit Pi nang Leisure envisioned a200-room hotel condominiums

shopping-entertainment-recreation complex an adventure theme j was given last September

minister Lim Chong Eu who set aside 364 hectares Leisure is asubsidiary of Berjaya Corp a MalaYSian company

with interests in manufacturing lotteries insurance and property Vincent Tan Chee Yioun Berjayas media-shy chief is said to have good political connections So do Bukit Pinilng Leisures other owners Yayasan Bumiputera Pulau Pinang with a 20 stake is headed by members of the national ruling coalitions New United Malays National Organisation Tan Kok Ping who owns 29 is reportedly close to ex-chief minister Lim He is a vice-chairman of Gerakan the party that leads the states ruling coalition

Lim approval has prompted a Save Penang Hill campaign 11 regard the hili as almost sacred says Ahmad a member of the Friends of Penang Hill Adds he liThe proposed development is abreach of the Town amp Country Plann-

Act Under the 1976 federal law a plan for development of Penang was completed in 1989 The Penang Island Structure Plan declared the hill an area of special character Its natural vegetation topography and character as a hill resort must be maintained and mnsfrvPci consultations before project has bypassed thiscrucial step he middotargues Members of the public resishydents schoolchildren who make trips up the hill- none of us were consulted

Neither reportedly was Lims cabinet liThe chief minister was pushing a project that was not popular and not very wise in the long term admits Choong Sim Poey another Gerakan vice-chairman The decision was made without sufficient consultation

Ecologist Leong Yueh Kwong of the Malayan Nature Society says development should be based on the Penang Island Structure Plan and be drawn up by the municipal council If the developer fits in with that local plan they could go ahead he remarks But acommercial developer shouldnt be the one to draw

the master plan Their slant will always be towards commercial Friends worrv that the hills cool temperature will rise with deforestation

happened at other Malaysian hill resorts Five maior water-catchment areas will also be affected the group

Kam U-Tee retired general manager the Penang Water Authority said in a letter to Berjaya that the catchments yield about 22 millions gallons of water aday It would cost at least $2AOO dai Iy to pump that volume from the mainland in addition to a $37-million outlay for headworks to raise the water level at source he said

Bukit Pinang Leisure has encounted another obstacle In September the federal Environment Department rejected the developers environmental impact assessment Director-General of Environment Abu Bakar Jaafar said the project would affect water supply and cause river siltation and soi I erosion The developer was advised to go back to the drawing board

Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon who took over from Lim in October and the state cabinet met the Friends in January He found the groups views generally constructive The government he said has urged the developer to take these views into serious consideration The Penang state government is committed to the preservation of Penang Hill Koh said However the facilities now

insufficient for the general public and the tourists conceptual plan that will

involve amuch smaller area Even if state authorities decide to approve it he added we may add new and even more stringent conditions to hold a public hearing on its proposal The developers concludes Koh Isti II have to cross quite a number of hurdlesProvided a compromise can be reached peace should once again prevail on Penang Hill

ASIAWEEK April 12 1991

Tread Gently by Phil Voysey

Tread flently yells the universal voice of reason over the cacophony of tourist dollar Here they come aflain to conquer moun cain trail and apple pie futile attempts to pound every last partide of dust into submission With especially desiflned Dunlop retreads

As always the dust rises up and seeps into delicate labyrinths of ego and grim determination

tolerable discomforr while rocks teasingly slide and shuffle from beneath the feet of DrbintrT

and enjoy a flood lauflh at the expense of twisted knee and bruised backside

Several concerned individuals can be seen furiously scrubbing the stream clean with Blue Omo while others scratch at the sweat and grime that has matted thouflhr and responsibility and watch as rivulets of bleached common sense trickle il1lO [he spinach patch of some innocent tourism

(l wonder if that woman paradinf around in her bikini top realises how absurd she looks agains[ the backflround of towerinf snow-capped mountain peaks)

Tread flently screams the universal vojce of reason

Pen -weer rupee is the childrens three chord delivered with supplicating eyes and like an overplayed pop sonflonfl afo sliDDed from the top 40 nobody is liSleninf Pizza apple collte is the modem classic with the timeless

(1 wonde[ if the local DJ with the studded nose [infs and the three malnutrieioned children understands the but then who listens to them anyway)

Tread gently screams the universal voice of reason as the needJe balances precariously over the newest sound and the turntable beqins to spin

HIMAl MarchApril 1991

Biased Action Whi Ie the Goa government issued noticed to 12 norms action was taken only against Leela Dalmia Resorts Taj Holiday Colonia Santa Maria and Charlston Hotel Leela Ventures unauthorised construction were removed or demolished while Averina International removed its fencing within the 200 metre line Notices were also issued by the Goa Southern Planning Development Agency and the central environmental ministry to Dalmia Resorts While Taj Holiday removed some of its illegal constructions others Iike the Thai Restaurant are still standing and the environment ministrys directives have been taken up in the NtW Deihi high court Charlston Hotels illegal construction has been partly demolished by the government

The Independent 20 Aug 91

15

Privatisation Spree in Kerala by K T Suresn

The Parayatan Mantralaya (Tourism Ministry) has at long last woken up to reality says a report in the Business Standard (11 May) And what is this realitv that we seem to have discovered

The reality that this report is referring to is the admission that private sector initiative is the panacea for the ilis of astagnating tourist profile The idea that is doing the rounds in the Mantralaya is that of cutting ITDC loose Which translates to selling 51 of government holdings in the Corporation to private investors The reasons stated for it are

Recent investments by the government have been pathetically inadequate The Corporations budget for 1991-92 is Rs 16 crores

The Corooration has not been able to put to use most of the funds it has estimate of Rs 155 crores for 1990-91 it was

an abysmal Rs 5 crore

they sit on some of the finest properties in the countrvITDC hotels dont compare well with the competition The Corporation has been gradually moving into the three-star and Yatri Nivas category of hoters Planners believe that this is where ITDC should settle down leaving the five-stars to the private sector

Meanwhile Kerala is being projected as the model to be emulated As apart of the privatisation of the tourism sector in Kerala initiated by the Left Front government the state-owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) proposes to di lute its equity by selling to the publ ic 40 of its shares Already the KTDC and the Taj group have jointly set up a new company the Taj-Kerala Hotels and Resorts Ltd which plans to start 13 projects with an investment of 100 crores Recent reports in the Economic Times suggest that the KTDC is also envisaging a tie-up witha leading international hotel chain for consultancy marketing and training (Compiled from various sources)

Roman Holiday

T he eternal city has decided to go ahead with a string of urban projects that will give it a new business and administration centre a genuine subway athird university and even amodern telephone

The scheme cost at 77 trillion lire is also expected to have the side-effect of saving Romes priceless historic monuments from slow death by pollution Under a recent law the Federal Government is to help underwrite the cost of transforming the eternal city into a modern Capital

Centrepiece of the ambitious scheme is the creation of what Antonio Gerace the official in charge of urban development at city hall calls lithe worlds biggest business district

For years one of the most pressing problems confronting this city has been the presence of Government ministries which employ 61000 people in historic quarters where exhaust fumes in narrow streets are destroying priceless monuments

INDIAN EXPRESS 15 May 1991

~~ ON lIjeRiGHT ~ MOOIJMewTAL emR ()( ~A1l0~At IMRJTeNle -- r-------~j

~~

Ponnappa in TIMES OF INDIA

16

Summary Findings Visit to Coastal KarnatakalKerala

by Equations Team May 1991

Team Manvel Alur K T Suresh Leo Saldanha amp M Shivakumar Dates May 10 - 16 Karnataka

May 17 - June 2 Kerala

Logistics In 21 days the team covered a vast coastline from Karwar in northern

Karnataka through to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu Shivkumar was asked to provide overall guidance to the team and he was accompanied by Manvel and Leo in Karnataka while Suresh joined him for the visit to KeralalKanyakumari

Dai Iy logs were written up and reports prepared i ndivid ually with Shivkumar providing a conceptual framework at the end

Prior to finalising our understanding of and responses to the visit 3 discussions were held with a group of rapporteurs Dr Duarte Baretto of the lSI Shri A Vasudevan of GRID and Shri C Antonisamy of Peace Trust Dindigul

A final report will be prepared by mid-July incorporating all the elements covered in the individual and group reports This will be the basis for followshyup action in Karnataka and Kerala west coast

Issues in Coastal KarnatakaKasargod

1 The traditional influence of the Catholic religious institutions today overshadowed by Hindu revivalism - evident in politics as well as institutions (temples)

2 The increasing economic dominance of the bankingfinancial sector especially of the Udupi Pai families in a wide range of industrial sectors Their traditional implications for tourismhotels (They have established a hotel management Institute in collaboration with ITOWelcomgroup Also a centre for folk artslcultural media)

3 The relatively higher rate of literacysuccess of literacy campaign in 0 K District and the economic relevance of the Gulf boom

4 Issues related to non-tourism development Karwar MCF Kaiga deforestation (Western ghats) etc These are of more immediate relevance to a number of people

5 The resistance of the people of Kanvarthirtha to a Kerala tourism development plan led by Mr Subhash Chandra aschool teacher at Bantwal He has asked for informationsupport from EQUATIONS

6 Although the beaches are not enti rely cond ucive to swimm ingwater sports there are several hotel projects coming up in the coastal region Since there has been a long tradition of pilgrimage to the various temples here it is likely that tourism promoters havetheir eyes on the Indian middle-class who can be persuaded to combine spiritual quests with worldly pleasures With the increasing disposable incomeavailable to this class the region does have tourism development potential Basic infrastructure is also available more readily in this region than in the rest of Karnataka The relevance of this can be identified from the interest expressed even by an NGO leader in promoting tourism in Honavar The ease with which our team could travel in the region and visit various temples and sites is another indication of the overall tourism developmental potentiaL

7 As of today there are very few organisational initiatives to examine tourism from a wholistic perspective amongst the local NGOs of the region Neither do any of the existing groups appear prepared to enter into a specific involvement on tourism issues in the immediate future since they have a variety of other pre-occupations

Responses a EQUATIONS plans to facilitate a seminar - workshop on tourism issues

in the region inviting a number of NGOs and others whom we visited For this we are seeking the help of interested local individuals

b EQUATIONS should also respond to the request of the Kanvarthirtha people We can begin by publicising the issues as well as by sharing information with Kanvarthirtha about tourism issues generally

c If EQUATIONS is to build an active relationship with concerned people in the region we must not only be in regular touch about tourism but also demonstrate an interest in local issues (other than tourism) which are of concern to them

Issues in Kerala 1 Kerala seems to be clearly oriented to tourism development and provides

support to the industry The private sector is actively encouraged in its efforts and the interventions of the state and its mechanisms could be stated as integration incorporation and even co-option This is evident from the District level upwards

2 Furthermore the state demonstrates demographic and socio-economic characteristics similar to parts of coastal Karnataka high rate of literacy influence of Gulf boom significance of religious institutions (though political bodies exercise considerable leverage as well) well-developed infrastructure and economic institutions

3 There is however afair amount of understanding of the tourism issue amongst intellectuals and NGO-related individuals in Kerala The historical development of political economy in the State is viewed as leading inevitably towards tourism development today

4 The link between Union Territories (Mahe - Lakshadweep) at the tourism level appears to be potentially significant It needs to be further exami ned

5 Tourism strategy at Lakshadweep appears to be high-cost high quality low density low infrastructure This is environment friendly elitist-alternative tourism with substantial revenue potential This would lead us to surmise that speciality tourism developments can be foreseen in future

6 Specifically we have been asked for the following i to produce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document ii to provide inputs to KIiTTs students iii to place tourism on the agenda of ECO-92 (Brazil) iv to collaborate with the International Collective in support of

Fisherworkers (HQ Madras) and v To share the report of our visit with those visited

Responses a EQUATIONS has agreed in principle to respond to KIiTTs request by

providing inputs on tourism critique We also hope KIiTTs will be able to support us by undertaking or sponsoring research on tourism in coastal Kerala and providing access to existing documentation

b To prodClce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document EQUATIONS should identify one or two persons in Kerala whose services can be uti lised in this regard

c EQUATIONS can collaborate with others as per the requests made d Following distribution of the report EQUATIONS could organise a meeting

of concerned people in Kerala

General Following the presentations of the reports to the rapporteurs and as a result

of the discussions which followed we arrived at a number of general conclusions and recommendations given below

1 That this experiment of visiting a region with a team constituted of several different people is in itself a model which could be further developed and explored Not only does the process help us gain aprimary database it has the effect also of creating a positive image of EQUATIONS Also it puts a responsibility on us to be reciprocal in the relationships we enter into during such visits

2 This particular visit- the first of its kind - is a turning point for EQUATIONS A number of new issues have been identified and we have met with several people who have expressed an interest in ourperspectives and future plans in the region In particular we see the potential for much greater involvement in Kerala As the tourism industry increasingly plays an important role in the Indian economy there is agreater need for awareness and mobilisation at various levels of society

3 The shift from elitist (traditional) tourism to recent mass tourism is a reflection of the economies of scale at work in the industry As there is a low demand (in the international market) for Third World agricultural-industrial products

contd on page 19

5

When Tourisms Profits Go Abroad by Robert Lacvllle

I had been working in the deepest bush along the Gambian river valley where womens groups are developing really effective credit with the support of Gambian field workers who are paid by British and American charitable agencies But after eight hours of bouncing around in a Land rover on dusty roads in the heat of the day I was exhausted and in need of a cold beer Well let me be truthful three cold beers Ice-cold

So I had a shower cleaned off three layers of red dust and went off to find three cold beers As I walked along humming to myself I was thinking of those women in Tankular with their fantastic garden and their vegetable marketing problem I reached the hotel patio and I stopped in amazement I had stepped out of rural Africa into fleshy Denmark Confronted by huge expanses of female Danish flesh I experienced asort of culture shock rather like a physical thump in the chest My thoughts of village underdevelopment were smothered by the hideous reality of human over-development The fat lady in the bikini was suffering from painful sunburn Her bright breasts bulged painfully out of her skimpy bra Her red back was peeling generously

I moved away and sat in the dark with a beer As I relieved my parched throat I had time to watch three teenaged Gambian girls modelling tie-dye shirts and shorts They were young and attractive I began to feel better to take an interest in the models Then I caught sighLof a pair of Scandanavian buttocks and shuddered I offered a silent prayer If that woman does decide to spend 12 dollars on a shirt and shorts in delicate tie-cloth please let it be for her granddaughter and not for herself At least if she buys some that will add income for awomens co-operative for the girl models for the hotels disk jockey Every piece of income helps Compared to the social disruption there is little enough benefit coming to the Gambia from its tourist industry

At breakfast I was fresher feeling less jaundiced about my Scandanavian neighbours This was made all the easier by the fact that the fat women were wearing more clothing than the previous evening Breakfast was generous There was salami and ham cheese and butter and jam all of it imported These products were eaten off imported china plates with nice warm bread rolls made with imported flour There was tea and coffee (imported) together with American cornflakes to eat with reconstituted imported Dutch powdered milk (you cannot mistake the taste however well they mix it to remove the gritty lumps) and English powdered sugar

My breakfast was somewhat spoiled by the dank smell of beer hangi ng over the dining room and the unsightly crates of beer Coke and Fanta (all imported ingredients in imported bottles) Even the tables and table cloths were imported (no tie-dye cloth here Im afraid) In fact as I looked around the dining room I could see no sign of local consumption except for the water water for bread water for beer water to dilute sickly coloured syrups water to wash up the mess made by the imported tourists

Gambian women grow tomatoes for the local tourist market They harvest their tomatoes and carry them on their heads for ten kilometres to sell to the hotels and then some soggy foreign procurement manager turns them away because he cannot be bothered Rather than buy Gambian Fresh he prefers to pay more for Spanish Tasteless The African bitter tomato is asort of aubergine which looks like a large ripening tomato It is good in stews But here I have found anew meaning for the expression bitter tomato top qual ity tomatoes which you cannot sell because the white man will not buy them That is acase for trade protection if ever one needed to be found The government should tax imported fresh food price-forcing the hotels to buy local chickens local eggs and local fruits and vegetables

For although the tourist industry has been developing these last few years the profits mai nly accrue outside the country Tour operators are paid in Europe They pay their bills in Europe airfares are paid to European airlines and hotel fees are mostly paid in Europe to the Scandanavian French German and Gambian investors who have built the hotels The employment benefit is of course considerable Waiters and cooks and bed makers are all Gambians (or Senegalese) so are the tie-dye ladies and their teenaged models the dancers and musicians the carvers and leather workers the tour guides and the taxi

drivers even though their employment is seasonal they feed theirfamilies and friends off the back of tourism and this must help up to 15 or 20 percent of The Gambias 800000 population But what does the government get out of tourism Government has a lot of costs related to tourism Tourists use and wear out the roads and bridges which Government must keep up Tourists must be supplied with petrol products (for cars for electricity generation) which consume large amounts of rare foreign exchange Tourists occupy large numbers of customs and immigration officials and police guard the tourist beaches day and night to ensure that no nasty scandals happen which would make juicy reading in the European press and damage the tourist business Tourism generates about 10 of Gambias foreign exchange earnings according to the Ministry ofTourism but that is not very much Apart from a Governments 6 bed tax sales tax on gasoline (which doesnt offset its foreign exchange cost to the Governmentl and the pound7 airport tax for each of the 60000 or so tourists the only benefit the country derives is from employment

Oh yes there is one other source of income Gambia Airways This company has the monopoly of handling rights at the airport and it is one of the few air companies in the world to make a profit (largely because it runs no aircraft they are not very profitable these days) Gambia Airways is therefore a moneymaker for the Gambia

But British Airways has decided that Gambia Airways is costing too much They do not like to PY Gambian taxes on aircraft fuel and they do not like paying charges for the airport for passenger and luggage and ticket handling etc 55 per cent of Gambias tourists come from Britain British Airways is not a small operation It runs charters and carries a fai r proportion of the British tourists as well as most of the Gambias air freight

Apart from the small tourism revenues all the foreign exchange used to buy aircraft fuel has to be bought with groundnuts Even the customs forms and the toilet paper in the airport transit lounge have to be paid for with foreign exchange Gambian peasant farmers grow ground nuts which are collected by the co-operatives and turned into oil or cattle cake which are largely exported to Britai n

The Gambia is a poor country and it needs British Airways to pay the real cost Yet rather than pay taxes or dues to the Gambian government British Airways is threatening to pullout Is it now British Government policy that British Airways should have its airports subsidised by Gambian peasant farmers What gall The British deadline for Gambian surrender is 27th May

I for one hope that the Gambian Minister of Tourism will call their bluff Sabena will be happy to take over the leading role in Gambian air transport and I dare say the Belgian business community will not be far behind Perhaps the new British High Commissioner to the Gambia will be taking his home leave on Sabena this year That would indeed be a bitter pill for British diplomacy Very galling

GUARDIAN 26 May 1991

Tourism Tragedy Too much too quickly is the usual reason for the conflict tourism development and the environment After 1988 a year for tourism Turkey planned to increase revenue from it$ tourists But problems followed Tourists found that dust and noise from halfmiddot built hotels disturbed their peaceful holiday Quickly built accommodation proved to be dangerous when in 1989 a 12middotyearmiddotold English girl was killed in a 26 foot fall after her hotel balcony in Bodrum collapsed In 1990 the amount of Escherichia coli a bacterium of faecal origin reached levels that made it dangerous to go swimming along the coast After criticisms from conservationists the Government is now aiming to diversify to take the pressure off coastal development with plans for inland skiing and nature holidays

Source Consumer Currents No 135 April 1991

4

The Jumbos are Coming by I Rajeswary

There was a time when elephants and lions rhinoceroses and hipposhypotamuses roamed wild and free in the forests and savannah of Uganda The Chief attractions of the Pearl of Africa as it is known

were its national parks and wildlife including 30000 elephants Up unti 11972 tourism was Ugandas third most important foreign exchange earner after coffee and cotton In 1971 it drew 85000 visitors who spend US $27 million

But tourism ground to a halt between 1972 and 1979 during Idi Amins turbulent reign Guns and ammunition were easily available and Amins triggershy

soldiers who were given afree run of national parks slaughtered whole of elephants for ivory By 1982 the elephant population in Queen

Elizabeth National Park had dwindled to 152 down from 3000 in the 19705 In 1980 concerned over the decline of wildlife and tourism the government

that ousted Idi Amin turned to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) for help in training a 40-man anti-poaching strike force The new unit produced immediate results in Murchison Falls Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo Valley national parks

In Murchison Falls the number of elephant carcasses encountered on ranger patrols dropped from 120 in 1980 to none in 1982 and the elephant herd there is now slowly increasing The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth Park has quadrupled

When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 his administration sought additional UN DP assistance to rehabilitate the countrys wildlife and national parks As part of a $17 million project carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) 49 two-way radios were distributed to Ugandas

Park and game officials For the first time all national park officials can communicate with each other and to their headquarters in Kampala the capital

With the help of mobile radios rangers here in the Ishasha area - the southernmost section of Queen Elizabeth Park - have arrested 66 poachers since the project was launched two years ago In Africa says Tanzanian Raphael Jingu the FAOUNDP projects chief technical adviser anti-poaching forms the backbone of wildlife management

The poachers who are usually armed and operate their own four-wheel drive vehicles mainly seek hippopotamuses buffaloes and Uganda Kobs aform of deer unique to Uganda These days elephants are largely spared because of the stiff penalties if caught IlPoachers flee when they see our rangers say Abu Baker Juma the Ishasha sector game warden Being able to co-ordinate our

with radios gives us a huge tactical advantage Statistics bear Mr Juma out In 1988 there were 209 poaching incidents in

the park dropping to 156 in 1989 a decline of 25 per cent In fact says Dr Eric Edroma Uganda National Parks director animals which used to run when they saw people now stand and gaze at them because they are not afraid

Ugandas rangers and wardens constantly live on edge Last October in a shoot-out at Murchison Falls Park 30 poachers were killed I am very of my rangers says Dr Edroma fiT hey are well trained and equipped Sometimes hOlNeVer his men are not so lucky Recently knife-wielding relatives of a poacher who had been arrested earlier attacked a ranger from Ishasha in a market place The ranger lost a finger in the attack T~ work of the rangers and wardens in protecting wildlife is only one part

of a larger government effort to revive tourism Officials in this land-locked country are well aware that they must compete with neighbouring Kenya which currently attracts the lions share of visitors seeking African safaris

Because services at most Ugandan hotels and lodges in the parks are minimal at best the government asked WTO with UNDP fundi ng to draft amaster plan to renovate hotels re-surface pot-holed roads and upgrade the skills of those in the hotel industry ls Ugandas economic and social conditions tourism can become the countrys main foreign exchange earner says Mr jingu

Even without such improvements the number of visitors to Uganda rose from 8622 in 1982 to almost 40000 in 1986 The increase is due at least partially to the fact that poaching is down and the parks themselves are now better managed Tourist arrival figures since 1986 are not available

Mr Jingu credits the new order in the parks to UNDP-financed intensive

training courses that gave 300 rangers and 300 park wardens a chance to upgrade their technical and managerial skills In addition four wardens were sent on fellowships to the College of African Wildlife and Management in Tanzania Africas first centre devoted to wildlife conservation

UNDP also recruited a United Nations Volunteer Mohamed Bereteh a wildlife management specialist from Sierra Leone His assignment to educate Ugandans living within Queen Elizabeth Park about the need to preserve big game Mr Mohamed relies on films to impress upon viewers who include primary and secondary school students the importance of conservation But his task is complicated by traditional beliefs Some Ugandans believe that a womans fertility increases if she eats hippo meat says Mr Mohamed lnd aman is considered less of aman if he does not provide hippo meat for his wife

But Mr Mohameds message is slowly getting through Last year two such sessions led by Mr Mohamed were well attended The Ugandans used to view these workshops as agovernment scam to nab poachers he says What turned them around was seeing actual footage of their natural wildlife heritage and what poaching could do to them

UN DPs assistance ends in December Officials want the project extended 1 The government is interested in conservation but we have limited resources says Dr Edrorna in explaining why his government has yet to contribute its share of $53000 to the project It has other priorities If the extension is not forthcoming it will be a real tragedY

An important long term strategy says Mr Jingu is to convince people living within the parks that they can profit from managing and protecting wildlife on thei r own initiative The government wants to adopt an approach to community participation in wildlife management that has already been tested in Zimbabwe Under this arrangement the government entrusts a section of national park to the villagers who live there provided they follow specific regulations hunting is permitted only in designated areas only a limited number of animals can be hunted at anyone time and tourists who want to hunt must pay a fee to the vi lIagers who are allowed to set the price Th i s gives villagers a major incentive to turn in any poachers

It has worked in Zimbabwe says Mr Jingu and Iam sure it can work herel If the necessary funds are forth--com ing Uganda may soon have aconservation policy that employs both the carrot and the stick

WORLD DEVELOPMENT (UNDP) March 1991

Massive MP Campaign by Rakesh Khar

Temptations 50 irresistiblej that you will fall for them Forts that still echo past glories Palaces that stiil shimmer with grandeur Love still in passionate embrace in stone FOIesis with wildlife in natural display Get away to the centre of it all Madhya Pradesh (viP) - the heart of India The sightseers paradi5e with many a beautiful

Thus speaks a colourfully designed booklet The booklet forms a part of a massive campaign afoot to launch the state in a big way on the tourism map of the country So here is astate with 40 backward districts offering fun lovers the natural wonders scenic splendours and a lot more beautifully wrapped up in 26 economical and convenient packages

Tourism in Madhya Pradesh has come of age The MP State Tourism Development Corporation ended 1989-90 on abright note Not only did it show agross profit of Rs 3883 lakhs but it also showed a net profit of Rs 133 lakhs The corporation expects to end 1990-91 showing gross profit of Rs 60 lakhs and a net profit of Rs 5 lakhs says Mr G 5 Chahal a senior official

Faced with the arduous task of promoting tourism in astate which symbolises utter backwardness the corporation has succeeded in establishing Madhya Pradesh as a front-runner tourist destination through the extensive promotional campaigns conducted in and outside the state The corporation claims to have also consolidated its pioneering activity of organising package tours

order to create better awareness of the rich folklore and folk traditions as al~o itlt varied cultural heritage a numberoffairs and festivals have been selected for development and promotion These include the Panchmarhi festival Bhojpur

Orchha festival and Malwa festival ECONOMIC TIMES 16 April 1991

Nepal A Tourism Tragedy Tourism in Nepal is increasing by over 77 per cent a year it is the only hard currency earner for the worlds fourth poorest nation and is being promoted vigorously The result is predictable footpaths are destroyed sewage gets into rivers litter mountsj and forests disappear at an alarming rate 400000 ha of forest are cleared each year and each hectare cleared loses 3075 tons of soiLdevastating landslides and ffoods wreck both land and economy

The slopes ofthe worlds highest peaks in the Himalaya were once a pristine wilderness Desecration by climbers and trekkers has set in motioR their ecological degradation Until a decade or two ago it was a relativelv minor problem today it has reached disastrous proportions

The worstaffected region is around Everest There is so much junk that a full-scale expedition is needed to remove it says Chris Bonngton an Everest explorer In recent years climbing from the northeast ridge on the Tibet side has become the craze As a result Rongbukj the worlds highest monastery has become a toilet and rubbish dumb Once-cfear view of magnificent mountain vistas are now obscenely impeded by abandoned oxygen canisters paper foil and other garbage

Part ofthe problem lies in the growing number ofexpeditions to the top of Everest Each year there are more than 300 expeditions and 7O~OOO trekkers

the Himalaya Of these a large proportion are Everest climbers 13 in the current season The Nepal Government has more than 700 Everest climbing requests pending till 2003

The indian Mountaineering Association has laid down guidelines for anyone climbing in the Indian Himalaya it offers cash incentives to all expeditions which clean up their camps behind them The Himalaya Adventure Trust has astrictcode of conduct for trekkers and Nepal tourism authorities have made it mandatnry for expeditions to leave no litter

Though this has helped wdecrease the size ofexpedition teams the number ofteams remains high and is increasing 104 peaks in Nepal are open climbers 17 to joint expeditions and 5 reserved for Nepalese climbers 18 minor peaks are open to trekkers administered directly by the Nepa Mountaineering Association

Frustrated in its efforts to control the ecological impacts ofEverest climbing the Nepal GOvernment has finally decided that Everest can no longerbe climbed after 7994 Tourism authorities estimate that 50 fonnes of waste currently litter Everest slopes in the years since it was thrown open to the public in 1952

While this may help limit further destruction ofthe worlds highest peak the question ofthe existing garbage remains will Nepal decide to allow dean-up expeditions after 79941

Moreover it is not Everest alone which stands it danger of permanent destruction It is high time that Nepal (and other countries in the Himalayan region) came up with ajoint environment protection plan under the auspices ofan officially constituted environment protection authoritY laxes on mountain climbing could help to finance such a venture

Thi5 is what the article Mr Himalayan Environment seems to suggest

Mr Himalayan Environment The Swiss Alpine Club has recently appointed a permanent official

for the protection of the environment Shouldnt therE be at least one Ir Environment for the Himalayas He could easily be financed by a small head tax on all visitors

This is not a plea to stop tourism That would be impossible anyway It is a to regulate its future development far more strictly and that is not an easy

task If there is a lesson to be learnt from the experience of the Alps it is this protection of the mountai n environment needs determined action and hard work at all levels from the highest government authorities to the lowliest individual Interests of local people have to be catered for so that they have a vested Interest In protecting the environment The Swiss for examDle have an active programme of aid to mountain communities

Protection needs some down-ta-earth action Perhaps one way to start is to

17

talk less about the romantic attractions of mountai n wilderness areas and more bull about toilets garbage disposal ald fuel

Once there is a heavier investment in tourism in the Himalayas it will be difficult to fight destruction because money talks and loudly too Before this happens I suggest that the Himalayas should be divided - with the coshyoperation of all the Himalayan countries into three zones

The first would be open for intense tourism development climbers and trekkers would be welcome and infrastructure provided for them Come one come all

The second one would be open only by special permission to a limited number of climbers and scientists There are already a number of national these could be upgraded and perhaps even linked

The third one vould be inviolate and kept free of human intrusion It would be a or two above the national park status This raises some basic questions Do we want to preserve some corners of the earth free from mans interference or do we want to open up every bit of it to human exploitation Do we have the right to use up all the earth Or are we willing to leave some space for the snow leopards ghurrals and the abominable snowman

As Reinhold Messner wrote recently Man through the centuries has always chosen places which seemed special and declared them holy and untouchable There the Gods IivedToday more than ever we have a need for unexplored wilderness

And our Gods have always lived in the Himalayas

by Aamir Ali HIMAl 28 MayJune 1990

Upturning Virgin Soil

The term tourism development implies much more than running tourist bus services or the stray holiday resort Realising this - rather belatedly it must be said the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation

(MTDC) has recently rewritten its agenda Deviating from its traditional role of running resorts and bus services for tourists it has set its sights on the development of virgin land along the Konkan coast The corporation has identified 32 locations where international standard upmarket as vvell as budget hotels are expected to corne up within the next decade

In achange from its earlier policy MTDC is now planning to withdraw from operational activities and become a nodal agency for the development of tourism by undertaki ng a different set of activities Taking care of infrastructural

providi ng land offering basic amenities for motorists using national highways are some of the major plans chalked out by MTDC

The corporation has aPerspectiveGlvwth Plan basea on which it has asked for the allocation of funds from the Central government in the Eighth Five Year Plan Its plans involve roping in private developers to bui Id resortshotels and thereby develop the locations as tourist spots The land is provided by MTDCIWe get the land either through an allotment from the government or we acquire directly~ says Kawale

However MTDCs offer to private developers has not met with a great deal of enthusiasm According to Mukhtar Hussain of Suman Motels Ltd which runs five to six motels in Maharashtra (but arent bui Iding any on MTDC land) Their location lS for the promotion of tourism our location is for busi ness faei I ities Another private developer is more explicit when he say Basically the plots Which MTDC are offering are not developed locations They are beautifUl but ve arc sceptical about the availability of infrastructural facilities complain that not enough publicity has been given to MTDCs procedures This means that only linsiders have an opportunity to participate

Whilst MTDC plans to team-up with the concerned authorities for the of water electricity and roads private developers complain that most locations have no rail connections another negative factor Also they are not interested in the development of hotels as a majority of them are slated to fall into the two or three star category aimed at the tourist on abudget llso there is no assurance of a minimum level of room occupancy states a developer

BUSINESS INDIA 15-28 April 1991

18

History of A Small Place Caren Kaplan

Jamaica Ki ncaids A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics of displacement Kincaid locates Antigua the island where she was born as not only a small place on the map but a place in history In the process of remapping this location Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage points

InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semishycollapse Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like something else She explores the contradictions of representation by investigating the stakes in each position available in that location Who benefits from perpetuating the representation of paradise Who benefits from the raw sewage in the pretty bay the erosion of Antiguan culture the condos and timeshysharesSince the exotic food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the same plane as the tourist A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of modernitys representational imperatives

Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and counter-discourse of Antiguas relationship with the rest of the world In this text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one at least on the part of the native The text is addressed to you the past present or potential tourist The narrator Kincaid however is not truly a native anymore since she lives and writes in the United States This displaced position gives Kincaids text a particular value it mediates the very oppositions it constructs breaks open contradictions makes connections For example the subject position of native is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity as Kincaid illustrates a point made by Arjun Appadurai the opposition between native and tourist is constructed by a transnational culture of tourism-that is the native is constructed and incarcerated by the anthropological discourse of western travel Kincaids poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions like native and traveler even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized identities

The story of Antiguas colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of the authors personal history Her memories become a counter-narrative to official histories and public relations campaigns Yet Kincaid is equally frustrated with island approaches to time and history She writes

To the people in a small place the division of Time into the Pasf the Presentand the Future does notexist An event that occurred one hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as if it were happening at this very moment And then an event that is occurring at th5 very moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as if it had happened one hundred years ago

Rather than impose linear teleological time in the form of conventional history Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and experience honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism She maps even as she tells in the process inventing a historical poetics of displacement Antigua as chronotope collapses linear imperial time masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and experience

The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami New York and London The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism Antiguans in their small place on the map and in history are inextricably linked to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home This map of transnational global conditions is in part the work of the text It is this strategy of insisting on Antiguas tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating for specific localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics of displacement Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation Edward Said has described this impulse as cartogaphic arguing that the rolttrf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination It is necessary he suggests to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not pristine and prehistorical but historically constituted by present concerns

In describing one small place in the vast world Kincaids memories construct acounter-narrative that resists nostalgia and universality in favor of a historical and geographical investigation of location in the expanded global sense

Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol 3 No 1 (1991)

Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)

structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture

While the organisation does not directly promote tourism says INTACHs Harshad Kumari it does contain the concept of tourism insofar as it has to do with the countrys heritage under its umbrella We believe in local people being able to use their old structures not just in restoring them for the heck of it Once a building is saved restoration takes care of itself she says citing successful examples in Jaisalmer Bikaner and Jodhpur

Right now the sort of tourism thats happening is not benefitting the local people at all she feels adding By linking heritage and tourism we should make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town

Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition and the musical nights in Jhalawar apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight into local culture than the package-tour may well be a step towards greater cultural awareness

SUNDAY 3 March 1991

Serve them right (contd from page 7)

comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison it will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten chewed and swallowed up - reminiscent to the untrained eye of d large choru~ of eaters in acircus or a magic show Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his shoes in Gold Rush

No despite the economic problems engendered by unification is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some their calories from porcelain (In any case theres always beer to fall back upon if need be) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery - plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes An Indian who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate thrown away after use as the prototype of the paper or plastic plate might think that crockery made of bread is a genuine innovation But he would do well to remember that plantain-leaf plates as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall knows are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away The difference betveen India and Germany then is essentially this we feed our cows with dispo~able

whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates

Editorial DECCAN HERALD 7 March 1991

Summary Findings (contd trom page 16)

there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products On the supply side this is matched by the need for foreign exchange

4 This will make the task of seeking alternatives (such as avariety ot alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive In asense the Third World cannot do without tourism in the present stage of economic development By the same logic domestic tourism is not a viable proposition either

5 The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent limitations that is if it proves to be economically not viable Therefore this points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies of the industry its linkages the convergence of different state interentior-s and so on In particular we need to examine the links of tourism with changes in land use patterns in the coastal

Letter to EQUATIONS Dear friends Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent discussion with Suresh in Calcutta 1 For EQUATIONS advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of

Tourism it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the costshybenefit analysis of Tourism ie taking into account the high impore content ofelite tourism the capital-intensive bias and also the various impacts (such as on the emnronment) what picturefinally emerges It is important to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed approach and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily mean anything Huwever in ones dealings with guvernment etc this is something they understand But all the limitations to this approach also have to be simultaneously propagated Actually using cost-benefit approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game Just by changing some assumptions one could get a different result Corrversely a desirable or good project can never make it is based on the market mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes and destroys alternatives

let as in the Tehri dam case it does help to get into this One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India

elsewhere and bring this together Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism projects and more ambitiously for the state or national level

2 Ultimately given what one is campaigning against it is a losing battie in the short-run But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other strategies which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle and taking on work in the area of ltalternatives~ Thus design ofedushycatiot1al curricula and carrying )u educational programmes (jor say students and youth) on critiques of tourism on responsible travel as learning and interacting with diverse peoples places and cultures

Actually both the campaigning against and the articulation and attempting of (alternatives have to be undertaken From a social perspective one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams But such common perpective coming together and taking on of roles within a common perspective interaction and exchange is all too rare in our (voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within ones organisation which only destroys you This needs to be reflected on Because even concentrating on one stream alone is basically countershyproductive So haw can all the various efforts that allmiddot need to be simultaneously undertaken be realised

At the very least within one organisation one may find that rather than get burnt out just fighting against one pulls out and takes on the (alternatives itself as a means of retaining sanity learning and being energised

Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources to reaching out to political parties MPs MLAs gcrvernment officials ltlobbying This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task and full of all kinds of dangers But it is also something that needs to be systematically done part of the (long-run efforts mentioned earlier

I write all this because J myselfam concerned ffbnut lile Tourism very glad to find a group such ~hai

I strongly closer and inte1lCtiosz betWeen activistgrodps is badly netded an alternalive culture in the voluntary sector ~ ana JeWuse jjIjseq am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you What to do From the little knuw about EQUATIONS and its work I have strong admiration for your efforts I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself as one ofyou one ofthe larger struggle all ofus in our awn way are involved in

_rlease lel me kn071i what jYJU think Your 3irrcerev V Calcutta_

3

Pay for Environment

The travel industry environmentalists and officials from developing countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses will have to pay much more

A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific Asia Travel Association

Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty he told the conference which ended on April 14 It makes perfect sense that visitors should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions he said

Much of the worlds remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash is a higher priority than conservation The travel industry must show governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit speakers stressed

bullA Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial companies and a logging firm with strong political backing

It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque now seconded to the WWF Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up with financial clout Roque said which conference speakers believed the tourist industry could provide

Despite the fears of conservationists tourism and ecology need not be mutually exclusive said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd a pioneer in nature tours in the Himalayas Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part of the same picture

Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more money from fewer tourists Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating cash for community projects and preservation

Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas Firms competing for high-volume business were bound to cut costs Choegyal said and environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints

Traditional life in Indonesias overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the expense of the environment said the nations tourist planning chief himself Balinese Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-

and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large I Gede Ardika said

A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter to locals Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product as much as they feel part-ownership researcher Charles Tambiah said

pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines blasted apart (- dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from needed to feed their families Tourism as aspot of affluence and

luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b( slJtain6-jp development he said

But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWFs Bunting He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature reserve Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and so were very familiar with trails and watering spots The animals they used to hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see

5di~gE5tlt-d tourists themselyes couid be 11) illlJ1(Jve

environment in the developing world CCI AprMay 199

6

Heritage ~ourism

A fter a preliminary fumble the oversized bulb which illuminate the police parade grounds in Jhalawar are dimmed throwing into sharp relief the makeshift stage which is humming with activity All evening

the grounds have been filling up with the local people who have greeted this three-day festival of music with as much enthusiasm as they do amela except that this time they will be treated to pure classical music in addition to their own traditional song and dance

Many of the people milling about the grounds were not present at the occasion Pandit Ravi Shankar began the festivities with an impassioned recital The choice of venue was also apt-the Bhawani Natyashala house) had been built in 1921 in the style of an opera house and is believed to be one among only five of its kind in the country

Over the years the Natyashala fell on bad days It came to be used without any regard for its antiquity or uniqueness of design in turn as a cinema hall and a badminton court

It took aformer district collectors effort to have the cinema closed and the court shifted and it now devolves upon the convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (lNTACH) Thakur Ranvir Singh to set about getting the theatre restored to its original state

For Rav Shankars recital it has been given a quick face-lift and its facade has been freshly painted The action has meanwhile shifted to the police grounds to accommodate more people (the theatre cannot seat too manv) and admit them to the secluded preserves of classical music and dance The is followed by recitals by Aminuddin Dagar and Naina Devi and aperformance by

Raghuraj Singh Hada hunched over the microphone placed unconventional Iv on the floor of the stage prepares to introduce the items on the agenda a flourish he presents a succession of performers drawn from the neighbouring towns of Kota and Boondi which with Jhalawar make up the distinctive Hadoti region in this corner of south-east Rajasthan

The night air is redolent with the sound of dhol and maneera as phad singers come on with their ditties followed by colourful tribal dancers and performers who manage incredible feats of balance and dexterity involving fire and swords Afolk singer from Boondi puts his signature to the show when he gets everyone in the audience even those who dont understand the language to join him in a well-remembered tune clapping along and singing infected by his stage presence

A ready interpreter sits in the front row next to Vasundhara this area and co-organiser of the event who is following proceedings with evident enjoyment The response is unprecedented she says I did not expect so many people

I am trying to promote a new concept in tourism-not the Jaipur-Udaipur kind where you are packaged for two or three days she says going on to elaborate Here people can laze and loll about the district at their own pace This is an experiment to see how the concept would work-to bring tourism out of its five-star cloister

For outsiders too the folk evening was a delight Away from the false confines of theapna utsavs this was folk art in its own space and place and it felt right Despite the rough edges and the lack of soohistication the

not the as authentic

an annual affair-an area to more people

What has begun as an experiment in Jhalawar is cautiously being explored in other parts of the state as heritage tourism~ The concept of palace hotels is only one facet of this INTACH has been pushing the idea of preserving medieval towns stemming the decay of years and curbing the rise of new-fangled

Contd on page 18

Penan~ Hill Condo-versy

Ahmad Chik lives with his family atop Penang Hill in the heart of Malayshysias Penang Island I like the quiet and serenity says the engineer who moved there from Kuala Lumpur three years ago He enjoys long walks

and magnificent views of George Town the harbour and the mainland Ahmad is one of about 1000 residents rich and poor of Penang Hill Visitors ride up in a 68-year-old funicular railway to savour the hills simple charms Untouched by the booming islands urban growth it is a symbol of Penangs beauty

So when a commercial plan for its development came to light it triggered an uproar among residents of the northwestern state The $167-million scheme by developer Bukit Pi nang Leisure envisioned a200-room hotel condominiums

shopping-entertainment-recreation complex an adventure theme j was given last September

minister Lim Chong Eu who set aside 364 hectares Leisure is asubsidiary of Berjaya Corp a MalaYSian company

with interests in manufacturing lotteries insurance and property Vincent Tan Chee Yioun Berjayas media-shy chief is said to have good political connections So do Bukit Pinilng Leisures other owners Yayasan Bumiputera Pulau Pinang with a 20 stake is headed by members of the national ruling coalitions New United Malays National Organisation Tan Kok Ping who owns 29 is reportedly close to ex-chief minister Lim He is a vice-chairman of Gerakan the party that leads the states ruling coalition

Lim approval has prompted a Save Penang Hill campaign 11 regard the hili as almost sacred says Ahmad a member of the Friends of Penang Hill Adds he liThe proposed development is abreach of the Town amp Country Plann-

Act Under the 1976 federal law a plan for development of Penang was completed in 1989 The Penang Island Structure Plan declared the hill an area of special character Its natural vegetation topography and character as a hill resort must be maintained and mnsfrvPci consultations before project has bypassed thiscrucial step he middotargues Members of the public resishydents schoolchildren who make trips up the hill- none of us were consulted

Neither reportedly was Lims cabinet liThe chief minister was pushing a project that was not popular and not very wise in the long term admits Choong Sim Poey another Gerakan vice-chairman The decision was made without sufficient consultation

Ecologist Leong Yueh Kwong of the Malayan Nature Society says development should be based on the Penang Island Structure Plan and be drawn up by the municipal council If the developer fits in with that local plan they could go ahead he remarks But acommercial developer shouldnt be the one to draw

the master plan Their slant will always be towards commercial Friends worrv that the hills cool temperature will rise with deforestation

happened at other Malaysian hill resorts Five maior water-catchment areas will also be affected the group

Kam U-Tee retired general manager the Penang Water Authority said in a letter to Berjaya that the catchments yield about 22 millions gallons of water aday It would cost at least $2AOO dai Iy to pump that volume from the mainland in addition to a $37-million outlay for headworks to raise the water level at source he said

Bukit Pinang Leisure has encounted another obstacle In September the federal Environment Department rejected the developers environmental impact assessment Director-General of Environment Abu Bakar Jaafar said the project would affect water supply and cause river siltation and soi I erosion The developer was advised to go back to the drawing board

Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon who took over from Lim in October and the state cabinet met the Friends in January He found the groups views generally constructive The government he said has urged the developer to take these views into serious consideration The Penang state government is committed to the preservation of Penang Hill Koh said However the facilities now

insufficient for the general public and the tourists conceptual plan that will

involve amuch smaller area Even if state authorities decide to approve it he added we may add new and even more stringent conditions to hold a public hearing on its proposal The developers concludes Koh Isti II have to cross quite a number of hurdlesProvided a compromise can be reached peace should once again prevail on Penang Hill

ASIAWEEK April 12 1991

Tread Gently by Phil Voysey

Tread flently yells the universal voice of reason over the cacophony of tourist dollar Here they come aflain to conquer moun cain trail and apple pie futile attempts to pound every last partide of dust into submission With especially desiflned Dunlop retreads

As always the dust rises up and seeps into delicate labyrinths of ego and grim determination

tolerable discomforr while rocks teasingly slide and shuffle from beneath the feet of DrbintrT

and enjoy a flood lauflh at the expense of twisted knee and bruised backside

Several concerned individuals can be seen furiously scrubbing the stream clean with Blue Omo while others scratch at the sweat and grime that has matted thouflhr and responsibility and watch as rivulets of bleached common sense trickle il1lO [he spinach patch of some innocent tourism

(l wonder if that woman paradinf around in her bikini top realises how absurd she looks agains[ the backflround of towerinf snow-capped mountain peaks)

Tread flently screams the universal vojce of reason

Pen -weer rupee is the childrens three chord delivered with supplicating eyes and like an overplayed pop sonflonfl afo sliDDed from the top 40 nobody is liSleninf Pizza apple collte is the modem classic with the timeless

(1 wonde[ if the local DJ with the studded nose [infs and the three malnutrieioned children understands the but then who listens to them anyway)

Tread gently screams the universal voice of reason as the needJe balances precariously over the newest sound and the turntable beqins to spin

HIMAl MarchApril 1991

Biased Action Whi Ie the Goa government issued noticed to 12 norms action was taken only against Leela Dalmia Resorts Taj Holiday Colonia Santa Maria and Charlston Hotel Leela Ventures unauthorised construction were removed or demolished while Averina International removed its fencing within the 200 metre line Notices were also issued by the Goa Southern Planning Development Agency and the central environmental ministry to Dalmia Resorts While Taj Holiday removed some of its illegal constructions others Iike the Thai Restaurant are still standing and the environment ministrys directives have been taken up in the NtW Deihi high court Charlston Hotels illegal construction has been partly demolished by the government

The Independent 20 Aug 91

15

Privatisation Spree in Kerala by K T Suresn

The Parayatan Mantralaya (Tourism Ministry) has at long last woken up to reality says a report in the Business Standard (11 May) And what is this realitv that we seem to have discovered

The reality that this report is referring to is the admission that private sector initiative is the panacea for the ilis of astagnating tourist profile The idea that is doing the rounds in the Mantralaya is that of cutting ITDC loose Which translates to selling 51 of government holdings in the Corporation to private investors The reasons stated for it are

Recent investments by the government have been pathetically inadequate The Corporations budget for 1991-92 is Rs 16 crores

The Corooration has not been able to put to use most of the funds it has estimate of Rs 155 crores for 1990-91 it was

an abysmal Rs 5 crore

they sit on some of the finest properties in the countrvITDC hotels dont compare well with the competition The Corporation has been gradually moving into the three-star and Yatri Nivas category of hoters Planners believe that this is where ITDC should settle down leaving the five-stars to the private sector

Meanwhile Kerala is being projected as the model to be emulated As apart of the privatisation of the tourism sector in Kerala initiated by the Left Front government the state-owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) proposes to di lute its equity by selling to the publ ic 40 of its shares Already the KTDC and the Taj group have jointly set up a new company the Taj-Kerala Hotels and Resorts Ltd which plans to start 13 projects with an investment of 100 crores Recent reports in the Economic Times suggest that the KTDC is also envisaging a tie-up witha leading international hotel chain for consultancy marketing and training (Compiled from various sources)

Roman Holiday

T he eternal city has decided to go ahead with a string of urban projects that will give it a new business and administration centre a genuine subway athird university and even amodern telephone

The scheme cost at 77 trillion lire is also expected to have the side-effect of saving Romes priceless historic monuments from slow death by pollution Under a recent law the Federal Government is to help underwrite the cost of transforming the eternal city into a modern Capital

Centrepiece of the ambitious scheme is the creation of what Antonio Gerace the official in charge of urban development at city hall calls lithe worlds biggest business district

For years one of the most pressing problems confronting this city has been the presence of Government ministries which employ 61000 people in historic quarters where exhaust fumes in narrow streets are destroying priceless monuments

INDIAN EXPRESS 15 May 1991

~~ ON lIjeRiGHT ~ MOOIJMewTAL emR ()( ~A1l0~At IMRJTeNle -- r-------~j

~~

Ponnappa in TIMES OF INDIA

16

Summary Findings Visit to Coastal KarnatakalKerala

by Equations Team May 1991

Team Manvel Alur K T Suresh Leo Saldanha amp M Shivakumar Dates May 10 - 16 Karnataka

May 17 - June 2 Kerala

Logistics In 21 days the team covered a vast coastline from Karwar in northern

Karnataka through to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu Shivkumar was asked to provide overall guidance to the team and he was accompanied by Manvel and Leo in Karnataka while Suresh joined him for the visit to KeralalKanyakumari

Dai Iy logs were written up and reports prepared i ndivid ually with Shivkumar providing a conceptual framework at the end

Prior to finalising our understanding of and responses to the visit 3 discussions were held with a group of rapporteurs Dr Duarte Baretto of the lSI Shri A Vasudevan of GRID and Shri C Antonisamy of Peace Trust Dindigul

A final report will be prepared by mid-July incorporating all the elements covered in the individual and group reports This will be the basis for followshyup action in Karnataka and Kerala west coast

Issues in Coastal KarnatakaKasargod

1 The traditional influence of the Catholic religious institutions today overshadowed by Hindu revivalism - evident in politics as well as institutions (temples)

2 The increasing economic dominance of the bankingfinancial sector especially of the Udupi Pai families in a wide range of industrial sectors Their traditional implications for tourismhotels (They have established a hotel management Institute in collaboration with ITOWelcomgroup Also a centre for folk artslcultural media)

3 The relatively higher rate of literacysuccess of literacy campaign in 0 K District and the economic relevance of the Gulf boom

4 Issues related to non-tourism development Karwar MCF Kaiga deforestation (Western ghats) etc These are of more immediate relevance to a number of people

5 The resistance of the people of Kanvarthirtha to a Kerala tourism development plan led by Mr Subhash Chandra aschool teacher at Bantwal He has asked for informationsupport from EQUATIONS

6 Although the beaches are not enti rely cond ucive to swimm ingwater sports there are several hotel projects coming up in the coastal region Since there has been a long tradition of pilgrimage to the various temples here it is likely that tourism promoters havetheir eyes on the Indian middle-class who can be persuaded to combine spiritual quests with worldly pleasures With the increasing disposable incomeavailable to this class the region does have tourism development potential Basic infrastructure is also available more readily in this region than in the rest of Karnataka The relevance of this can be identified from the interest expressed even by an NGO leader in promoting tourism in Honavar The ease with which our team could travel in the region and visit various temples and sites is another indication of the overall tourism developmental potentiaL

7 As of today there are very few organisational initiatives to examine tourism from a wholistic perspective amongst the local NGOs of the region Neither do any of the existing groups appear prepared to enter into a specific involvement on tourism issues in the immediate future since they have a variety of other pre-occupations

Responses a EQUATIONS plans to facilitate a seminar - workshop on tourism issues

in the region inviting a number of NGOs and others whom we visited For this we are seeking the help of interested local individuals

b EQUATIONS should also respond to the request of the Kanvarthirtha people We can begin by publicising the issues as well as by sharing information with Kanvarthirtha about tourism issues generally

c If EQUATIONS is to build an active relationship with concerned people in the region we must not only be in regular touch about tourism but also demonstrate an interest in local issues (other than tourism) which are of concern to them

Issues in Kerala 1 Kerala seems to be clearly oriented to tourism development and provides

support to the industry The private sector is actively encouraged in its efforts and the interventions of the state and its mechanisms could be stated as integration incorporation and even co-option This is evident from the District level upwards

2 Furthermore the state demonstrates demographic and socio-economic characteristics similar to parts of coastal Karnataka high rate of literacy influence of Gulf boom significance of religious institutions (though political bodies exercise considerable leverage as well) well-developed infrastructure and economic institutions

3 There is however afair amount of understanding of the tourism issue amongst intellectuals and NGO-related individuals in Kerala The historical development of political economy in the State is viewed as leading inevitably towards tourism development today

4 The link between Union Territories (Mahe - Lakshadweep) at the tourism level appears to be potentially significant It needs to be further exami ned

5 Tourism strategy at Lakshadweep appears to be high-cost high quality low density low infrastructure This is environment friendly elitist-alternative tourism with substantial revenue potential This would lead us to surmise that speciality tourism developments can be foreseen in future

6 Specifically we have been asked for the following i to produce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document ii to provide inputs to KIiTTs students iii to place tourism on the agenda of ECO-92 (Brazil) iv to collaborate with the International Collective in support of

Fisherworkers (HQ Madras) and v To share the report of our visit with those visited

Responses a EQUATIONS has agreed in principle to respond to KIiTTs request by

providing inputs on tourism critique We also hope KIiTTs will be able to support us by undertaking or sponsoring research on tourism in coastal Kerala and providing access to existing documentation

b To prodClce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document EQUATIONS should identify one or two persons in Kerala whose services can be uti lised in this regard

c EQUATIONS can collaborate with others as per the requests made d Following distribution of the report EQUATIONS could organise a meeting

of concerned people in Kerala

General Following the presentations of the reports to the rapporteurs and as a result

of the discussions which followed we arrived at a number of general conclusions and recommendations given below

1 That this experiment of visiting a region with a team constituted of several different people is in itself a model which could be further developed and explored Not only does the process help us gain aprimary database it has the effect also of creating a positive image of EQUATIONS Also it puts a responsibility on us to be reciprocal in the relationships we enter into during such visits

2 This particular visit- the first of its kind - is a turning point for EQUATIONS A number of new issues have been identified and we have met with several people who have expressed an interest in ourperspectives and future plans in the region In particular we see the potential for much greater involvement in Kerala As the tourism industry increasingly plays an important role in the Indian economy there is agreater need for awareness and mobilisation at various levels of society

3 The shift from elitist (traditional) tourism to recent mass tourism is a reflection of the economies of scale at work in the industry As there is a low demand (in the international market) for Third World agricultural-industrial products

contd on page 19

5

When Tourisms Profits Go Abroad by Robert Lacvllle

I had been working in the deepest bush along the Gambian river valley where womens groups are developing really effective credit with the support of Gambian field workers who are paid by British and American charitable agencies But after eight hours of bouncing around in a Land rover on dusty roads in the heat of the day I was exhausted and in need of a cold beer Well let me be truthful three cold beers Ice-cold

So I had a shower cleaned off three layers of red dust and went off to find three cold beers As I walked along humming to myself I was thinking of those women in Tankular with their fantastic garden and their vegetable marketing problem I reached the hotel patio and I stopped in amazement I had stepped out of rural Africa into fleshy Denmark Confronted by huge expanses of female Danish flesh I experienced asort of culture shock rather like a physical thump in the chest My thoughts of village underdevelopment were smothered by the hideous reality of human over-development The fat lady in the bikini was suffering from painful sunburn Her bright breasts bulged painfully out of her skimpy bra Her red back was peeling generously

I moved away and sat in the dark with a beer As I relieved my parched throat I had time to watch three teenaged Gambian girls modelling tie-dye shirts and shorts They were young and attractive I began to feel better to take an interest in the models Then I caught sighLof a pair of Scandanavian buttocks and shuddered I offered a silent prayer If that woman does decide to spend 12 dollars on a shirt and shorts in delicate tie-cloth please let it be for her granddaughter and not for herself At least if she buys some that will add income for awomens co-operative for the girl models for the hotels disk jockey Every piece of income helps Compared to the social disruption there is little enough benefit coming to the Gambia from its tourist industry

At breakfast I was fresher feeling less jaundiced about my Scandanavian neighbours This was made all the easier by the fact that the fat women were wearing more clothing than the previous evening Breakfast was generous There was salami and ham cheese and butter and jam all of it imported These products were eaten off imported china plates with nice warm bread rolls made with imported flour There was tea and coffee (imported) together with American cornflakes to eat with reconstituted imported Dutch powdered milk (you cannot mistake the taste however well they mix it to remove the gritty lumps) and English powdered sugar

My breakfast was somewhat spoiled by the dank smell of beer hangi ng over the dining room and the unsightly crates of beer Coke and Fanta (all imported ingredients in imported bottles) Even the tables and table cloths were imported (no tie-dye cloth here Im afraid) In fact as I looked around the dining room I could see no sign of local consumption except for the water water for bread water for beer water to dilute sickly coloured syrups water to wash up the mess made by the imported tourists

Gambian women grow tomatoes for the local tourist market They harvest their tomatoes and carry them on their heads for ten kilometres to sell to the hotels and then some soggy foreign procurement manager turns them away because he cannot be bothered Rather than buy Gambian Fresh he prefers to pay more for Spanish Tasteless The African bitter tomato is asort of aubergine which looks like a large ripening tomato It is good in stews But here I have found anew meaning for the expression bitter tomato top qual ity tomatoes which you cannot sell because the white man will not buy them That is acase for trade protection if ever one needed to be found The government should tax imported fresh food price-forcing the hotels to buy local chickens local eggs and local fruits and vegetables

For although the tourist industry has been developing these last few years the profits mai nly accrue outside the country Tour operators are paid in Europe They pay their bills in Europe airfares are paid to European airlines and hotel fees are mostly paid in Europe to the Scandanavian French German and Gambian investors who have built the hotels The employment benefit is of course considerable Waiters and cooks and bed makers are all Gambians (or Senegalese) so are the tie-dye ladies and their teenaged models the dancers and musicians the carvers and leather workers the tour guides and the taxi

drivers even though their employment is seasonal they feed theirfamilies and friends off the back of tourism and this must help up to 15 or 20 percent of The Gambias 800000 population But what does the government get out of tourism Government has a lot of costs related to tourism Tourists use and wear out the roads and bridges which Government must keep up Tourists must be supplied with petrol products (for cars for electricity generation) which consume large amounts of rare foreign exchange Tourists occupy large numbers of customs and immigration officials and police guard the tourist beaches day and night to ensure that no nasty scandals happen which would make juicy reading in the European press and damage the tourist business Tourism generates about 10 of Gambias foreign exchange earnings according to the Ministry ofTourism but that is not very much Apart from a Governments 6 bed tax sales tax on gasoline (which doesnt offset its foreign exchange cost to the Governmentl and the pound7 airport tax for each of the 60000 or so tourists the only benefit the country derives is from employment

Oh yes there is one other source of income Gambia Airways This company has the monopoly of handling rights at the airport and it is one of the few air companies in the world to make a profit (largely because it runs no aircraft they are not very profitable these days) Gambia Airways is therefore a moneymaker for the Gambia

But British Airways has decided that Gambia Airways is costing too much They do not like to PY Gambian taxes on aircraft fuel and they do not like paying charges for the airport for passenger and luggage and ticket handling etc 55 per cent of Gambias tourists come from Britain British Airways is not a small operation It runs charters and carries a fai r proportion of the British tourists as well as most of the Gambias air freight

Apart from the small tourism revenues all the foreign exchange used to buy aircraft fuel has to be bought with groundnuts Even the customs forms and the toilet paper in the airport transit lounge have to be paid for with foreign exchange Gambian peasant farmers grow ground nuts which are collected by the co-operatives and turned into oil or cattle cake which are largely exported to Britai n

The Gambia is a poor country and it needs British Airways to pay the real cost Yet rather than pay taxes or dues to the Gambian government British Airways is threatening to pullout Is it now British Government policy that British Airways should have its airports subsidised by Gambian peasant farmers What gall The British deadline for Gambian surrender is 27th May

I for one hope that the Gambian Minister of Tourism will call their bluff Sabena will be happy to take over the leading role in Gambian air transport and I dare say the Belgian business community will not be far behind Perhaps the new British High Commissioner to the Gambia will be taking his home leave on Sabena this year That would indeed be a bitter pill for British diplomacy Very galling

GUARDIAN 26 May 1991

Tourism Tragedy Too much too quickly is the usual reason for the conflict tourism development and the environment After 1988 a year for tourism Turkey planned to increase revenue from it$ tourists But problems followed Tourists found that dust and noise from halfmiddot built hotels disturbed their peaceful holiday Quickly built accommodation proved to be dangerous when in 1989 a 12middotyearmiddotold English girl was killed in a 26 foot fall after her hotel balcony in Bodrum collapsed In 1990 the amount of Escherichia coli a bacterium of faecal origin reached levels that made it dangerous to go swimming along the coast After criticisms from conservationists the Government is now aiming to diversify to take the pressure off coastal development with plans for inland skiing and nature holidays

Source Consumer Currents No 135 April 1991

4

The Jumbos are Coming by I Rajeswary

There was a time when elephants and lions rhinoceroses and hipposhypotamuses roamed wild and free in the forests and savannah of Uganda The Chief attractions of the Pearl of Africa as it is known

were its national parks and wildlife including 30000 elephants Up unti 11972 tourism was Ugandas third most important foreign exchange earner after coffee and cotton In 1971 it drew 85000 visitors who spend US $27 million

But tourism ground to a halt between 1972 and 1979 during Idi Amins turbulent reign Guns and ammunition were easily available and Amins triggershy

soldiers who were given afree run of national parks slaughtered whole of elephants for ivory By 1982 the elephant population in Queen

Elizabeth National Park had dwindled to 152 down from 3000 in the 19705 In 1980 concerned over the decline of wildlife and tourism the government

that ousted Idi Amin turned to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) for help in training a 40-man anti-poaching strike force The new unit produced immediate results in Murchison Falls Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo Valley national parks

In Murchison Falls the number of elephant carcasses encountered on ranger patrols dropped from 120 in 1980 to none in 1982 and the elephant herd there is now slowly increasing The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth Park has quadrupled

When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 his administration sought additional UN DP assistance to rehabilitate the countrys wildlife and national parks As part of a $17 million project carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) 49 two-way radios were distributed to Ugandas

Park and game officials For the first time all national park officials can communicate with each other and to their headquarters in Kampala the capital

With the help of mobile radios rangers here in the Ishasha area - the southernmost section of Queen Elizabeth Park - have arrested 66 poachers since the project was launched two years ago In Africa says Tanzanian Raphael Jingu the FAOUNDP projects chief technical adviser anti-poaching forms the backbone of wildlife management

The poachers who are usually armed and operate their own four-wheel drive vehicles mainly seek hippopotamuses buffaloes and Uganda Kobs aform of deer unique to Uganda These days elephants are largely spared because of the stiff penalties if caught IlPoachers flee when they see our rangers say Abu Baker Juma the Ishasha sector game warden Being able to co-ordinate our

with radios gives us a huge tactical advantage Statistics bear Mr Juma out In 1988 there were 209 poaching incidents in

the park dropping to 156 in 1989 a decline of 25 per cent In fact says Dr Eric Edroma Uganda National Parks director animals which used to run when they saw people now stand and gaze at them because they are not afraid

Ugandas rangers and wardens constantly live on edge Last October in a shoot-out at Murchison Falls Park 30 poachers were killed I am very of my rangers says Dr Edroma fiT hey are well trained and equipped Sometimes hOlNeVer his men are not so lucky Recently knife-wielding relatives of a poacher who had been arrested earlier attacked a ranger from Ishasha in a market place The ranger lost a finger in the attack T~ work of the rangers and wardens in protecting wildlife is only one part

of a larger government effort to revive tourism Officials in this land-locked country are well aware that they must compete with neighbouring Kenya which currently attracts the lions share of visitors seeking African safaris

Because services at most Ugandan hotels and lodges in the parks are minimal at best the government asked WTO with UNDP fundi ng to draft amaster plan to renovate hotels re-surface pot-holed roads and upgrade the skills of those in the hotel industry ls Ugandas economic and social conditions tourism can become the countrys main foreign exchange earner says Mr jingu

Even without such improvements the number of visitors to Uganda rose from 8622 in 1982 to almost 40000 in 1986 The increase is due at least partially to the fact that poaching is down and the parks themselves are now better managed Tourist arrival figures since 1986 are not available

Mr Jingu credits the new order in the parks to UNDP-financed intensive

training courses that gave 300 rangers and 300 park wardens a chance to upgrade their technical and managerial skills In addition four wardens were sent on fellowships to the College of African Wildlife and Management in Tanzania Africas first centre devoted to wildlife conservation

UNDP also recruited a United Nations Volunteer Mohamed Bereteh a wildlife management specialist from Sierra Leone His assignment to educate Ugandans living within Queen Elizabeth Park about the need to preserve big game Mr Mohamed relies on films to impress upon viewers who include primary and secondary school students the importance of conservation But his task is complicated by traditional beliefs Some Ugandans believe that a womans fertility increases if she eats hippo meat says Mr Mohamed lnd aman is considered less of aman if he does not provide hippo meat for his wife

But Mr Mohameds message is slowly getting through Last year two such sessions led by Mr Mohamed were well attended The Ugandans used to view these workshops as agovernment scam to nab poachers he says What turned them around was seeing actual footage of their natural wildlife heritage and what poaching could do to them

UN DPs assistance ends in December Officials want the project extended 1 The government is interested in conservation but we have limited resources says Dr Edrorna in explaining why his government has yet to contribute its share of $53000 to the project It has other priorities If the extension is not forthcoming it will be a real tragedY

An important long term strategy says Mr Jingu is to convince people living within the parks that they can profit from managing and protecting wildlife on thei r own initiative The government wants to adopt an approach to community participation in wildlife management that has already been tested in Zimbabwe Under this arrangement the government entrusts a section of national park to the villagers who live there provided they follow specific regulations hunting is permitted only in designated areas only a limited number of animals can be hunted at anyone time and tourists who want to hunt must pay a fee to the vi lIagers who are allowed to set the price Th i s gives villagers a major incentive to turn in any poachers

It has worked in Zimbabwe says Mr Jingu and Iam sure it can work herel If the necessary funds are forth--com ing Uganda may soon have aconservation policy that employs both the carrot and the stick

WORLD DEVELOPMENT (UNDP) March 1991

Massive MP Campaign by Rakesh Khar

Temptations 50 irresistiblej that you will fall for them Forts that still echo past glories Palaces that stiil shimmer with grandeur Love still in passionate embrace in stone FOIesis with wildlife in natural display Get away to the centre of it all Madhya Pradesh (viP) - the heart of India The sightseers paradi5e with many a beautiful

Thus speaks a colourfully designed booklet The booklet forms a part of a massive campaign afoot to launch the state in a big way on the tourism map of the country So here is astate with 40 backward districts offering fun lovers the natural wonders scenic splendours and a lot more beautifully wrapped up in 26 economical and convenient packages

Tourism in Madhya Pradesh has come of age The MP State Tourism Development Corporation ended 1989-90 on abright note Not only did it show agross profit of Rs 3883 lakhs but it also showed a net profit of Rs 133 lakhs The corporation expects to end 1990-91 showing gross profit of Rs 60 lakhs and a net profit of Rs 5 lakhs says Mr G 5 Chahal a senior official

Faced with the arduous task of promoting tourism in astate which symbolises utter backwardness the corporation has succeeded in establishing Madhya Pradesh as a front-runner tourist destination through the extensive promotional campaigns conducted in and outside the state The corporation claims to have also consolidated its pioneering activity of organising package tours

order to create better awareness of the rich folklore and folk traditions as al~o itlt varied cultural heritage a numberoffairs and festivals have been selected for development and promotion These include the Panchmarhi festival Bhojpur

Orchha festival and Malwa festival ECONOMIC TIMES 16 April 1991

Nepal A Tourism Tragedy Tourism in Nepal is increasing by over 77 per cent a year it is the only hard currency earner for the worlds fourth poorest nation and is being promoted vigorously The result is predictable footpaths are destroyed sewage gets into rivers litter mountsj and forests disappear at an alarming rate 400000 ha of forest are cleared each year and each hectare cleared loses 3075 tons of soiLdevastating landslides and ffoods wreck both land and economy

The slopes ofthe worlds highest peaks in the Himalaya were once a pristine wilderness Desecration by climbers and trekkers has set in motioR their ecological degradation Until a decade or two ago it was a relativelv minor problem today it has reached disastrous proportions

The worstaffected region is around Everest There is so much junk that a full-scale expedition is needed to remove it says Chris Bonngton an Everest explorer In recent years climbing from the northeast ridge on the Tibet side has become the craze As a result Rongbukj the worlds highest monastery has become a toilet and rubbish dumb Once-cfear view of magnificent mountain vistas are now obscenely impeded by abandoned oxygen canisters paper foil and other garbage

Part ofthe problem lies in the growing number ofexpeditions to the top of Everest Each year there are more than 300 expeditions and 7O~OOO trekkers

the Himalaya Of these a large proportion are Everest climbers 13 in the current season The Nepal Government has more than 700 Everest climbing requests pending till 2003

The indian Mountaineering Association has laid down guidelines for anyone climbing in the Indian Himalaya it offers cash incentives to all expeditions which clean up their camps behind them The Himalaya Adventure Trust has astrictcode of conduct for trekkers and Nepal tourism authorities have made it mandatnry for expeditions to leave no litter

Though this has helped wdecrease the size ofexpedition teams the number ofteams remains high and is increasing 104 peaks in Nepal are open climbers 17 to joint expeditions and 5 reserved for Nepalese climbers 18 minor peaks are open to trekkers administered directly by the Nepa Mountaineering Association

Frustrated in its efforts to control the ecological impacts ofEverest climbing the Nepal GOvernment has finally decided that Everest can no longerbe climbed after 7994 Tourism authorities estimate that 50 fonnes of waste currently litter Everest slopes in the years since it was thrown open to the public in 1952

While this may help limit further destruction ofthe worlds highest peak the question ofthe existing garbage remains will Nepal decide to allow dean-up expeditions after 79941

Moreover it is not Everest alone which stands it danger of permanent destruction It is high time that Nepal (and other countries in the Himalayan region) came up with ajoint environment protection plan under the auspices ofan officially constituted environment protection authoritY laxes on mountain climbing could help to finance such a venture

Thi5 is what the article Mr Himalayan Environment seems to suggest

Mr Himalayan Environment The Swiss Alpine Club has recently appointed a permanent official

for the protection of the environment Shouldnt therE be at least one Ir Environment for the Himalayas He could easily be financed by a small head tax on all visitors

This is not a plea to stop tourism That would be impossible anyway It is a to regulate its future development far more strictly and that is not an easy

task If there is a lesson to be learnt from the experience of the Alps it is this protection of the mountai n environment needs determined action and hard work at all levels from the highest government authorities to the lowliest individual Interests of local people have to be catered for so that they have a vested Interest In protecting the environment The Swiss for examDle have an active programme of aid to mountain communities

Protection needs some down-ta-earth action Perhaps one way to start is to

17

talk less about the romantic attractions of mountai n wilderness areas and more bull about toilets garbage disposal ald fuel

Once there is a heavier investment in tourism in the Himalayas it will be difficult to fight destruction because money talks and loudly too Before this happens I suggest that the Himalayas should be divided - with the coshyoperation of all the Himalayan countries into three zones

The first would be open for intense tourism development climbers and trekkers would be welcome and infrastructure provided for them Come one come all

The second one would be open only by special permission to a limited number of climbers and scientists There are already a number of national these could be upgraded and perhaps even linked

The third one vould be inviolate and kept free of human intrusion It would be a or two above the national park status This raises some basic questions Do we want to preserve some corners of the earth free from mans interference or do we want to open up every bit of it to human exploitation Do we have the right to use up all the earth Or are we willing to leave some space for the snow leopards ghurrals and the abominable snowman

As Reinhold Messner wrote recently Man through the centuries has always chosen places which seemed special and declared them holy and untouchable There the Gods IivedToday more than ever we have a need for unexplored wilderness

And our Gods have always lived in the Himalayas

by Aamir Ali HIMAl 28 MayJune 1990

Upturning Virgin Soil

The term tourism development implies much more than running tourist bus services or the stray holiday resort Realising this - rather belatedly it must be said the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation

(MTDC) has recently rewritten its agenda Deviating from its traditional role of running resorts and bus services for tourists it has set its sights on the development of virgin land along the Konkan coast The corporation has identified 32 locations where international standard upmarket as vvell as budget hotels are expected to corne up within the next decade

In achange from its earlier policy MTDC is now planning to withdraw from operational activities and become a nodal agency for the development of tourism by undertaki ng a different set of activities Taking care of infrastructural

providi ng land offering basic amenities for motorists using national highways are some of the major plans chalked out by MTDC

The corporation has aPerspectiveGlvwth Plan basea on which it has asked for the allocation of funds from the Central government in the Eighth Five Year Plan Its plans involve roping in private developers to bui Id resortshotels and thereby develop the locations as tourist spots The land is provided by MTDCIWe get the land either through an allotment from the government or we acquire directly~ says Kawale

However MTDCs offer to private developers has not met with a great deal of enthusiasm According to Mukhtar Hussain of Suman Motels Ltd which runs five to six motels in Maharashtra (but arent bui Iding any on MTDC land) Their location lS for the promotion of tourism our location is for busi ness faei I ities Another private developer is more explicit when he say Basically the plots Which MTDC are offering are not developed locations They are beautifUl but ve arc sceptical about the availability of infrastructural facilities complain that not enough publicity has been given to MTDCs procedures This means that only linsiders have an opportunity to participate

Whilst MTDC plans to team-up with the concerned authorities for the of water electricity and roads private developers complain that most locations have no rail connections another negative factor Also they are not interested in the development of hotels as a majority of them are slated to fall into the two or three star category aimed at the tourist on abudget llso there is no assurance of a minimum level of room occupancy states a developer

BUSINESS INDIA 15-28 April 1991

18

History of A Small Place Caren Kaplan

Jamaica Ki ncaids A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics of displacement Kincaid locates Antigua the island where she was born as not only a small place on the map but a place in history In the process of remapping this location Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage points

InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semishycollapse Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like something else She explores the contradictions of representation by investigating the stakes in each position available in that location Who benefits from perpetuating the representation of paradise Who benefits from the raw sewage in the pretty bay the erosion of Antiguan culture the condos and timeshysharesSince the exotic food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the same plane as the tourist A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of modernitys representational imperatives

Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and counter-discourse of Antiguas relationship with the rest of the world In this text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one at least on the part of the native The text is addressed to you the past present or potential tourist The narrator Kincaid however is not truly a native anymore since she lives and writes in the United States This displaced position gives Kincaids text a particular value it mediates the very oppositions it constructs breaks open contradictions makes connections For example the subject position of native is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity as Kincaid illustrates a point made by Arjun Appadurai the opposition between native and tourist is constructed by a transnational culture of tourism-that is the native is constructed and incarcerated by the anthropological discourse of western travel Kincaids poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions like native and traveler even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized identities

The story of Antiguas colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of the authors personal history Her memories become a counter-narrative to official histories and public relations campaigns Yet Kincaid is equally frustrated with island approaches to time and history She writes

To the people in a small place the division of Time into the Pasf the Presentand the Future does notexist An event that occurred one hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as if it were happening at this very moment And then an event that is occurring at th5 very moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as if it had happened one hundred years ago

Rather than impose linear teleological time in the form of conventional history Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and experience honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism She maps even as she tells in the process inventing a historical poetics of displacement Antigua as chronotope collapses linear imperial time masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and experience

The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami New York and London The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism Antiguans in their small place on the map and in history are inextricably linked to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home This map of transnational global conditions is in part the work of the text It is this strategy of insisting on Antiguas tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating for specific localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics of displacement Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation Edward Said has described this impulse as cartogaphic arguing that the rolttrf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination It is necessary he suggests to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not pristine and prehistorical but historically constituted by present concerns

In describing one small place in the vast world Kincaids memories construct acounter-narrative that resists nostalgia and universality in favor of a historical and geographical investigation of location in the expanded global sense

Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol 3 No 1 (1991)

Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)

structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture

While the organisation does not directly promote tourism says INTACHs Harshad Kumari it does contain the concept of tourism insofar as it has to do with the countrys heritage under its umbrella We believe in local people being able to use their old structures not just in restoring them for the heck of it Once a building is saved restoration takes care of itself she says citing successful examples in Jaisalmer Bikaner and Jodhpur

Right now the sort of tourism thats happening is not benefitting the local people at all she feels adding By linking heritage and tourism we should make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town

Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition and the musical nights in Jhalawar apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight into local culture than the package-tour may well be a step towards greater cultural awareness

SUNDAY 3 March 1991

Serve them right (contd from page 7)

comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison it will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten chewed and swallowed up - reminiscent to the untrained eye of d large choru~ of eaters in acircus or a magic show Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his shoes in Gold Rush

No despite the economic problems engendered by unification is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some their calories from porcelain (In any case theres always beer to fall back upon if need be) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery - plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes An Indian who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate thrown away after use as the prototype of the paper or plastic plate might think that crockery made of bread is a genuine innovation But he would do well to remember that plantain-leaf plates as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall knows are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away The difference betveen India and Germany then is essentially this we feed our cows with dispo~able

whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates

Editorial DECCAN HERALD 7 March 1991

Summary Findings (contd trom page 16)

there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products On the supply side this is matched by the need for foreign exchange

4 This will make the task of seeking alternatives (such as avariety ot alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive In asense the Third World cannot do without tourism in the present stage of economic development By the same logic domestic tourism is not a viable proposition either

5 The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent limitations that is if it proves to be economically not viable Therefore this points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies of the industry its linkages the convergence of different state interentior-s and so on In particular we need to examine the links of tourism with changes in land use patterns in the coastal

Letter to EQUATIONS Dear friends Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent discussion with Suresh in Calcutta 1 For EQUATIONS advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of

Tourism it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the costshybenefit analysis of Tourism ie taking into account the high impore content ofelite tourism the capital-intensive bias and also the various impacts (such as on the emnronment) what picturefinally emerges It is important to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed approach and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily mean anything Huwever in ones dealings with guvernment etc this is something they understand But all the limitations to this approach also have to be simultaneously propagated Actually using cost-benefit approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game Just by changing some assumptions one could get a different result Corrversely a desirable or good project can never make it is based on the market mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes and destroys alternatives

let as in the Tehri dam case it does help to get into this One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India

elsewhere and bring this together Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism projects and more ambitiously for the state or national level

2 Ultimately given what one is campaigning against it is a losing battie in the short-run But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other strategies which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle and taking on work in the area of ltalternatives~ Thus design ofedushycatiot1al curricula and carrying )u educational programmes (jor say students and youth) on critiques of tourism on responsible travel as learning and interacting with diverse peoples places and cultures

Actually both the campaigning against and the articulation and attempting of (alternatives have to be undertaken From a social perspective one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams But such common perpective coming together and taking on of roles within a common perspective interaction and exchange is all too rare in our (voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within ones organisation which only destroys you This needs to be reflected on Because even concentrating on one stream alone is basically countershyproductive So haw can all the various efforts that allmiddot need to be simultaneously undertaken be realised

At the very least within one organisation one may find that rather than get burnt out just fighting against one pulls out and takes on the (alternatives itself as a means of retaining sanity learning and being energised

Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources to reaching out to political parties MPs MLAs gcrvernment officials ltlobbying This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task and full of all kinds of dangers But it is also something that needs to be systematically done part of the (long-run efforts mentioned earlier

I write all this because J myselfam concerned ffbnut lile Tourism very glad to find a group such ~hai

I strongly closer and inte1lCtiosz betWeen activistgrodps is badly netded an alternalive culture in the voluntary sector ~ ana JeWuse jjIjseq am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you What to do From the little knuw about EQUATIONS and its work I have strong admiration for your efforts I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself as one ofyou one ofthe larger struggle all ofus in our awn way are involved in

_rlease lel me kn071i what jYJU think Your 3irrcerev V Calcutta_

3

Pay for Environment

The travel industry environmentalists and officials from developing countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses will have to pay much more

A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific Asia Travel Association

Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty he told the conference which ended on April 14 It makes perfect sense that visitors should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions he said

Much of the worlds remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash is a higher priority than conservation The travel industry must show governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit speakers stressed

bullA Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial companies and a logging firm with strong political backing

It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque now seconded to the WWF Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up with financial clout Roque said which conference speakers believed the tourist industry could provide

Despite the fears of conservationists tourism and ecology need not be mutually exclusive said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd a pioneer in nature tours in the Himalayas Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part of the same picture

Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more money from fewer tourists Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating cash for community projects and preservation

Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas Firms competing for high-volume business were bound to cut costs Choegyal said and environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints

Traditional life in Indonesias overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the expense of the environment said the nations tourist planning chief himself Balinese Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-

and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large I Gede Ardika said

A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter to locals Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product as much as they feel part-ownership researcher Charles Tambiah said

pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines blasted apart (- dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from needed to feed their families Tourism as aspot of affluence and

luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b( slJtain6-jp development he said

But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWFs Bunting He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature reserve Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and so were very familiar with trails and watering spots The animals they used to hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see

5di~gE5tlt-d tourists themselyes couid be 11) illlJ1(Jve

environment in the developing world CCI AprMay 199

16

Summary Findings Visit to Coastal KarnatakalKerala

by Equations Team May 1991

Team Manvel Alur K T Suresh Leo Saldanha amp M Shivakumar Dates May 10 - 16 Karnataka

May 17 - June 2 Kerala

Logistics In 21 days the team covered a vast coastline from Karwar in northern

Karnataka through to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu Shivkumar was asked to provide overall guidance to the team and he was accompanied by Manvel and Leo in Karnataka while Suresh joined him for the visit to KeralalKanyakumari

Dai Iy logs were written up and reports prepared i ndivid ually with Shivkumar providing a conceptual framework at the end

Prior to finalising our understanding of and responses to the visit 3 discussions were held with a group of rapporteurs Dr Duarte Baretto of the lSI Shri A Vasudevan of GRID and Shri C Antonisamy of Peace Trust Dindigul

A final report will be prepared by mid-July incorporating all the elements covered in the individual and group reports This will be the basis for followshyup action in Karnataka and Kerala west coast

Issues in Coastal KarnatakaKasargod

1 The traditional influence of the Catholic religious institutions today overshadowed by Hindu revivalism - evident in politics as well as institutions (temples)

2 The increasing economic dominance of the bankingfinancial sector especially of the Udupi Pai families in a wide range of industrial sectors Their traditional implications for tourismhotels (They have established a hotel management Institute in collaboration with ITOWelcomgroup Also a centre for folk artslcultural media)

3 The relatively higher rate of literacysuccess of literacy campaign in 0 K District and the economic relevance of the Gulf boom

4 Issues related to non-tourism development Karwar MCF Kaiga deforestation (Western ghats) etc These are of more immediate relevance to a number of people

5 The resistance of the people of Kanvarthirtha to a Kerala tourism development plan led by Mr Subhash Chandra aschool teacher at Bantwal He has asked for informationsupport from EQUATIONS

6 Although the beaches are not enti rely cond ucive to swimm ingwater sports there are several hotel projects coming up in the coastal region Since there has been a long tradition of pilgrimage to the various temples here it is likely that tourism promoters havetheir eyes on the Indian middle-class who can be persuaded to combine spiritual quests with worldly pleasures With the increasing disposable incomeavailable to this class the region does have tourism development potential Basic infrastructure is also available more readily in this region than in the rest of Karnataka The relevance of this can be identified from the interest expressed even by an NGO leader in promoting tourism in Honavar The ease with which our team could travel in the region and visit various temples and sites is another indication of the overall tourism developmental potentiaL

7 As of today there are very few organisational initiatives to examine tourism from a wholistic perspective amongst the local NGOs of the region Neither do any of the existing groups appear prepared to enter into a specific involvement on tourism issues in the immediate future since they have a variety of other pre-occupations

Responses a EQUATIONS plans to facilitate a seminar - workshop on tourism issues

in the region inviting a number of NGOs and others whom we visited For this we are seeking the help of interested local individuals

b EQUATIONS should also respond to the request of the Kanvarthirtha people We can begin by publicising the issues as well as by sharing information with Kanvarthirtha about tourism issues generally

c If EQUATIONS is to build an active relationship with concerned people in the region we must not only be in regular touch about tourism but also demonstrate an interest in local issues (other than tourism) which are of concern to them

Issues in Kerala 1 Kerala seems to be clearly oriented to tourism development and provides

support to the industry The private sector is actively encouraged in its efforts and the interventions of the state and its mechanisms could be stated as integration incorporation and even co-option This is evident from the District level upwards

2 Furthermore the state demonstrates demographic and socio-economic characteristics similar to parts of coastal Karnataka high rate of literacy influence of Gulf boom significance of religious institutions (though political bodies exercise considerable leverage as well) well-developed infrastructure and economic institutions

3 There is however afair amount of understanding of the tourism issue amongst intellectuals and NGO-related individuals in Kerala The historical development of political economy in the State is viewed as leading inevitably towards tourism development today

4 The link between Union Territories (Mahe - Lakshadweep) at the tourism level appears to be potentially significant It needs to be further exami ned

5 Tourism strategy at Lakshadweep appears to be high-cost high quality low density low infrastructure This is environment friendly elitist-alternative tourism with substantial revenue potential This would lead us to surmise that speciality tourism developments can be foreseen in future

6 Specifically we have been asked for the following i to produce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document ii to provide inputs to KIiTTs students iii to place tourism on the agenda of ECO-92 (Brazil) iv to collaborate with the International Collective in support of

Fisherworkers (HQ Madras) and v To share the report of our visit with those visited

Responses a EQUATIONS has agreed in principle to respond to KIiTTs request by

providing inputs on tourism critique We also hope KIiTTs will be able to support us by undertaking or sponsoring research on tourism in coastal Kerala and providing access to existing documentation

b To prodClce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document EQUATIONS should identify one or two persons in Kerala whose services can be uti lised in this regard

c EQUATIONS can collaborate with others as per the requests made d Following distribution of the report EQUATIONS could organise a meeting

of concerned people in Kerala

General Following the presentations of the reports to the rapporteurs and as a result

of the discussions which followed we arrived at a number of general conclusions and recommendations given below

1 That this experiment of visiting a region with a team constituted of several different people is in itself a model which could be further developed and explored Not only does the process help us gain aprimary database it has the effect also of creating a positive image of EQUATIONS Also it puts a responsibility on us to be reciprocal in the relationships we enter into during such visits

2 This particular visit- the first of its kind - is a turning point for EQUATIONS A number of new issues have been identified and we have met with several people who have expressed an interest in ourperspectives and future plans in the region In particular we see the potential for much greater involvement in Kerala As the tourism industry increasingly plays an important role in the Indian economy there is agreater need for awareness and mobilisation at various levels of society

3 The shift from elitist (traditional) tourism to recent mass tourism is a reflection of the economies of scale at work in the industry As there is a low demand (in the international market) for Third World agricultural-industrial products

contd on page 19

5

When Tourisms Profits Go Abroad by Robert Lacvllle

I had been working in the deepest bush along the Gambian river valley where womens groups are developing really effective credit with the support of Gambian field workers who are paid by British and American charitable agencies But after eight hours of bouncing around in a Land rover on dusty roads in the heat of the day I was exhausted and in need of a cold beer Well let me be truthful three cold beers Ice-cold

So I had a shower cleaned off three layers of red dust and went off to find three cold beers As I walked along humming to myself I was thinking of those women in Tankular with their fantastic garden and their vegetable marketing problem I reached the hotel patio and I stopped in amazement I had stepped out of rural Africa into fleshy Denmark Confronted by huge expanses of female Danish flesh I experienced asort of culture shock rather like a physical thump in the chest My thoughts of village underdevelopment were smothered by the hideous reality of human over-development The fat lady in the bikini was suffering from painful sunburn Her bright breasts bulged painfully out of her skimpy bra Her red back was peeling generously

I moved away and sat in the dark with a beer As I relieved my parched throat I had time to watch three teenaged Gambian girls modelling tie-dye shirts and shorts They were young and attractive I began to feel better to take an interest in the models Then I caught sighLof a pair of Scandanavian buttocks and shuddered I offered a silent prayer If that woman does decide to spend 12 dollars on a shirt and shorts in delicate tie-cloth please let it be for her granddaughter and not for herself At least if she buys some that will add income for awomens co-operative for the girl models for the hotels disk jockey Every piece of income helps Compared to the social disruption there is little enough benefit coming to the Gambia from its tourist industry

At breakfast I was fresher feeling less jaundiced about my Scandanavian neighbours This was made all the easier by the fact that the fat women were wearing more clothing than the previous evening Breakfast was generous There was salami and ham cheese and butter and jam all of it imported These products were eaten off imported china plates with nice warm bread rolls made with imported flour There was tea and coffee (imported) together with American cornflakes to eat with reconstituted imported Dutch powdered milk (you cannot mistake the taste however well they mix it to remove the gritty lumps) and English powdered sugar

My breakfast was somewhat spoiled by the dank smell of beer hangi ng over the dining room and the unsightly crates of beer Coke and Fanta (all imported ingredients in imported bottles) Even the tables and table cloths were imported (no tie-dye cloth here Im afraid) In fact as I looked around the dining room I could see no sign of local consumption except for the water water for bread water for beer water to dilute sickly coloured syrups water to wash up the mess made by the imported tourists

Gambian women grow tomatoes for the local tourist market They harvest their tomatoes and carry them on their heads for ten kilometres to sell to the hotels and then some soggy foreign procurement manager turns them away because he cannot be bothered Rather than buy Gambian Fresh he prefers to pay more for Spanish Tasteless The African bitter tomato is asort of aubergine which looks like a large ripening tomato It is good in stews But here I have found anew meaning for the expression bitter tomato top qual ity tomatoes which you cannot sell because the white man will not buy them That is acase for trade protection if ever one needed to be found The government should tax imported fresh food price-forcing the hotels to buy local chickens local eggs and local fruits and vegetables

For although the tourist industry has been developing these last few years the profits mai nly accrue outside the country Tour operators are paid in Europe They pay their bills in Europe airfares are paid to European airlines and hotel fees are mostly paid in Europe to the Scandanavian French German and Gambian investors who have built the hotels The employment benefit is of course considerable Waiters and cooks and bed makers are all Gambians (or Senegalese) so are the tie-dye ladies and their teenaged models the dancers and musicians the carvers and leather workers the tour guides and the taxi

drivers even though their employment is seasonal they feed theirfamilies and friends off the back of tourism and this must help up to 15 or 20 percent of The Gambias 800000 population But what does the government get out of tourism Government has a lot of costs related to tourism Tourists use and wear out the roads and bridges which Government must keep up Tourists must be supplied with petrol products (for cars for electricity generation) which consume large amounts of rare foreign exchange Tourists occupy large numbers of customs and immigration officials and police guard the tourist beaches day and night to ensure that no nasty scandals happen which would make juicy reading in the European press and damage the tourist business Tourism generates about 10 of Gambias foreign exchange earnings according to the Ministry ofTourism but that is not very much Apart from a Governments 6 bed tax sales tax on gasoline (which doesnt offset its foreign exchange cost to the Governmentl and the pound7 airport tax for each of the 60000 or so tourists the only benefit the country derives is from employment

Oh yes there is one other source of income Gambia Airways This company has the monopoly of handling rights at the airport and it is one of the few air companies in the world to make a profit (largely because it runs no aircraft they are not very profitable these days) Gambia Airways is therefore a moneymaker for the Gambia

But British Airways has decided that Gambia Airways is costing too much They do not like to PY Gambian taxes on aircraft fuel and they do not like paying charges for the airport for passenger and luggage and ticket handling etc 55 per cent of Gambias tourists come from Britain British Airways is not a small operation It runs charters and carries a fai r proportion of the British tourists as well as most of the Gambias air freight

Apart from the small tourism revenues all the foreign exchange used to buy aircraft fuel has to be bought with groundnuts Even the customs forms and the toilet paper in the airport transit lounge have to be paid for with foreign exchange Gambian peasant farmers grow ground nuts which are collected by the co-operatives and turned into oil or cattle cake which are largely exported to Britai n

The Gambia is a poor country and it needs British Airways to pay the real cost Yet rather than pay taxes or dues to the Gambian government British Airways is threatening to pullout Is it now British Government policy that British Airways should have its airports subsidised by Gambian peasant farmers What gall The British deadline for Gambian surrender is 27th May

I for one hope that the Gambian Minister of Tourism will call their bluff Sabena will be happy to take over the leading role in Gambian air transport and I dare say the Belgian business community will not be far behind Perhaps the new British High Commissioner to the Gambia will be taking his home leave on Sabena this year That would indeed be a bitter pill for British diplomacy Very galling

GUARDIAN 26 May 1991

Tourism Tragedy Too much too quickly is the usual reason for the conflict tourism development and the environment After 1988 a year for tourism Turkey planned to increase revenue from it$ tourists But problems followed Tourists found that dust and noise from halfmiddot built hotels disturbed their peaceful holiday Quickly built accommodation proved to be dangerous when in 1989 a 12middotyearmiddotold English girl was killed in a 26 foot fall after her hotel balcony in Bodrum collapsed In 1990 the amount of Escherichia coli a bacterium of faecal origin reached levels that made it dangerous to go swimming along the coast After criticisms from conservationists the Government is now aiming to diversify to take the pressure off coastal development with plans for inland skiing and nature holidays

Source Consumer Currents No 135 April 1991

4

The Jumbos are Coming by I Rajeswary

There was a time when elephants and lions rhinoceroses and hipposhypotamuses roamed wild and free in the forests and savannah of Uganda The Chief attractions of the Pearl of Africa as it is known

were its national parks and wildlife including 30000 elephants Up unti 11972 tourism was Ugandas third most important foreign exchange earner after coffee and cotton In 1971 it drew 85000 visitors who spend US $27 million

But tourism ground to a halt between 1972 and 1979 during Idi Amins turbulent reign Guns and ammunition were easily available and Amins triggershy

soldiers who were given afree run of national parks slaughtered whole of elephants for ivory By 1982 the elephant population in Queen

Elizabeth National Park had dwindled to 152 down from 3000 in the 19705 In 1980 concerned over the decline of wildlife and tourism the government

that ousted Idi Amin turned to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) for help in training a 40-man anti-poaching strike force The new unit produced immediate results in Murchison Falls Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo Valley national parks

In Murchison Falls the number of elephant carcasses encountered on ranger patrols dropped from 120 in 1980 to none in 1982 and the elephant herd there is now slowly increasing The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth Park has quadrupled

When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 his administration sought additional UN DP assistance to rehabilitate the countrys wildlife and national parks As part of a $17 million project carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) 49 two-way radios were distributed to Ugandas

Park and game officials For the first time all national park officials can communicate with each other and to their headquarters in Kampala the capital

With the help of mobile radios rangers here in the Ishasha area - the southernmost section of Queen Elizabeth Park - have arrested 66 poachers since the project was launched two years ago In Africa says Tanzanian Raphael Jingu the FAOUNDP projects chief technical adviser anti-poaching forms the backbone of wildlife management

The poachers who are usually armed and operate their own four-wheel drive vehicles mainly seek hippopotamuses buffaloes and Uganda Kobs aform of deer unique to Uganda These days elephants are largely spared because of the stiff penalties if caught IlPoachers flee when they see our rangers say Abu Baker Juma the Ishasha sector game warden Being able to co-ordinate our

with radios gives us a huge tactical advantage Statistics bear Mr Juma out In 1988 there were 209 poaching incidents in

the park dropping to 156 in 1989 a decline of 25 per cent In fact says Dr Eric Edroma Uganda National Parks director animals which used to run when they saw people now stand and gaze at them because they are not afraid

Ugandas rangers and wardens constantly live on edge Last October in a shoot-out at Murchison Falls Park 30 poachers were killed I am very of my rangers says Dr Edroma fiT hey are well trained and equipped Sometimes hOlNeVer his men are not so lucky Recently knife-wielding relatives of a poacher who had been arrested earlier attacked a ranger from Ishasha in a market place The ranger lost a finger in the attack T~ work of the rangers and wardens in protecting wildlife is only one part

of a larger government effort to revive tourism Officials in this land-locked country are well aware that they must compete with neighbouring Kenya which currently attracts the lions share of visitors seeking African safaris

Because services at most Ugandan hotels and lodges in the parks are minimal at best the government asked WTO with UNDP fundi ng to draft amaster plan to renovate hotels re-surface pot-holed roads and upgrade the skills of those in the hotel industry ls Ugandas economic and social conditions tourism can become the countrys main foreign exchange earner says Mr jingu

Even without such improvements the number of visitors to Uganda rose from 8622 in 1982 to almost 40000 in 1986 The increase is due at least partially to the fact that poaching is down and the parks themselves are now better managed Tourist arrival figures since 1986 are not available

Mr Jingu credits the new order in the parks to UNDP-financed intensive

training courses that gave 300 rangers and 300 park wardens a chance to upgrade their technical and managerial skills In addition four wardens were sent on fellowships to the College of African Wildlife and Management in Tanzania Africas first centre devoted to wildlife conservation

UNDP also recruited a United Nations Volunteer Mohamed Bereteh a wildlife management specialist from Sierra Leone His assignment to educate Ugandans living within Queen Elizabeth Park about the need to preserve big game Mr Mohamed relies on films to impress upon viewers who include primary and secondary school students the importance of conservation But his task is complicated by traditional beliefs Some Ugandans believe that a womans fertility increases if she eats hippo meat says Mr Mohamed lnd aman is considered less of aman if he does not provide hippo meat for his wife

But Mr Mohameds message is slowly getting through Last year two such sessions led by Mr Mohamed were well attended The Ugandans used to view these workshops as agovernment scam to nab poachers he says What turned them around was seeing actual footage of their natural wildlife heritage and what poaching could do to them

UN DPs assistance ends in December Officials want the project extended 1 The government is interested in conservation but we have limited resources says Dr Edrorna in explaining why his government has yet to contribute its share of $53000 to the project It has other priorities If the extension is not forthcoming it will be a real tragedY

An important long term strategy says Mr Jingu is to convince people living within the parks that they can profit from managing and protecting wildlife on thei r own initiative The government wants to adopt an approach to community participation in wildlife management that has already been tested in Zimbabwe Under this arrangement the government entrusts a section of national park to the villagers who live there provided they follow specific regulations hunting is permitted only in designated areas only a limited number of animals can be hunted at anyone time and tourists who want to hunt must pay a fee to the vi lIagers who are allowed to set the price Th i s gives villagers a major incentive to turn in any poachers

It has worked in Zimbabwe says Mr Jingu and Iam sure it can work herel If the necessary funds are forth--com ing Uganda may soon have aconservation policy that employs both the carrot and the stick

WORLD DEVELOPMENT (UNDP) March 1991

Massive MP Campaign by Rakesh Khar

Temptations 50 irresistiblej that you will fall for them Forts that still echo past glories Palaces that stiil shimmer with grandeur Love still in passionate embrace in stone FOIesis with wildlife in natural display Get away to the centre of it all Madhya Pradesh (viP) - the heart of India The sightseers paradi5e with many a beautiful

Thus speaks a colourfully designed booklet The booklet forms a part of a massive campaign afoot to launch the state in a big way on the tourism map of the country So here is astate with 40 backward districts offering fun lovers the natural wonders scenic splendours and a lot more beautifully wrapped up in 26 economical and convenient packages

Tourism in Madhya Pradesh has come of age The MP State Tourism Development Corporation ended 1989-90 on abright note Not only did it show agross profit of Rs 3883 lakhs but it also showed a net profit of Rs 133 lakhs The corporation expects to end 1990-91 showing gross profit of Rs 60 lakhs and a net profit of Rs 5 lakhs says Mr G 5 Chahal a senior official

Faced with the arduous task of promoting tourism in astate which symbolises utter backwardness the corporation has succeeded in establishing Madhya Pradesh as a front-runner tourist destination through the extensive promotional campaigns conducted in and outside the state The corporation claims to have also consolidated its pioneering activity of organising package tours

order to create better awareness of the rich folklore and folk traditions as al~o itlt varied cultural heritage a numberoffairs and festivals have been selected for development and promotion These include the Panchmarhi festival Bhojpur

Orchha festival and Malwa festival ECONOMIC TIMES 16 April 1991

Nepal A Tourism Tragedy Tourism in Nepal is increasing by over 77 per cent a year it is the only hard currency earner for the worlds fourth poorest nation and is being promoted vigorously The result is predictable footpaths are destroyed sewage gets into rivers litter mountsj and forests disappear at an alarming rate 400000 ha of forest are cleared each year and each hectare cleared loses 3075 tons of soiLdevastating landslides and ffoods wreck both land and economy

The slopes ofthe worlds highest peaks in the Himalaya were once a pristine wilderness Desecration by climbers and trekkers has set in motioR their ecological degradation Until a decade or two ago it was a relativelv minor problem today it has reached disastrous proportions

The worstaffected region is around Everest There is so much junk that a full-scale expedition is needed to remove it says Chris Bonngton an Everest explorer In recent years climbing from the northeast ridge on the Tibet side has become the craze As a result Rongbukj the worlds highest monastery has become a toilet and rubbish dumb Once-cfear view of magnificent mountain vistas are now obscenely impeded by abandoned oxygen canisters paper foil and other garbage

Part ofthe problem lies in the growing number ofexpeditions to the top of Everest Each year there are more than 300 expeditions and 7O~OOO trekkers

the Himalaya Of these a large proportion are Everest climbers 13 in the current season The Nepal Government has more than 700 Everest climbing requests pending till 2003

The indian Mountaineering Association has laid down guidelines for anyone climbing in the Indian Himalaya it offers cash incentives to all expeditions which clean up their camps behind them The Himalaya Adventure Trust has astrictcode of conduct for trekkers and Nepal tourism authorities have made it mandatnry for expeditions to leave no litter

Though this has helped wdecrease the size ofexpedition teams the number ofteams remains high and is increasing 104 peaks in Nepal are open climbers 17 to joint expeditions and 5 reserved for Nepalese climbers 18 minor peaks are open to trekkers administered directly by the Nepa Mountaineering Association

Frustrated in its efforts to control the ecological impacts ofEverest climbing the Nepal GOvernment has finally decided that Everest can no longerbe climbed after 7994 Tourism authorities estimate that 50 fonnes of waste currently litter Everest slopes in the years since it was thrown open to the public in 1952

While this may help limit further destruction ofthe worlds highest peak the question ofthe existing garbage remains will Nepal decide to allow dean-up expeditions after 79941

Moreover it is not Everest alone which stands it danger of permanent destruction It is high time that Nepal (and other countries in the Himalayan region) came up with ajoint environment protection plan under the auspices ofan officially constituted environment protection authoritY laxes on mountain climbing could help to finance such a venture

Thi5 is what the article Mr Himalayan Environment seems to suggest

Mr Himalayan Environment The Swiss Alpine Club has recently appointed a permanent official

for the protection of the environment Shouldnt therE be at least one Ir Environment for the Himalayas He could easily be financed by a small head tax on all visitors

This is not a plea to stop tourism That would be impossible anyway It is a to regulate its future development far more strictly and that is not an easy

task If there is a lesson to be learnt from the experience of the Alps it is this protection of the mountai n environment needs determined action and hard work at all levels from the highest government authorities to the lowliest individual Interests of local people have to be catered for so that they have a vested Interest In protecting the environment The Swiss for examDle have an active programme of aid to mountain communities

Protection needs some down-ta-earth action Perhaps one way to start is to

17

talk less about the romantic attractions of mountai n wilderness areas and more bull about toilets garbage disposal ald fuel

Once there is a heavier investment in tourism in the Himalayas it will be difficult to fight destruction because money talks and loudly too Before this happens I suggest that the Himalayas should be divided - with the coshyoperation of all the Himalayan countries into three zones

The first would be open for intense tourism development climbers and trekkers would be welcome and infrastructure provided for them Come one come all

The second one would be open only by special permission to a limited number of climbers and scientists There are already a number of national these could be upgraded and perhaps even linked

The third one vould be inviolate and kept free of human intrusion It would be a or two above the national park status This raises some basic questions Do we want to preserve some corners of the earth free from mans interference or do we want to open up every bit of it to human exploitation Do we have the right to use up all the earth Or are we willing to leave some space for the snow leopards ghurrals and the abominable snowman

As Reinhold Messner wrote recently Man through the centuries has always chosen places which seemed special and declared them holy and untouchable There the Gods IivedToday more than ever we have a need for unexplored wilderness

And our Gods have always lived in the Himalayas

by Aamir Ali HIMAl 28 MayJune 1990

Upturning Virgin Soil

The term tourism development implies much more than running tourist bus services or the stray holiday resort Realising this - rather belatedly it must be said the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation

(MTDC) has recently rewritten its agenda Deviating from its traditional role of running resorts and bus services for tourists it has set its sights on the development of virgin land along the Konkan coast The corporation has identified 32 locations where international standard upmarket as vvell as budget hotels are expected to corne up within the next decade

In achange from its earlier policy MTDC is now planning to withdraw from operational activities and become a nodal agency for the development of tourism by undertaki ng a different set of activities Taking care of infrastructural

providi ng land offering basic amenities for motorists using national highways are some of the major plans chalked out by MTDC

The corporation has aPerspectiveGlvwth Plan basea on which it has asked for the allocation of funds from the Central government in the Eighth Five Year Plan Its plans involve roping in private developers to bui Id resortshotels and thereby develop the locations as tourist spots The land is provided by MTDCIWe get the land either through an allotment from the government or we acquire directly~ says Kawale

However MTDCs offer to private developers has not met with a great deal of enthusiasm According to Mukhtar Hussain of Suman Motels Ltd which runs five to six motels in Maharashtra (but arent bui Iding any on MTDC land) Their location lS for the promotion of tourism our location is for busi ness faei I ities Another private developer is more explicit when he say Basically the plots Which MTDC are offering are not developed locations They are beautifUl but ve arc sceptical about the availability of infrastructural facilities complain that not enough publicity has been given to MTDCs procedures This means that only linsiders have an opportunity to participate

Whilst MTDC plans to team-up with the concerned authorities for the of water electricity and roads private developers complain that most locations have no rail connections another negative factor Also they are not interested in the development of hotels as a majority of them are slated to fall into the two or three star category aimed at the tourist on abudget llso there is no assurance of a minimum level of room occupancy states a developer

BUSINESS INDIA 15-28 April 1991

18

History of A Small Place Caren Kaplan

Jamaica Ki ncaids A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics of displacement Kincaid locates Antigua the island where she was born as not only a small place on the map but a place in history In the process of remapping this location Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage points

InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semishycollapse Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like something else She explores the contradictions of representation by investigating the stakes in each position available in that location Who benefits from perpetuating the representation of paradise Who benefits from the raw sewage in the pretty bay the erosion of Antiguan culture the condos and timeshysharesSince the exotic food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the same plane as the tourist A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of modernitys representational imperatives

Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and counter-discourse of Antiguas relationship with the rest of the world In this text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one at least on the part of the native The text is addressed to you the past present or potential tourist The narrator Kincaid however is not truly a native anymore since she lives and writes in the United States This displaced position gives Kincaids text a particular value it mediates the very oppositions it constructs breaks open contradictions makes connections For example the subject position of native is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity as Kincaid illustrates a point made by Arjun Appadurai the opposition between native and tourist is constructed by a transnational culture of tourism-that is the native is constructed and incarcerated by the anthropological discourse of western travel Kincaids poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions like native and traveler even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized identities

The story of Antiguas colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of the authors personal history Her memories become a counter-narrative to official histories and public relations campaigns Yet Kincaid is equally frustrated with island approaches to time and history She writes

To the people in a small place the division of Time into the Pasf the Presentand the Future does notexist An event that occurred one hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as if it were happening at this very moment And then an event that is occurring at th5 very moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as if it had happened one hundred years ago

Rather than impose linear teleological time in the form of conventional history Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and experience honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism She maps even as she tells in the process inventing a historical poetics of displacement Antigua as chronotope collapses linear imperial time masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and experience

The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami New York and London The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism Antiguans in their small place on the map and in history are inextricably linked to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home This map of transnational global conditions is in part the work of the text It is this strategy of insisting on Antiguas tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating for specific localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics of displacement Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation Edward Said has described this impulse as cartogaphic arguing that the rolttrf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination It is necessary he suggests to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not pristine and prehistorical but historically constituted by present concerns

In describing one small place in the vast world Kincaids memories construct acounter-narrative that resists nostalgia and universality in favor of a historical and geographical investigation of location in the expanded global sense

Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol 3 No 1 (1991)

Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)

structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture

While the organisation does not directly promote tourism says INTACHs Harshad Kumari it does contain the concept of tourism insofar as it has to do with the countrys heritage under its umbrella We believe in local people being able to use their old structures not just in restoring them for the heck of it Once a building is saved restoration takes care of itself she says citing successful examples in Jaisalmer Bikaner and Jodhpur

Right now the sort of tourism thats happening is not benefitting the local people at all she feels adding By linking heritage and tourism we should make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town

Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition and the musical nights in Jhalawar apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight into local culture than the package-tour may well be a step towards greater cultural awareness

SUNDAY 3 March 1991

Serve them right (contd from page 7)

comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison it will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten chewed and swallowed up - reminiscent to the untrained eye of d large choru~ of eaters in acircus or a magic show Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his shoes in Gold Rush

No despite the economic problems engendered by unification is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some their calories from porcelain (In any case theres always beer to fall back upon if need be) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery - plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes An Indian who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate thrown away after use as the prototype of the paper or plastic plate might think that crockery made of bread is a genuine innovation But he would do well to remember that plantain-leaf plates as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall knows are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away The difference betveen India and Germany then is essentially this we feed our cows with dispo~able

whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates

Editorial DECCAN HERALD 7 March 1991

Summary Findings (contd trom page 16)

there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products On the supply side this is matched by the need for foreign exchange

4 This will make the task of seeking alternatives (such as avariety ot alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive In asense the Third World cannot do without tourism in the present stage of economic development By the same logic domestic tourism is not a viable proposition either

5 The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent limitations that is if it proves to be economically not viable Therefore this points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies of the industry its linkages the convergence of different state interentior-s and so on In particular we need to examine the links of tourism with changes in land use patterns in the coastal

Letter to EQUATIONS Dear friends Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent discussion with Suresh in Calcutta 1 For EQUATIONS advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of

Tourism it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the costshybenefit analysis of Tourism ie taking into account the high impore content ofelite tourism the capital-intensive bias and also the various impacts (such as on the emnronment) what picturefinally emerges It is important to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed approach and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily mean anything Huwever in ones dealings with guvernment etc this is something they understand But all the limitations to this approach also have to be simultaneously propagated Actually using cost-benefit approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game Just by changing some assumptions one could get a different result Corrversely a desirable or good project can never make it is based on the market mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes and destroys alternatives

let as in the Tehri dam case it does help to get into this One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India

elsewhere and bring this together Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism projects and more ambitiously for the state or national level

2 Ultimately given what one is campaigning against it is a losing battie in the short-run But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other strategies which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle and taking on work in the area of ltalternatives~ Thus design ofedushycatiot1al curricula and carrying )u educational programmes (jor say students and youth) on critiques of tourism on responsible travel as learning and interacting with diverse peoples places and cultures

Actually both the campaigning against and the articulation and attempting of (alternatives have to be undertaken From a social perspective one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams But such common perpective coming together and taking on of roles within a common perspective interaction and exchange is all too rare in our (voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within ones organisation which only destroys you This needs to be reflected on Because even concentrating on one stream alone is basically countershyproductive So haw can all the various efforts that allmiddot need to be simultaneously undertaken be realised

At the very least within one organisation one may find that rather than get burnt out just fighting against one pulls out and takes on the (alternatives itself as a means of retaining sanity learning and being energised

Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources to reaching out to political parties MPs MLAs gcrvernment officials ltlobbying This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task and full of all kinds of dangers But it is also something that needs to be systematically done part of the (long-run efforts mentioned earlier

I write all this because J myselfam concerned ffbnut lile Tourism very glad to find a group such ~hai

I strongly closer and inte1lCtiosz betWeen activistgrodps is badly netded an alternalive culture in the voluntary sector ~ ana JeWuse jjIjseq am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you What to do From the little knuw about EQUATIONS and its work I have strong admiration for your efforts I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself as one ofyou one ofthe larger struggle all ofus in our awn way are involved in

_rlease lel me kn071i what jYJU think Your 3irrcerev V Calcutta_

3

Pay for Environment

The travel industry environmentalists and officials from developing countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses will have to pay much more

A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific Asia Travel Association

Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty he told the conference which ended on April 14 It makes perfect sense that visitors should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions he said

Much of the worlds remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash is a higher priority than conservation The travel industry must show governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit speakers stressed

bullA Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial companies and a logging firm with strong political backing

It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque now seconded to the WWF Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up with financial clout Roque said which conference speakers believed the tourist industry could provide

Despite the fears of conservationists tourism and ecology need not be mutually exclusive said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd a pioneer in nature tours in the Himalayas Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part of the same picture

Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more money from fewer tourists Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating cash for community projects and preservation

Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas Firms competing for high-volume business were bound to cut costs Choegyal said and environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints

Traditional life in Indonesias overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the expense of the environment said the nations tourist planning chief himself Balinese Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-

and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large I Gede Ardika said

A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter to locals Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product as much as they feel part-ownership researcher Charles Tambiah said

pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines blasted apart (- dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from needed to feed their families Tourism as aspot of affluence and

luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b( slJtain6-jp development he said

But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWFs Bunting He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature reserve Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and so were very familiar with trails and watering spots The animals they used to hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see

5di~gE5tlt-d tourists themselyes couid be 11) illlJ1(Jve

environment in the developing world CCI AprMay 199

4

The Jumbos are Coming by I Rajeswary

There was a time when elephants and lions rhinoceroses and hipposhypotamuses roamed wild and free in the forests and savannah of Uganda The Chief attractions of the Pearl of Africa as it is known

were its national parks and wildlife including 30000 elephants Up unti 11972 tourism was Ugandas third most important foreign exchange earner after coffee and cotton In 1971 it drew 85000 visitors who spend US $27 million

But tourism ground to a halt between 1972 and 1979 during Idi Amins turbulent reign Guns and ammunition were easily available and Amins triggershy

soldiers who were given afree run of national parks slaughtered whole of elephants for ivory By 1982 the elephant population in Queen

Elizabeth National Park had dwindled to 152 down from 3000 in the 19705 In 1980 concerned over the decline of wildlife and tourism the government

that ousted Idi Amin turned to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) for help in training a 40-man anti-poaching strike force The new unit produced immediate results in Murchison Falls Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo Valley national parks

In Murchison Falls the number of elephant carcasses encountered on ranger patrols dropped from 120 in 1980 to none in 1982 and the elephant herd there is now slowly increasing The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth Park has quadrupled

When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986 his administration sought additional UN DP assistance to rehabilitate the countrys wildlife and national parks As part of a $17 million project carried out by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) 49 two-way radios were distributed to Ugandas

Park and game officials For the first time all national park officials can communicate with each other and to their headquarters in Kampala the capital

With the help of mobile radios rangers here in the Ishasha area - the southernmost section of Queen Elizabeth Park - have arrested 66 poachers since the project was launched two years ago In Africa says Tanzanian Raphael Jingu the FAOUNDP projects chief technical adviser anti-poaching forms the backbone of wildlife management

The poachers who are usually armed and operate their own four-wheel drive vehicles mainly seek hippopotamuses buffaloes and Uganda Kobs aform of deer unique to Uganda These days elephants are largely spared because of the stiff penalties if caught IlPoachers flee when they see our rangers say Abu Baker Juma the Ishasha sector game warden Being able to co-ordinate our

with radios gives us a huge tactical advantage Statistics bear Mr Juma out In 1988 there were 209 poaching incidents in

the park dropping to 156 in 1989 a decline of 25 per cent In fact says Dr Eric Edroma Uganda National Parks director animals which used to run when they saw people now stand and gaze at them because they are not afraid

Ugandas rangers and wardens constantly live on edge Last October in a shoot-out at Murchison Falls Park 30 poachers were killed I am very of my rangers says Dr Edroma fiT hey are well trained and equipped Sometimes hOlNeVer his men are not so lucky Recently knife-wielding relatives of a poacher who had been arrested earlier attacked a ranger from Ishasha in a market place The ranger lost a finger in the attack T~ work of the rangers and wardens in protecting wildlife is only one part

of a larger government effort to revive tourism Officials in this land-locked country are well aware that they must compete with neighbouring Kenya which currently attracts the lions share of visitors seeking African safaris

Because services at most Ugandan hotels and lodges in the parks are minimal at best the government asked WTO with UNDP fundi ng to draft amaster plan to renovate hotels re-surface pot-holed roads and upgrade the skills of those in the hotel industry ls Ugandas economic and social conditions tourism can become the countrys main foreign exchange earner says Mr jingu

Even without such improvements the number of visitors to Uganda rose from 8622 in 1982 to almost 40000 in 1986 The increase is due at least partially to the fact that poaching is down and the parks themselves are now better managed Tourist arrival figures since 1986 are not available

Mr Jingu credits the new order in the parks to UNDP-financed intensive

training courses that gave 300 rangers and 300 park wardens a chance to upgrade their technical and managerial skills In addition four wardens were sent on fellowships to the College of African Wildlife and Management in Tanzania Africas first centre devoted to wildlife conservation

UNDP also recruited a United Nations Volunteer Mohamed Bereteh a wildlife management specialist from Sierra Leone His assignment to educate Ugandans living within Queen Elizabeth Park about the need to preserve big game Mr Mohamed relies on films to impress upon viewers who include primary and secondary school students the importance of conservation But his task is complicated by traditional beliefs Some Ugandans believe that a womans fertility increases if she eats hippo meat says Mr Mohamed lnd aman is considered less of aman if he does not provide hippo meat for his wife

But Mr Mohameds message is slowly getting through Last year two such sessions led by Mr Mohamed were well attended The Ugandans used to view these workshops as agovernment scam to nab poachers he says What turned them around was seeing actual footage of their natural wildlife heritage and what poaching could do to them

UN DPs assistance ends in December Officials want the project extended 1 The government is interested in conservation but we have limited resources says Dr Edrorna in explaining why his government has yet to contribute its share of $53000 to the project It has other priorities If the extension is not forthcoming it will be a real tragedY

An important long term strategy says Mr Jingu is to convince people living within the parks that they can profit from managing and protecting wildlife on thei r own initiative The government wants to adopt an approach to community participation in wildlife management that has already been tested in Zimbabwe Under this arrangement the government entrusts a section of national park to the villagers who live there provided they follow specific regulations hunting is permitted only in designated areas only a limited number of animals can be hunted at anyone time and tourists who want to hunt must pay a fee to the vi lIagers who are allowed to set the price Th i s gives villagers a major incentive to turn in any poachers

It has worked in Zimbabwe says Mr Jingu and Iam sure it can work herel If the necessary funds are forth--com ing Uganda may soon have aconservation policy that employs both the carrot and the stick

WORLD DEVELOPMENT (UNDP) March 1991

Massive MP Campaign by Rakesh Khar

Temptations 50 irresistiblej that you will fall for them Forts that still echo past glories Palaces that stiil shimmer with grandeur Love still in passionate embrace in stone FOIesis with wildlife in natural display Get away to the centre of it all Madhya Pradesh (viP) - the heart of India The sightseers paradi5e with many a beautiful

Thus speaks a colourfully designed booklet The booklet forms a part of a massive campaign afoot to launch the state in a big way on the tourism map of the country So here is astate with 40 backward districts offering fun lovers the natural wonders scenic splendours and a lot more beautifully wrapped up in 26 economical and convenient packages

Tourism in Madhya Pradesh has come of age The MP State Tourism Development Corporation ended 1989-90 on abright note Not only did it show agross profit of Rs 3883 lakhs but it also showed a net profit of Rs 133 lakhs The corporation expects to end 1990-91 showing gross profit of Rs 60 lakhs and a net profit of Rs 5 lakhs says Mr G 5 Chahal a senior official

Faced with the arduous task of promoting tourism in astate which symbolises utter backwardness the corporation has succeeded in establishing Madhya Pradesh as a front-runner tourist destination through the extensive promotional campaigns conducted in and outside the state The corporation claims to have also consolidated its pioneering activity of organising package tours

order to create better awareness of the rich folklore and folk traditions as al~o itlt varied cultural heritage a numberoffairs and festivals have been selected for development and promotion These include the Panchmarhi festival Bhojpur

Orchha festival and Malwa festival ECONOMIC TIMES 16 April 1991

Nepal A Tourism Tragedy Tourism in Nepal is increasing by over 77 per cent a year it is the only hard currency earner for the worlds fourth poorest nation and is being promoted vigorously The result is predictable footpaths are destroyed sewage gets into rivers litter mountsj and forests disappear at an alarming rate 400000 ha of forest are cleared each year and each hectare cleared loses 3075 tons of soiLdevastating landslides and ffoods wreck both land and economy

The slopes ofthe worlds highest peaks in the Himalaya were once a pristine wilderness Desecration by climbers and trekkers has set in motioR their ecological degradation Until a decade or two ago it was a relativelv minor problem today it has reached disastrous proportions

The worstaffected region is around Everest There is so much junk that a full-scale expedition is needed to remove it says Chris Bonngton an Everest explorer In recent years climbing from the northeast ridge on the Tibet side has become the craze As a result Rongbukj the worlds highest monastery has become a toilet and rubbish dumb Once-cfear view of magnificent mountain vistas are now obscenely impeded by abandoned oxygen canisters paper foil and other garbage

Part ofthe problem lies in the growing number ofexpeditions to the top of Everest Each year there are more than 300 expeditions and 7O~OOO trekkers

the Himalaya Of these a large proportion are Everest climbers 13 in the current season The Nepal Government has more than 700 Everest climbing requests pending till 2003

The indian Mountaineering Association has laid down guidelines for anyone climbing in the Indian Himalaya it offers cash incentives to all expeditions which clean up their camps behind them The Himalaya Adventure Trust has astrictcode of conduct for trekkers and Nepal tourism authorities have made it mandatnry for expeditions to leave no litter

Though this has helped wdecrease the size ofexpedition teams the number ofteams remains high and is increasing 104 peaks in Nepal are open climbers 17 to joint expeditions and 5 reserved for Nepalese climbers 18 minor peaks are open to trekkers administered directly by the Nepa Mountaineering Association

Frustrated in its efforts to control the ecological impacts ofEverest climbing the Nepal GOvernment has finally decided that Everest can no longerbe climbed after 7994 Tourism authorities estimate that 50 fonnes of waste currently litter Everest slopes in the years since it was thrown open to the public in 1952

While this may help limit further destruction ofthe worlds highest peak the question ofthe existing garbage remains will Nepal decide to allow dean-up expeditions after 79941

Moreover it is not Everest alone which stands it danger of permanent destruction It is high time that Nepal (and other countries in the Himalayan region) came up with ajoint environment protection plan under the auspices ofan officially constituted environment protection authoritY laxes on mountain climbing could help to finance such a venture

Thi5 is what the article Mr Himalayan Environment seems to suggest

Mr Himalayan Environment The Swiss Alpine Club has recently appointed a permanent official

for the protection of the environment Shouldnt therE be at least one Ir Environment for the Himalayas He could easily be financed by a small head tax on all visitors

This is not a plea to stop tourism That would be impossible anyway It is a to regulate its future development far more strictly and that is not an easy

task If there is a lesson to be learnt from the experience of the Alps it is this protection of the mountai n environment needs determined action and hard work at all levels from the highest government authorities to the lowliest individual Interests of local people have to be catered for so that they have a vested Interest In protecting the environment The Swiss for examDle have an active programme of aid to mountain communities

Protection needs some down-ta-earth action Perhaps one way to start is to

17

talk less about the romantic attractions of mountai n wilderness areas and more bull about toilets garbage disposal ald fuel

Once there is a heavier investment in tourism in the Himalayas it will be difficult to fight destruction because money talks and loudly too Before this happens I suggest that the Himalayas should be divided - with the coshyoperation of all the Himalayan countries into three zones

The first would be open for intense tourism development climbers and trekkers would be welcome and infrastructure provided for them Come one come all

The second one would be open only by special permission to a limited number of climbers and scientists There are already a number of national these could be upgraded and perhaps even linked

The third one vould be inviolate and kept free of human intrusion It would be a or two above the national park status This raises some basic questions Do we want to preserve some corners of the earth free from mans interference or do we want to open up every bit of it to human exploitation Do we have the right to use up all the earth Or are we willing to leave some space for the snow leopards ghurrals and the abominable snowman

As Reinhold Messner wrote recently Man through the centuries has always chosen places which seemed special and declared them holy and untouchable There the Gods IivedToday more than ever we have a need for unexplored wilderness

And our Gods have always lived in the Himalayas

by Aamir Ali HIMAl 28 MayJune 1990

Upturning Virgin Soil

The term tourism development implies much more than running tourist bus services or the stray holiday resort Realising this - rather belatedly it must be said the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation

(MTDC) has recently rewritten its agenda Deviating from its traditional role of running resorts and bus services for tourists it has set its sights on the development of virgin land along the Konkan coast The corporation has identified 32 locations where international standard upmarket as vvell as budget hotels are expected to corne up within the next decade

In achange from its earlier policy MTDC is now planning to withdraw from operational activities and become a nodal agency for the development of tourism by undertaki ng a different set of activities Taking care of infrastructural

providi ng land offering basic amenities for motorists using national highways are some of the major plans chalked out by MTDC

The corporation has aPerspectiveGlvwth Plan basea on which it has asked for the allocation of funds from the Central government in the Eighth Five Year Plan Its plans involve roping in private developers to bui Id resortshotels and thereby develop the locations as tourist spots The land is provided by MTDCIWe get the land either through an allotment from the government or we acquire directly~ says Kawale

However MTDCs offer to private developers has not met with a great deal of enthusiasm According to Mukhtar Hussain of Suman Motels Ltd which runs five to six motels in Maharashtra (but arent bui Iding any on MTDC land) Their location lS for the promotion of tourism our location is for busi ness faei I ities Another private developer is more explicit when he say Basically the plots Which MTDC are offering are not developed locations They are beautifUl but ve arc sceptical about the availability of infrastructural facilities complain that not enough publicity has been given to MTDCs procedures This means that only linsiders have an opportunity to participate

Whilst MTDC plans to team-up with the concerned authorities for the of water electricity and roads private developers complain that most locations have no rail connections another negative factor Also they are not interested in the development of hotels as a majority of them are slated to fall into the two or three star category aimed at the tourist on abudget llso there is no assurance of a minimum level of room occupancy states a developer

BUSINESS INDIA 15-28 April 1991

18

History of A Small Place Caren Kaplan

Jamaica Ki ncaids A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics of displacement Kincaid locates Antigua the island where she was born as not only a small place on the map but a place in history In the process of remapping this location Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage points

InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semishycollapse Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like something else She explores the contradictions of representation by investigating the stakes in each position available in that location Who benefits from perpetuating the representation of paradise Who benefits from the raw sewage in the pretty bay the erosion of Antiguan culture the condos and timeshysharesSince the exotic food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the same plane as the tourist A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of modernitys representational imperatives

Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and counter-discourse of Antiguas relationship with the rest of the world In this text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one at least on the part of the native The text is addressed to you the past present or potential tourist The narrator Kincaid however is not truly a native anymore since she lives and writes in the United States This displaced position gives Kincaids text a particular value it mediates the very oppositions it constructs breaks open contradictions makes connections For example the subject position of native is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity as Kincaid illustrates a point made by Arjun Appadurai the opposition between native and tourist is constructed by a transnational culture of tourism-that is the native is constructed and incarcerated by the anthropological discourse of western travel Kincaids poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions like native and traveler even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized identities

The story of Antiguas colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of the authors personal history Her memories become a counter-narrative to official histories and public relations campaigns Yet Kincaid is equally frustrated with island approaches to time and history She writes

To the people in a small place the division of Time into the Pasf the Presentand the Future does notexist An event that occurred one hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as if it were happening at this very moment And then an event that is occurring at th5 very moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as if it had happened one hundred years ago

Rather than impose linear teleological time in the form of conventional history Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and experience honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism She maps even as she tells in the process inventing a historical poetics of displacement Antigua as chronotope collapses linear imperial time masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and experience

The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami New York and London The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism Antiguans in their small place on the map and in history are inextricably linked to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home This map of transnational global conditions is in part the work of the text It is this strategy of insisting on Antiguas tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating for specific localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics of displacement Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation Edward Said has described this impulse as cartogaphic arguing that the rolttrf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination It is necessary he suggests to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not pristine and prehistorical but historically constituted by present concerns

In describing one small place in the vast world Kincaids memories construct acounter-narrative that resists nostalgia and universality in favor of a historical and geographical investigation of location in the expanded global sense

Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol 3 No 1 (1991)

Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)

structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture

While the organisation does not directly promote tourism says INTACHs Harshad Kumari it does contain the concept of tourism insofar as it has to do with the countrys heritage under its umbrella We believe in local people being able to use their old structures not just in restoring them for the heck of it Once a building is saved restoration takes care of itself she says citing successful examples in Jaisalmer Bikaner and Jodhpur

Right now the sort of tourism thats happening is not benefitting the local people at all she feels adding By linking heritage and tourism we should make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town

Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition and the musical nights in Jhalawar apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight into local culture than the package-tour may well be a step towards greater cultural awareness

SUNDAY 3 March 1991

Serve them right (contd from page 7)

comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison it will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten chewed and swallowed up - reminiscent to the untrained eye of d large choru~ of eaters in acircus or a magic show Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his shoes in Gold Rush

No despite the economic problems engendered by unification is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some their calories from porcelain (In any case theres always beer to fall back upon if need be) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery - plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes An Indian who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate thrown away after use as the prototype of the paper or plastic plate might think that crockery made of bread is a genuine innovation But he would do well to remember that plantain-leaf plates as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall knows are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away The difference betveen India and Germany then is essentially this we feed our cows with dispo~able

whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates

Editorial DECCAN HERALD 7 March 1991

Summary Findings (contd trom page 16)

there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products On the supply side this is matched by the need for foreign exchange

4 This will make the task of seeking alternatives (such as avariety ot alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive In asense the Third World cannot do without tourism in the present stage of economic development By the same logic domestic tourism is not a viable proposition either

5 The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent limitations that is if it proves to be economically not viable Therefore this points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies of the industry its linkages the convergence of different state interentior-s and so on In particular we need to examine the links of tourism with changes in land use patterns in the coastal

Letter to EQUATIONS Dear friends Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent discussion with Suresh in Calcutta 1 For EQUATIONS advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of

Tourism it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the costshybenefit analysis of Tourism ie taking into account the high impore content ofelite tourism the capital-intensive bias and also the various impacts (such as on the emnronment) what picturefinally emerges It is important to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed approach and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily mean anything Huwever in ones dealings with guvernment etc this is something they understand But all the limitations to this approach also have to be simultaneously propagated Actually using cost-benefit approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game Just by changing some assumptions one could get a different result Corrversely a desirable or good project can never make it is based on the market mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes and destroys alternatives

let as in the Tehri dam case it does help to get into this One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India

elsewhere and bring this together Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism projects and more ambitiously for the state or national level

2 Ultimately given what one is campaigning against it is a losing battie in the short-run But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other strategies which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle and taking on work in the area of ltalternatives~ Thus design ofedushycatiot1al curricula and carrying )u educational programmes (jor say students and youth) on critiques of tourism on responsible travel as learning and interacting with diverse peoples places and cultures

Actually both the campaigning against and the articulation and attempting of (alternatives have to be undertaken From a social perspective one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams But such common perpective coming together and taking on of roles within a common perspective interaction and exchange is all too rare in our (voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within ones organisation which only destroys you This needs to be reflected on Because even concentrating on one stream alone is basically countershyproductive So haw can all the various efforts that allmiddot need to be simultaneously undertaken be realised

At the very least within one organisation one may find that rather than get burnt out just fighting against one pulls out and takes on the (alternatives itself as a means of retaining sanity learning and being energised

Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources to reaching out to political parties MPs MLAs gcrvernment officials ltlobbying This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task and full of all kinds of dangers But it is also something that needs to be systematically done part of the (long-run efforts mentioned earlier

I write all this because J myselfam concerned ffbnut lile Tourism very glad to find a group such ~hai

I strongly closer and inte1lCtiosz betWeen activistgrodps is badly netded an alternalive culture in the voluntary sector ~ ana JeWuse jjIjseq am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you What to do From the little knuw about EQUATIONS and its work I have strong admiration for your efforts I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself as one ofyou one ofthe larger struggle all ofus in our awn way are involved in

_rlease lel me kn071i what jYJU think Your 3irrcerev V Calcutta_

3

Pay for Environment

The travel industry environmentalists and officials from developing countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses will have to pay much more

A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific Asia Travel Association

Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty he told the conference which ended on April 14 It makes perfect sense that visitors should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions he said

Much of the worlds remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash is a higher priority than conservation The travel industry must show governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit speakers stressed

bullA Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial companies and a logging firm with strong political backing

It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque now seconded to the WWF Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up with financial clout Roque said which conference speakers believed the tourist industry could provide

Despite the fears of conservationists tourism and ecology need not be mutually exclusive said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd a pioneer in nature tours in the Himalayas Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part of the same picture

Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more money from fewer tourists Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating cash for community projects and preservation

Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas Firms competing for high-volume business were bound to cut costs Choegyal said and environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints

Traditional life in Indonesias overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the expense of the environment said the nations tourist planning chief himself Balinese Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-

and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large I Gede Ardika said

A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter to locals Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product as much as they feel part-ownership researcher Charles Tambiah said

pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines blasted apart (- dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from needed to feed their families Tourism as aspot of affluence and

luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b( slJtain6-jp development he said

But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWFs Bunting He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature reserve Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and so were very familiar with trails and watering spots The animals they used to hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see

5di~gE5tlt-d tourists themselyes couid be 11) illlJ1(Jve

environment in the developing world CCI AprMay 199

18

History of A Small Place Caren Kaplan

Jamaica Ki ncaids A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics of displacement Kincaid locates Antigua the island where she was born as not only a small place on the map but a place in history In the process of remapping this location Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage points

InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semishycollapse Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like something else She explores the contradictions of representation by investigating the stakes in each position available in that location Who benefits from perpetuating the representation of paradise Who benefits from the raw sewage in the pretty bay the erosion of Antiguan culture the condos and timeshysharesSince the exotic food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the same plane as the tourist A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of modernitys representational imperatives

Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and counter-discourse of Antiguas relationship with the rest of the world In this text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one at least on the part of the native The text is addressed to you the past present or potential tourist The narrator Kincaid however is not truly a native anymore since she lives and writes in the United States This displaced position gives Kincaids text a particular value it mediates the very oppositions it constructs breaks open contradictions makes connections For example the subject position of native is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity as Kincaid illustrates a point made by Arjun Appadurai the opposition between native and tourist is constructed by a transnational culture of tourism-that is the native is constructed and incarcerated by the anthropological discourse of western travel Kincaids poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions like native and traveler even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized identities

The story of Antiguas colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of the authors personal history Her memories become a counter-narrative to official histories and public relations campaigns Yet Kincaid is equally frustrated with island approaches to time and history She writes

To the people in a small place the division of Time into the Pasf the Presentand the Future does notexist An event that occurred one hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as if it were happening at this very moment And then an event that is occurring at th5 very moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as if it had happened one hundred years ago

Rather than impose linear teleological time in the form of conventional history Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and experience honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism She maps even as she tells in the process inventing a historical poetics of displacement Antigua as chronotope collapses linear imperial time masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and experience

The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami New York and London The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism Antiguans in their small place on the map and in history are inextricably linked to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home This map of transnational global conditions is in part the work of the text It is this strategy of insisting on Antiguas tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating for specific localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics of displacement Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation Edward Said has described this impulse as cartogaphic arguing that the rolttrf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination It is necessary he suggests to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not pristine and prehistorical but historically constituted by present concerns

In describing one small place in the vast world Kincaids memories construct acounter-narrative that resists nostalgia and universality in favor of a historical and geographical investigation of location in the expanded global sense

Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol 3 No 1 (1991)

Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)

structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture

While the organisation does not directly promote tourism says INTACHs Harshad Kumari it does contain the concept of tourism insofar as it has to do with the countrys heritage under its umbrella We believe in local people being able to use their old structures not just in restoring them for the heck of it Once a building is saved restoration takes care of itself she says citing successful examples in Jaisalmer Bikaner and Jodhpur

Right now the sort of tourism thats happening is not benefitting the local people at all she feels adding By linking heritage and tourism we should make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town

Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition and the musical nights in Jhalawar apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight into local culture than the package-tour may well be a step towards greater cultural awareness

SUNDAY 3 March 1991

Serve them right (contd from page 7)

comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison it will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten chewed and swallowed up - reminiscent to the untrained eye of d large choru~ of eaters in acircus or a magic show Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his shoes in Gold Rush

No despite the economic problems engendered by unification is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some their calories from porcelain (In any case theres always beer to fall back upon if need be) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery - plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes An Indian who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate thrown away after use as the prototype of the paper or plastic plate might think that crockery made of bread is a genuine innovation But he would do well to remember that plantain-leaf plates as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall knows are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away The difference betveen India and Germany then is essentially this we feed our cows with dispo~able

whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates

Editorial DECCAN HERALD 7 March 1991

Summary Findings (contd trom page 16)

there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products On the supply side this is matched by the need for foreign exchange

4 This will make the task of seeking alternatives (such as avariety ot alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive In asense the Third World cannot do without tourism in the present stage of economic development By the same logic domestic tourism is not a viable proposition either

5 The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent limitations that is if it proves to be economically not viable Therefore this points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies of the industry its linkages the convergence of different state interentior-s and so on In particular we need to examine the links of tourism with changes in land use patterns in the coastal

Letter to EQUATIONS Dear friends Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent discussion with Suresh in Calcutta 1 For EQUATIONS advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of

Tourism it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the costshybenefit analysis of Tourism ie taking into account the high impore content ofelite tourism the capital-intensive bias and also the various impacts (such as on the emnronment) what picturefinally emerges It is important to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed approach and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily mean anything Huwever in ones dealings with guvernment etc this is something they understand But all the limitations to this approach also have to be simultaneously propagated Actually using cost-benefit approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game Just by changing some assumptions one could get a different result Corrversely a desirable or good project can never make it is based on the market mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes and destroys alternatives

let as in the Tehri dam case it does help to get into this One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India

elsewhere and bring this together Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism projects and more ambitiously for the state or national level

2 Ultimately given what one is campaigning against it is a losing battie in the short-run But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other strategies which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle and taking on work in the area of ltalternatives~ Thus design ofedushycatiot1al curricula and carrying )u educational programmes (jor say students and youth) on critiques of tourism on responsible travel as learning and interacting with diverse peoples places and cultures

Actually both the campaigning against and the articulation and attempting of (alternatives have to be undertaken From a social perspective one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams But such common perpective coming together and taking on of roles within a common perspective interaction and exchange is all too rare in our (voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within ones organisation which only destroys you This needs to be reflected on Because even concentrating on one stream alone is basically countershyproductive So haw can all the various efforts that allmiddot need to be simultaneously undertaken be realised

At the very least within one organisation one may find that rather than get burnt out just fighting against one pulls out and takes on the (alternatives itself as a means of retaining sanity learning and being energised

Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources to reaching out to political parties MPs MLAs gcrvernment officials ltlobbying This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task and full of all kinds of dangers But it is also something that needs to be systematically done part of the (long-run efforts mentioned earlier

I write all this because J myselfam concerned ffbnut lile Tourism very glad to find a group such ~hai

I strongly closer and inte1lCtiosz betWeen activistgrodps is badly netded an alternalive culture in the voluntary sector ~ ana JeWuse jjIjseq am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you What to do From the little knuw about EQUATIONS and its work I have strong admiration for your efforts I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself as one ofyou one ofthe larger struggle all ofus in our awn way are involved in

_rlease lel me kn071i what jYJU think Your 3irrcerev V Calcutta_

3

Pay for Environment

The travel industry environmentalists and officials from developing countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses will have to pay much more

A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific Asia Travel Association

Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty he told the conference which ended on April 14 It makes perfect sense that visitors should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions he said

Much of the worlds remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash is a higher priority than conservation The travel industry must show governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit speakers stressed

bullA Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial companies and a logging firm with strong political backing

It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque now seconded to the WWF Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up with financial clout Roque said which conference speakers believed the tourist industry could provide

Despite the fears of conservationists tourism and ecology need not be mutually exclusive said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd a pioneer in nature tours in the Himalayas Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part of the same picture

Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more money from fewer tourists Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating cash for community projects and preservation

Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas Firms competing for high-volume business were bound to cut costs Choegyal said and environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints

Traditional life in Indonesias overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the expense of the environment said the nations tourist planning chief himself Balinese Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-

and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large I Gede Ardika said

A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter to locals Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product as much as they feel part-ownership researcher Charles Tambiah said

pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines blasted apart (- dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from needed to feed their families Tourism as aspot of affluence and

luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b( slJtain6-jp development he said

But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWFs Bunting He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature reserve Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and so were very familiar with trails and watering spots The animals they used to hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see

5di~gE5tlt-d tourists themselyes couid be 11) illlJ1(Jve

environment in the developing world CCI AprMay 199

contd from page 1

pressure from Beijing Kathmandu disbanded the guerrillas and made Upper off-limits

the Khampa marauders have been forgotten the Nepali government continues to close off the area north of Kagbeni Perhaps the restrictions remain due to bureaucratic inertia and a long-standing and perhaps ill-founded fear of ruffling Chinese feathers

Among those advocating the opening of Mustang are many inhabitants of Upper Mustang from the walled township of Lo Manthang and villages such as Charang Chemi and Sama

Over 90 per cent of the people of the upper areas want Mustang to be opened asserts Jabyang Bista who lives in the northernmost village of Chosyere Maybe some people in southern Mustang want it closed but the people in the north want it opened

Opening Upper Lo could make the villages of lower Mustang mere nightshystops for tourists headed for the Tibetan culture of the north Understandably some lodge-owners in Tukuche Jomsom and Marpha prefer to keep the northern areas closed Most however recognise the windfall that could accrue to the whole area from the opening

Thus when King Birendra made an unoffi~ial visit in January 1990 the 16 Pradhan Panchas of Upper and Lower Mustang presented him with the that the north be opened Unfortunately the Lobas have little with no ethnic representation during the years of the Panchayat rule

Most believe that the promise of an untouched Tibetan culture more Tibetan than Tibet itself will lure Westerners in search of new Himalayan destinations Travel agents in Kathmandu eager to cash in are pushing for an early opening

Tek Chandra Pokharel President of the Nepal Association of Travel Agents believes that tourists eagerness to enter Mustang would prompt them to pay high rates Also because Mustang lies in a rain shadow area it could be promoted as a viable destination during the monsoon the low tourist season

The government meanwhile continues to show ambivalence Damodar Gautam Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism till recently agreed that isolating Mustang from the world I will push it further into darkness He has advocated opening all of Nepals restricted areas

Understandably the Tourism Ministry advocates Mustangs opening but the decision rests with the Ministry of Home Affairs The government would not open Mustang before establishing proper trails police checkposts health posts a communications network and lodges However no move has yet been made towards building such infrastructure

There are some who agree against exposing upper Mustangs fragile ecology and culture to the consumerist world outside

Bishnu Raj Hirachan says that the desert environment cannot support the demands of tourism People will sell their firewood for a little bit of money without realising the long term problems this creates

The ecology of Upper Lo certainly requires detailed from Chuksang and Chele north ofKagbeni have to hike tvvo days forests near Samar for thei r firewood The inhabitants around Lo Mmthmo

use dung Both sources of fuel are dVindling Hemanta Mishra chief ofthe King Mahendr Trust for Nature Conservation

in Kathmandu argues that Mustangs culture one of the last reoresenting old Buddhism should be protected Besides he contends the itself will benefit little from opening first travel agencies

and then othpr outside communities but not the Loba The important question then is not whether Mustang should be opened

but how and when Is high-costool-iolume

would

TOUrism a more attractive or the ctgtme one-come all

Some advocate controlled tourism but in and for different ends Those in the high-end of Kathmandus propose [owshyvolume access which they say protect the and cultural environments as well as bring most benefit-but to whom

A V Jim Edwards chairman of the Tiger Mountain travel group suggests the government charge an entry fee of around US $100 per person and laB)w Gilly a few travel agencies with the highest foreign currency turnover to take in a iimited number of persons

There are other more creative if unlikely proposals Keshab Lamichane who

2

runs Nepal Cultural Experience a special interest tour operator submitted a proposal several years ago to conduct exclusive tours in the restricted area for high class tourists Among other things Lamichane proposed that three houses of the King of Mustang be turned into a museum and that programmes be organised- to ed ucate travellers about the natural and cultural heritage of the region According to Lamichane his plan would maximise income while minimising the adverse cultural effects of tourism Let the local people the quality of their lives but let them not wear ties

Some Lobas advocate decentralised locally controlled tourism Tashi Zampa suggests that a law be passed curtailing the rights of people from outside to buy property or to run business in upper Mustang Only that would ensure that the people of the area benefit from tourism

Another Loba Kelsang Tashi is confident that the Loba can learn to handle tourism when it arrives liThe younger generations are not like their have seen the way things are in the rest of the country They have studied Even the Sherpas did not know how to run business in the beginning Like we will learn Tashis wife Chimi Dolkar is convinced that Upper Mustang must be opened Some can be porters those who are able will run hotels Right now even those want to cannot earn money She says the suggested entry fee into Upper Mustang should go directly into development programmes for the

of all the talk of proper infrastructure in all likelihood Upper Lo open without any preparation when the time comes Neither the

nor the Tourism Ministry have taken steps to prepare Loba inevitable openi ng A study of the effect of opening Ladakh TIbet

Bhutan Southern Dolpo and Kanchenjunga as well as the ample sociological studies of the Sherpas since the 1960s should provide valuable material for discussion and action

On how best to open up the area many heads will have to come together government officials of the various ministries the representatives of Upper and Lovver Mustang the travel trade conservationists and specialists in the relevant academic disciplines A commission comprising of such individuals with a workable mandate might be the first step towards a proximate and sensible plan of action

HIMAL MarApr 1991

In Quotes

The indian association of tour operators has ur~ed the ~ovemment to rationaiise the steep hillte in hotel tariff and -waive expenditure tax onbiqand medium size hotels saying that this would badly hit the foreiQn tourist inflow While Indias foreiQn exchanlJe earnings remained static at $12 billion durinq the past five years Indonesia which had also gone tn for il bi9 IMP loan to tide over its BOP crisis has more than doubled its tourism earnin~s and Malaysia and Thailand hod raised it three fold

Instead of making it mandatory for hotels to fix tariff on dollar rates the government should have linllted tariff to a baslltet of currency

The tour operators association has also termed as discrimishynatory the imposition of expenditure tax on hotels charging room tariff of more than Rs 400 per day

t I ECONOMIC TIMES 27 August 1991

L

Tourism in Goa (conld from pag 10)

metro cities like Bombay and Calcutta it can easily exist in the relative anonymity of mass tourism resorts

The resistance to tourism in Goa has never stated that there should be no tourism at all There are several groups who oppose mindless tourism (not just the 4 mentioned by the Gantzers) each of whom have obiectives and approaches However what all of them are asking for - even

is for acheck on unbalanced development In fact this is that the Gantzers argue in favour of in a recent article unrelated to

(Indian Expressj 18691) Thev suggest the need for a Tourism Areas Protection Act and define its

Yet in one of their articles (Navhind the agitators have gone to court because these cases could drag on One might well ask what is the purpose of the law existing or proposed - and where it is not abided by what are the means of enforcing

The articles also seek to create on aura of doubt about the motive behind the resistance More than once we are casually informed that foreign money is involved (a small group of agitators some admittedly supported by foreign funds) To my knowledge this is furthest from the truth Those who have opposed tourism in Goa have consciously avoided a foreign-funded label That they are linked with people internationally who are concerned about the impacts of disastrous tourism is a fact this is not the same as being foreign funded

However there is an important issue to be considered the hotel industry is open today to 51 percent multinational holdings and in the case of NRls 100 percent These investments and their profits are fully repatriable a result of the massive liberalisation in Indian tourism policy (Whether such a policy actually retains the foreign exchange it supposedly brings in would be interesting to examine but is beyond the scope of the present discussion)

The Indian middle-class can be illogically moralistic on some matters the Gantzers refer to this when commenting on the sex and drugs issue Foreign money is another such While it is perfectly acceptable for industry to merrily profit from loads of foreign invested dollars and deutsche marks it is not so in the case of people who raise questions often at great personal risk While deriding this double-edged morality of our people it is ironic that the authors appeal to this quality in their foreign money comments

When all is said and done it is hard to understand why these articles come down so harshly on the very legitimate questions raised abouttourism in Goa After all the Gantzers have raised similar questions at variolJs times In late 1986 they wrote we have travelled extensively across our mountains and we have seen the havoc being wreaked by distant DeoDle in power who have no awareness or concern for

than in UPs ham-handed 6990)

issues which hold good in Uttar Pradesh somehow become iiTelevant when thev reach GO nsteari of dismissing the ~pILprvirllJ and

their views have also beffl Correa committee appointtd by the Goa g(~ernment recommended

that the government withdraw its Mamiddot~ter Pian for Tourism (proposed in June 1987) which was done in 1988 There are other such instances

I have on purpose avoided - by and large - referring to the varied and complex questions thrown up by the resistance to touriml in Goa These are issues intricately intertwined with wider issues such as political histOlY pmtshycolonial culture and identity and more recently the directions of Goas economic development I have merely dealt with one aspect (related to economic development) that of national tourism pniicv

The Gantzer pieces resuit from thrpe weeks of research in Goa during the pre-Lent Carnival which in recent years has been turned into a tourist spectacle Those who have expressed their doubts about tOlrism are resident in Goa

19

If these doubts are groundless if the agitators have either been misled or have deliberately distorted facts why botheLwith them at all If the agitators opinions are a lot of poppycock why is it necessary to write six articles (at least) about these matters

Questions persist

Travels in Five Tibets (conrd from plgp12)

quest the accounts are cliched unreflective survivals of a bygone genre~ (his exceptions are David Snellgrove Peter Matthiessen and Andrew Harvey among others)

Tourism literature particularly adventure tomism literature is booming of course beckoning tourists to the last hidden place This literature says Bishop has had profound influence on the shaping of the contemporary images of Tibetan landscape and cu Iture What th is infl uence is and why contemporary images no longer constitute a Western collective imagining Bishop does not explain One feels he has been confined by his own academic model of the creation evolution and dissolution of a sacred place

The current interest in Tibet although primarily touristic would seem to indicate that Tibet is not yet an empty vessel~ It is regretted that Bishop has not looked a little closer at the travel writing of the 1970s and 80s at two schools in particular the contemporary descendants of the spiritual quest literature and the new travel-realism writers of Britain Ireland and Eastern Europe

Bishop is correct in stating that the focus of the spiritual quest was displaced with the movement of high lamas to the West However he seems unaware of the literary result of that movement The lamas Western students have been translating and practicing Tibetan Buddhism for the last 15 or 20 years They are knowledgeable about Tibetan history iconography and the lineages of teachings and their vision of Tibet IS informed by the great Tibetan literary tradition itself Their writing like Keith Dowmans The Power-Places olCentral Tibetl based on a ninth-century Tibetan pilgrims guider has incorporated the Tibetans vision of their own culture

The new hard-boiled school of travel writing well represented in the periodic Mvel editions of the British magazine Granta is in part achild of war journalism in part a product of Europes powerful ecological and democratic consciousness It is hyper and sensitive to the nuance of recent history These writers have ~~bull ~bullbull~ Tibet as they have touched other countries in pain Cambodic

The travel-realism writers will see Tibet with its bones while the Buddhisl wriiers will explore Tibet with full knowledge of its and religious tradition Both will create fH V imaginal olaces ard the will be

J Fnderick is travpl wnlu and editor of Shangri-La the in-flight rlagazine of Royal Nepal Airlines

(Reprinted from HIMAl MayJune 1990)

~ ----~-- ---shy

Yiy~~V7trn~IN f711)JpJbr~YJJtI)~1J w~Wy4sectj11)1

l-rlWJ J

I

20

We invite Network members to contribute to the Network Letter NETWORK by sharing their work ideas and plans through these pages

NEWS Communication is vital to the life of a Network especially when ROUNDUP physical distances cannot easily be bridged by closer contacts

Global Tourism Activists Meet CypntS Representatives from several countries will be meeting for the first time at

September 28 to October 2 1991 Plans are well underway for the meeting during which matters relating to the structure and functioning of the EQUATIONS at worll international tourism critique networks will be discussed Apart from individual

Durin~ the Government-sponsored India Tourism Year we haveorganisations existing networks such as NANET TENTWI and constituent members of ECTWT will be present ECTWT and TEN are joint coordinators ~un a number of new projects Elsewhere in this newsletter with the Middle East Conference of Churches playing host in Cyprus you Win read a summary report of a 21-day Visit to the southwest

coastal states (Kamataba and Kerala) as well as a resPQnse toaConsultation on Tourism as a Challen~e to Re~ions Goa series of articles (by Hand CGantzer) re~din~ tourismmiddotactivismECTWT together with the Archdiocese of Goa and the Catholic Bishops

Conference of India proposes to hold this consultation November 4-9 1991 in Goa We are also involved in activities planned later this year About 60 participants are expected The consultation aims to achieve a at M~ore Tamil Nadu and Ban~l()fe Towards the end of the perspective and planned response to the challenge that tourism presents to year we hope to convene a meetinqfor Delhi-based peopJewho all religions especially in India Write to Fr Desmond de Souza ECTWT do Redemptorist Fathers 876 Alto Porvorim Goa 403 521

National Forum on the Impact of Tourism Philippines

expreSsed an interest in our activities

The Center for Solidarity Tourism Manila toget~erwith several Filipino NGOs has formed the Phi Iippine Support Group for Victi ms ofTourism The Support Resources Group coordinated by CST plans to hold a 2-week national forum in Manila to facilitate the long and difficult task of organising the victims of tourism and Third World Tourism Research 1950-1984 by H Leo Theuns Peter Lang prepare them to take an active role in meeting the challenges posed Publkation~ jupiterstr Ii Cl-3000 Bern Ii 283p~ 1991 Dates to be announced while funding is being sought Contributions to Norma This resource book with its over 2000 entries reveals the growing interest in Tinambacan CST 444 Guadalupe Bliss Makati Metro Manila one specialised research area tourism in the developing nations This ENVIROfOUR VIENNA 1992 bibliography hopes to facilitate and promote research on tourism in developing

countries a subject of utmost importance due to its nature and immenseThe International Society for Environmental Protection is conferel1ce on strategies for reducing the environmental impact potential for growth

Vienna November 1992 It aims to analyse the impact of tourism TOE-DOC No l wurism Development amp Environment Project ECTW7professional travel on the environment and to evaluate the effects of POBox 24 Chorakheboa Bangkok 10230 60p~ june 1991 environmental measures addressing d wide range of issues ISEp founded

This first issue is a documentation consisting of selected newspaper clippingsrenowned scientists in 1987 includes in its aims the elaboration of

and articles on development and environmental issues related to tourism Partecological economic and sociological strategies for the preservation and

of EGVVTs project on Tourism Development and the Environment this issuecreation of a humane environment for all people Write to Dr Susanne

of TOE-DOC focusses on a general view of trends in tourism policy andBurgstaller ISEP Marxergasse 3 A-1030 Vienna Austria

development cases of socially and environmentally degrading tourism projects Otherfumms articles on debates and activities towards sustainable development and also Tourism as a social concern will be raised at 2 forums planned in Thailand a section Golf Course Monitor~ First at the NGOs parallel meeting during the World BankllMF General

Tourism in the Peoples Republic of ChinabyAnna Gerstlache Renate AreigAssembly in October 1991 Second at the PP21 (Peoples Plan for the 21st Eva Sternkld 7iJurism ~7 Centrally Planned Economies Case Study No 2next year While we do not yet have further details of either it is obvious ECTW7 POBox 2~ Chorakheblla Bangkok 1021088pp 1991that tourism has to be increasingly recognised as an issue linked with other

social concerns and events such as these provide the networks of tourism This study examines the initial use of tourism by the Peoples Republic to gain

critique opportunities to do so in an effective integrative way more political recognition in the world by presenting successful socialist achievements Though it started with an alternative politically oriented Sustainable Tourism fco Institute Costa Rica to tourism it ultimately fell victim to the massive powers of the

The Eco Institute wants to bring a sustainable development approach to Costd international tourism industry China today stands as one of the only nations Ricas tourism industry before it is too late The plan has 3elements to convene to have experienced both the alternative approach of limited and controlled a task force-think tank to develop themes and affect public policy act as a tourism as well as mass tourism The Chinese experience would be of relevance watchdog reviewing tourism projects and developfund small-scale pilot to those other centrally planned economies which aim to integrate this sector

demonstrating the benefits of sustainable development The threeshy into th~ir overall economic devElopement year project wi II be coordinated by Deirdre Evans-Pritchilrd who has extensive experience in tourism research Bananas Beaches amp Bases Making Feminist Sense of International Politics

byCynthia Enloe UniversityoCaliornia Pres~ Berkee) 94720 244pp 1989 The author takes a second look at familiar scenes- governments restricting

Please note the correct numbers at which to contact us imported goods bankers negotiating foreign loans soldiers serving overseas Phone 812-542313 and show that the real landscape is not exclusively male She also challenges

Tplp) AJr-fUOO nn IIIJ (ATTN 007) ~~Q~~ 1h~~ (~i~t(tc~ lnt~~~~~~Gr~ r ~hC IOn the Beach Sexism and Tourism she focusses on structural-Fax 812-542627 (ATTN 020)217890 (EQ U AJlONS)) I

Cable EQUATIONS BANGAlORE-560 038 INDIA ~ dimensions of tourism to drive home her arguments about the gender bias

Puhlislud by Equitable Tourism Options (EQUATIONS) 96 H Colony Indiranagar Stage Bangalore 560 038 INDIA

Dtrip and JYpestrting Revisuality Typesetting and Graphic Design 4211 Lavelle Road Bangalore INDIA

ALTERNATIVE NETWORK LETTER A Third World Tourism Critique

For Private Circulation Only Vol 7 No2 October 1991

Dear Reader The Key to MustangGreetings from yet another republic thats going bananas

By Manjulhree ThapaThe mandarins at South Block (that awesome seat of power in New Delhi) are at it again Voted into power by a narrow margin in the recent elections the new government is taking no chances sweeping economic reforms are underway in a complete break from the past

Liberalisation is the key we are told and the Indian economy must be freed from its shackles In a succession of quick and dramatic announcements our currency was devalued twice industrial licensing abolished (by and large) multinationals afforded free entry into key sectors and fertilizer subsidies slashed

Prices rose The word went out stagflation is likely to grab us by the seats of our pants necessitating another ueV31U3UU pushing India to the brink of economic chaos where cost-push inflation devaluation in an eternal merry-go-round

Questions Who cuts the cake Who gets the crumbs WIll breadlines make headlines

Critics of t~ new economic policies have accused the government of wilting ower Mustang home of the Thakalis with its district capital at Jomsom

epressure of the World Bank and IMF organisations which are currently has gradually been transformed by trekkers on the nnapurna Circuit1Lpilgrims to Muktinath and apple ~ A Letter from bullbull In contrast the Bhutia inhabitants of Upper Mustang the ancient

of Lo live much as their forbears did for centuries farming in the spring considering Indias plea for massive loans to offset a critical balance of payment~ their animals to high pastures in the summer and engaging in trade in the winter situation A charge hotly denied by our policy-makers though our economic For the Loba from Upper Mustang change has often taken away not brought reforms parallel those initiated by other developing nations indebted to the benefits Since 1959 the Chinese Government has prevented access to the WBiIMF traditional grazing grounds north of the border so livestock has dwindled And so emerges the golden dawn of a new economic era Among the too 10 Because farming on the wind-sept desert land remains as unyielding as ever industries slated for this futuristic push are tourism and food processing seasonal migration has increasingly become a necessity Cultural poverty has that I hear someone say - food processing Gentle reader that~ just an come hand in hand with material poverty There are fewer artisans and the Lobas euphemism for what is known elsewhere as agribusiness which in case you gumpas seem neglected and in need of repair havent heard the jingle is good~usiness is big business is Mustang up from Kagbeni village two hours north of Jomsom is

restricted territory to non-Nepal is The government has given running water The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is to most villages and brought in a few health posts and schools and the pricein its final stages at Geneva where an international agreement on agricultural of rice is subsidised Clearly such measures are inadequate and cannot production and trade is being finalised The European Community (and to a substitute for the development activity and alternate sources of income lesser extent the LJS) are opposing reforms to current agricultural policy in from tourism that the Loba sees when he looks south And he is asking for effect this allows rich nations to dump their produce on poorer countries the same detri menta I to the interests of Thi rd World farmers and exporters If the richer Except for a brief period in the early 19505 Upper Mustang has been closed nations go ahead with their plans it will be a recipe for continufd food off from the south and obviously the north Its special geographical situationdependency and mass hunger in the South according to one observer of being surrounded on three sides by Tibet made upper Mustang the ideal Questions Can tourism as an issue be viewed independently of macroshy base for the Tibetan resistance to carry out operations against the Chinese Under developments nationally and globally In a post-glasnost world can we CQntd overleaf

continue to ignore an unipolar reality Who calls the shots in such a world at the IMFWB in GATT in tourism et al How do we resPoilCl to slIch INSIDE questions When Tourisms Profits Go Abroad 5 Lest we get lets ask ourselves more of such questolis Please Dont Come to Goa B

jnVf~tilllS ill Yldl-Deveio[Jlllt=fli 14 vuerulouslv yours Summary Findings 16 Paul Gonsalves