20

NETWORK We invite Network members to contribute to the Network Letter

by sharing their work, ideas and plans through these pages.
NEWS
ROUNDUP
Communication is vital to the life of a Network, especially when
physical distances cannot easily be bridged by closer contacts.
ALTERNATIVE NETWORK LETTER
Global Tourism Activists Meet. CypntS
A Third World Tourism Critique
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 For Private Circulation Only Vol. 7 No.2 October 1991
international tourism critique networks will be discussed. Apart from individual
organisations, existing networks such as NANET, TEN/TWI and constituent Durin~ the Government-sponsored India Tourism Year, we have
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
Dear Reader,
Greetings from yet another republic that's going bananas!
The Key to Mustang
Consultation on Tourism as a Challen~e to Re~ions. Goa coastal states (Kamataba and Kerala). as well as a resPQnse toa By Manjulhree Thapa
series of articles (by H.and CGantzer) re~din~ tourism·activism The mandarins at South Block (that awesome seat of power in New Delhi) are
ECTWT, together with the Archdiocese of Goa and the Catholic Bishops at it again. Voted into power by a narrow margin in the recent elections, the
Conference of India, proposes to hold this consultation, November 4-9, 1991. in Goa, We are also involved in activities planned later this year new government is taking no chances: sweeping economic reforms are
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 underway, in a complete break from the past.
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 Liberalisation is the key, we are told, and the' Indian economy must be freed
expreSsed an. interest in our activities. from its shackles. In a succession of quick and dramatic announcements, our
Redemptorist Fathers, 876 Alto Porvorim, Goa 403 521.
currency was devalued twice, industrial licensing abolished (by and large),
National Forum on the Impact of Tourism, Philippines multinationals afforded free entry into key sectors, and fertilizer subsidies
The Center for Solidarity Tourism, Manila, toget~erwith several Filipino NGOs, slashed.
has formed the Phi Iippine Support Group for Victi ms ofTourism. The Support
Group, coordinated by CST, plans to hold a 2-week national forum in Manila,

Resources 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
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
economic chaos where cost-push inflation devaluation in an eternal
'prepare them to take an active role in meeting the challenges posed' Publkation~jupiterstr. Ii Cl/-3000 Bern, Ii 283p~ 1991.
merry-go-round.
Dates to be announced, while funding is being sought. Contributions to Norma
This resource book with its over 2,000 entries, reveals the growing interest in
Tinambacan, CST, 444 Guadalupe Bliss, Makati, Metro Manila. one specialised research area: tourism in the developing nations. This Questions: Who cuts the cake? Who gets the crumbs? WIll breadlines make
bibliography, hopes to facilitate and promote research on tourism in developing headlines?
ENVIROfOUR VIENNA 1992
The International Society for Environmental Protection is countries a subject of utmost importance due to its nature and immense Critics of t~ new economic policies have accused the government of wilting

L
ower Mustang, home of the Thakalis with its district capital at Jomsom,
conferel1ce 'on strategies for reducing the environmental impact potential for growth. . e pressure of the World Bank and IMF, organisations which are currently
has gradually been transformed by trekkers on the ':.\nnapurna Circuit;1
Vienna, November 1992. It aims to analyse the impact of tourism TOE-DOC, No, l wurism, Development & Environment Project, ECTW7; pilgrims to Muktinath, and apple
professional travel on the environment, and to evaluate the effects of POBox 24, Chorakheboa, Bangkok 10230 60p~ june 1991. ~ A Letter from ••. In contrast, the Bhutia inhabitants of Upper Mustang, the ancient
environmental measures, addressing d wide range of issues. ISEp, founded of Lo, live much as their forbears did for centuries, farming in the spring,
This first issue is a documentation consisting of selected newspaper clippings
renowned scientists in 1987, includes in its aims 'the elaboration of considering India's 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.
and articles on development and environmental issues related to tourism. Part
ecological, economic and sociological strategies for the preservation and 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,
of EGVVT's project on "Tourism, Development and the Environment'; this issue
creation of a humane environment for all people: Write to Dr Susanne reforms parallel those initiated by other developing nations indebted to the benefits, Since 1959, the Chinese Government has prevented access to the
of TOE-DOC focusses on a general view of trends in tourism policy and
Burgstaller, ISEP, Marxergasse 3, A-1030 Vienna, Austria. WBiIMF, traditional grazing grounds north of the border, so livestock has dwindled.
development, cases of socially and environmentally degrading tourism projects,
Other fumms articles on debates and activities "towards sustainable development" and also And so emerges the golden dawn of a new economic era. Among the too 10 Because farming on the wind-s\,\'ept, desert land remains as unyielding as ever,
Tourism as a social concern will be raised at 2 forums planned in Thailand, a section "Golf Course Monitor'~ industries slated for this futuristic push are tourism and food processing. seasonal migration has increasingly become a necessity. Cultural poverty has
First, at the NGOs parallel meeting during the World BankllMF General 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'
Assembly in October, 1991. Second, at the PP21 (Peoples' Plan for the 21st Tourism in the People's Republic of Chinaby Anna Gerstlache!; Renate Areig euphemism for what is known elsewhere as 'agribusiness: which, in case you gumpas seem neglected and in need of repair.
next year. While we do not yet have further details of either, it is obvious Eva Sternk:ld 7iJurism ~'7 Centrally Planned Economies Case Study No. 2. haven't heard the jingle, is 'good~usiness is big business is .. : Mustang, up from Kagbeni village, two hours north of Jomsom, is
that tourism has to be increasingly recognised as an issue linked with other ECTW7; POBox 2~ Chorakheblla, Bangkok 1021088pp. 1991. restricted territory to non-Nepal is. The government has given running water
This study examines the initial use of tourism by the People's Republic to gain 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 price
social concerns, and events such as these provide the networks of tourism
more political recognition in the world by presenting successful socialist in its final stages at Geneva, where an international agreement on agricultural of rice is subsidised. Clearly, such measures are inadequate, and cannot
critique opportunities to do so in an effective integrative way.
achievements. Though it started with an alternative, politically oriented production and trade is being finalised. The European Community (and to a substitute for the development activity and alternate sources of income
Sustainable Tourism, fco Institute, Costa Rica to tourism, it ultimately fell victim to the massive powers of the 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
The Eco Institute wants to bring a sustainable development approach to Costd international tourism industry. China today stands as one of the only nations effect, this allows rich nations to dump their produce on poorer countries the same.
Rica's tourism industry, before it is too late. The plan has 3 elements: to convene to have experienced both the alternative approach of limited and controlled 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
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 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 situation,
watchdog, reviewing tourism projects; and develop/fund small-scale pilot to those other centrally planned economies which aim to integrate this sector dependency and mass hunger in the South; according to one observer. of being surrounded on three sides by Tibet, made upper Mustang the ideal
demonstrating the benefits of sustainable development The three­ into th~ir overall economic devE'lopement Questions: Can tourism as an issue be viewed independently of macro­ base for the Tibetan resistance to carry out operations against the Chinese. Under
year project wi II be coordinated by Deirdre Evans-Pritchilrd, who has extensive

Bananas, Beaches & Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics,

developments, nationally and globally? In a post-glasnost world, can we CQntd. overleaf
experience in tourism research.
by Cynthia Enloe. Universityo/Cali/ornia Pres~ Berke/e); 94720 244pp. 1989, continue to ignore an unipolar reality? Who calls the shots in such a world,
The author takes a second look at familiar scenes- governments restricting
at the IMF/WB, in GATT, in tourism, et al? How do we resPoilCl to slIch INSIDE
Please note the correct numbers at which to contact us: imported goods; bankers negotiating foreign loans, soldiers serving overseas
questions? When Tourism's Profits Go Abroad .......... 5

Phone' 812-542313 and show that the real landscape is not exclusively male. She also challenges Lest we get let's ask ourselves more ... of such quest:olis. Please Don't Come to Goa .. .............. B

Tplp)!' AJ.r;-fU,OO n:n IIIJ (ATTN 007) ~~Q~.;~ 1/;'h~~ ('~;i::~;t(!tc~, l:nt~::~~~~~:Gr;~! !r; ~hC' jnVf:~tilllS ill /Yldl-Deveio[Jlllt=fli ..... 14
-Fax:
Cable:
812-542627 (ATTN 020)/217890 (EQ.. U
EQUATIONS BANGAlORE-560 038 INDIA ~
.. A.JlONS.)) I
IOn the Beach: Sexism and Tourism' she focusses on structural
dimensions of tourism to drive home her arguments about the gender bias,
vuerulouslv yours, Summary Findings .. ............ 16
Paul Gonsalves
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.
 2 19
contd. from page 1 runs Nepal Cultural Experience, a special interest tour operator, submitted a Tourism in Goa ... (conld from pag'" 10) If these doubts are groundless, if the agitators 'have either been misled, or
pressure from Beijing, Kathmandu disbanded the guerrillas and made Upper proposal several years ago to conduct exclusive tours in the restricted area for have deliberately distorted facts: why botheLwith them at all? If the agitators;
off-limits. "high class" tourists. Among other things, Lamichane proposed that three houses metro cities like Bombay and Calcutta, it can easily exist in the relative opinions are a lot of poppycock, why is it necessary to write six articles (at least)
the Khampa "marauders" have been forgotten, the Nepali of the King of Mustang be turned into a museum, and that programmes be anonymity of mass tourism resorts. about these matters?
government continues to close off the area north of Kagbeni. Perhaps the organised- to ed ucate travellers about the natural and cultural heritage of the The resistance to tourism in Goa has never stated that there should be no
Questions persist.
restrictions remain due to bureaucratic inertia, and a long-standing and perhaps region. According to Lamichane, his plan would maximise income while tourism at all. There are several groups who oppose mindless tourism
ill-founded fear of ruffling Chinese feathers. minimising the adverse cultural effects of tourism. "Let the local people (not just the 4 mentioned by the Gantzers), each of whom have
Among those advocating the opening of Mustang are many inhabitants of the quality of their lives, but let them not wear ties". obiectives and approaches. However, what all of them are asking for - even
is for acheck on unbalanced development. In fact, this is
Travels in Five Tibets (conrd. from p.lgp.12)
Upper Mustang, from the walled township of Lo Manthang and villages such Some Lobas advocate decentralised, locally controlled tourism. Tashi Zampa
as Charang, Chemi and Sama. suggests that a law be passed curtailing the rights of people from outside to that the Gantzers argue in favour of, in a recent article unrelated to
"Over 90 per cent of the people of the upper areas want Mustang to be buy property or to run business in upper Mustang. Only that would ensure (Indian Express 18/6/91). Thev suggest the need for a Tourism
j

opened;' asserts Jabyang Bista, who lives in the northernmost village of that the people of the area benefit from tourism, Areas Protection Act, and define its
Chosyere. "Maybe some people in southern Mustang want it closed, but the Another Loba, Kelsang Tashi, is confident that the Loba can learn to handle Yet in one of their articles (Navhind
tourism when it arrives. liThe younger generations are not like their the 'agitators' have gone to court because 'these cases could drag on quest
people in the north want it opened:'
have seen the way things are in the rest of the country. They have studied. Even One might well ask, what is the purpose of the law existing or proposed the accounts are cliched, unreflective survivals of a bygone genre'~ (his
Opening Upper Lo could make the villages of lower Mustang mere night­
the Sherpas did not know how to run business in the beginning. Like - and where it is not abided by, what are the means of enforcing exceptions are David Snellgrove, Peter Matthiessen and Andrew Harvey, among
stops for tourists headed for the Tibetan culture of the north. Understandably,
we will learn:' Tashi's wife, Chimi Dolkar, is convinced that Upper Mustang The articles also seek to create on aura of doubt about the motive behind others).
some lodge-owners in Tukuche, Jomsom and Marpha prefer to keep the northern
must be opened. Some can be porters, those who are able will run hotels. Right the resistance. More than once, we are casually informed that foreign money Tourism literature, particularly adventure tomism literature, is booming of
areas closed. Most, however, recognise the windfall that could accrue to the
now, even those want to cannot earn money;' She says the suggested entry fee is involved ('a small group of agitators, some admittedly supported by foreign course, beckoning tourists to the last hidden place. This literature, says Bishop,
whole area from the opening.
funds'). To my knowledge, this is furthest from the truth. Those who have "has had profound influence on the shaping of the contemporary images of
Thus, when King Birendra made an unoffi~ial visit in January 1990, the 16 into Upper Mustang should go directly into development programmes for the
opposed tourism in Goa have consciously avoided a foreign-funded label. That Tibetan landscape and cu Iture': What th is infl uence is and why "contemporary
Pradhan Panchas of Upper and Lower Mustang presented him with the
that the north be opened. Unfortunately, the Lobas have little of all the talk of "proper infrastructure': in all likelihood, Upper Lo they are linked with people internationally who are concerned about the images" no longer constitute a Western collective imagining, Bishop does not
wi'th no ethnic representation during the years of the Panchayat rule. open without any preparation when the time comes. Neither the impacts of disastrous tourism is a fact: this is not the same as being foreign explain. One feels he has been confined by his own academic model of the
nor the Tourism Ministry have taken steps to prepare Loba funded. creation, evolution and dissolution of a sacred place.
Most believe that the promise of an untouched Tibetan culture more Tibetan
inevitable openi ng. A study of the effect of opening Ladakh, TIbet, However, there is an important issue to be considered: the hotel industry is The current interest in Tibet, although primarily touristic, would seem to
than Tibet itself will lure Westerners in search of new Himalayan destinations.
Bhutan, Southern Dolpo and Kanchenjunga, as well as the ample sociological open today to 51 percent multinational holdings, and in the case of NRls, 100 indicate that Tibet is not yet an "empty vessel'~ It is regretted that Bishop has
Travel agents in Kathmandu, eager to cash in are pushing for an early opening.
studies of the Sherpas since the 1960s should provide valuable material for percent. These investments and their profits are fully repatriable, a result of the not looked a little closer at the travel writing of the 1970s and 80s, at two schools
Tek Chandra Pokharel, President of the Nepal Association of Travel Agents,
discussion and action. massive liberalisation in Indian tourism policy. (Whether such a policy actually in particular: the contemporary descendants of the spiritual quest literature,
believes that tourists' eagerness to enter Mustang would prompt them to pay
On how best to open up the area, many heads will have to come together; retains the foreign exchange it supposedly brings in would be interesting to and the new travel-realism writers of Britain, Ireland, and Eastern Europe.
high rates. Also, because Mustang lies in a rain shadow area, it could be
government officials of the various ministries, the representatives of Upper and examine, but is beyond the scope of the present discussion.) Bishop is correct in stating that the focus of the spiritual quest was displaced
promoted as a viable destination during the monsoon, the low tourist season.
Lovver Mustang, the travel trade, conservationists and specialists in the relevant The Indian middle-class can be illogically moralistic on some matters: the with the movement of high lamas to the West. However, he seems unaware
The government, meanwhile, continues to show ambivalence. Damodar
academic disciplines. A commission comprising of such individuals; with a Gantzers refer to this when commenting on the 'sex and drugs' issue. Foreign of the literary result of that movement. The lamas' Western students have been
Gautam, Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism till recently, agreed that isolating
workable mandate, might be the first step towards a proximate and sensible money is another such. While it is perfectly acceptable for industry to merrily translating and practicing Tib,etan Buddhism for the last 15 or 20 years. They
Mustang from the world will push it further into darkness". He has advocated
/I

plan of action. profit from loads of foreign invested dollars and deutsche marks, it is not so are knowledgeable about Tibetan history, iconography, and the lineages of
opening all of Nepal's restricted areas. HIMAL, Mar/Apr 1991 in the case of people who raise questions, often at great personal risk. While teachings, and their vision of Tibet IS informed by the great Tibetan literary
Understandably, the Tourism Ministry advocates Mustang's opening, but the
deriding this double-edged morality of our people, it is ironic that the authors tradition itself. Their writing, like Keith Dowman's The Power-Places olCentral
decision rests with the Ministry of Home Affairs. The government would not
appeal to this quality in their 'foreign money' comments. Tibet based on a ninth-century Tibetan pilgrim's guider has incorporated the
l
open Mustang before establishing proper trails, police checkposts, health posts,
When all is said and done, it is hard to understand why these articles come Tibetans' vision of their own culture.
a communications network and lodges. However, no move has yet been made
down so harshly on the very legitimate questions raised abouttourism in Goa. The new "hard-boiled" school of travel writing, well represented in the
towards building such infrastructure.
After all, the Gantzers have raised similar questions at variolJs times. In late periodic Mvel editions of the British magazine Granta, is in part a child of war
There are some who agree against exposing upper Mustang's fragile ecology
journalism, in part a product of Europe's powerful ecological and democratic
and culture to the consumerist world outside.
Bishnu Raj Hirachan says that the desert environment cannot support the
In Quotes 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 consciousness. It is hyper
no awareness or concern for and sensitive to the nuance of recent history. These writers have ~~•. ,~ ••~.
demands of tourism. "People will sell their firewood for a little bit of money
than in UP's ham-handed Tibet as they have touched other countries in pain: Cambodic
without realising the long term problems this creates:'
The indian association of tour operators has ur~ed the 6/9/90). The travel-realism writers will see Tibet with its bones
The ecology of Upper Lo certainly requires detailed
~ovemment to rationaiise the steep hil<e in hotel tariff and issues which hold good in Uttar Pradesh somehow become while the Buddhisl wriiers will explore Tibet with full knowledge of its
from Chuksang and Chele, north ofKagbeni, have to hike tvvo days
-waive expenditure tax onbiqand medium size hotels saying iiTelevant when thev reach GO;}? !nsteari of dismissing the and religious tradition:.. Both will create fH .V imaginal olaces. ard the
forests near Samar for thei r firewood. The inhabitants around Lo M;mth,mo
that this would badly hit the foreiQn tourist inflow '~pIL"prvirllJ' and will be
use dung. Both sources of fuel are dV"indling.
Hemanta Mishra, chief ofthe King Mahendr;; Trust for Nature Conservation J Fn"derick is travpl wnlu and editor of Shangri-La, the in-flight rlagazine of Royal Nepal
While India's foreiQn exchanlJe, earnings remained static at Airlines
in Kathmandu, argues that Mustang's culture, one of the last reoresenting old $1.2 billion durinq the past five years. Indonesia which had (Reprinted from HIMAl, May/June 1990)
Buddhism, should be protected. Besides, he contends, the also gone tn for il bi9 IMP loan to tide over its BOP crisis
itself will benefit little from opening. "first, travel agencies has more than doubled its tourism earnin~s and Malaysia
and then othpr outside communities, but not the Loba." their views have also bef'fl
and Thailand hod raised it three fold. Correa committee appointt'd by the Goa g(}~ernment recommended
The important question, then, is not whether Mustang should be opened,
more attractive, Instead of making it mandatory for hotels to fix tariff on that the government withdraw its Ma·~ter Pian for Tourism (proposed in June
but how and when. Is high-cost!ool-\iolume TOUrism a
dollar rates. the government should have linl<ed tariff to a 1987), which was done in 1988. There are other such instances.
or the c't>me one-come all
and for different basl<et of currency. I have on purpose avoided - by and large - referring to the varied and

---­
Some advocate "controlled tourism", but in
ends. Those in the high-end of Kathmandu's propose [ow­ complex questions thrown up by the resistance to touriml in Goa. These are
volume access which they say would protect the and cultural
The tour operators association has also termed as discrimi­ issues intricately intertwined with wider issues such as political histOlY, pmt­
environments as well as bring most benefit-but to whom? natory the imposition of expenditure tax on hotels charging colonial culture and identity, and more recently, the directions of Goa's ----~-.-

room tariff of more than Rs. 400 per day. economic development. I have merely dealt with one aspect (related to '~
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 t ECONOMIC TIMES. 27 August 1991
economic development), that of national tourism pniicv. \
I
a few travel agencies with the highest foreign currency turnover to take in a
iimited number of persons:'
I 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. Y,iy~~V7trn\~
)J:,p,Jbr~YJJ!tI)~1J w~Wy.4§j!.11)1
There are other more creative, if unlikely, proposals. Keshab Lamichane, who L Those who have expressed their doubts about t.Ol:rism are resident in Goa. IN? f / 7 1/1!

l.,-rl..WJ J
 18
3

History of A Small Place In describing one small place in the vast world, Kincaid's memories construct
a counter-narrative that resists nostalgia and universality in favor of a historical
Letter to EQUATIONS
Pay for Environment
Caren Kaplan and geographical investigation of location in the expanded, global sense.

T
Dear friends, he travel industry, environmentalists and officials from developing
Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol. 3. No 1. (1991) countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses
Jamaica Ki ncaid's A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent
of displacement. Kincaid locates Antigua, the island where she was born, as discussion with Suresh in Calcutta. will have to pay much more.
not only a "small place" on the map, but a place in history. In the process of 1. For EQUATIONS' advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of "A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply:' World Wildlife Fund
remapping this location, Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)
Tourism, it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the cost­ (WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific
points. structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture. benefit analysis of Tourism, i.e. taking into account the high impore content Asia Travel Association.
InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semi­ ofelite tourism, the capital-intensive bias, and also the various impacts
While the organisation does not directly promote tourism, says INTACH's Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty, he
collapse. Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like (such as on the emnronment), what picturefinally emerges? It is important
Harshad Kumari, it does contain the concept of tourism, insofar as it has to to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed told the conference which ended on April 14. "It makes perfect sense that visitors
something else. She explores the contradictions of representation by
do with the country's heritage, under its umbrella. 'We believe in local people approach; and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions;' he said.
investigating the stakes in each position available in that location. Who benefits
from perpetuating the representation of paradise? Who benefits from the raw being able to use their old structures, not just in restoring them for the heck mean anything. Huwever, in one's dealings with guvernment etc., this Much of the world's remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash
sewage in the pretty bay, the erosion of Antiguan culture, the condos and time­ of it. Once a building is saved, restoration takes care of itself:' she says, citing is something they understand. But all the limitations to this approach also is a higher priority than conservation. The travel industry must show
shares... ? Since the "exotic" food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the successful examples in Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jodhpur. have to be simultaneously propagated. Actually, using cost-benefit governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for
same plane as the tourist, A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of "Right now, the sort of tourism that's happening is not benefitting the local approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game. Just tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit,
modernity's representational imperatives. people at all:' she feels, adding, "By linking heritage and tourism, we should by changing some assumptions one could get a different result. Corrversely, speakers stressed.
Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town;' a 'desirable' or 'good' project, can never make it is based on the market
mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes •A Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on
counter-discourse of Antigua's relationship with the rest of the world. In this Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition, and the one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial
and destroys alternatives.
text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one, at least on the part musical nights in Jhalawar, apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight companies and a logging firm with strong political backing.
let ..... , as in the Tehri dam case, it does help to get into this.
of the native. The text is addressed to "you'; the past, present, or potential tourist. into local culture than the package-tour, may well be a step towards greater One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India,
The narrator, Kincaid., however, is not truly a native anymore since she lives "It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business,
cultural awareness. elsewhere and bring this together. Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence;'
and writes in the United States. This displaced position gives Kincaid's text a SUNDAY, 3 March 1991
projects, and more ambitiously, for the state or national level. Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque, now seconded
particular value; it mediates the very oppositions it constructs, breaks open
2. Ultimately, given what one is campaigning against, it is a losing battie to the WWF. Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up
contradictions, makes connections. For example, the subject position of "native"
in the short-run. But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other with financial clout, Roque said, which conference speakers believed the tourist
is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity, as Kincaid illustrates a point made Serve them right (contd, from page 7) strategies, which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle industry could provide.
by Arjun Appadurai; the opposition between native and tourist is constructed and taking on work in the area of <alternatives~ Thus, design ofedu­
by a transnational culture of tourism-that is, the native is constructed and comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison, it "Despite the fears of conservationists, tourism and ecology need not be mutually
catiot1.al curricula and carrying {)u,! educational programmes (jor, say,
"incarcerated" by the anthropological discourse of western travel. Kincaid's will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten, chewed and exclusive:' said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd, a pioneer in nature tours
students and youth), on critiques of tourism, on responsible travel as
poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions swallowed up - reminiscent, to the untrained eye, of d large choru~ of in the Himalayas. "Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part
learning and interacting with diverse peoples, places and cultures.
like "native" and "traveler" even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized eaters in a circus or a magic show. Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his Actually, both the 'campaigning against' and the articulation and of the same picture:'
identities. shoes in Gold Rush. attempting of (alternatives' have to be undertaken. From a social
No, despite the economic problems engendered by unification, Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more
The story of Antigua's colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of perspective, one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and
is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some money from fewer tourists, Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating
the author's personal history. Her memories become a counter-narrative to ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams. But such cash for community projects and preservation.
official histories and public relations campaigns. Yet, Kincaid is equally frustrated their calories from porcelain. (In any case there's always beer to fall back upon common perpective, coming together and taking on of roles within a
with island approaches to time and history. She writes: if need be.) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery common perspective, interaction and exchange is all too rare in our Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas. Firms competing for
To the people in a small place, the division of Time into the Pasf;
- plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental (voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within one's high-volume business were bound to cut costs, Choegyal said, "and
the Present,and the Future does not exist. An event that occurred one problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes. An Indian organisation; which only destroys you. This needs to be reflected on. environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints:'
hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as ifit were happening who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate, thrown away after use, as Because, even concentrating on one stream alone, is basically counter­ Traditional life in Indonesia's overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the
at this very moment. And then, an event that is occurring at th/5 very the prototype of the paper or plastic plate, might think that crockery made productive. So haw can all the various efforts, that all· need to be
conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the
moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as of bread is a genuine innovation. But he would do well to remember that simultaneously undertaken, be realised?
expense of the environment, said the nation's tourist planning chief, himself
if it had happened one hundred years ago. plantain-leaf plates, as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall 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 Balinese. "Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-
Rather than impose linear, teleological time in the form of conventional knows, are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away. The difference bet"veen
(alternatives' itself, as a means of retaining sanity, learning and being and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by
history, Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds India and Germany then, is essentially this: we feed our cows with dispo~able
energised! investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large;' I
of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates.
Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources Gede A'rdika said.
experience, honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism. Editorial, DECCAN HERALD, 7 March 1991 to reaching out to political parties, MPs, MLAs, gcrvernment officials;
She maps even as she tells, in the process inventing a historical poetics of A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter
<lobbying: This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task, and full to locals. "Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product
displacement. Antigua as chronotope collapses linear; imperial time of all kinds of dangers. But it is also something that needs to be
masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and as much as they feel part-ownership;' researcher Charles Tambiah said.
systematically done; part of the (long-run" efforts, mentioned earlier:
experience. Summary Findings (contd trom page 16) I write all this because J myselfam concerned ff,bnut, lile Tourism pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines
The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami, New York, very glad to find a group such ~hai blasted apart (-'/ dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from
and London, The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products. On I strongly closer and needed to feed their families. "Tourism as aspot of affluence and
the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism. the supply side, this' is matched by the 'need' for foreign exchange. inte1'{lCtiosz bet'Ween activistgro"dps is badly net'ded luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b(' slJ,tain6::-,jp development;'
Antiguans, in their small place on the map and in history, are inextricably linked 4. This will make the task of seeking 'alternatives' (such as avariety ot an alternalive culture in the 'voluntary sector ~;, ana ,JeWuse ;. jj'Ij'seq he said.
to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home. This map alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive. In am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above.
" But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would
of transnational, global conditions is, in part, the work of the text. It is this strategy a sense, the Third World cannot do 'without' tourism, in the present stage These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and
of economic development. By the same logic, domestic tourism is not a I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you 'What to do. From the otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWF's
of insisting on Antigua's tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating
viable proposition either. little! knuw about EQUATIONS and its work, I have strong Bunting. He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature
for specific, localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics
admiration for your efforts. I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself reserve. "Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and
of displacement. Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of 5. The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent
as one ofyou, one ofthe larger struggle all of us, in our awn way, are so were very familiar with trails and watering spots. The animals they used to
the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation. limitations: that is, if it proves to be economically not viable. Therefore, this
involved in. hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see':
Edward Said has described this impulse as "cartogaphic," arguing that the points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies
ro<;trf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination, It is necessary, of the industry, its linkages, the convergence of different state inter/entior-s, _r'lease lel me kn071i what jYJU think" 5di~gE;5t<;-d tourists themselyes couid be 11.) illl!J1(Jve
he suggests, to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not and so on. In particular, we need to examine the links of tourism with Your; 3irrcere{v, environment in the developing world.
"pristine and prehistorical" but historically constituted by present concerns. changes in land use patterns in the coastal V. Calcutta_ CCI, Apr/May 199!
 4 17

The Jumbos are Coming training courses that gave 300 rangers and 300 park wardens a chance to
upgrade their technical and managerial skills. In addition, four wardens were Nepal: A Tourism Tragedy
talk less about the romantic attractions of mountai n wilderness areas and more
• about toilets, garbage disposal a!ld fuel.
by I. Rajeswary sent on fellowships to the College of African Wildlife and Management in Tourism in Nepal is increasing by over 77 per cent a year: it is the only hard Once there is a heavier investment in tourism in the Himalayas, it will be
Tanzania, Africa's first centre devoted to wildlife conservation. currency earner for the world's fourth poorest nation; and is being promoted difficult to fight destruction because money talks, and loudly too. Before this

T here was a time when elephants and lions, rhinoceroses and hippo­
potamuses 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 30,000 elephants. Up unti 11972,
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
vigorously. The result is predictable: footpaths are destroyed, sewage gets into
rivers, litter mounts and forests disappear at an alarming rate. 400,000 ha of
j

forest are cleared each year; and each hectare cleared loses 30.75 tons of
soiL.devastating landslides and ffoods wreck both land and economy.
happens, I suggest that the Himalayas should be divided - with the co­
operation 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
tourism was Uganda's third most important foreign exchange earner after coffee primary and secondary school students, the importance of conservation. But come all.
and cotton. In 1971, it drew 85,000 visitors who spend US $27 million. his task is complicated by traditional beliefs. "Some Ugandans believe that a
The slopes ofthe world's highest peaks in the Himalaya were once a pristine
The second one would be open only by special permission to a limited
But tourism ground to a halt between 1972 and 1979 during Idi Amin's wilderness. Desecration by climbers and trekkers has set in motioR their
woman's fertility increases if she eats hippo meat;' says Mr. Mohamed. ''l\nd number of climbers and scientists. There are already a number of national
turbulent reign. Guns and ammunition were easily available and Amin's trigger­ ecological degradation. Until a decade or two ago, it was a relativelv minor
a man is considered less of aman if he does not provide hippo meat for his wife:' these could be upgraded and perhaps even linked.
soldiers, who were given afree run of national parks, slaughtered whole problem: today it has reached disastrous proportions.
But Mr. Mohamed's message is slowly getting through. Last year, two such The third one \'vould be inviolate and kept free of human intrusion. It would
of elephants for ivory. By 1982, the elephant population in Queen sessions led by Mr. Mohamed were well attended. "The Ugandans used to view
The worstaffected region is around Everest: 'There is so much junk
that a full-scale expedition is needed to remove it; says Chris Bon/ngton, an be a or two above the national park status. This raises some basic
Elizabeth National Park had dwindled to 152, down from 3,000 in the 19705. these workshops as agovernment scam to nab poachers;' he says. "What turned questions. Do we want to preserve some corners of the earth free from man's
In 1980, conc;erned over the decline of wildlife and tourism, the government them around was seeing actual footage of their natural wildlife heritage and
Everest explorer. In recent years, climbing from the northeast ridge on the Tibet
interference or do we want to open up every bit of it to human exploitation.
that ousted Idi Amin turned to the United Nations Development Programme what poaching could do to them. side, has become the craze. As a result, Rongbuk the world's highest monastery;
j
Do we have the right to use up all the earth? Or are we willing to leave some
(UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) for help in training a UN DP's assistance ends in December. Officials want the project extended. has become a toilet and rubbish dumb. Once-cfear view; .of magnificent
space for the snow leopards, ghurrals and the abominable snowman?
40-man anti-poaching strike force. The new unit produced immediate results The government is interested in conservation but we have limited resources;'
mountain vistas are now obscenely impeded by abandoned oxygen canisters,
1/
paper; foil and other garbage. As Reinhold Messner wrote recently, "Man, through the centuries, has always
in Murchison Falls, Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo Valley national parks. says Dr. Edrorna, in explaining why his government has yet to contribute its chosen places which seemed special and declared them holy and untouchable.
In Murchison Falls, the number of elephant carcasses encountered on ranger share of $53,000 to the project. "It has other priorities. If the extension is not 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 There, the Gods Iived....Today more than ever we have a need for unexplored
patrols dropped from 120 in 1980 to none in 1982 and the elephant herd there forthcoming, it will be a real tragedY:' wilderness:'
is now slowly increasing. The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth Park An important long term strategy, says Mr. Jingu, is to convince people living the Himalaya. Of these, a large proportion are Everest climbers, 13
in the current season. The Nepal Government has more than 700 Everest And our Gods have always lived in the Himalayas.
has quadrupled. within the parks that they can profit from managing and protecting wildlife on
When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, his administration sought thei r own initiative. The government wants to adopt an approach to community climbing requests pending till 2003. by Aamir Ali, HIMAl 28 May/June 1990
additional UN DP assistance to rehabilitate the country's wildlife and national participation in wildlife management that has already been tested in Zimbabwe. The indian Mountaineering Association has laid down guidelines for anyone
parks. As part of a $1.7 million project, carried out by the Food and Agriculture Under this arrangement the government entrusts a section of national park to climbing in the Indian Himalaya: it offers cash incentives to all expeditions
Organization of the UN (FAO), 49 two-way radios were distributed to Uganda's the villagers who live there, provided they follow specific regulations: hunting which clean up their camps behind them. The Himalaya Adventure Tru.st has Upturning Virgin Soil
Park and game officials. For the first time, all national park officials can is permitted only in designated areas, only a limited number of animals can astrictcode of conduct for trekkers, and Nepal tourism authorities have made
he term 'tourism development' implies much more than running tourist
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
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 is gives villagers a major
incentive to turn in any poachers.
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
T 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
since the project was launched two years ago. "In Africa': says Tanzanian Raphael "It has worked in Zimbabwe;' says Mr. Jingu, "and Iam sure it can work here!l. climbers, 17 to joint expeditions, and 5 reserved for Nepalese climbers. 18 minor of running resorts and bus services for tourists, it has set its sights on the
Jingu, the FAO/UNDP project's chief technical adviser, "anti-poaching forms If the necessary funds are forth--com ing, Uganda may soon have aconservation peaks are open to trekkers, administered directly by the Nepa! Mountaineering development of virgin land along the Konkan coast The corporation has
the backbone of wildlife management' policy that employs both the carrot and the stick. Association. identified 32 locations where international standard, upmarket as vvell as budget
The poachers, who are usually armed and operate their own four-wheel drive WORLD DEVELOPMENT, (UNDP), March 1991 Frustrated in its efforts to control the ecological impacts ofEverest climbing, hotels are expected to corne up within the next decade.
vehicles, mainly seek hippopotamuses, buffaloes and Uganda Kobs, aform of the Nepal GO'vernment has finally decided that Everest can no longerbe climbed
In achange from its earlier policy, MTDC is now planning to withdraw from
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
Massive MP Campaign 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. operational activities and become a nodal agency for the development of
tourism by undertaki ng a different set of activities. Taking care of infrastructural
Baker Juma, the Ishasha sector game warden. "Being able to co-ordinate our by Rakesh Khar While this may help limit further destruction ofthe world's highest peak, the
providi ng land, offering basic amenities for motorists using national
with radios gives us a huge tactical advantage:' 'Temptations 50 irresistible that you will fall for them. Forts, that still echo past question ofthe existing garbage remains: will Nepal decide to allow dean-up
j
highways, are some of the major plans chalked out by MTDC
Statistics bear Mr. Juma out. In 1988, there were 209 poaching incidents in glories. Palaces; that stiil shimmer with grandeur. Love, still in passionate expeditions after 79941
the park, dropping to 156 in 1989 a decline of 25 per cent. "In fact;' says embrace in stone. FOIesis with wildlife in natural display. Get away to the centre Moreover; it is not Everest alone which stands it; danger of permanent The corporation has a"PerspectiveGlvwth Plan'; basea on which it has asked
Dr. Eric Edroma, Uganda National Parks director, "animals which used to run of it all. Madhya Pradesh (/viP) - the heart of India. The sightseer's paradi5e, destruction. It is high time that Nepal (and other countries in the Himalayan for the allocation of funds from the Central government in the Eighth Five Year
when they saw people now stand and gaze at them because they are not afraid:' with many a beautiful region) came up with ajoint environment protection plan under the auspices Plan. Its plans involve roping in private developers to bui Id resorts/hotels and
Uganda's rangers and wardens constantly live on edge. Last October, in a ofan officially constituted environment protection authoritY. laxes on mountain thereby develop the locations as tourist spots. The land is provided by
Thus speaks a colourfully designed booklet. The booklet forms a part of a
shoot-out at Murchison Falls Park, 30 poachers were killed. "I am very climbing could help to finance such a venture. MTDCIWe get the land either through an allotment from the government or
massive campaign afoot to launch the state in a big way on the tourism map
of my rangers;' says Dr. Edroma. fiT hey are well trained and equipped:" we acquire directly'~ says Kawale.
of the country. So here is astate with 40 backward districts offering fun lovers Thi5, is what the article Mr Himalayan Environment; seems to suggest.
Sometimes, hOlNeVer, his men are not so lucky. Recently, knife-wielding relatives the natural wonders, scenic splendours and a lot more beautifully wrapped However, MTDCs offer to private developers has not met with a great deal
of a poacher, who had been arrested earlier, attacked a ranger from Ishasha up in 26 economical and convenient packages. of enthusiasm. According to Mukhtar Hussain of Suman Motels Ltd which runs
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
Tourism in Madhya Pradesh has come of age. The M.P. State Tourism Mr. Himalayan Environment five to six motels in Maharashtra (but aren't bui Iding any on MTDC land), 'Their
Development Corporation ended 1989-90 on abright note. Not only did it show location lS for the promotion of tourism, our location is for busi ness faei Iities:'
of a larger government effort to revive tourism. Officials in this land-locked a gross profit of Rs 38.83 lakhs, but it also showed a net profit of Rs 1.33 lakhs. The Swiss Alpine Club has recently appointed a permanent official Another private developer is more explicit when he say\ "Basically the plots.
country are well aware that they must compete with neighbouring Kenya, which ''The corporation expects to end 1990-91 showing gross profit of Rs 60 lakhs for the protection of the environment. Shouldn't therE:' be at least one ,',;Ir. Which MTDC are offering are not developed locations. They are beautifUl
currently attracts the lion's share of visitors seeking African safaris. and a net profit of Rs 5 lakhs", says Mr G 5 Chahal, a senior official. Environment for the Himalayas? He could easily be financed by a small head but ...ve arc sceptical about the availability of infrastructural facilities:'
Because services at most Ugandan hotels and lodges in the parks are minimal Faced with the arduous task of promoting tourism in astate which symbolises tax on all visitors. complain that not enough publicity has been given to MTDCs
at best, the government asked WTO, with UNDP fundi ng, to draft a master plan utter backwardness, the corporation has succeeded in establishing Madhya This is not a plea to stop tourism. That would be impossible anyway. It is a procedures. This means that only linsiders' have an opportunity to participate.
to renovate hotels, re-surface pot-holed roads and upgrade the skills of those Pradesh as a front-runner tourist destination through the extensive promotional to regulate its future development far more strictly and that is not an easy
Whilst MTDC plans to team-up with the concerned authorities for the
in the hotel industry. ''l\s Uganda's economic and social conditions campaigns conducted in and outside the state. The corporation claims to have task. If there is a lesson to be learnt from the experience of the Alps, it is this:
of water, electricity and roads, private developers complain that most
tourism can become the country's main foreign exchange earner,' says Mr. jingu. also consolidated its pioneering activity of organising package tours. protection of the mountai n environment needs determined action and hard
locations have no rail connections, another negative factor. Also, they are not
Even without such improvements, the number of visitors to Uganda rose from order to create better awareness of the rich folklore and folk traditions as work at all levels, from the highest government authorities to the lowliest
interested in the development of hotels as a majority of them are slated to fall
8,622 in 1982 to almost 40,000 in 1986. The increase is due at least partially al~o it<; varied cultural heritage, a numberoffairs and festivals have been selected individual. Interests of local people have to be catered for so that they have
into the two or three star category. aimed at the tourist on abudget. ''l\lso there
to the fact that poaching is down and the parks themselves are now better for development and promotion. These include the Panchmarhi festival, Bhojpur a vested Interest In protecting the environment. The Swiss, for examDle, have
is no assurance of a minimum level of room occupancy;' states a developer.
managed. Tourist arrival figures since 1986 are not available. Orchha festival and Malwa festival. an active programme of aid to mountain communities.
Mr. Jingu credits the new order in the parks to UNDP-financed intensive ECONOMIC TIMES, 16 April, 1991 Protection needs some down-ta-earth action. Perhaps one way to start is to BUSINESS INDIA, 1.5-28 April 1991
 16 5
c. If EQUATIONS is to build an active relationship with concerned people drivers: even though their employment is seasonal, they feed theirfamilies and
Summary Findings:
in the region, we must not only be in regular touch about tourism, but also When Tourism's Profits Go Abroad friends off the back of tourism, and this must help up to 15 or 20 percent of
The Gambia's 800,000 population.
Visit to Coastal KarnatakalKerala
demonstrate an interest in local issues (other than tourism) which are of
concern to them.
by Robert Lacvllle
. But what does the government get out of tourism? Government has a lot of
by Equations Team, May 1991 I had been working in the deepest bush along the Gambian river valley where costs related to tourism. Tourists use and wear out the roads and bridges, which
Issues in Kerala women's groups are developing really effective credit with the support of Government must keep up. Tourists must be supplied with petrol products (for
Team: Manvel Alur, K T Suresh, Leo Saldanha & M Shivakumar 1. Kerala seems to be clearly oriented to tourism development and provides Gambian field workers who are paid by British and American charitable cars, for electricity generation) which consume large amounts of rare foreign
Dates: May 10 - 16, Karnataka support to the industry. The private sector is actively encouraged in its efforts, agencies. But after eight hours of bouncing around in a Land rover on dusty roads exchange. Tourists occupy large numbers of customs and immigration officials,
May 17 - June 2, Kerala and the interventions of the state and its mechanisms could be stated as: in the heat of the day, I was exhausted, and in need of a cold beer. Well, let and police guard the tourist beaches day and night, to ensure that no nasty
integration, incorporation and even co-option. This is evident from the me be truthful: three cold beers. Ice-cold. scandals happen, which would make juicy reading in the European press and
Logistics
District level upwards. So I had a shower, cleaned off three layers of red dust, and went off to find damage the tourist business. Tourism generates about 10% of Gambia's foreign
In 21 days, the team covered a vast coastline, from Karwar in northern 2. Furthermore, the state demonstrates demographic and socio-economic three cold beers. As I walked along humming to myself, I was thinking of those exchange earnings, according to the Ministry ofTourism; but that i.s not very
Karnataka, through to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. Shivkumar was asked to characteristics similar to parts of coastal Karnataka: high rate of literacy, women in Tankular with their fantastic garden and their vegetable marketing much. Apart from a Government's 6% bed tax, sales tax on gasoline (which
provide overall guidance to the team, and he was accompanied by Manvel and influence of Gulf boom, significance of religious institutions (though political problem. I reached the hotel patio, and I stopped in amazement: I had stepped doesn't offset its foreign exchange cost to the Governmentl, and the £7 airport
Leo in Karnataka, while Suresh joined him for the visit to KeralalKanyakumari. bodies exercise considerable leverage as well), well-developed infrastructure out of rural Africa into fleshy Denmark. Confronted by huge expanses of female tax for each of the 60,000 or so tourists, the only benefit the country derives
Dai Iy logs were written up, and reports prepared i ndivid ually, with Shivkumar and economic institutions. Danish flesh, I experienced a sort of culture shock rather like a physical thump is from employment.
providing a conceptual framework at the end. 3. There is however afair amount of understanding of the tourism issue amongst in the chest. My thoughts of village underdevelopment were smothered by the Oh yes, there is one other source of income: Gambia Airways. This company
Prior to finalising our understanding of and responses to the visit 3 discussions intellectuals and NGO-related individuals in Kerala. The historical hideous reality of human over-development. The fat lady in the bikini was has the monopoly of handling rights at the airport, and it is one of the few air
were held with a group of rapporteurs: Dr Duarte Baretto of the lSI, Shri A development of political economy in the State is viewed as leading inevitably suffering from painful sunburn. Her bright breasts bulged painfully out of her companies in the world to make a profit (largely because it runs no aircraft:
Vasudevan of GRID and Shri C Antonisamy of Peace Trust, Dindigul. towards tourism development today. skimpy bra. Her red back was peeling generously. they are not very profitable these days). Gambia Airways is therefore a
A final report will be prepared by mid-July, incorporating all the elements 4. The link between Union Territories (Mahe - Lakshadweep) at the tourism I moved away, and sat in the dark with a beer. As I relieved my parched throat, moneymaker for the Gambia.
covered in the individual and group reports. This will be the basis for follow­ level appears to be potentially significant. It needs to be further exami ned. I had time to watch three teenaged Gambian girls modelling tie-dye shirts and But British Airways has decided that Gambia Airways is costing too much.
up action in Karnataka and Kerala west coast. 5. Tourism strategy at Lakshadweep appears to be: high-cost, high quality, low shorts. They were young and attractive. I began to feel better, to take an interest They do not like to P?Y Gambian taxes on aircraft fuel; and they do not like
Issues in Coastal Karnataka/Kasargod density, low infrastructure. This is environment friendly, elitist-alternative in the models. Then I caught sighLof a pair of Scandanavian buttocks, and paying charges for the airport, for passenger and luggage and ticket handling,
tourism, with substantial revenue potential. This would lead us to surmise shuddered. I offered a silent prayer: "If that woman does decide to spend 12 etc. 55 per cent of Gambia's tourists come from Britain. British Airways is not
1. The traditional influence of the Catholic religious institutions, today
that "speciality" tourism developments can be foreseen in future. dollars on a shirt and shorts in delicate tie-cloth, please let it be for her a small operation. It runs charters and carries a fai r proportion of the British
overshadowed by Hindu revivalism - evident in politics as well as
6. Specifically, we have been asked for the following: granddaughter, and not for herself:' At least if she buys some, that will add tourists, as well as most of the Gambia's air freight.
institutions (temples).
i. to produce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document; income for awomen's co-operative, for the girl models, for the hotel's disk jockey. Apart from the small tourism revenues, all the foreign exchange used to buy
2. The increasing economic dominance of the banking/financial sector,
ii. to provide inputs to KIiTTs students; Every piece of income helps. Compared to the social disruption, there is little aircraft fuel has to be bought with groundnuts. Even the customs forms and
especially of the Udupi Pai families, in a wide range of industrial sectors.
iii. to place tourism on the agenda of ECO-92 (Brazil); enough benefit coming to the Gambia from its tourist industry. the toilet paper in the airport transit lounge have to be paid for with foreign
Their traditional implications for tourism/hotels. (They have established a
iv. to collaborate with the International Collective in support of At breakfast I was fresher, feeling less jaundiced about my Scandanavian exchange. Gambian peasant farmers grow ground nuts, which are collected by
hotel management Institute in collaboration with ITO'Welcomgroup. Also,
Fisherworkers (HQ: Madras); and,
neighbours. This was made all the easier by the fact that the fat women were the co-operatives, and turned into oil or cattle cake which are largely
a centre for folk artslcultural media).
v To share the report of our visit with those visited.
wearing more clothing than the previous evening. Breakfast was generous. There exported ....to Britai n.
3. The relatively higher rate of literacy/success of literacy campaign in 0 K
Responses was salami and ham, cheese and butter and jam, all of it imported. These The Gambia is a poor country, and it needs British Airways to pay the real
District, and the economic relevance of the Gulf boom.
products were eaten off imported china plates with nice warm bread rolls, made cost. Yet rather than pay taxes or dues to the Gambian government, British
4. Issues related to non-tourism development: Karwar, MCF, Kaiga, a. EQUATIONS has agreed in principle to respond to KIiTTs request by
deforestation (Western ghats), etc. These are of more immediate relevance providing inputs on tourism critique. We also hope KIiTTs will be able to with imported flour. There was tea and coffee (imported), together with Airways is threatening to pullout. Is it now British Government policy that British
support us by undertaking or sponsoring research on tourism in coastal American cornflakes to eat with reconstituted imported Dutch powdered milk Airways should have its airports subsidised by Gambian peasant farmers? What
to a number of people.
(you cannot mistake the taste, however well they mix it to remove the gritty gall! The British deadline for Gambian surrender is 27th May.
5. The resistance of the people of Kanvarthirtha to a Kerala tourism development Kerala, and providing access to existing documentation.
lumps) and English powdered sugar. I for one hope that the Gambian Minister of Tourism will call their bluff:
plan, led by Mr Subhash Chandra, a school teacher at Bantwal. He has asked b. To prodClce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document, EQUATIONS
for information/support from EQUATIONS. should identify one or two persons in Kerala whose services can be uti lised My breakfast was somewhat spoiled by the dank smell of beer hangi ng over Sabena will be happy to take over the leading role in Gambian air transport,
6. Although the beaches are not enti rely cond ucive to swimm ing/water sports, in this regard. the dining room; and the unsightly crates of beer, Coke and Fanta (all imported and I dare say the Belgian business community will not be far behind. Perhaps
there are several hotel projects coming up in the coastal region. Since there c. EQUATIONS can collaborate with others as per the requests made. ingredients in imported bottles). Even the tables and table cloths were imported the new British High Commissioner to the Gambia will be taking his home
has been a long tradition of pilgrimage to the various temples here, it is likely d. Following distribution of the report, EQUATIONS could organise a meeting (no tie-dye cloth here, I'm afraid). In fact, as I looked around the dining room, leave on Sabena this year. That would indeed be a bitter pill for British
that tourism promoters havetheir eyes on the Indian middle-class, who can of concerned people in Kerala. I could see no sign of local consumption except for the water: water for bread, diplomacy. Very galling.
be persuaded to combine spiritual quests with worldly pleasures. With the water for beer, water to dilute sickly coloured syrups, water to wash up the mess GUARDIAN, 26 May 1991
General made by the imported tourists.
increasing disposable incomeavailable to this class, the region does have
Following the presentations of the reports to the rapporteurs, and as a result Gambian women grow tomatoes for the local tourist market. They harvest
tourism development potential. Basic infrastructure is also available more
of the discussions which followed, we arrived at a number of general
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
conclusions and recommendations, given below:
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
.Tourism Tragedy
promoting tourism in Honavar. The ease with which our team could travel 1. That this experiment of visiting a region with a team constituted of several because he cannot be bothered. Rather than buy Gambian Fresh, he prefers Too much too quickly is the usual reason for the conflict
in the region and visit various temples and sites is another indication of the different people is in itself a model which could be further developed and to pay more for Spanish Tasteless. The African bitter tomato is asort of aubergine tourism development and the environment. After 1988, a
overall tourism developmental potentiaL explored. Not only does the process help us gain a primary database, it has which looks like a large ripening tomato. It is good in stews. But here I have year for tourism, Turkey planned to increase revenue from .it$
7. As of today, there are very few organisational initiatives to examine tourism
the effect also of creating a positive image of EQUATIONS. Also, it puts a found a new meaning for the expression "bitter tomato": top qual ity tomatoes tourists. But problems followed. Tourists found that dust and
from a wholistic perspective amongst the local NGOs of the region. Neither
responsibility on us to be reciprocal in the relationships we enter into during which you cannot sell because the white man will not buy them. That is acase noise from half· built hotels disturbed their peaceful holiday.
do any of the existing groups appear prepared to enter into a specific
such visits. for trade protection, if ever one needed to be found. The government should Quickly built accommodation proved to be dangerous when in
involvement on tourism issues in the immediate future, since they have a
2. This particular visit- the first of its kind - is a turning point for EQUATIONS. tax imported fresh food, price-forcing the hotels to buy local chickens, local 1989 a 12·year·old English girl was killed in a 26 foot fall after
variety of other pre-occupations.
A number of new issues have been identified, and we have met with several eggs, and local fruits and vegetables. her hotel balcony in Bodrum collapsed. In 1990, the amount of
people who have expressed an interest in ourperspectives and future plans For although the tourist industry has been developing these last few years, Escherichia coli, a bacterium of faecal origin, reached levels that
Responses in the region. In particular, we see the potential for much greater involvement the profits mai nly accrue outside the country. Tour operators are paid in Europe. made it dangerous to go swimming along the coast. After
a. EQUATIONS plans to facilitate a seminar - workshop on tourism issues
in Kerala. As the tourism industry increasingly plays an important role in They pay their bills in Europe: airfares are paid to European airlines, and hotel criticisms from conservationists, the Government is now aiming
in the region, inviting a number of NGOs and others whom we visited. For
the Indian economy, there is a greater need for awareness and mobilisation fees are mostly paid in Europe to the Scandanavian, French, German and to diversify to take the pressure off coastal development, with
this, we are seeking the help of interested local individuals.
at various levels of society. Gambian investors who have built the hotels. The employment benefit is of plans for inland skiing and nature holidays.
b. EQUATIONS should also respond to the request of the Kanvarthirtha people.
3. The shift from elitist (traditional) tourism to recent mass tourism is a reflection course considerable. Waiters and cooks and bed makers are all Gambians (or
Source: Consumer Currents, No. 135, April 1991
We can begin by publicising the issues, as well as by sharing information
of the economies of scale at work in the industry. As there is a low demand Senegalese); so are the tie-dye ladies and their teenaged models, the dancers
with Kanvarthirtha about tourism issues generally.
(in the international market) for Third World agricultural-industrial products, and musicians, the carvers and leather workers, the tour guides and the taxi
contd on page 19
 6 15

Heritage ~ourism Penan~ Hill Condo-versy

Privatisation Spree in Kerala?
Tread Gently by K. T. Suresn

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
A hmad Chik lives with his family atop Penang Hill, in the heart of Malay­
sia's 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
by Phil Voysey

Tread flently yells the universal voice of reason

'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?
three-day festival of music with as much enthusiasm as they do a mela, except is one of about 1,000 residents, rich and poor, of Penang Hill. Visitors ride up over the cacophony of tourist dollar.

in a 68-year-old funicular railway to savour the hill's simple charms. Untouched Here they come aflain
The reality that this report is referring to is the admission that private sector
that, this time, they will be treated to pure classical music in addition to their
by the booming island's urban growth, it is a symbol of Penang's beauty. to conquer moun cain trail and apple pie
initiative is the panacea for the ilis of astagnating tourist profile. The idea that
own traditional song and dance.
So when a commercial plan for its development came to light, it triggered futile attempts to pound every last partide of dust
is doing the rounds in the Mantralaya is that of 'cutting ITDC loose'. Which
Many of the people milling about the grounds, an uproar among residents of the northwestern state. The $167-million scheme translates to selling 51% of government holdings in the Corporation to private
into submission

were not present at the by developer Bukit Pi nang Leisure envisioned a200-room hotel, condominiums, investors. The reasons stated for it are:
With especially desiflned Dunlop retreads.

occasion: Pandit Ravi Shankar began the festivities with an impassioned

recital. The choice of venue was also apt-the Bhawani Natyashala
shopping-entertainment-recreation complex, an adventure theme
j was given last September As always the dust rises up

* Recent investments by the government have been pathetically inadequate.

The Corporation's budget for 1991-92 is Rs. 16 crores.
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.
minister Lim Chong Eu, who set aside 364 hectares
Leisure is a subsidiary of Berjaya Corp., a MalaYSian company
and seeps into delicate labyrinths of ego and

grim determination

* The Corooration has not been able to put to use most of the funds it has
estimate of Rs. 15.5 crores for 1990-91, it was
with interests in manufacturing, lotteries, insurance and property. Vincent Tan tolerable discomforr

Over the years, the Natyashala fell on bad days. It came to be used, without an abysmal Rs. 5 crore.
Chee Yioun, Berjaya's media-shy chief, is said to have good political connections. while rocks teasingly slide and shuffle

any regard for its antiquity or uniqueness of design, in turn as a cinema hall they sit on some of the finest properties in the countrv.ITDC hotels
and a badminton court.
So do Bukit Pinilng Leisure's other owners. Yayasan Bumiputera Pulau Pinang, from beneath the feet of /"'DrbintrT
* don't compare well with the competition.
It took aformer district collector's effort to have the cinema closed and the court
with a 20% stake, is headed by members of the national ruling coalition's New
United Malays National Organisation. Tan Kok Ping, who owns 29%, is
and enjoy a flood lauflh

at the expense of twisted knee and bruised backside.

* The Corporation has been gradually moving into the three-star and 'Yatri
shifted, and it now devolves upon the convenor of the Indian National Trust reportedly close to ex-chief minister Lim. He is a vice-chairman of Gerakan, Nivas' category of hoters. Planners believe that this is where ITDC should
the party that leads the state's ruling coalition. Several concerned individuals can be seen
settle down, leaving the five-stars to the private sector.
for Art and Cultural Heritage (lNTACH), Thakur Ranvir Singh, to set about getting
Lim':; approval has prompted a "Save Penang Hill" campaign. 1'1 regard the furiously scrubbing the stream clean with Blue Omo
Meanwhile, Kerala is being projected as the model to be emulated. As apart
the theatre restored to its original state.
hili as almost sacred;' says Ahmad, a member of the Friends of Penang Hill. while others scratch at the sweat and grime
of the privatisation of the tourism sector in Kerala initiated by the Left Front
For Rav! Shankar's recital, it has been given a quick face-lift, and its facade has that has matted thouflhr and responsibility

Adds he: liThe proposed development is abreach of the Town & Country Plann- government, the state-owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC)
been freshly painted. The action has meanwhile shifted to the police grounds Act:' Under the 1976 federal law, a plan for development of Penang was and watch as rivulets of bleached common sense

to accommodate more people (the theatre cannot seat too manv) and admit proposes to di lute its equity by selling to the publ ic 40% of its shares. Already
completed in 1989. The Penang Island Structure Plan declared the hill an area trickle il1lO [he spinach patch of some innocent
the KTDC and the Taj group have jointly set up a new company, the Taj-Kerala
them to the secluded preserves of classical music and dance. The of special character: "Its natural vegetation, topography and character as a hill tourism

is followed by recitals by Aminuddin Dagar and Naina Devi, and aperformance Hotels and Resorts Ltd which plans to start 13 projects with an investment of
resort must be maintained and mnsf'rvPci" (l wonder if that woman
100 crores. Recent reports in the Economic Times suggest that the KTDC is also
by consultations before
paradinf/ around in her bikini top
envisaging a tie-up with,a leading international hotel chain for consultancy,
Raghuraj Singh Hada, hunched over the microphone placed unconventional Iv project has bypassed th'is'crucial step;' he ·argues. "Members of the public, resi­
realises how absurd she looks
marketing and training.
on the floor of the stage, prepares to introduce the items on the agenda. dents, schoolchildren who make trips up the hill- none of us were consulted:' (Compiled from various sources).
Neither, reportedly, was Lim's cabinet. liThe chief minister was pushing a agains[ the backflround of towerinf/,

a flourish, he presents a succession of performers drawn from the neighbouring snow-capped mountain peaks?)

towns of Kota and Boondi which, with Jhalawar, make up the distinctive Hadoti
region in this corner of south-east Rajasthan.
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 Tread flently screams the universal vojce of reason
Roman Holiday
T
sufficient consultation:' he eternal city has decided to go ahead with a string of urban
The night air is redolent with the sound of dhol and man/eera as phad singers "Pen, -"weer, rupee," is the children's three chord
Ecologist Leong Yueh Kwong of the Malayan Nature Society says development projects that will give it a new business and administration centre, a
come on with their ditties, followed by colourful tribal dancers and performers should be based on the Penang Island Structure Plan and be drawn up by the delivered with supplicating eyes
and like an overplayed pop sonf/lonfl af/o sliDDed from the genuine subway, athird university, and even amodern telephone
who manage incredible feats of balance and dexterity involving fire and swords. municipal council. "If the developer fits in with that local plan, they could go
top 40 nobody is liSlenin'f}. The scheme, cost at 77 trillion lire is also expected to have the side-effect
A folk singer from Boondi puts his signature to the show when he gets everyone ahead;' he remarks. "But acommercial developer shouldn't be the one to draw
of saving Rome's priceless historic monuments from slow death by pollution.
in the audience, even those who don't understand the language, to join him the master plan. Their slant will always be towards commercial Pizza, apple col<e is the modem classic with the
timeless Under a recent law the Federal Government is to help underwrite the cost of
in a well-remembered tune, clapping along and singing, infected by his stage Friends worrv that the hill's cool temperature will rise with deforestation,
happened at other Malaysian hill resorts. Five maior water- transforming the eternal city into a modern Capital.
presence. (1 wonde[ if the local DJ with the studded nose [inf/s

catchment areas will also be affected the group. Centrepiece of the ambitious scheme is the creation of what Antonio Gerace,
A ready interpreter sits in the front row, next to Vasundhara and the three malnutrieioned children
the official in charge of urban development at city hall, calls lithe world's biggest
Kam U-Tee, retired general manager the Penang Water Authority, said in understands the

this area and co-organiser of the event, who is following proceedings with a letter to Berjaya that the catchments yield about 22 millions gallons of water business district".
evident enjoyment. "The response is unprecedented;' she says, "I did not expect but then who listens to them anyway:)
For years, one of the most pressing problems confronting this city has been
a day. It would cost at least $2AOO dai Iy to pump that volume from the mainland.
so many people.:' in addition to a $37-million outlay for headworks to raise the water level at Tread gently screams the universal voice of reason the presence of Government ministries, which employ 61,000 people, in historic
"I am trying to promote a new concept in tourism-not the Jaipur-Udaipur kind source, he said. as the needJe balances precariously over the newest sound quarters where exhaust fumes in narrow streets are destroying priceless
where you are packaged for two or three days;' she says, going on to elaborate, Bukit Pinang Leisure has encounted another obstacle. In September the and the turntable beqins to spin. monuments.
"Here, people can laze and loll about the district at their own pace. This is an federal Environment Department rejected the developer's environmental impact INDIAN EXPRESS, 15 May, 1991
HIMAl, March/April 1991
experiment to see how the concept would work-to bring tourism out of its assessment. Director-General of Environment Abu Bakar Jaafar said the project
would affect water supply and cause river siltation and soi I erosion. The
five-star cloister:'
Biased Action ~~
developer was advised to go back to the drawing board.
For outsiders, too, the folk evening was a delight. Away from the false confines Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon, who took over from Lim in October, and the ON lIj. eRiGHT.....
of theapna utsavs, this was folk art in its own space and place, and it felt right. state cabinet met the Friends in January. He found the group's views "generally Whi Ie the Goa government issued noticed to 12 ~ MOOIJMewTAL. em::;R
()( ~A1l0~At.. IMRJTeNle.
Despite the rough edges and the lack of soohistication, the
not the
as authentic.
an annual affair-an
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:'
norms, action was taken only against Leela
Dalmia Resorts, Taj Holiday, Colonia Santa Maria and Charlston Hotel. Leela
Venture's unauthorised construction were removed or demolished while Averina
International removed its fencing within the 200 metre line. Notices were also
. -- r-------~:,j
area to more people. conceptual plan that will issued by the Goa Southern Planning Development Agency and the central
What has begun as an 'experiment' in Jhalawar is cautiously being explored
a
involve much smaller area:' Even if state authorities decide to approve it, he environmental ministry to Dalmia Resorts. While Taj Holiday removed some ~~.:

added, "we may add new and even more stringent conditions to hold a public of its illegal constructions, others Iike the Thai Restaurant are still standing and
in other parts of the state as "heritage tourism'~ The concept of 'palace hotels' hearing on its proposal. "The developers;' concludes Koh, I!sti II have to cross the environment ministry's directives have been taken up in the NtW Deihi
is only one facet of this; INTACH has been pushing the idea of preserving quite a number of hurdles:'Provided a compromise can be reached, peace high court. Charlston Hotel's illegal construction has been partly demolished
medieval towns, stemming the decay of years and curbing the rise of new-fangled should once again prevail on Penang Hill. by the government.
Contd. on page 18 ASIAWEEK,. April 12 1991 The Independent, 20 Aug. 91

Ponnappa in TIMES OF INDIA

 14 7
training course. In 1989, the twenty-fifth seminar was held with twenty
Investing in Mal-Development participants from nineteen countries: South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Happy Tourist, Unhappy Traveller
This is probably why many WTs openly shun their fellow travellers as
saunter through the .streets of Thamel. They throw hostile glances at other
The Crossing ofJapanese aDA and Resort Development Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya, by Robert Shepherd foreigners whose only fault is to walk the same street.
Mauritius, Tanzania, Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Papua New Guinea Tony Wheeler's Lonely Planet guide books are one of the main reasons why

P
by Noda Misato and Greece. Those invited are either gCNernment tourism administrators or from umpernickel Bakery in Thamel, down town Kathmandu, is a favourite the WTs end up in the same places. The difference between this guidebook
large commercial enterprises. The International Tourism Promotion Association spot for foreigners. Even during off-season! the bakery's garden tables and others is that it targets a different audience and never describes them.as
In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of Transport launched its 4-year "Ten Million
administers the two month seminar, designed to-introduce the relevant Japanese fill quickly each morning. The service is good; the bread, fresh; the tourists. Tony Wheeler calls them travellers who "want to see the country at
Project" promoting overseas travel with the ambitious goals of building mutual
administrative bodies, their policies, and the situation in the Japanese tourism croissants, delicious and the coffee, passable. The staff members are unobtrusive ground level, to breathe it, experience it and live it': He writes that tourists stay
understanding between the Japanese and other peoples, accelerating
industry. During the same year, Japan dispatched 15 tourism experts to and polite and with thei r brown faces a rarity in the restaurant, where the rest in Hiltons, travellers do not. Instead, travellers should gO tramDing through the
internationalism among Japanese people, improving the foreign trade
developing countries: three each to India, Fiji, and Mexico, two to China, one of the people are foreign travellers. back alleys of the Third World and absorb exoticism
imbalance, and bringing economic prosperity to foreign countries. The project's
target, ten million tourists by 1991, from which the name derived will to oversee both Indonesia and Malaysia, and another two to the UN Economic They are travellers and not tourists. A young English woman, on her way home has built a multi-national publishing business
be reached ayear before the target date. This flood of tourist money has and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. from a year abroad in Australia, tried to explain the difference to me. She said of this planet.
that 'travellers' live 'like the people'; they travel the way 'the people travel'; and What happens, of course, is that no world traveller is alone when he "does"
hopes, especially in Asia's chronically poor countries, that the resort Tourism as Maldevelopment
they are 'in touch' with, and have 'a feel' fo~ 'the people: The tourists, on the Bali or Rangoon or Kathmandu. After all, they carry the same book. They check
would boost their suffering economies. A lot is expected of Japan, which also In concluding this glance at institutiondl aid to tourism, we find it hard to other hand, travel in air-conditioned buses, live in five-star hotels and eat at in at the same hotels. They eat in the same restaurants. They discover the same
brings an en0rmous amount of foreign aid ostensibly designed for economic be optimistic about the influence of resort development on 'Third World' overpriced restaurants. And they never drink the water. There are no tourists hideaways off the well-trodden paths. The traveller longs to discover the
development. Given all this, it should not be surprising that tourism is now peoples through Japanese governmental aid. This is especially worrisome in
being included as a part of ODA (Official Development Assistance). at Pumpernickel: only travellers. particular place to which no tourist or traveller has been. Yet, he keeps running
light of the present ~ituations of Japan's ODA and domestic resort development.
Touring extensively around the world, the long-term world travellers (WT), into many others like himself.
In 1989, the Ministry of Transport publicized its Holiday Village Plans for "total Th us resort development causes the same problems as foreign aid-{]esignated
the majority of whom are North American, Western European, Japanese and Western isation had consu med Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.
support in the development of international resorts:' This project was to aim development in general. Often the kind of projects are more appropriate for
Australian, share a common ideology. They view the Third World as their But it has yet to hurdle the Himalayas. In Nepal samosas and mo-mos are in
at "giving aid to support the systematic development of international resorts the donors than the receivers, as can be seen in examples such as the iaboratory and look upon themselves as romantic, even intrepid, adventurers. fashion: not Big Macs. Yes, Michael Jackson is popular among young people,
through the International Cooperation Association, giving yen loans through construction of the National Historic Park in Indonesia which evicted the They sneer at tourists and laugh at those who have remained back home in
the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) for tourist-related residents from the surrounding area even before any promises of sufficient but Kumar Basnet and Nara~'an Gopal still outsell him in the tape shoos. The
Peoria. They share a common language, English, and even a common dress of the country's first escalator is frontpage news.
infrastructure, and taking advantage of non-governmental fUnds and skills for compensation. Furthermore, the hosting of large scale tourism means a
code in Nepal: cheap cotton drawstring pants, rubber sandals, and printed t­ Into this other-world enters the world travellers. They speak tngllsn, are
the so-called superstructure such as hotels, recreation facilities, and the like:' outsiders, all with different cultural backgrounds, cascading in
shirts. The t-shirts are the public resumes: in one giance one can discern who obsessed with money, and dress in odd peasant costumes. Off they go to the
This grand design clearly shows what attitude the Japanese government will people's daily lives. The accompanying socio-cultural problems can no has come up from Kenya, Bali, Bangkok or Goa. mountains in search of experience. The handful of Nepalis they come into
take towards resort development in 'Third World' countries, and how it is going longer be ignored. How is Japan responding to these problems? Promotional World travellers adorn themselves with the handicrafts of this week's locale.
to use the existing aid system for tourism in a way similar to its approach in schemes alone only further aggravate the problem, notwithstanding the high contact with are guides and lodgeowners - whose burden it is to "represent"
In Kathmandu, turquoise and silver rings, bracelets, earrings, sheep-skin the society and culture.
other sectors. sounding language of Japanese government agencies.
shoulder bags, wool caps and vests. It is said the jewelry is actually mass ­ The East is not the West. Religious! linguistic and philosophical differences
Those who promote tourism depend upon a pristine and scenic natural
In Aid of Tourism environment and diverse cultures, both of which resort development is
produced in Lhasa. The caps are Afghani, and the vests are multi-coloured separate the two. Yet! world travellers al'proach the East, including countries
combinations with tassels hanging from the edges. Who wears this stuff? Not like Nepal, as if they were on a jaunt into the Parisian countryside. They do
1. Yen loans threatening to destroy. the Nepalis. In Kathmandu, they are the ones trying to dress like us! not realise that Hnding a bathroom, exchanging money, buying hasish and
According to a report from the OECF, which administers ODA tied loans, AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 22.(4), 1991 In their attempts to 'become native' the world travellers often corrupt dinner does not constitute "inter-cultural communication'
the total amount of yen loans for the period from 1966 to 1988 was 7.83 trillion indigenous systems. Frozen out of the cultures they travel _
spread across 137 projects. Less than 1 percent of that total, roughly 30 At the bakery, several Germans, aSwede and an American couple are engaged
yen, made up 6 projects tategorized as tourism. Notice, however that Indonesia's Hotel Conglomerates in a heated discussion about exchange rates, whicli is a favourite topic among
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
infrastructure projects such as road and airport construction which are needed Indonesian conglomerates will dominate the tourism sector by the end of WTs, in addition to the black market. They can quote the going rates for the boredom. They trade tales and anecdotes over omelets and pizzas and they
to promote tourism are not included in the tourism category. Such aid next yea~ says a noted observer of the economy_ dollar in Delhi, Kathmandu, Borneo or Burma. Thev also know where to sell huddle together to watch American videos. Make-believe hippie and aspiring
clearly show a transition from constructing superstructure facilities, sucn as "Conglomerates such as the Bimantara, Rajawali, Salim and Summa groups whiskey and cigarettes, blue jeans and cameras. Buddhist, both wili be watching a scratched copy of Rambo.
hotels, to providing the surrounding infrastructure related to tourism, and more will be among the country's top 10 hoteliers next year along with pioneers in An Australian advised me: "See, you buy your Indian rupees in Kathmandu, Truly, the "traveller" is no different from the "tourists". He carries the same
recently to providing comprehensive and basic facilities for expanding tourism. the sector," Christianto Wibisono of the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDB!) get an air ticket to the border, buy your Johnny Walkers and Marlboros at duty­ shackles: an ignorance of the language, the culture, and the people and their
A clear example of this type of loan is the provisional Project for Basic Facilities said. free and sell them for twice over what you paid, once you land:' He continued, idiosyncrasies. However, the tourists, by recognising and accepting the
for Resorts in Thailand. It is a regional development program to encourage PDBI, in a report, said inadequate air transportation connecting Indonesia "if you are going on to Burma, hold on to your stuff, The country is quite screwed differences between themselves and others admit that they are outsiders or
employment and the acquisition of foreign currency primarily through to other countries and the less'than significant role of the local people might up and the people will buy anything you've got, even the shirt off your back'~ the premise that travel is a privilege and not
promoting tourism. The project will provide basic infrastructure such as roads, create problems for the development of the sector and cause it to lag behind I wondered where he was headed. "0h, I'm off to an ashram near Bangalore the possibi lity of such an acknowledgment.
communications, waterworks, etc., for resorts in eight regions and their that of other countries. for a month of meditation:' Ashrams, shrines and mosques are the traditional cheaply and dreSSing like a native can transform
neighboring areas in Thailand. The loan will be used to purchase equipment The PDBI report said the current air seat capacity for international airlines destinations tor Wls. Those who iook for spirituai wisdom are aii young, white, them into cultural insiders. V. S. Naipaul writes of them as those "who wish
and pay expenses for consulting work and other services. serving routes to Indonesia was still smaller than which educated, affluent, radical, chic. They search for "meaning': they overflow with themselves on societies more fragile than their own...who in the end do no
2. Development research discourage visitors from travelling into the country. good intention. more than celebrate thei r own security"
liThe government's protection of Garuda Indonesia, the national flag carrie~ One day, in Kathmandu's main bazaar area, I noticed abackpacker haggling ~i!MAl, Sept/Oct 1990
JICA (the Japan International Cooperative Agency), a government agency
should not affect the flow of visitors into the country. The permission granted with an Indian selling oranges from a basket strapped to his bicycle. "How
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
to private airlines serving domestic routes to operate jet aircraft is expected
to motivate Garuda to strengthen its position as an international airline more
much?" the backpacker asked. "One orange, three rupees'; said the Indian. "One
rupee': the westerner insisted, Ithere/~ He dropped the rupee into the basket Serve them RIghi
able to compete:' th~ report said. • and walked away pleased at his bargaining skills. After all, he had successfully ravellers from the time of Marco Polo and before have always been laden
agriculture and manufacturing as an important sector for community
development. It is likely that any particular project based upon JICA's 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
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
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 WT's talk about cross-cultural sensitivity ana "experience" is a
T , 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
tourist resort developers to provide shares for them. In this way, they will learn sense of cultural imperialism that would have done ihe Victorians to be peopied with non-travelling circuses of beggars and performers assembled
of this phenomenon i~ action. This project will identify potential areas for
about business practices and earn capital gain. This would be better than giving Notwithstanding their beatific expression, world traveiiers are CUl-Ulival precisely with the idea of causing wonderment among the travelling public.
development in the eastern region' of the Malay Peninsula, and conduct
asmall portion of shares to them as an act of charity 20 years after the projects practitioners of the mundane living. In Nepal, as elsewhere.. they compete at Travellers on the German railways may soon see something that convinces them
feasibility studies for total community development programs using tourism
go into full operation;' it said. agame with the odds stacked heavily in theirfavour. They use lheir economic that the entire German people are a travelling circus. Fori as the uninitiated
as its main focus.
The PDBI report also said the government should take the local people's to secure shamelessly that which the society can olfer and than which stranger sits in the dining-car of a German train and sees the woifing of meat
-",, i.rcli'le~~ .mu uvet!)eas experb partiCipation senousiy to prevent the eruptron ot social unrest because large !i cannot and shOUld not also ofter. alia potatoes foiiowed by the reassuring gulping down of coffee, the odds are
A "Seminar for the Promotion of Tourism" is organized each year by )lCA, tourist resorts in the country had been unfairly edging out small-scale and The-world traveller expects to find a unique culture in the 'exotic' East, onlY he won't be prepared for what comes next. If he is: !uckv enough to see what
bringing about 20 participants from allover the world to Japan for a group medium-size businesses. to wait in iine behind the same people whom they seemingly wanted to avoid. c:,;,r.tli. on pale 18
 8 13

Please don't come to Goa Colombo Closes Casinos

KAIGA: Will Tourists Really 'Boycott' Goa?
by Mario Cabral e Sa By Ashwani Talwar The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power
struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry. The case, that she stations".

H ave 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
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
uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga. The Kaiga Nuclear
Complex, in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms. from Goa's border.
Moreover, in Sweden, concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear
power by 201o..In Spain, public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that
five reactors under construction have been cancelled. In Italy too, following
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 don't come
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 city's five
star hotels also opening them. Baccarat, Black Jack and Roulette had helped
W ill 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
a public referendum the country's four remaining reactors have been closed
down.
Indeed, as a consequence of public pressure and opinion, the political trend
amongst those nations who provide the majority of the 'international tourist
set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on destination 'paradises; which are not saddled with such 'ogres' next door?
to Goa! Or, you might find yourself agreeing, in seif-commiseration, with the pool' which visits Goa, is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active
the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties. Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss
private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network. Between her first recreational, vocal and economic boycott of those areas/nations who are actively
But casinos remained a matter of controversy. The government was under any such notions by suggesting that "public opinion in North America and
visit when she was young and a dreamer, and her latest visit as a world-wise promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations
pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness'; the
and established hack, Goa had "Iost her innocence': And Goans no longer acted - at a feverish pace (ie. India, and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region).
without aforethought malice. was particu larly harsh in its criticism. Critics, however have not picked on casi nos following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans, Karnatakans and
As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist: '~s green
One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism, alone. During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned). Public
issues become international, it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie
particularly on small places like Goa. And the first veiled warnings came through restaurants. Their clientele includes school children and office workers who reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions,
greenery and sovereignty. There will be international pressure for agreements
the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening. Then programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive
to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea, to transfer cash and
UNDP team of experts who had come down in the '70s to advise the Goan there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television. contamination, has reached an all time high.
technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up" as
administration on tourism strategies. One of the documents was a Dutch study The cabinet spokesman, Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe, told reporters that the As the 'Economist' has suggested, the North American and European public's
opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the
containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect 'green
envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as
it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution: cultural ban on all gambling establishments into effect. Two government-owned hOWls politics' and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott.
India's, whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core
pollution which is irreversible. _ have been already ordered to close down their casinos. The Colombo police Adults, including those "who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes
Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a systems (eg. the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently
had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places, but or driving fast cars - want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl"
collective fixation. Cabbies cheat remorselessly. Touts and guides craftily exploit unstable. As the Economist's analyst has concluded: "Governments that are
these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation. or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants.
visitors. Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge. About 20 average-sized or reluctant to sign will be pilloried" (03.03.90).
Some things will, however, continue as before. Betting on horses is still okay Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international
12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200; Given this background, 'International' tourist threats to 'boycott Goa' once
and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good 'tourist pool zones' - for instance, that in Austria, Denmark and Norway, public
two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound the Kaiga plant is commissioned, should not be dismissed lightly. Tourists from
amount of money to the state treasury every year. pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a
of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott 'en masse' those
Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident.
per portion excluding taxes and additionals; at five-star hotels, of course, they holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant 'radio-active
to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million In the USA and Europe, furthermore, there are increasing signs that public
are priced at Rs 280 and more. The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martin's hazards'. The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely
as annual levy from major casinos, but little foreign exchange was involved. and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station.
Beach Corner. Even so, the locals can't afford it. It is also not uncommon for
strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino be fully closed down, replaced by other power stations (using different energy In conclusion, it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions
substances like fish bones, for instance. business, the minister said. He listed infiltration of the mafia, prostitution and sources) or converted to conventional power stations. As 'The Economist' has
expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural
Recently, a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs. 5,000 drug trafficking. confirmed: By '~priI9th, 1990, a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n)
analysts, John Elkington, Tom Burke and Julia Hales: "The average tourist (from
each, by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college THE TIMES OF INDIA, 10 June, 1991 place in Midland, Michigan, USA: the commissioning of the world's first power
North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the
drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes. The clients wanted station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel. Mr William McCormick
chemistry of the upper stratosphere, but some forms of pollution, like the
"college girls". Such "clients" are becoming sickeningly common in Goa. And the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation, the plant's main owner, confidently
radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, have
they almost uniformly end up stranded at night, in a dark unlit alley near the JGF Condemns ICasinos' predicts that other conversions will follow. The reason is simple: utilities across
significantly dented the tourism industry's receipts.
town's best known girls' hostel. Serves them right, yes. But considerfor a minute America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants.
'~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes, for example, In
that the cheats are the sons and, on occasion, daughters of perfectly respectable The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has «;mdemned the attempted ''The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by
families with a hard-earned tradition in civility, decency. honesty and hospitality. moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca, with the from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about
supposed clearance of the government of Goa. more than 30 per cent. .. In today's world, such developments can spell
Once, revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely everywhere. Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or
JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr. Sunder Advani economic ruin for countries (like India's-my emphasis) that have hitched their
stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders. They would sing a song or two, moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the
that the clearance for the casino will be given 'soon' by the government. fortunes to the international tourism industry" to the point where "such revenues
wish them a happy New Year and then proffer, with a!ouch of elegance, their now gas-fired station at Mid land. He hopes that CMS Energy's pioneering effort
The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence, only because are taken seriously (by the government), and the comings and goings of overseas
collection boxes. The coHections were scrupulously used for community at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for
purposes: repairing a crumbling roadside oratory, a tea party for orphans and of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that visitors are watched intently':
conversions (in the USA, Europe and Japan). Mr McCormick even has a snappy
.destitutes, or a parish youth,hop. Now, roads are barricaded, threats issued, be. JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos Goa's, Karnataka's and Kerala's tourist trade, indeed, perhaps stand to be
marketing slogan. 'We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade; destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel, a region in Byelorussia,
abuses hurled and money extorted. And the money is used to buy booze, or 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 he declares:' USSR. As the Sunday Independent, a widely read and respected British
worse, drugs.
in the State. JGF also warned that it will not be too long before 'Sex In Britain, too, as the Social and Community Planning Research Group newspaper, recently informed its readers of the fate of this region: "Gomel (is)
Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous, so suddenly? The reasons
Tourism' will be justified as a revenue earner, as in the case ofThailand. recently ascertained through an extensive 'British Social Attitudes Survey' "the a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place
are many. Unemployment is the most common denominator, ennui the most
The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) at this time of year (April 1990), when the pear trees are in blossom and the
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 envi ron mental violations. in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern, chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks.
nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa. The grievance JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of rather than a reversal of it': In the report, it was also found that "the proportion "Today, (however), Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth. Gomel was
is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism. the hotel by tourists and investors, and calls upon people not to invest of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power once a (major) tourist centre. Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come,
Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their or patronise the Ramada Hotel. generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35% in 1983 to 21%. people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk.
organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force. What they JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest 'gimmick' However, almost half (49%) of those questioned (in the most recent report) Local's, discovering I was visiting in the town, brought me flowers and
discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more, and that, as a result, of the Ramada Group to present a 'green and environment conscious selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear chocolates. 'Come again, please come again: they said.
the 80 per cent are a sullen, unhappy lot. image: The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American reactors" (ie. As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned; the statement wh ich 'Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Val atava, a contaminated area, Gomel itself
"Why you ,worry, man. It's peanuts for toem (tourists), man;' a tour operator Express and Nature Conservancy, Washington to ensure this image, comes 'closest' to reflecting their own feelings is that is 'creates very serious is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation. 'only five curies per square kilo­
told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and risks for the future'). metre. We're supposed to be grateful for that', says Dr. Zdota, sneering at the
tourists. paying for their stay with an American Express card, would be Indeed, as the report's findings were to conclude: "Clearly there has been 'acceptable norms' of pollution set by the scientists': Yet, it is precisely this 'low,
Call it loss of innocence, if you will. But a more apt conclusion might be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation.
a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in sate level' of 'radioactive contamination' which has effectively destroyed the
that familiarity has bred contempt. And as Mother Rabbit once said: many a HERALD, Panjim, 19 May, 1991 all age groups (concerning the 'unsafe' nature of nuclear power stations). The tourist trade and the economy of the region. Will Goa, Kerala and Karnataka
crude attempt. crucial point is that overall, seven out of ten men and more than eight out of be next?
THE INDEPENDENT, 3 April 1991
 9
12

Travels in Five Tibets

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
Horrors Under the Carpet Mushroom Menace
by lynne Reid Banks by Boney Thomas
The Myth of Shangri-La, Peter Bishop, University of California Press,
landscapes: noble, heroic journeys, mystical pilgrimages, high adventure, and
ethnological fantasies. Forbidden Lhasa and its God-King, the Dalai Lama, were
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
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
W ell, 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
F irst we had hashi sh and marijuana Then came brCM'n 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.
wished to help India's export trade, there would be nothing more to pay for Found during the monsoons in the pine forests of Kodaikanal, this relatively
of the British over a 200-year period. It is not a study of the land and people, Himalaya was already causing concern and sadness even at this early date.. :' the carpets, which would be delivered to our door. He didn't bother to mention unknown mushroom is fast becoming a much sought after commodity among
but of a collection of imaginal'Tibets: products of the travel literature from 177.1 But perhaps the deepest sense of loss, as well asource of irritation, was caused demurrage and handling charges, which came to nearly d third of the addicts with the active connivance of the underworld.
to 1969. by mass tourism and its effect on the wild places of the world. "Those who price. We could have got them almost as cheaply in a sale of Indian two good rain showers, mushrooms sprout all over in the rich dark
Imaginal places are common to every society. They are created, reformed had suffered the wind and cold of the Tibetan plateau thought themselves, not carpets here in Britain-I saw some in Piccadilly last month. feet of tall pine trees in Kodaikanal. Soon the underworld is busy
and dissolved according to changing social, religious and gea-political incorrectly, an elite. They were explorers, not tourists, struggling with And, of (nurse, if we'd bought them here it would have been easier not to organising its gathering, distribution and sale. Tourist:. from allover - both
consciousness. Kailas for South Asian Hindus, EI Dorado for sixteenth-century contradictory desires to explore the land and to keep it untouched, to preserve think about how they were made. When you buy them from the factory, there's domestic and foreign arrive to experience a "trip" from these mushrooms.
and the Island of Origin for Hawaiians. They are lands invested with in the world one last sacred place:' no question of that. The Indian merchant is at no pains to hide the children
]0 get adequately high, addicts consume about 12 mushrooms. It is
a people's dreams and aspirations: peace, wealth, pleasure, sanctity, Until the twentieth century, the fifth "Tibet", there was an essential unity in from you; in fact he very cheerfully takes you to see them, seven years old and
the travel writers' visions and thus in the British collective fantasy. From 1904 consumed by beating it with eggs to make an omelette. It is mixed with
They are spun into being by storytellers, poets, film-makers and travel writers. upward, huge-eyed, thin as reeds, hands flashing at the looms, You are shown
to 1959, Bishop sees afragmentation of the fantasy into four quite distinct and them, you watch them work, you photograph ri'lem. Then you go and choose shakes. Twelve mushrooms would induce a hallucinatory stupor lasting for four
Some places are contemporary, some ancient in all, reality is subordinated
to seven hours depending on the physical strength of the consumer.
to fantasy. The modern Asian myth of America, fal and rich, diplomas and videos contradictory imaginal places. Different visions were inevitable as information your carpet. So you can't claim you didn't know. There's absolutely no excuse.
about Tibet accumulated, as western travel writing evolved and as the writers Why then did we buy acarpet made with child labour? This is the question A few years ago none at Kodaikanal had ever heard of these mushrooms. It
dropping from the trees, has little relation to the hard work, iron streets and
responded personally to the pain or the two World Wars and the Great I have been addressing ever since I got back to England, where I promptly fel! is believed that a Swedish tourist who spotted them made enquiries with
shopping malls experienced by Americans themselves. Westerners, in
Depression of the 19305. foul of a friend who works for Anti-Slavery International. He didn't reproach peddlers. They were ignorant of its potential until then. Another theory about
their turn, willingly ignore the cultural degradation behind the pai nted masks
One Ti bet was descendant from the long fasci nation with Buddh ism: the land me at all, he simply handed me some pamphlets. One was actually called its discovery is that someone had unwittingly picked up a few narcotic
and palm trees
of the lamas and mystical accomplishment, the land of spiritual perfection in C;rpel Boys of India. Another was Child-slaves. I read them and felt as if I were mushrooms and discovered its "high" after preparing a dish.
For Westerners, Tibet has been one imaginal place among many: the Andes,
a debased world. This vision was exemplified by Alexander David-Neel and, waking from a bad dream-the bad dream of a visit to India. Now-a-days some restaurants at Kodaikanal serve food mixed with
the sources of the Nile, the Arctic, the European Alps. Bishop has chosen his
to Bishop's credit, the scholar Giuseppe Tucci. In contrast, there was the This has been designated (by the India Tourist Board) "Visit India Year': mushrooms on the sly to discerning customers.
topic well. The centuries from the entrance of the first modern British traveller
"realistic" Tibet of Spencer Chapman and others - pictures of mundane advice to anyone who is looking for a happy, carefree holidav from which At first, the sale of these mushrooms depended wholly on climatic conditions.
in 1774 to the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959 "coincided almost exactly with
everyday life, uninquisitive and anti-religious. will return unchanged is, don't. Don't go there. As the procurement of the mush rooms began and ended with the monsoons,
the rise and fall of European, particularly, British, aspirations:' Bishop's
The other two Tibets of the twentieth century were, in Bishop's consideration, Don't listen to all the friends who will tell you how wonderful it is. It isn't the sale was seasonal. But with more and more locals and 'tourists taking to
examination of primarily British travel writing is intended to be a window "into
the final, dissolving forms of the cultural fantasy, the conclusion of the growing, wonderful. It's a nightmare. The only way to enjoy it is the way them, efforts were made to preserve them in order to extend the scope of sales.
the changing aspirations, the soul, of modern
changing vision which he had traced over 200 years. In these, Tibet the resolutely closing your eyes to everything except its ambivalent attractions. Soon, sun-dried mushrooms made their appearance in the drug market. But
There has been and still is no single "Tibet" in the Western imagination. There The worker-children are happy, look they are smiling. They are full of mischief.
have been a succession - evolving, declining, contradicting each other. Bishop geographical reality was disassociated with Tibet the imaginal place. In 1949, this method of preservation was abandoned as dried mushrooms retained only
Oh yes, see that little imp? He iikes to pick my pockets, ma-dam! And that's his half their narcotic effect, and hence sold at half the price. After much trial and
chooses to delineate five, with reasonable historical justification, and is careful the American tourism writer Lowell Thomas and his son visited Lhasa. Lowell
daddy there, working with him, they work as a family. School? Of course, that's
to note that within each a myriad of smaller "Tibets" are subsumed. Junior depOsited upon the world a model of the Tibetan tourism fantasy ­ erro~ honey was found to be a better medium of preservation. it did not reduce
the law, they spend half-days in school, and of course, sir, if we didn't
In the first, from 1773 to 1792, Tibet developed in the British imagination cultural resonance, historical depth and sensitivity to landscape had disappeared the narcotic effect at all. This helped increase its sale and distribution to far
this skill thev would have nothing, no future. As it is they earn well,
from an undefined geographica I location to a "place': the rudiments of a literary beneath cliches and expressions of naive amazement. The other Tibet, the off regions like Goa and Kovalam.
for a carpet that takes them three months to make. £ no!
landscape aesthetic formed, and from disillusionment with Christianity and was fixed in the public imagination by James Hilton's immensely popular these mushrooms are peddled on a large scale, there has been no
That seems too little? But for them it is a good living.
Western spiritual ity there began a fascination with the Tibetan style of Buddhism, Lost Horizon, published in 1933, during'the Depression. Lost Horizon reports ot police having booked anyone for possessing them. These mushrooms
And by buying, you heip India. You help us gain self-sufficiency and
at once highly literate and rational, patently idolatrous and mystical. Following dramatised the disilfusionment of the West, its spiritual emptiness and fears are collected by plantation workers and then transferred to professional drug
prosperity. Dangerous? Well, yes, the tuft-cutters
the Gurkha invasions ofTibet the country was closed to travellers. Bishop shows of social disorder. The perfect land of Shangri-La reflected acute Western be careful, Occasionally, they cut their hands, But it is than starving in peddlers who are protected by the underworld. There are virtually no obstacles
how the recurrent inaccessibility ofTibet contributed to its creation as asacred longings: peace, righteousness, psychic fulfillment. The collective fantasy of the streets. Now corne outside, madam, sir, and se~ how the carpets are washed in carti ng away the mushrooms from the pine forests. Most preventive officers
place, and "sealed Western fantasies into an almost closed vessell!. Tibet had become abstract, the land had disappeared, with a special, secret chemical. The colours will never fade. are Cl treasure are not trained to distinguish the magic mushrooms the hctrmless edible
the next two "Tibets': from 1792 to 1875, few travellers managed to Even before the exit of the Dalai Lama and the dismantling of traditional you will keep forever, to remind you of India. Only when corne home,
cross the borders. Alrnpst none reached Lhasa. The British Empire expanded society, Tibet itself had ceased to be the locus of the Tibet rnyth. Realism had when you awake from your Third World trance in which your values became Soon, the monsoon season will arrive, bringing droves tourists {o
and with it expanded its geo-political imagination. Britain looked outward. turned on the house lights and bared the mysteries; the tourism writers had distorted, and think about it, do you realise how true that IS. l<odaikanai in search of haliuClnatory trips with "magic" mushrooms.
"Nineteenth-century rationalism provided idealised images of coherence, reduced the noble and remarkable to the banal, and the vision had When I read the oamohlets and I~a,rned how,v,fl" wf>\e deceived bY,ti:Jt avaiiable in a natUial state, ther is a possibility
unification and identity (of foreign civilisations) which belied intense internal removed Shangri-La from earth altogether: Tibet had become, In Bishop's words; these children rea:ry ;;o\'<' [hey die aebl­ into nnJgs through them.
social fragmentation and conflict:' /Ian empty vessel". bonded i:md exploited, and wretchetl dfe t~leir conditions and INDiAN aPRESS, 15 June, 1991
With India and the rest of the Empirer the Himalaya was systemically surveyed. The Myth ofShangri-La is a book for academics. It is extraordinarily rich in prospects, ! wondered despaiiingly would
Brian Hodgson made his immense study of the geology, customs, languages, analyses, but is somewhat cor'lfused by a hazy methodology based in archetypal be able to spread them on my floor and heardly
and zoology of the Himalaya. Joseph Hooker and other naturalists psychology. Bishop examines travel texts with tools from a variety of disciplines. had never bought them. I hoped they might be 10SI ;n iransit.
Each examin.ation is valid and revealing, but all are jumbled together; analytical
on the closed borders ofTibet, recording the mountain landscaoe with
scientific precision. perspectives change from paragraph to paragraph with no apparent order. This
But they've 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,
MORE TOUR\5l5 V'SIT'STA"tE
is unfortunate, for the book is !ikelydestined for graduate library stacks, rather :n the fields in their gorgeous, colourful clothes. Like the cun! HALE51D
The genre of travel writing was forming, in some confusion. Mid-century
Rationalism lay in a rumpled bed with the transcendent visions of emergent than the audience upon which it could have made a profound impact: travel of nuts and seeds and fruits on baskets and barrows. ~:ke :11-:: erribroidcrv Accordi~~ to th~ state10ur.ism Dept.
European Romanticism. The genre found cohesion in the publication of the writers themselves. silverware, the silks, the jewellery, the rav;ch;nn mope f.?rel~o t(lOPlsts ha\Je "ISlted this
fourth volume of John Ruskin's Modern Painters in 1854, at the peak of British The tools of French de-constructionism are skillfully used to place the texts you outside the tourist sites. Like the Taj. state inan '1ast ~e8r. Of the siKteen
mountain enthusiasm, when the Alps were the focus of physical challenge and within appropriate geo-political, social and psychological contexts, Humanistic hidden price-tag. fcrei9,oers who 11ave visited the state
Thf' VAT was nothing. The real bill has not been (he re3i bill is th~l
the Himalaya the focus of mountain fantasy. Ruskin's landscape aesthetic geography, such as Bachelard's and Lowenthal's work on the perception of place
and landscape, illuminates the evolution of the landscape aesthetic in travel ! compare myself to a man who goes to Bangkok and has sex vvith a child
so far -this ~ear. one was from PaKi'5tan.
combined careful observation and precise description with a subdued,
unromantic evocation of the inner experience of the landscape. With Ruskin, Bishop charts the development of the Western fascination, and later prostitute and says, "If didn't pay her she would starve. If! did~it use her someone f
two were from Sri Lanka and foor from
. All fOur from Nepal however were
.-:;. \
says Bishop, the modern literary relationship of man and the wilderness obsession, with Tibetan Buddhism and Eastern spirituality with great skill. His else would. That's the way things work here:' Does that man, who is not much
During the closing years of the nineteenth century, the fourth "Tibet'; several-page definition of the art of travel writing should be required worse, now, than I am, wake up when he comes horne.o his norma! life and minor CHrIS W'It\100t DdSSDorts .ihe remaillioQ
,I· . r ' '....... ....... .• ,. • .

nine lOOIe Amne5t~lntep!\31i0n3\1 cf1iGid\S ~ .u..-"

I : ~. _ " '" t ~ ,,;; 1 ~. . ~

I
r

for every travei writer. One wishes each of these studies were a separate liI~ !IVlllodl, ~~e:'lern VclIUe" clIIU trllllK Ueal \jUU, W~i,,!l ',Vd':> I li1I!IKHI~ on
once again entered, trom every direction. "lnU)~5 one British lournallst
monograph. I look at my carpet every day and that is what I ask. ';,. lije iJJe7t
exclaimed, Tibet may be said to be at present in a state of siege:"Russian, French
and British explorers vied with each other to cross the cold plateau and enter The book stops abruptly with a cursory conclusive chapter! as if Bishop GUARDIAN WEEKLY,S May 1991
[enid on page 19 POl!'lna~~""nH[S Of §NIDIA
 10 11

Tourism in Goa : Questions Persist

INDIA ~ News
in that direction.

Paul S Gonsalves
& Views
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"

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 5 years, and the Gantzer articles argue that the resistance
DECCAN HERALD, 23 June, 1991

is ill-founded, even politically motivated. Hotel Demolished

So far, I have come across 6 such articles: 3 in aGoan daily (Navhind Times), concessions and investment subsidies to all areas of high tourism interest will
New Low
T
he Goa Government displayed its might at Cobrawaddo, Calangute
one in the Economic Times (21/4/91) and 2 in the Indian Express (23/3 and 23/6). destroy every hill resort. Developers will rush in, and violate every rule, ravage yesterday morning when a 250-strong demolition squad began razing
the ecology and leave despoiled mountains in their wake. And indeed, such

T
The average newspaper reader in India has heard little of the resistance in he tourism industry is in a major panic as foreign tourist arrivals have to the ground the two-storeyed Chalston Hotel on the basis that it is an
Goa. Indeed, the romantic view of Goa holds good for most Indians and so, 'developers' are wreaking havoc even today: (Indian Express; 31/8/1988). taken an unprecedented plunge during the much trumpeted Visit India illegal construction falling within 200 metres of the High Tide Line.
if on reading the Gantzer pieces, one is told that a bunch of local 'agitators' Needless to add, to date there have been no published studies of the carrying Year. During the last six months, it is estimated that the foreign tourist The curiosity of the hundreds of people who rushed to the area turned to
have been up to no good, why, that must be so. Can we visit Goa during the cClpacity of Indian tourism destinations, leave alone environmental impact arrivals have dropped by a staggering 40 per cent, reducing the foreign currenlY remorse, however, when they observed the questionable manner in which the
next vacation? assessments. If national tourism policy is implemented without defining external brought in by close to Rs 1,000 crore. action was carried out, not giving the owner sufficient time to salvage their
It is not so much what the Gantzers state that is of concern, rather than what boundaries (that such studies can help establish), it is inevitable that This wili prove a body blow to the balance of payments situation and further property worth over Rs 50 lakh.
they do not. I will simply place a few facts on record and let the readers decide environmental destruction will follow as predicted by the Gantzers in 1988. aggravate the foreign exchange crisis which has been playing havoc with the Eye-witnesses said that the task force dealt with the furniture and furnishings
whether there is substance in the claims of the resistance. Although the recent articles castigate the 'agitators' for not havi ng stati stical country's economy. And, even more alarmingly, the tourist situation is not likely in .the most barbaric fashion throwing them out of the windows.
evidence for their claims, there are at least two reports which lay a strong to improve in the immediate future. Items like air-conditioners were also pushed out of the window. The most
Firstly, the people of Goa are not alone in opposing tourism. The debate on
evidential basis (apart from the many documents published by those in the Most of the hoteliers conceded that that occupancy of their hotels by foreign noticeable items were the beds, which lay heaped in the debris, some split apart,
Third World Tourism is more than 30 years old internationally. A recent
resistance). Harm Zebregs, in his draft report of tourism and Goan economy tourists has plunged. Reinforcing the point further, Mr Indra Arya of Sita World others completely disintegrated. According to the owner the demolition started
bibliography by Leo Theuns (1991) lists 2166 entries until 7984. And the debate
(based on 3 months of field research in Goa) concludes that the earnings and Travels said that dose to 40 per cent of the international tourists' incoming without adequate time being provided for retrieving their belongings. The total
has become sharper in the years thence. So has the resistance. The Gantzers
bookings were cancelled between January and March this year. loss was estimated at nearly Rs 2 crore.
themselves gave an indication of this (increasing resistance) and the reasons employment projections of the industry are questionable. Menezes and Lobo,
Ms Prema Nair, information officer in the mi nistry of tourism said that there Government officials said that the hotel was a 'real gone case' as no conversion
thereof in ~n article in early 1989: 'The tourism industry'S growing concern with in a report of over 100 pages, detail the corruption, irregularities and
has been a rapid decline in tourist arrivals this season, with few seen in tourist of land was done, no PDA permission was sought, there was no access road
uncontrolled tourism development in fragile socio-ecosystems brought forth malpractises in Goan tourism (Miriithu, London, 1991). And since the Ministry offices and fewer making enquiries at ministry counters. and that the structure violated the 200 metre ban from HTL.
platitudinous assurances from tourism planners. But when they did nothing, of Environment (under Mrs Maneka Gandhi) and the Bombay High Court have Accusing fingers should not be pointed at the Gulf war, severa! of them pointed The demolition work b~gan in the morning with a bang with the squad in
irate citizens reacted against such destructive 'development~ .. there is no sign on occasion upheld the view that certain hotels have violated the law, surely out. While Thail<lnd, which is celebrating its tourism year, is doing exceedingly an apparent hurry to destroy the building in a day's time. Such was their
from the Ministry (of Tourism) that the message has been heard, and acted upon, the Gantzers ought to castigate the arms of government as well. for india, it has been an unmitigated disaster. But, the type of tourists who missionary zeal that they denied the owners the sought after three hours time
In 1989, such movements against unplanned tourism are likely to grow. (Indian Moreover, it is hardly essential in all matters of life to seek an evidential basis. arrive in Thailand and the tourist attractions that it offers are different from those to salvage all the furniture. Caught in the wild confusao were the hotel guests
Express, 10/1/89) We are human beings, and we can see and hear and feel and experience. We of India, asserted Mr' C R V Rao, director in the ministry of tourism. including a Madrasi filming company, who were residing there at the time. They
While stating the positive co-relation between tourism and environment, the do not need to read the Wholesale Price Index on a daily basis to realise that Despite another tourist season coming up during September-December 1991, were running helter-skelter as much to'Save their lives as their filming equipment.
Gantzers cite the examples of Sweden and Singapore. India has neither the inflation is upon us. the immediate future of tourism looks bleak. With the violence breaking out When contacted the officials said that they were simply executing gLlVernment
economic resources nor the political-legal mechanisms that both these countries The Gantzers ridicule Bailancho Saad (a women's group) and others fortheir in places like jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Assam, and Punjab, northern india orders given to them only the previous night. The demolition was to be carried
have used to achieve a balance. In fact, while we might admire the peace and 'fear' that tourism will lead to 'sexual exploitation of their women: 'Why do had already been removed from the tourist map of all v;sitors. The violence out last year, they said, but the exercise was put off for several reasons,
prosperity of ou r Th ird World neighbour, Singapore, there are many who wou Id such agitationists have such a low opinion of their women?~ they query. They which broke out on the basis of the Mandai commission report and the Ayodhya Asked for his reactions, secretary town planning RSSethi stated that the hotel
decry the draconian laws which have made it so. quote a 'charming Thai lady' who cannot understand why Indians do not accept controversy, further undermined the rourism potential that these places offered. did not deserve the slightest mercy. Much as he sympathized with them, he
Perhaps tourism can be positively integrated with environmental concerns, 'extra-marital' affairs as awoman's right, and suggest that what is okay in Thai land The focus during the past couple of years had been to include south India wondered why they went ahead with the construction after their conversior­
even in Goa. The point that the anti-tourism activists are at pains to make is ought to be okay in India. into the foreign tourists itinerary. Now, sources in the ministry of tourism grant was withdrawn by the government in 1981. The notice for demolition was
that, if tourism continues to grow (especialiy in the form of hotels and other However, the issue is dearly not extra-maritai sex, whether or not it is okay. concede that the sprouting up of LfTE violence in Tamil Nadu couki result in served last year.
It is one of prostitution and its accompanying threat, AIDS, Perhaps we should south India also being erasc!d from the map of the foreign tourist. He pointed out that the case was studied in depth by the Goa Government
coastal constructions) at its present rate in Goa, very soon there will be no
also hear from another Thai per!>on, Mechai Viravaidya, a well-known AIDS As it is, India has jllst been a mere dot-on the world tourist mJp, attracting and the Environment Ministry. There was no way Chalston Hotel could escape
environment left for it to integrate with. Again, to quote an observation of the
activist and now Minister of Tourism: 'When the figures are projected to the a meagre 0.4 per cent of the 415 million world tourist traffic. Consequently, the the demolition, he added.
Gantzers in 1990: '...apprehensions thatthe Himachal board or. tourism woulrl
entire Thai population, a conservative estimate is 125,000 HIV-positive country has been tapping just 0.6 per cent of the co:ossal US $ 230 billion globai He a/:;o stated that if the proprietor had any valid documents, they could have
find ways to help hoteliers rather than tourists has cometrue... it has not shown tourism industrv. Now, things are turning out from bad to worse.
individuals, more than the total number of hospital beds in Thailand. Estimates produced them before the Town and Country Planning's Board meeting held
the remotest concern at the deteriorating environment (in Shimla and
THE TIMES OF INDiA, 15 June 1991 last month.
Manali)...Jhere are other instances. of the use of tourism to destroy the go as high as 400,000, partly because no one can agree on the number of
Sethi also claimed that it is a misconception that they were only clamping
envi ronment wh ich attracts tourists in the fi rst place. UP i'. particularly short~ prostitutes in Thailand. Surveys of commercial sex workers show that 40 to 72
dOVl'n on medium class hotels: he affirmed that justice would be meted out
percent of them were HIV-positive.
sighted and vicious...And so our beaches and mountains and other natural
resources are in danger of being destroyed by crimina! act and culpable 'Government and business hesitate to confront the linkage between AIDS
tourism Consultancy to all defaulters.
GOMANTAK TIMES, 14 April 19'71

T
negligence with the open connivance of administrators and politicians..: (Indian and Thailand's prostitution problem because it threatens tourist spending: he Union GCNernment had deCIded to set up 2. national-level consultancy
Express, 9/6/90). Hopefully, with people like Dr Viravaidya at the helm of affairs, Thailand \"ill organisation for tourism projEcts, lvIr 0 ~~ Davar, Chairman, Industrial
Finance Corporation of India, said recentlv
The June 26th article suggests that the blame for Goa's problems should be
laid at the doorstep of 'a weak (local) government and short-sighted agitators;
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 The proposed organisation would baSically aim at assisting entrepreneurs Women's Voice
example India should emulate. to build a base of their own in the location of their choice.

T
not tourism. A basic issue stated by the 'agitators' is that it is Central tourism he Goa women's collective 'Bailancho Saad' has charged that the present
And these fears are not entirely unfounded: early this year, Goan police Pointing out that the IFCI and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI)
policy which has led to this state of affairs today. '\ policy geared to liberalisation national touri~m policy, being augmented by the Visit India Year and
would offer more assistance for non-conventiona! activities in tourism sector,
without checks and controls. A policy geared to maximise foreign investment uncovered a child prostitution racket in Margoa, run by a Dr Freddy Peat, with similar programmes, would lead to an economic disaster and destabilise
he hoped that the Union government would give tourism its rightful status in
without let or hindrance. A policy which is in no sense a tourism policy, but alleged international connections. The similarity between this and the tv1ark the social and physical environment of the country.
the Eighth Five Year Plan.
more precisely, a hotel policy. Morgan affair in Thailand (which carne to light in 1989) are striking, not least In a critique of plans for the year currently being observed, the Goa-based
Speaking on the occasion, TFCI Managing Di rLuor Mr Subramanyam stressed
As the Gantzers have had occasion to say: 'l\s we anticipated when (the for their linkages with tourism. the need to tap projects other than those helping the hotel industry to strengthen Saad said culture was being commerr:ia!ised to suit touristic needs, while
National Committee on Tourism) was set up with a heavy bias towards hotels Prostitution is not the same as a casual extra-marital affair. It is born out of festivals were being 'celebrated' out of their milieu and time. Stereotypes and
tourism in the country. The TFCI had assisted six tourism projects in Karnataka.
and hoteliers, it has tended to confuse the interest of the hotels with those of economic need, and fuelled by a market demand. Nobody claims that tourism distorted images of different regions were also being created, they said.
The Corporation was conducting a study on levies on tourism-related industries
is the only calise of prostitution: but it certainly provides an environment for Heliskiing or 'International sea-food festivals' aimed at the elite were an
tourism in general ... the Committee recommends the setting up of a Tourism in different state~ and their efforts on tourism growth, he added.
the demand to be expressed (by male and female travellers) and met without outrage on a nation like ours.
Finance Corporation when wpat they rf'ally hilvf' in mind is a Hotel Finance Mr Davar said the planned economy in the country had failed to meet the
SOCIal restriction. The social and economic status of Indian women, by and Pointing out that Kashmir has been left out of the tour routes for the 1991
Corporation. The obvious obsession with this one segment of the tourism needs of the people and called for rebuilding tht: de-Ieg:ilated economy. The
large, is such that tourism-led prostitution is a distinct possibility. If it exists in .- Visit India Year, the Saad said this indicated the fickle nature of tounsm.
industry will make it suspect in the eyes of others... But that isn't all. The market economy needs a different set-up, approach and tools and the country
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

INDIA ~ News
in that direction.

Paul S Gonsalves
& Views
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"

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 5 years, and the Gantzer articles argue that the resistance
DECCAN HERALD, 23 June, 1991

is ill-founded, even politically motivated. Hotel Demolished

So far, I have come across 6 such articles: 3 in aGoan daily (Navhind Times), concessions and investment subsidies to all areas of high tourism interest will
New Low
T
he Goa Government displayed its might at Cobrawaddo, Calangute
one in the Economic Times (21/4/91) and 2 in the Indian Express (23/3 and 23/6). destroy every hill resort. Developers will rush in, and violate every rule, ravage yesterday morning when a 250-strong demolition squad began razing
the ecology and leave despoiled mountains in their wake. And indeed, such

T
The average newspaper reader in India has heard little of the resistance in he tourism industry is in a major panic as foreign tourist arrivals have to the ground the two-storeyed Chalston Hotel on the basis that it is an
Goa. Indeed, the romantic view of Goa holds good for most Indians and so, 'developers' are wreaking havoc even today: (Indian Express; 31/8/1988). taken an unprecedented plunge during the much trumpeted Visit India illegal construction falling within 200 metres of the High Tide Line.
if on reading the Gantzer pieces, one is told that a bunch of local 'agitators' Needless to add, to date there have been no published studies of the carrying Year. During the last six months, it is estimated that the foreign tourist The curiosity of the hundreds of people who rushed to the area turned to
have been up to no good, why, that must be so. Can we visit Goa during the cClpacity of Indian tourism destinations, leave alone environmental impact arrivals have dropped by a staggering 40 per cent, reducing the foreign currenlY remorse, however, when they observed the questionable manner in which the
next vacation? assessments. If national tourism policy is implemented without defining external brought in by close to Rs 1,000 crore. action was carried out, not giving the owner sufficient time to salvage their
It is not so much what the Gantzers state that is of concern, rather than what boundaries (that such studies can help establish), it is inevitable that This wili prove a body blow to the balance of payments situation and further property worth over Rs 50 lakh.
they do not. I will simply place a few facts on record and let the readers decide environmental destruction will follow as predicted by the Gantzers in 1988. aggravate the foreign exchange crisis which has been playing havoc with the Eye-witnesses said that the task force dealt with the furniture and furnishings
whether there is substance in the claims of the resistance. Although the recent articles castigate the 'agitators' for not havi ng stati stical country's economy. And, even more alarmingly, the tourist situation is not likely in .the most barbaric fashion throwing them out of the windows.
evidence for their claims, there are at least two reports which lay a strong to improve in the immediate future. Items like air-conditioners were also pushed out of the window. The most
Firstly, the people of Goa are not alone in opposing tourism. The debate on
evidential basis (apart from the many documents published by those in the Most of the hoteliers conceded that that occupancy of their hotels by foreign noticeable items were the beds, which lay heaped in the debris, some split apart,
Third World Tourism is more than 30 years old internationally. A recent
resistance). Harm Zebregs, in his draft report of tourism and Goan economy tourists has plunged. Reinforcing the point further, Mr Indra Arya of Sita World others completely disintegrated. According to the owner the demolition started
bibliography by Leo Theuns (1991) lists 2166 entries until 7984. And the debate
(based on 3 months of field research in Goa) concludes that the earnings and Travels said that dose to 40 per cent of the international tourists' incoming without adequate time being provided for retrieving their belongings. The total
has become sharper in the years thence. So has the resistance. The Gantzers
bookings were cancelled between January and March this year. loss was estimated at nearly Rs 2 crore.
themselves gave an indication of this (increasing resistance) and the reasons employment projections of the industry are questionable. Menezes and Lobo,
Ms Prema Nair, information officer in the mi nistry of tourism said that there Government officials said that the hotel was a 'real gone case' as no conversion
thereof in ~n article in early 1989: 'The tourism industry'S growing concern with in a report of over 100 pages, detail the corruption, irregularities and
has been a rapid decline in tourist arrivals this season, with few seen in tourist of land was done, no PDA permission was sought, there was no access road
uncontrolled tourism development in fragile socio-ecosystems brought forth malpractises in Goan tourism (Miriithu, London, 1991). And since the Ministry offices and fewer making enquiries at ministry counters. and that the structure violated the 200 metre ban from HTL.
platitudinous assurances from tourism planners. But when they did nothing, of Environment (under Mrs Maneka Gandhi) and the Bombay High Court have Accusing fingers should not be pointed at the Gulf war, severa! of them pointed The demolition work b~gan in the morning with a bang with the squad in
irate citizens reacted against such destructive 'development~ .. there is no sign on occasion upheld the view that certain hotels have violated the law, surely out. While Thail<lnd, which is celebrating its tourism year, is doing exceedingly an apparent hurry to destroy the building in a day's time. Such was their
from the Ministry (of Tourism) that the message has been heard, and acted upon, the Gantzers ought to castigate the arms of government as well. for india, it has been an unmitigated disaster. But, the type of tourists who missionary zeal that they denied the owners the sought after three hours time
In 1989, such movements against unplanned tourism are likely to grow. (Indian Moreover, it is hardly essential in all matters of life to seek an evidential basis. arrive in Thailand and the tourist attractions that it offers are different from those to salvage all the furniture. Caught in the wild confusao were the hotel guests
Express, 10/1/89) We are human beings, and we can see and hear and feel and experience. We of India, asserted Mr' C R V Rao, director in the ministry of tourism. including a Madrasi filming company, who were residing there at the time. They
While stating the positive co-relation between tourism and environment, the do not need to read the Wholesale Price Index on a daily basis to realise that Despite another tourist season coming up during September-December 1991, were running helter-skelter as much to'Save their lives as their filming equipment.
Gantzers cite the examples of Sweden and Singapore. India has neither the inflation is upon us. the immediate future of tourism looks bleak. With the violence breaking out When contacted the officials said that they were simply executing gLlVernment
economic resources nor the political-legal mechanisms that both these countries The Gantzers ridicule Bailancho Saad (a women's group) and others fortheir in places like jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Assam, and Punjab, northern india orders given to them only the previous night. The demolition was to be carried
have used to achieve a balance. In fact, while we might admire the peace and 'fear' that tourism will lead to 'sexual exploitation of their women: 'Why do had already been removed from the tourist map of all v;sitors. The violence out last year, they said, but the exercise was put off for several reasons,
prosperity of ou r Th ird World neighbour, Singapore, there are many who wou Id such agitationists have such a low opinion of their women?~ they query. They which broke out on the basis of the Mandai commission report and the Ayodhya Asked for his reactions, secretary town planning RSSethi stated that the hotel
decry the draconian laws which have made it so. quote a 'charming Thai lady' who cannot understand why Indians do not accept controversy, further undermined the rourism potential that these places offered. did not deserve the slightest mercy. Much as he sympathized with them, he
Perhaps tourism can be positively integrated with environmental concerns, 'extra-marital' affairs as awoman's right, and suggest that what is okay in Thai land The focus during the past couple of years had been to include south India wondered why they went ahead with the construction after their conversior­
even in Goa. The point that the anti-tourism activists are at pains to make is ought to be okay in India. into the foreign tourists itinerary. Now, sources in the ministry of tourism grant was withdrawn by the government in 1981. The notice for demolition was
that, if tourism continues to grow (especialiy in the form of hotels and other However, the issue is dearly not extra-maritai sex, whether or not it is okay. concede that the sprouting up of LfTE violence in Tamil Nadu couki result in served last year.
It is one of prostitution and its accompanying threat, AIDS, Perhaps we should south India also being erasc!d from the map of the foreign tourist. He pointed out that the case was studied in depth by the Goa Government
coastal constructions) at its present rate in Goa, very soon there will be no
also hear from another Thai per!>on, Mechai Viravaidya, a well-known AIDS As it is, India has jllst been a mere dot-on the world tourist mJp, attracting and the Environment Ministry. There was no way Chalston Hotel could escape
environment left for it to integrate with. Again, to quote an observation of the
activist and now Minister of Tourism: 'When the figures are projected to the a meagre 0.4 per cent of the 415 million world tourist traffic. Consequently, the the demolition, he added.
Gantzers in 1990: '...apprehensions thatthe Himachal board or. tourism woulrl
entire Thai population, a conservative estimate is 125,000 HIV-positive country has been tapping just 0.6 per cent of the co:ossal US $ 230 billion globai He a/:;o stated that if the proprietor had any valid documents, they could have
find ways to help hoteliers rather than tourists has cometrue... it has not shown tourism industrv. Now, things are turning out from bad to worse.
individuals, more than the total number of hospital beds in Thailand. Estimates produced them before the Town and Country Planning's Board meeting held
the remotest concern at the deteriorating environment (in Shimla and
THE TIMES OF INDiA, 15 June 1991 last month.
Manali)...Jhere are other instances. of the use of tourism to destroy the go as high as 400,000, partly because no one can agree on the number of
Sethi also claimed that it is a misconception that they were only clamping
envi ronment wh ich attracts tourists in the fi rst place. UP i'. particularly short~ prostitutes in Thailand. Surveys of commercial sex workers show that 40 to 72
dOVl'n on medium class hotels: he affirmed that justice would be meted out
percent of them were HIV-positive.
sighted and vicious...And so our beaches and mountains and other natural
resources are in danger of being destroyed by crimina! act and culpable 'Government and business hesitate to confront the linkage between AIDS
tourism Consultancy to all defaulters.
GOMANTAK TIMES, 14 April 19'71

T
negligence with the open connivance of administrators and politicians..: (Indian and Thailand's prostitution problem because it threatens tourist spending: he Union GCNernment had deCIded to set up 2. national-level consultancy
Express, 9/6/90). Hopefully, with people like Dr Viravaidya at the helm of affairs, Thailand \"ill organisation for tourism projEcts, lvIr 0 ~~ Davar, Chairman, Industrial
Finance Corporation of India, said recentlv
The June 26th article suggests that the blame for Goa's problems should be
laid at the doorstep of 'a weak (local) government and short-sighted agitators;
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 The proposed organisation would baSically aim at assisting entrepreneurs Women's Voice
example India should emulate. to build a base of their own in the location of their choice.

T
not tourism. A basic issue stated by the 'agitators' is that it is Central tourism he Goa women's collective 'Bailancho Saad' has charged that the present
And these fears are not entirely unfounded: early this year, Goan police Pointing out that the IFCI and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI)
policy which has led to this state of affairs today. '\ policy geared to liberalisation national touri~m policy, being augmented by the Visit India Year and
would offer more assistance for non-conventiona! activities in tourism sector,
without checks and controls. A policy geared to maximise foreign investment uncovered a child prostitution racket in Margoa, run by a Dr Freddy Peat, with similar programmes, would lead to an economic disaster and destabilise
he hoped that the Union government would give tourism its rightful status in
without let or hindrance. A policy which is in no sense a tourism policy, but alleged international connections. The similarity between this and the tv1ark the social and physical environment of the country.
the Eighth Five Year Plan.
more precisely, a hotel policy. Morgan affair in Thailand (which carne to light in 1989) are striking, not least In a critique of plans for the year currently being observed, the Goa-based
Speaking on the occasion, TFCI Managing Di rLuor Mr Subramanyam stressed
As the Gantzers have had occasion to say: 'l\s we anticipated when (the for their linkages with tourism. the need to tap projects other than those helping the hotel industry to strengthen Saad said culture was being commerr:ia!ised to suit touristic needs, while
National Committee on Tourism) was set up with a heavy bias towards hotels Prostitution is not the same as a casual extra-marital affair. It is born out of festivals were being 'celebrated' out of their milieu and time. Stereotypes and
tourism in the country. The TFCI had assisted six tourism projects in Karnataka.
and hoteliers, it has tended to confuse the interest of the hotels with those of economic need, and fuelled by a market demand. Nobody claims that tourism distorted images of different regions were also being created, they said.
The Corporation was conducting a study on levies on tourism-related industries
is the only calise of prostitution: but it certainly provides an environment for Heliskiing or 'International sea-food festivals' aimed at the elite were an
tourism in general ... the Committee recommends the setting up of a Tourism in different state~ and their efforts on tourism growth, he added.
the demand to be expressed (by male and female travellers) and met without outrage on a nation like ours.
Finance Corporation when wpat they rf'ally hilvf' in mind is a Hotel Finance Mr Davar said the planned economy in the country had failed to meet the
SOCIal restriction. The social and economic status of Indian women, by and Pointing out that Kashmir has been left out of the tour routes for the 1991
Corporation. The obvious obsession with this one segment of the tourism needs of the people and called for rebuilding tht: de-Ieg:ilated economy. The
large, is such that tourism-led prostitution is a distinct possibility. If it exists in .- Visit India Year, the Saad said this indicated the fickle nature of tounsm.
industry will make it suspect in the eyes of others... But that isn't all. The market economy needs a different set-up, approach and tools and the country
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
 9
12

Travels in Five Tibets

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
Horrors Under the Carpet Mushroom Menace
by lynne Reid Banks by Boney Thomas
The Myth of Shangri-La, Peter Bishop, University of California Press,
landscapes: noble, heroic journeys, mystical pilgrimages, high adventure, and
ethnological fantasies. Forbidden Lhasa and its God-King, the Dalai Lama, were
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
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
W ell, 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
F irst we had hashi sh and marijuana Then came brCM'n 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.
wished to help India's export trade, there would be nothing more to pay for Found during the monsoons in the pine forests of Kodaikanal, this relatively
of the British over a 200-year period. It is not a study of the land and people, Himalaya was already causing concern and sadness even at this early date.. :' the carpets, which would be delivered to our door. He didn't bother to mention unknown mushroom is fast becoming a much sought after commodity among
but of a collection of imaginal'Tibets: products of the travel literature from 177.1 But perhaps the deepest sense of loss, as well asource of irritation, was caused demurrage and handling charges, which came to nearly d third of the addicts with the active connivance of the underworld.
to 1969. by mass tourism and its effect on the wild places of the world. "Those who price. We could have got them almost as cheaply in a sale of Indian two good rain showers, mushrooms sprout all over in the rich dark
Imaginal places are common to every society. They are created, reformed had suffered the wind and cold of the Tibetan plateau thought themselves, not carpets here in Britain-I saw some in Piccadilly last month. feet of tall pine trees in Kodaikanal. Soon the underworld is busy
and dissolved according to changing social, religious and gea-political incorrectly, an elite. They were explorers, not tourists, struggling with And, of (nurse, if we'd bought them here it would have been easier not to organising its gathering, distribution and sale. Tourist:. from allover - both
consciousness. Kailas for South Asian Hindus, EI Dorado for sixteenth-century contradictory desires to explore the land and to keep it untouched, to preserve think about how they were made. When you buy them from the factory, there's domestic and foreign arrive to experience a "trip" from these mushrooms.
and the Island of Origin for Hawaiians. They are lands invested with in the world one last sacred place:' no question of that. The Indian merchant is at no pains to hide the children
]0 get adequately high, addicts consume about 12 mushrooms. It is
a people's dreams and aspirations: peace, wealth, pleasure, sanctity, Until the twentieth century, the fifth "Tibet", there was an essential unity in from you; in fact he very cheerfully takes you to see them, seven years old and
the travel writers' visions and thus in the British collective fantasy. From 1904 consumed by beating it with eggs to make an omelette. It is mixed with
They are spun into being by storytellers, poets, film-makers and travel writers. upward, huge-eyed, thin as reeds, hands flashing at the looms, You are shown
to 1959, Bishop sees afragmentation of the fantasy into four quite distinct and them, you watch them work, you photograph ri'lem. Then you go and choose shakes. Twelve mushrooms would induce a hallucinatory stupor lasting for four
Some places are contemporary, some ancient in all, reality is subordinated
to seven hours depending on the physical strength of the consumer.
to fantasy. The modern Asian myth of America, fal and rich, diplomas and videos contradictory imaginal places. Different visions were inevitable as information your carpet. So you can't claim you didn't know. There's absolutely no excuse.
about Tibet accumulated, as western travel writing evolved and as the writers Why then did we buy acarpet made with child labour? This is the question A few years ago none at Kodaikanal had ever heard of these mushrooms. It
dropping from the trees, has little relation to the hard work, iron streets and
responded personally to the pain or the two World Wars and the Great I have been addressing ever since I got back to England, where I promptly fel! is believed that a Swedish tourist who spotted them made enquiries with
shopping malls experienced by Americans themselves. Westerners, in
Depression of the 19305. foul of a friend who works for Anti-Slavery International. He didn't reproach peddlers. They were ignorant of its potential until then. Another theory about
their turn, willingly ignore the cultural degradation behind the pai nted masks
One Ti bet was descendant from the long fasci nation with Buddh ism: the land me at all, he simply handed me some pamphlets. One was actually called its discovery is that someone had unwittingly picked up a few narcotic
and palm trees
of the lamas and mystical accomplishment, the land of spiritual perfection in C;rpel Boys of India. Another was Child-slaves. I read them and felt as if I were mushrooms and discovered its "high" after preparing a dish.
For Westerners, Tibet has been one imaginal place among many: the Andes,
a debased world. This vision was exemplified by Alexander David-Neel and, waking from a bad dream-the bad dream of a visit to India. Now-a-days some restaurants at Kodaikanal serve food mixed with
the sources of the Nile, the Arctic, the European Alps. Bishop has chosen his
to Bishop's credit, the scholar Giuseppe Tucci. In contrast, there was the This has been designated (by the India Tourist Board) "Visit India Year': mushrooms on the sly to discerning customers.
topic well. The centuries from the entrance of the first modern British traveller
"realistic" Tibet of Spencer Chapman and others - pictures of mundane advice to anyone who is looking for a happy, carefree holidav from which At first, the sale of these mushrooms depended wholly on climatic conditions.
in 1774 to the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959 "coincided almost exactly with
everyday life, uninquisitive and anti-religious. will return unchanged is, don't. Don't go there. As the procurement of the mush rooms began and ended with the monsoons,
the rise and fall of European, particularly, British, aspirations:' Bishop's
The other two Tibets of the twentieth century were, in Bishop's consideration, Don't listen to all the friends who will tell you how wonderful it is. It isn't the sale was seasonal. But with more and more locals and 'tourists taking to
examination of primarily British travel writing is intended to be a window "into
the final, dissolving forms of the cultural fantasy, the conclusion of the growing, wonderful. It's a nightmare. The only way to enjoy it is the way them, efforts were made to preserve them in order to extend the scope of sales.
the changing aspirations, the soul, of modern
changing vision which he had traced over 200 years. In these, Tibet the resolutely closing your eyes to everything except its ambivalent attractions. Soon, sun-dried mushrooms made their appearance in the drug market. But
There has been and still is no single "Tibet" in the Western imagination. There The worker-children are happy, look they are smiling. They are full of mischief.
have been a succession - evolving, declining, contradicting each other. Bishop geographical reality was disassociated with Tibet the imaginal place. In 1949, this method of preservation was abandoned as dried mushrooms retained only
Oh yes, see that little imp? He iikes to pick my pockets, ma-dam! And that's his half their narcotic effect, and hence sold at half the price. After much trial and
chooses to delineate five, with reasonable historical justification, and is careful the American tourism writer Lowell Thomas and his son visited Lhasa. Lowell
daddy there, working with him, they work as a family. School? Of course, that's
to note that within each a myriad of smaller "Tibets" are subsumed. Junior depOsited upon the world a model of the Tibetan tourism fantasy ­ erro~ honey was found to be a better medium of preservation. it did not reduce
the law, they spend half-days in school, and of course, sir, if we didn't
In the first, from 1773 to 1792, Tibet developed in the British imagination cultural resonance, historical depth and sensitivity to landscape had disappeared the narcotic effect at all. This helped increase its sale and distribution to far
this skill thev would have nothing, no future. As it is they earn well,
from an undefined geographica I location to a "place': the rudiments of a literary beneath cliches and expressions of naive amazement. The other Tibet, the off regions like Goa and Kovalam.
for a carpet that takes them three months to make. £ no!
landscape aesthetic formed, and from disillusionment with Christianity and was fixed in the public imagination by James Hilton's immensely popular these mushrooms are peddled on a large scale, there has been no
That seems too little? But for them it is a good living.
Western spiritual ity there began a fascination with the Tibetan style of Buddhism, Lost Horizon, published in 1933, during'the Depression. Lost Horizon reports ot police having booked anyone for possessing them. These mushrooms
And by buying, you heip India. You help us gain self-sufficiency and
at once highly literate and rational, patently idolatrous and mystical. Following dramatised the disilfusionment of the West, its spiritual emptiness and fears are collected by plantation workers and then transferred to professional drug
prosperity. Dangerous? Well, yes, the tuft-cutters
the Gurkha invasions ofTibet the country was closed to travellers. Bishop shows of social disorder. The perfect land of Shangri-La reflected acute Western be careful, Occasionally, they cut their hands, But it is than starving in peddlers who are protected by the underworld. There are virtually no obstacles
how the recurrent inaccessibility ofTibet contributed to its creation as asacred longings: peace, righteousness, psychic fulfillment. The collective fantasy of the streets. Now corne outside, madam, sir, and se~ how the carpets are washed in carti ng away the mushrooms from the pine forests. Most preventive officers
place, and "sealed Western fantasies into an almost closed vessell!. Tibet had become abstract, the land had disappeared, with a special, secret chemical. The colours will never fade. are Cl treasure are not trained to distinguish the magic mushrooms the hctrmless edible
the next two "Tibets': from 1792 to 1875, few travellers managed to Even before the exit of the Dalai Lama and the dismantling of traditional you will keep forever, to remind you of India. Only when corne home,
cross the borders. Alrnpst none reached Lhasa. The British Empire expanded society, Tibet itself had ceased to be the locus of the Tibet rnyth. Realism had when you awake from your Third World trance in which your values became Soon, the monsoon season will arrive, bringing droves tourists {o
and with it expanded its geo-political imagination. Britain looked outward. turned on the house lights and bared the mysteries; the tourism writers had distorted, and think about it, do you realise how true that IS. l<odaikanai in search of haliuClnatory trips with "magic" mushrooms.
"Nineteenth-century rationalism provided idealised images of coherence, reduced the noble and remarkable to the banal, and the vision had When I read the oamohlets and I~a,rned how,v,fl" wf>\e deceived bY,ti:Jt avaiiable in a natUial state, ther is a possibility
unification and identity (of foreign civilisations) which belied intense internal removed Shangri-La from earth altogether: Tibet had become, In Bishop's words; these children rea:ry ;;o\'<' [hey die aebl­ into nnJgs through them.
social fragmentation and conflict:' /Ian empty vessel". bonded i:md exploited, and wretchetl dfe t~leir conditions and INDiAN aPRESS, 15 June, 1991
With India and the rest of the Empirer the Himalaya was systemically surveyed. The Myth ofShangri-La is a book for academics. It is extraordinarily rich in prospects, ! wondered despaiiingly would
Brian Hodgson made his immense study of the geology, customs, languages, analyses, but is somewhat cor'lfused by a hazy methodology based in archetypal be able to spread them on my floor and heardly
and zoology of the Himalaya. Joseph Hooker and other naturalists psychology. Bishop examines travel texts with tools from a variety of disciplines. had never bought them. I hoped they might be 10SI ;n iransit.
Each examin.ation is valid and revealing, but all are jumbled together; analytical
on the closed borders ofTibet, recording the mountain landscaoe with
scientific precision. perspectives change from paragraph to paragraph with no apparent order. This
But they've 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,
MORE TOUR\5l5 V'SIT'STA"tE
is unfortunate, for the book is !ikelydestined for graduate library stacks, rather :n the fields in their gorgeous, colourful clothes. Like the cun! HALE51D
The genre of travel writing was forming, in some confusion. Mid-century
Rationalism lay in a rumpled bed with the transcendent visions of emergent than the audience upon which it could have made a profound impact: travel of nuts and seeds and fruits on baskets and barrows. ~:ke :11-:: erribroidcrv Accordi~~ to th~ state10ur.ism Dept.
European Romanticism. The genre found cohesion in the publication of the writers themselves. silverware, the silks, the jewellery, the rav;ch;nn mope f.?rel~o t(lOPlsts ha\Je "ISlted this
fourth volume of John Ruskin's Modern Painters in 1854, at the peak of British The tools of French de-constructionism are skillfully used to place the texts you outside the tourist sites. Like the Taj. state inan '1ast ~e8r. Of the siKteen
mountain enthusiasm, when the Alps were the focus of physical challenge and within appropriate geo-political, social and psychological contexts, Humanistic hidden price-tag. fcrei9,oers who 11ave visited the state
Thf' VAT was nothing. The real bill has not been (he re3i bill is th~l
the Himalaya the focus of mountain fantasy. Ruskin's landscape aesthetic geography, such as Bachelard's and Lowenthal's work on the perception of place
and landscape, illuminates the evolution of the landscape aesthetic in travel ! compare myself to a man who goes to Bangkok and has sex vvith a child
so far -this ~ear. one was from PaKi'5tan.
combined careful observation and precise description with a subdued,
unromantic evocation of the inner experience of the landscape. With Ruskin, Bishop charts the development of the Western fascination, and later prostitute and says, "If didn't pay her she would starve. If! did~it use her someone f
two were from Sri Lanka and foor from
. All fOur from Nepal however were
.-:;. \
says Bishop, the modern literary relationship of man and the wilderness obsession, with Tibetan Buddhism and Eastern spirituality with great skill. His else would. That's the way things work here:' Does that man, who is not much
During the closing years of the nineteenth century, the fourth "Tibet'; several-page definition of the art of travel writing should be required worse, now, than I am, wake up when he comes horne.o his norma! life and minor CHrIS W'It\100t DdSSDorts .ihe remaillioQ
,I· . r ' '....... ....... .• ,. • .

nine lOOIe Amne5t~lntep!\31i0n3\1 cf1iGid\S ~ .u..-"

I : ~. _ " '" t ~ ,,;; 1 ~. . ~

I
r

for every travei writer. One wishes each of these studies were a separate liI~ !IVlllodl, ~~e:'lern VclIUe" clIIU trllllK Ueal \jUU, W~i,,!l ',Vd':> I li1I!IKHI~ on
once again entered, trom every direction. "lnU)~5 one British lournallst
monograph. I look at my carpet every day and that is what I ask. ';,. lije iJJe7t
exclaimed, Tibet may be said to be at present in a state of siege:"Russian, French
and British explorers vied with each other to cross the cold plateau and enter The book stops abruptly with a cursory conclusive chapter! as if Bishop GUARDIAN WEEKLY,S May 1991
[enid on page 19 POl!'lna~~""nH[S Of §NIDIA
 8 13

Please don't come to Goa Colombo Closes Casinos

KAIGA: Will Tourists Really 'Boycott' Goa?
by Mario Cabral e Sa By Ashwani Talwar The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power
struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry. The case, that she stations".

H ave 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
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
uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga. The Kaiga Nuclear
Complex, in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms. from Goa's border.
Moreover, in Sweden, concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear
power by 201o..In Spain, public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that
five reactors under construction have been cancelled. In Italy too, following
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 don't come
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 city's five
star hotels also opening them. Baccarat, Black Jack and Roulette had helped
W ill 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
a public referendum the country's four remaining reactors have been closed
down.
Indeed, as a consequence of public pressure and opinion, the political trend
amongst those nations who provide the majority of the 'international tourist
set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on destination 'paradises; which are not saddled with such 'ogres' next door?
to Goa! Or, you might find yourself agreeing, in seif-commiseration, with the pool' which visits Goa, is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active
the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties. Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss
private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network. Between her first recreational, vocal and economic boycott of those areas/nations who are actively
But casinos remained a matter of controversy. The government was under any such notions by suggesting that "public opinion in North America and
visit when she was young and a dreamer, and her latest visit as a world-wise promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations
pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness'; the
and established hack, Goa had "Iost her innocence': And Goans no longer acted - at a feverish pace (ie. India, and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region).
without aforethought malice. was particu larly harsh in its criticism. Critics, however have not picked on casi nos following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans, Karnatakans and
As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist: '~s green
One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism, alone. During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned). Public
issues become international, it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie
particularly on small places like Goa. And the first veiled warnings came through restaurants. Their clientele includes school children and office workers who reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions,
greenery and sovereignty. There will be international pressure for agreements
the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening. Then programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive
to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea, to transfer cash and
UNDP team of experts who had come down in the '70s to advise the Goan there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television. contamination, has reached an all time high.
technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up" as
administration on tourism strategies. One of the documents was a Dutch study The cabinet spokesman, Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe, told reporters that the As the 'Economist' has suggested, the North American and European public's
opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the
containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect 'green
envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as
it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution: cultural ban on all gambling establishments into effect. Two government-owned hOWls politics' and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott.
India's, whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core
pollution which is irreversible. _ have been already ordered to close down their casinos. The Colombo police Adults, including those "who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes
Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a systems (eg. the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently
had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places, but or driving fast cars - want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl"
collective fixation. Cabbies cheat remorselessly. Touts and guides craftily exploit unstable. As the Economist's analyst has concluded: "Governments that are
these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation. or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants.
visitors. Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge. About 20 average-sized or reluctant to sign will be pilloried" (03.03.90).
Some things will, however, continue as before. Betting on horses is still okay Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international
12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200; Given this background, 'International' tourist threats to 'boycott Goa' once
and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good 'tourist pool zones' - for instance, that in Austria, Denmark and Norway, public
two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound the Kaiga plant is commissioned, should not be dismissed lightly. Tourists from
amount of money to the state treasury every year. pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a
of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150 these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott 'en masse' those
Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident.
per portion excluding taxes and additionals; at five-star hotels, of course, they holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant 'radio-active
to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million In the USA and Europe, furthermore, there are increasing signs that public
are priced at Rs 280 and more. The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martin's hazards'. The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely
as annual levy from major casinos, but little foreign exchange was involved. and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station.
Beach Corner. Even so, the locals can't afford it. It is also not uncommon for
strict vegetarians to find their kofta curry showing evidence of extraneous The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino be fully closed down, replaced by other power stations (using different energy In conclusion, it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions
substances like fish bones, for instance. business, the minister said. He listed infiltration of the mafia, prostitution and sources) or converted to conventional power stations. As 'The Economist' has
expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural
Recently, a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs. 5,000 drug trafficking. confirmed: By '~priI9th, 1990, a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n)
analysts, John Elkington, Tom Burke and Julia Hales: "The average tourist (from
each, by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college THE TIMES OF INDIA, 10 June, 1991 place in Midland, Michigan, USA: the commissioning of the world's first power
North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the
drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes. The clients wanted station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel. Mr William McCormick
chemistry of the upper stratosphere, but some forms of pollution, like the
"college girls". Such "clients" are becoming sickeningly common in Goa. And the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation, the plant's main owner, confidently
radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, have
they almost uniformly end up stranded at night, in a dark unlit alley near the JGF Condemns ICasinos' predicts that other conversions will follow. The reason is simple: utilities across
significantly dented the tourism industry's receipts.
town's best known girls' hostel. Serves them right, yes. But considerfor a minute America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants.
'~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes, for example, In
that the cheats are the sons and, on occasion, daughters of perfectly respectable The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has «;mdemned the attempted ''The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by
families with a hard-earned tradition in civility, decency. honesty and hospitality. moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca, with the from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about
supposed clearance of the government of Goa. more than 30 per cent. .. In today's world, such developments can spell
Once, revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely everywhere. Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or
JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr. Sunder Advani economic ruin for countries (like India's-my emphasis) that have hitched their
stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders. They would sing a song or two, moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the
that the clearance for the casino will be given 'soon' by the government. fortunes to the international tourism industry" to the point where "such revenues
wish them a happy New Year and then proffer, with a!ouch of elegance, their now gas-fired station at Mid land. He hopes that CMS Energy's pioneering effort
The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence, only because are taken seriously (by the government), and the comings and goings of overseas
collection boxes. The coHections were scrupulously used for community at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for
purposes: repairing a crumbling roadside oratory, a tea party for orphans and of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that visitors are watched intently':
conversions (in the USA, Europe and Japan). Mr McCormick even has a snappy
.destitutes, or a parish youth,hop. Now, roads are barricaded, threats issued, be. JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos Goa's, Karnataka's and Kerala's tourist trade, indeed, perhaps stand to be
marketing slogan. 'We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade; destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel, a region in Byelorussia,
abuses hurled and money extorted. And the money is used to buy booze, or 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 he declares:' USSR. As the Sunday Independent, a widely read and respected British
worse, drugs.
in the State. JGF also warned that it will not be too long before 'Sex In Britain, too, as the Social and Community Planning Research Group newspaper, recently informed its readers of the fate of this region: "Gomel (is)
Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous, so suddenly? The reasons
Tourism' will be justified as a revenue earner, as in the case ofThailand. recently ascertained through an extensive 'British Social Attitudes Survey' "the a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place
are many. Unemployment is the most common denominator, ennui the most
The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public) at this time of year (April 1990), when the pear trees are in blossom and the
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 envi ron mental violations. in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern, chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks.
nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa. The grievance JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of rather than a reversal of it': In the report, it was also found that "the proportion "Today, (however), Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth. Gomel was
is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism. the hotel by tourists and investors, and calls upon people not to invest of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power once a (major) tourist centre. Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come,
Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their or patronise the Ramada Hotel. generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35% in 1983 to 21%. people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk.
organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force. What they JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest 'gimmick' However, almost half (49%) of those questioned (in the most recent report) Local's, discovering I was visiting in the town, brought me flowers and
discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more, and that, as a result, of the Ramada Group to present a 'green and environment conscious selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear chocolates. 'Come again, please come again: they said.
the 80 per cent are a sullen, unhappy lot. image: The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American reactors" (ie. As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned; the statement wh ich 'Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Val atava, a contaminated area, Gomel itself
"Why you ,worry, man. It's peanuts for toem (tourists), man;' a tour operator Express and Nature Conservancy, Washington to ensure this image, comes 'closest' to reflecting their own feelings is that is 'creates very serious is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation. 'only five curies per square kilo­
told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and risks for the future'). metre. We're supposed to be grateful for that', says Dr. Zdota, sneering at the
tourists. paying for their stay with an American Express card, would be Indeed, as the report's findings were to conclude: "Clearly there has been 'acceptable norms' of pollution set by the scientists': Yet, it is precisely this 'low,
Call it loss of innocence, if you will. But a more apt conclusion might be contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation.
a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in sate level' of 'radioactive contamination' which has effectively destroyed the
that familiarity has bred contempt. And as Mother Rabbit once said: many a HERALD, Panjim, 19 May, 1991 all age groups (concerning the 'unsafe' nature of nuclear power stations). The tourist trade and the economy of the region. Will Goa, Kerala and Karnataka
crude attempt. crucial point is that overall, seven out of ten men and more than eight out of be next?
THE INDEPENDENT, 3 April 1991
 14 7
training course. In 1989, the twenty-fifth seminar was held with twenty
Investing in Mal-Development participants from nineteen countries: South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Happy Tourist, Unhappy Traveller
This is probably why many WTs openly shun their fellow travellers as
saunter through the .streets of Thamel. They throw hostile glances at other
The Crossing ofJapanese aDA and Resort Development Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya, by Robert Shepherd foreigners whose only fault is to walk the same street.
Mauritius, Tanzania, Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Papua New Guinea Tony Wheeler's Lonely Planet guide books are one of the main reasons why

P
by Noda Misato and Greece. Those invited are either gCNernment tourism administrators or from umpernickel Bakery in Thamel, down town Kathmandu, is a favourite the WTs end up in the same places. The difference between this guidebook
large commercial enterprises. The International Tourism Promotion Association spot for foreigners. Even during off-season! the bakery's garden tables and others is that it targets a different audience and never describes them.as
In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of Transport launched its 4-year "Ten Million
administers the two month seminar, designed to-introduce the relevant Japanese fill quickly each morning. The service is good; the bread, fresh; the tourists. Tony Wheeler calls them travellers who "want to see the country at
Project" promoting overseas travel with the ambitious goals of building mutual
administrative bodies, their policies, and the situation in the Japanese tourism croissants, delicious and the coffee, passable. The staff members are unobtrusive ground level, to breathe it, experience it and live it': He writes that tourists stay
understanding between the Japanese and other peoples, accelerating
industry. During the same year, Japan dispatched 15 tourism experts to and polite and with thei r brown faces a rarity in the restaurant, where the rest in Hiltons, travellers do not. Instead, travellers should gO tramDing through the
internationalism among Japanese people, improving the foreign trade
developing countries: three each to India, Fiji, and Mexico, two to China, one of the people are foreign travellers. back alleys of the Third World and absorb exoticism
imbalance, and bringing economic prosperity to foreign countries. The project's
target, ten million tourists by 1991, from which the name derived will to oversee both Indonesia and Malaysia, and another two to the UN Economic They are travellers and not tourists. A young English woman, on her way home has built a multi-national publishing business
be reached ayear before the target date. This flood of tourist money has and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. from a year abroad in Australia, tried to explain the difference to me. She said of this planet.
that 'travellers' live 'like the people'; they travel the way 'the people travel'; and What happens, of course, is that no world traveller is alone when he "does"
hopes, especially in Asia's chronically poor countries, that the resort Tourism as Maldevelopment
they are 'in touch' with, and have 'a feel' fo~ 'the people: The tourists, on the Bali or Rangoon or Kathmandu. After all, they carry the same book. They check
would boost their suffering economies. A lot is expected of Japan, which also In concluding this glance at institutiondl aid to tourism, we find it hard to other hand, travel in air-conditioned buses, live in five-star hotels and eat at in at the same hotels. They eat in the same restaurants. They discover the same
brings an en0rmous amount of foreign aid ostensibly designed for economic be optimistic about the influence of resort development on 'Third World' overpriced restaurants. And they never drink the water. There are no tourists hideaways off the well-trodden paths. The traveller longs to discover the
development. Given all this, it should not be surprising that tourism is now peoples through Japanese governmental aid. This is especially worrisome in
being included as a part of ODA (Official Development Assistance). at Pumpernickel: only travellers. particular place to which no tourist or traveller has been. Yet, he keeps running
light of the present ~ituations of Japan's ODA and domestic resort development.
Touring extensively around the world, the long-term world travellers (WT), into many others like himself.
In 1989, the Ministry of Transport publicized its Holiday Village Plans for "total Th us resort development causes the same problems as foreign aid-{]esignated
the majority of whom are North American, Western European, Japanese and Western isation had consu med Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.
support in the development of international resorts:' This project was to aim development in general. Often the kind of projects are more appropriate for
Australian, share a common ideology. They view the Third World as their But it has yet to hurdle the Himalayas. In Nepal samosas and mo-mos are in
at "giving aid to support the systematic development of international resorts the donors than the receivers, as can be seen in examples such as the iaboratory and look upon themselves as romantic, even intrepid, adventurers. fashion: not Big Macs. Yes, Michael Jackson is popular among young people,
through the International Cooperation Association, giving yen loans through construction of the National Historic Park in Indonesia which evicted the They sneer at tourists and laugh at those who have remained back home in
the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) for tourist-related residents from the surrounding area even before any promises of sufficient but Kumar Basnet and Nara~'an Gopal still outsell him in the tape shoos. The
Peoria. They share a common language, English, and even a common dress of the country's first escalator is frontpage news.
infrastructure, and taking advantage of non-governmental fUnds and skills for compensation. Furthermore, the hosting of large scale tourism means a
code in Nepal: cheap cotton drawstring pants, rubber sandals, and printed t­ Into this other-world enters the world travellers. They speak tngllsn, are
the so-called superstructure such as hotels, recreation facilities, and the like:' outsiders, all with different cultural backgrounds, cascading in
shirts. The t-shirts are the public resumes: in one giance one can discern who obsessed with money, and dress in odd peasant costumes. Off they go to the
This grand design clearly shows what attitude the Japanese government will people's daily lives. The accompanying socio-cultural problems can no has come up from Kenya, Bali, Bangkok or Goa. mountains in search of experience. The handful of Nepalis they come into
take towards resort development in 'Third World' countries, and how it is going longer be ignored. How is Japan responding to these problems? Promotional World travellers adorn themselves with the handicrafts of this week's locale.
to use the existing aid system for tourism in a way similar to its approach in schemes alone only further aggravate the problem, notwithstanding the high contact with are guides and lodgeowners - whose burden it is to "represent"
In Kathmandu, turquoise and silver rings, bracelets, earrings, sheep-skin the society and culture.
other sectors. sounding language of Japanese government agencies.
shoulder bags, wool caps and vests. It is said the jewelry is actually mass ­ The East is not the West. Religious! linguistic and philosophical differences
Those who promote tourism depend upon a pristine and scenic natural
In Aid of Tourism environment and diverse cultures, both of which resort development is
produced in Lhasa. The caps are Afghani, and the vests are multi-coloured separate the two. Yet! world travellers al'proach the East, including countries
combinations with tassels hanging from the edges. Who wears this stuff? Not like Nepal, as if they were on a jaunt into the Parisian countryside. They do
1. Yen loans threatening to destroy. the Nepalis. In Kathmandu, they are the ones trying to dress like us! not realise that Hnding a bathroom, exchanging money, buying hasish and
According to a report from the OECF, which administers ODA tied loans, AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 22.(4), 1991 In their attempts to 'become native' the world travellers often corrupt dinner does not constitute "inter-cultural communication'
the total amount of yen loans for the period from 1966 to 1988 was 7.83 trillion indigenous systems. Frozen out of the cultures they travel _
spread across 137 projects. Less than 1 percent of that total, roughly 30 At the bakery, several Germans, aSwede and an American couple are engaged
yen, made up 6 projects tategorized as tourism. Notice, however that Indonesia's Hotel Conglomerates in a heated discussion about exchange rates, whicli is a favourite topic among
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
infrastructure projects such as road and airport construction which are needed Indonesian conglomerates will dominate the tourism sector by the end of WTs, in addition to the black market. They can quote the going rates for the boredom. They trade tales and anecdotes over omelets and pizzas and they
to promote tourism are not included in the tourism category. Such aid next yea~ says a noted observer of the economy_ dollar in Delhi, Kathmandu, Borneo or Burma. Thev also know where to sell huddle together to watch American videos. Make-believe hippie and aspiring
clearly show a transition from constructing superstructure facilities, sucn as "Conglomerates such as the Bimantara, Rajawali, Salim and Summa groups whiskey and cigarettes, blue jeans and cameras. Buddhist, both wili be watching a scratched copy of Rambo.
hotels, to providing the surrounding infrastructure related to tourism, and more will be among the country's top 10 hoteliers next year along with pioneers in An Australian advised me: "See, you buy your Indian rupees in Kathmandu, Truly, the "traveller" is no different from the "tourists". He carries the same
recently to providing comprehensive and basic facilities for expanding tourism. the sector," Christianto Wibisono of the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDB!) get an air ticket to the border, buy your Johnny Walkers and Marlboros at duty­ shackles: an ignorance of the language, the culture, and the people and their
A clear example of this type of loan is the provisional Project for Basic Facilities said. free and sell them for twice over what you paid, once you land:' He continued, idiosyncrasies. However, the tourists, by recognising and accepting the
for Resorts in Thailand. It is a regional development program to encourage PDBI, in a report, said inadequate air transportation connecting Indonesia "if you are going on to Burma, hold on to your stuff, The country is quite screwed differences between themselves and others admit that they are outsiders or
employment and the acquisition of foreign currency primarily through to other countries and the less'than significant role of the local people might up and the people will buy anything you've got, even the shirt off your back'~ the premise that travel is a privilege and not
promoting tourism. The project will provide basic infrastructure such as roads, create problems for the development of the sector and cause it to lag behind I wondered where he was headed. "0h, I'm off to an ashram near Bangalore the possibi lity of such an acknowledgment.
communications, waterworks, etc., for resorts in eight regions and their that of other countries. for a month of meditation:' Ashrams, shrines and mosques are the traditional cheaply and dreSSing like a native can transform
neighboring areas in Thailand. The loan will be used to purchase equipment The PDBI report said the current air seat capacity for international airlines destinations tor Wls. Those who iook for spirituai wisdom are aii young, white, them into cultural insiders. V. S. Naipaul writes of them as those "who wish
and pay expenses for consulting work and other services. serving routes to Indonesia was still smaller than which educated, affluent, radical, chic. They search for "meaning': they overflow with themselves on societies more fragile than their own...who in the end do no
2. Development research discourage visitors from travelling into the country. good intention. more than celebrate thei r own security"
liThe government's protection of Garuda Indonesia, the national flag carrie~ One day, in Kathmandu's main bazaar area, I noticed abackpacker haggling ~i!MAl, Sept/Oct 1990
JICA (the Japan International Cooperative Agency), a government agency
should not affect the flow of visitors into the country. The permission granted with an Indian selling oranges from a basket strapped to his bicycle. "How
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
to private airlines serving domestic routes to operate jet aircraft is expected
to motivate Garuda to strengthen its position as an international airline more
much?" the backpacker asked. "One orange, three rupees'; said the Indian. "One
rupee': the westerner insisted, Ithere/~ He dropped the rupee into the basket Serve them RIghi
able to compete:' th~ report said. • and walked away pleased at his bargaining skills. After all, he had successfully ravellers from the time of Marco Polo and before have always been laden
agriculture and manufacturing as an important sector for community
development. It is likely that any particular project based upon JICA's 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
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
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 WT's talk about cross-cultural sensitivity ana "experience" is a
T , 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
tourist resort developers to provide shares for them. In this way, they will learn sense of cultural imperialism that would have done ihe Victorians to be peopied with non-travelling circuses of beggars and performers assembled
of this phenomenon i~ action. This project will identify potential areas for
about business practices and earn capital gain. This would be better than giving Notwithstanding their beatific expression, world traveiiers are CUl-Ulival precisely with the idea of causing wonderment among the travelling public.
development in the eastern region' of the Malay Peninsula, and conduct
asmall portion of shares to them as an act of charity 20 years after the projects practitioners of the mundane living. In Nepal, as elsewhere.. they compete at Travellers on the German railways may soon see something that convinces them
feasibility studies for total community development programs using tourism
go into full operation;' it said. agame with the odds stacked heavily in theirfavour. They use lheir economic that the entire German people are a travelling circus. Fori as the uninitiated
as its main focus.
The PDBI report also said the government should take the local people's to secure shamelessly that which the society can olfer and than which stranger sits in the dining-car of a German train and sees the woifing of meat
-",, i.rcli'le~~ .mu uvet!)eas experb partiCipation senousiy to prevent the eruptron ot social unrest because large !i cannot and shOUld not also ofter. alia potatoes foiiowed by the reassuring gulping down of coffee, the odds are
A "Seminar for the Promotion of Tourism" is organized each year by )lCA, tourist resorts in the country had been unfairly edging out small-scale and The-world traveller expects to find a unique culture in the 'exotic' East, onlY he won't be prepared for what comes next. If he is: !uckv enough to see what
bringing about 20 participants from allover the world to Japan for a group medium-size businesses. to wait in iine behind the same people whom they seemingly wanted to avoid. c:,;,r.tli. on pale 18
 6 15

Heritage ~ourism Penan~ Hill Condo-versy

Privatisation Spree in Kerala?
Tread Gently by K. T. Suresn

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
A hmad Chik lives with his family atop Penang Hill, in the heart of Malay­
sia's 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
by Phil Voysey

Tread flently yells the universal voice of reason

'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?
three-day festival of music with as much enthusiasm as they do a mela, except is one of about 1,000 residents, rich and poor, of Penang Hill. Visitors ride up over the cacophony of tourist dollar.

in a 68-year-old funicular railway to savour the hill's simple charms. Untouched Here they come aflain
The reality that this report is referring to is the admission that private sector
that, this time, they will be treated to pure classical music in addition to their
by the booming island's urban growth, it is a symbol of Penang's beauty. to conquer moun cain trail and apple pie
initiative is the panacea for the ilis of astagnating tourist profile. The idea that
own traditional song and dance.
So when a commercial plan for its development came to light, it triggered futile attempts to pound every last partide of dust
is doing the rounds in the Mantralaya is that of 'cutting ITDC loose'. Which
Many of the people milling about the grounds, an uproar among residents of the northwestern state. The $167-million scheme translates to selling 51% of government holdings in the Corporation to private
into submission

were not present at the by developer Bukit Pi nang Leisure envisioned a200-room hotel, condominiums, investors. The reasons stated for it are:
With especially desiflned Dunlop retreads.

occasion: Pandit Ravi Shankar began the festivities with an impassioned

recital. The choice of venue was also apt-the Bhawani Natyashala
shopping-entertainment-recreation complex, an adventure theme
j was given last September As always the dust rises up

* Recent investments by the government have been pathetically inadequate.

The Corporation's budget for 1991-92 is Rs. 16 crores.
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.
minister Lim Chong Eu, who set aside 364 hectares
Leisure is a subsidiary of Berjaya Corp., a MalaYSian company
and seeps into delicate labyrinths of ego and

grim determination

* The Corooration has not been able to put to use most of the funds it has
estimate of Rs. 15.5 crores for 1990-91, it was
with interests in manufacturing, lotteries, insurance and property. Vincent Tan tolerable discomforr

Over the years, the Natyashala fell on bad days. It came to be used, without an abysmal Rs. 5 crore.
Chee Yioun, Berjaya's media-shy chief, is said to have good political connections. while rocks teasingly slide and shuffle

any regard for its antiquity or uniqueness of design, in turn as a cinema hall they sit on some of the finest properties in the countrv.ITDC hotels
and a badminton court.
So do Bukit Pinilng Leisure's other owners. Yayasan Bumiputera Pulau Pinang, from beneath the feet of /"'DrbintrT
* don't compare well with the competition.
It took aformer district collector's effort to have the cinema closed and the court
with a 20% stake, is headed by members of the national ruling coalition's New
United Malays National Organisation. Tan Kok Ping, who owns 29%, is
and enjoy a flood lauflh

at the expense of twisted knee and bruised backside.

* The Corporation has been gradually moving into the three-star and 'Yatri
shifted, and it now devolves upon the convenor of the Indian National Trust reportedly close to ex-chief minister Lim. He is a vice-chairman of Gerakan, Nivas' category of hoters. Planners believe that this is where ITDC should
the party that leads the state's ruling coalition. Several concerned individuals can be seen
settle down, leaving the five-stars to the private sector.
for Art and Cultural Heritage (lNTACH), Thakur Ranvir Singh, to set about getting
Lim':; approval has prompted a "Save Penang Hill" campaign. 1'1 regard the furiously scrubbing the stream clean with Blue Omo
Meanwhile, Kerala is being projected as the model to be emulated. As apart
the theatre restored to its original state.
hili as almost sacred;' says Ahmad, a member of the Friends of Penang Hill. while others scratch at the sweat and grime
of the privatisation of the tourism sector in Kerala initiated by the Left Front
For Rav! Shankar's recital, it has been given a quick face-lift, and its facade has that has matted thouflhr and responsibility

Adds he: liThe proposed development is abreach of the Town & Country Plann- government, the state-owned Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC)
been freshly painted. The action has meanwhile shifted to the police grounds Act:' Under the 1976 federal law, a plan for development of Penang was and watch as rivulets of bleached common sense

to accommodate more people (the theatre cannot seat too manv) and admit proposes to di lute its equity by selling to the publ ic 40% of its shares. Already
completed in 1989. The Penang Island Structure Plan declared the hill an area trickle il1lO [he spinach patch of some innocent
the KTDC and the Taj group have jointly set up a new company, the Taj-Kerala
them to the secluded preserves of classical music and dance. The of special character: "Its natural vegetation, topography and character as a hill tourism

is followed by recitals by Aminuddin Dagar and Naina Devi, and aperformance Hotels and Resorts Ltd which plans to start 13 projects with an investment of
resort must be maintained and mnsf'rvPci" (l wonder if that woman
100 crores. Recent reports in the Economic Times suggest that the KTDC is also
by consultations before
paradinf/ around in her bikini top
envisaging a tie-up with,a leading international hotel chain for consultancy,
Raghuraj Singh Hada, hunched over the microphone placed unconventional Iv project has bypassed th'is'crucial step;' he ·argues. "Members of the public, resi­
realises how absurd she looks
marketing and training.
on the floor of the stage, prepares to introduce the items on the agenda. dents, schoolchildren who make trips up the hill- none of us were consulted:' (Compiled from various sources).
Neither, reportedly, was Lim's cabinet. liThe chief minister was pushing a agains[ the backflround of towerinf/,

a flourish, he presents a succession of performers drawn from the neighbouring snow-capped mountain peaks?)

towns of Kota and Boondi which, with Jhalawar, make up the distinctive Hadoti
region in this corner of south-east Rajasthan.
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 Tread flently screams the universal vojce of reason
Roman Holiday
T
sufficient consultation:' he eternal city has decided to go ahead with a string of urban
The night air is redolent with the sound of dhol and man/eera as phad singers "Pen, -"weer, rupee," is the children's three chord
Ecologist Leong Yueh Kwong of the Malayan Nature Society says development projects that will give it a new business and administration centre, a
come on with their ditties, followed by colourful tribal dancers and performers should be based on the Penang Island Structure Plan and be drawn up by the delivered with supplicating eyes
and like an overplayed pop sonf/lonfl af/o sliDDed from the genuine subway, athird university, and even amodern telephone
who manage incredible feats of balance and dexterity involving fire and swords. municipal council. "If the developer fits in with that local plan, they could go
top 40 nobody is liSlenin'f}. The scheme, cost at 77 trillion lire is also expected to have the side-effect
A folk singer from Boondi puts his signature to the show when he gets everyone ahead;' he remarks. "But acommercial developer shouldn't be the one to draw
of saving Rome's priceless historic monuments from slow death by pollution.
in the audience, even those who don't understand the language, to join him the master plan. Their slant will always be towards commercial Pizza, apple col<e is the modem classic with the
timeless Under a recent law the Federal Government is to help underwrite the cost of
in a well-remembered tune, clapping along and singing, infected by his stage Friends worrv that the hill's cool temperature will rise with deforestation,
happened at other Malaysian hill resorts. Five maior water- transforming the eternal city into a modern Capital.
presence. (1 wonde[ if the local DJ with the studded nose [inf/s

catchment areas will also be affected the group. Centrepiece of the ambitious scheme is the creation of what Antonio Gerace,
A ready interpreter sits in the front row, next to Vasundhara and the three malnutrieioned children
the official in charge of urban development at city hall, calls lithe world's biggest
Kam U-Tee, retired general manager the Penang Water Authority, said in understands the

this area and co-organiser of the event, who is following proceedings with a letter to Berjaya that the catchments yield about 22 millions gallons of water business district".
evident enjoyment. "The response is unprecedented;' she says, "I did not expect but then who listens to them anyway:)
For years, one of the most pressing problems confronting this city has been
a day. It would cost at least $2AOO dai Iy to pump that volume from the mainland.
so many people.:' in addition to a $37-million outlay for headworks to raise the water level at Tread gently screams the universal voice of reason the presence of Government ministries, which employ 61,000 people, in historic
"I am trying to promote a new concept in tourism-not the Jaipur-Udaipur kind source, he said. as the needJe balances precariously over the newest sound quarters where exhaust fumes in narrow streets are destroying priceless
where you are packaged for two or three days;' she says, going on to elaborate, Bukit Pinang Leisure has encounted another obstacle. In September the and the turntable beqins to spin. monuments.
"Here, people can laze and loll about the district at their own pace. This is an federal Environment Department rejected the developer's environmental impact INDIAN EXPRESS, 15 May, 1991
HIMAl, March/April 1991
experiment to see how the concept would work-to bring tourism out of its assessment. Director-General of Environment Abu Bakar Jaafar said the project
would affect water supply and cause river siltation and soi I erosion. The
five-star cloister:'
Biased Action ~~
developer was advised to go back to the drawing board.
For outsiders, too, the folk evening was a delight. Away from the false confines Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon, who took over from Lim in October, and the ON lIj. eRiGHT.....
of theapna utsavs, this was folk art in its own space and place, and it felt right. state cabinet met the Friends in January. He found the group's views "generally Whi Ie the Goa government issued noticed to 12 ~ MOOIJMewTAL. em::;R
()( ~A1l0~At.. IMRJTeNle.
Despite the rough edges and the lack of soohistication, the
not the
as authentic.
an annual affair-an
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:'
norms, action was taken only against Leela
Dalmia Resorts, Taj Holiday, Colonia Santa Maria and Charlston Hotel. Leela
Venture's unauthorised construction were removed or demolished while Averina
International removed its fencing within the 200 metre line. Notices were also
. -- r-------~:,j
area to more people. conceptual plan that will issued by the Goa Southern Planning Development Agency and the central
What has begun as an 'experiment' in Jhalawar is cautiously being explored
a
involve much smaller area:' Even if state authorities decide to approve it, he environmental ministry to Dalmia Resorts. While Taj Holiday removed some ~~.:

added, "we may add new and even more stringent conditions to hold a public of its illegal constructions, others Iike the Thai Restaurant are still standing and
in other parts of the state as "heritage tourism'~ The concept of 'palace hotels' hearing on its proposal. "The developers;' concludes Koh, I!sti II have to cross the environment ministry's directives have been taken up in the NtW Deihi
is only one facet of this; INTACH has been pushing the idea of preserving quite a number of hurdles:'Provided a compromise can be reached, peace high court. Charlston Hotel's illegal construction has been partly demolished
medieval towns, stemming the decay of years and curbing the rise of new-fangled should once again prevail on Penang Hill. by the government.
Contd. on page 18 ASIAWEEK,. April 12 1991 The Independent, 20 Aug. 91

Ponnappa in TIMES OF INDIA

 16 5
c. If EQUATIONS is to build an active relationship with concerned people drivers: even though their employment is seasonal, they feed theirfamilies and
Summary Findings:
in the region, we must not only be in regular touch about tourism, but also When Tourism's Profits Go Abroad friends off the back of tourism, and this must help up to 15 or 20 percent of
The Gambia's 800,000 population.
Visit to Coastal KarnatakalKerala
demonstrate an interest in local issues (other than tourism) which are of
concern to them.
by Robert Lacvllle
. But what does the government get out of tourism? Government has a lot of
by Equations Team, May 1991 I had been working in the deepest bush along the Gambian river valley where costs related to tourism. Tourists use and wear out the roads and bridges, which
Issues in Kerala women's groups are developing really effective credit with the support of Government must keep up. Tourists must be supplied with petrol products (for
Team: Manvel Alur, K T Suresh, Leo Saldanha & M Shivakumar 1. Kerala seems to be clearly oriented to tourism development and provides Gambian field workers who are paid by British and American charitable cars, for electricity generation) which consume large amounts of rare foreign
Dates: May 10 - 16, Karnataka support to the industry. The private sector is actively encouraged in its efforts, agencies. But after eight hours of bouncing around in a Land rover on dusty roads exchange. Tourists occupy large numbers of customs and immigration officials,
May 17 - June 2, Kerala and the interventions of the state and its mechanisms could be stated as: in the heat of the day, I was exhausted, and in need of a cold beer. Well, let and police guard the tourist beaches day and night, to ensure that no nasty
integration, incorporation and even co-option. This is evident from the me be truthful: three cold beers. Ice-cold. scandals happen, which would make juicy reading in the European press and
Logistics
District level upwards. So I had a shower, cleaned off three layers of red dust, and went off to find damage the tourist business. Tourism generates about 10% of Gambia's foreign
In 21 days, the team covered a vast coastline, from Karwar in northern 2. Furthermore, the state demonstrates demographic and socio-economic three cold beers. As I walked along humming to myself, I was thinking of those exchange earnings, according to the Ministry ofTourism; but that i.s not very
Karnataka, through to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. Shivkumar was asked to characteristics similar to parts of coastal Karnataka: high rate of literacy, women in Tankular with their fantastic garden and their vegetable marketing much. Apart from a Government's 6% bed tax, sales tax on gasoline (which
provide overall guidance to the team, and he was accompanied by Manvel and influence of Gulf boom, significance of religious institutions (though political problem. I reached the hotel patio, and I stopped in amazement: I had stepped doesn't offset its foreign exchange cost to the Governmentl, and the £7 airport
Leo in Karnataka, while Suresh joined him for the visit to KeralalKanyakumari. bodies exercise considerable leverage as well), well-developed infrastructure out of rural Africa into fleshy Denmark. Confronted by huge expanses of female tax for each of the 60,000 or so tourists, the only benefit the country derives
Dai Iy logs were written up, and reports prepared i ndivid ually, with Shivkumar and economic institutions. Danish flesh, I experienced a sort of culture shock rather like a physical thump is from employment.
providing a conceptual framework at the end. 3. There is however afair amount of understanding of the tourism issue amongst in the chest. My thoughts of village underdevelopment were smothered by the Oh yes, there is one other source of income: Gambia Airways. This company
Prior to finalising our understanding of and responses to the visit 3 discussions intellectuals and NGO-related individuals in Kerala. The historical hideous reality of human over-development. The fat lady in the bikini was has the monopoly of handling rights at the airport, and it is one of the few air
were held with a group of rapporteurs: Dr Duarte Baretto of the lSI, Shri A development of political economy in the State is viewed as leading inevitably suffering from painful sunburn. Her bright breasts bulged painfully out of her companies in the world to make a profit (largely because it runs no aircraft:
Vasudevan of GRID and Shri C Antonisamy of Peace Trust, Dindigul. towards tourism development today. skimpy bra. Her red back was peeling generously. they are not very profitable these days). Gambia Airways is therefore a
A final report will be prepared by mid-July, incorporating all the elements 4. The link between Union Territories (Mahe - Lakshadweep) at the tourism I moved away, and sat in the dark with a beer. As I relieved my parched throat, moneymaker for the Gambia.
covered in the individual and group reports. This will be the basis for follow­ level appears to be potentially significant. It needs to be further exami ned. I had time to watch three teenaged Gambian girls modelling tie-dye shirts and But British Airways has decided that Gambia Airways is costing too much.
up action in Karnataka and Kerala west coast. 5. Tourism strategy at Lakshadweep appears to be: high-cost, high quality, low shorts. They were young and attractive. I began to feel better, to take an interest They do not like to P?Y Gambian taxes on aircraft fuel; and they do not like
Issues in Coastal Karnataka/Kasargod density, low infrastructure. This is environment friendly, elitist-alternative in the models. Then I caught sighLof a pair of Scandanavian buttocks, and paying charges for the airport, for passenger and luggage and ticket handling,
tourism, with substantial revenue potential. This would lead us to surmise shuddered. I offered a silent prayer: "If that woman does decide to spend 12 etc. 55 per cent of Gambia's tourists come from Britain. British Airways is not
1. The traditional influence of the Catholic religious institutions, today
that "speciality" tourism developments can be foreseen in future. dollars on a shirt and shorts in delicate tie-cloth, please let it be for her a small operation. It runs charters and carries a fai r proportion of the British
overshadowed by Hindu revivalism - evident in politics as well as
6. Specifically, we have been asked for the following: granddaughter, and not for herself:' At least if she buys some, that will add tourists, as well as most of the Gambia's air freight.
institutions (temples).
i. to produce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document; income for awomen's co-operative, for the girl models, for the hotel's disk jockey. Apart from the small tourism revenues, all the foreign exchange used to buy
2. The increasing economic dominance of the banking/financial sector,
ii. to provide inputs to KIiTTs students; Every piece of income helps. Compared to the social disruption, there is little aircraft fuel has to be bought with groundnuts. Even the customs forms and
especially of the Udupi Pai families, in a wide range of industrial sectors.
iii. to place tourism on the agenda of ECO-92 (Brazil); enough benefit coming to the Gambia from its tourist industry. the toilet paper in the airport transit lounge have to be paid for with foreign
Their traditional implications for tourism/hotels. (They have established a
iv. to collaborate with the International Collective in support of At breakfast I was fresher, feeling less jaundiced about my Scandanavian exchange. Gambian peasant farmers grow ground nuts, which are collected by
hotel management Institute in collaboration with ITO'Welcomgroup. Also,
Fisherworkers (HQ: Madras); and,
neighbours. This was made all the easier by the fact that the fat women were the co-operatives, and turned into oil or cattle cake which are largely
a centre for folk artslcultural media).
v To share the report of our visit with those visited.
wearing more clothing than the previous evening. Breakfast was generous. There exported ....to Britai n.
3. The relatively higher rate of literacy/success of literacy campaign in 0 K
Responses was salami and ham, cheese and butter and jam, all of it imported. These The Gambia is a poor country, and it needs British Airways to pay the real
District, and the economic relevance of the Gulf boom.
products were eaten off imported china plates with nice warm bread rolls, made cost. Yet rather than pay taxes or dues to the Gambian government, British
4. Issues related to non-tourism development: Karwar, MCF, Kaiga, a. EQUATIONS has agreed in principle to respond to KIiTTs request by
deforestation (Western ghats), etc. These are of more immediate relevance providing inputs on tourism critique. We also hope KIiTTs will be able to with imported flour. There was tea and coffee (imported), together with Airways is threatening to pullout. Is it now British Government policy that British
support us by undertaking or sponsoring research on tourism in coastal American cornflakes to eat with reconstituted imported Dutch powdered milk Airways should have its airports subsidised by Gambian peasant farmers? What
to a number of people.
(you cannot mistake the taste, however well they mix it to remove the gritty gall! The British deadline for Gambian surrender is 27th May.
5. The resistance of the people of Kanvarthirtha to a Kerala tourism development Kerala, and providing access to existing documentation.
lumps) and English powdered sugar. I for one hope that the Gambian Minister of Tourism will call their bluff:
plan, led by Mr Subhash Chandra, a school teacher at Bantwal. He has asked b. To prodClce a Kerala-specific tourism critique document, EQUATIONS
for information/support from EQUATIONS. should identify one or two persons in Kerala whose services can be uti lised My breakfast was somewhat spoiled by the dank smell of beer hangi ng over Sabena will be happy to take over the leading role in Gambian air transport,
6. Although the beaches are not enti rely cond ucive to swimm ing/water sports, in this regard. the dining room; and the unsightly crates of beer, Coke and Fanta (all imported and I dare say the Belgian business community will not be far behind. Perhaps
there are several hotel projects coming up in the coastal region. Since there c. EQUATIONS can collaborate with others as per the requests made. ingredients in imported bottles). Even the tables and table cloths were imported the new British High Commissioner to the Gambia will be taking his home
has been a long tradition of pilgrimage to the various temples here, it is likely d. Following distribution of the report, EQUATIONS could organise a meeting (no tie-dye cloth here, I'm afraid). In fact, as I looked around the dining room, leave on Sabena this year. That would indeed be a bitter pill for British
that tourism promoters havetheir eyes on the Indian middle-class, who can of concerned people in Kerala. I could see no sign of local consumption except for the water: water for bread, diplomacy. Very galling.
be persuaded to combine spiritual quests with worldly pleasures. With the water for beer, water to dilute sickly coloured syrups, water to wash up the mess GUARDIAN, 26 May 1991
General made by the imported tourists.
increasing disposable incomeavailable to this class, the region does have
Following the presentations of the reports to the rapporteurs, and as a result Gambian women grow tomatoes for the local tourist market. They harvest
tourism development potential. Basic infrastructure is also available more
of the discussions which followed, we arrived at a number of general
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
conclusions and recommendations, given below:
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
.Tourism Tragedy
promoting tourism in Honavar. The ease with which our team could travel 1. That this experiment of visiting a region with a team constituted of several because he cannot be bothered. Rather than buy Gambian Fresh, he prefers Too much too quickly is the usual reason for the conflict
in the region and visit various temples and sites is another indication of the different people is in itself a model which could be further developed and to pay more for Spanish Tasteless. The African bitter tomato is asort of aubergine tourism development and the environment. After 1988, a
overall tourism developmental potentiaL explored. Not only does the process help us gain a primary database, it has which looks like a large ripening tomato. It is good in stews. But here I have year for tourism, Turkey planned to increase revenue from .it$
7. As of today, there are very few organisational initiatives to examine tourism
the effect also of creating a positive image of EQUATIONS. Also, it puts a found a new meaning for the expression "bitter tomato": top qual ity tomatoes tourists. But problems followed. Tourists found that dust and
from a wholistic perspective amongst the local NGOs of the region. Neither
responsibility on us to be reciprocal in the relationships we enter into during which you cannot sell because the white man will not buy them. That is acase noise from half· built hotels disturbed their peaceful holiday.
do any of the existing groups appear prepared to enter into a specific
such visits. for trade protection, if ever one needed to be found. The government should Quickly built accommodation proved to be dangerous when in
involvement on tourism issues in the immediate future, since they have a
2. This particular visit- the first of its kind - is a turning point for EQUATIONS. tax imported fresh food, price-forcing the hotels to buy local chickens, local 1989 a 12·year·old English girl was killed in a 26 foot fall after
variety of other pre-occupations.
A number of new issues have been identified, and we have met with several eggs, and local fruits and vegetables. her hotel balcony in Bodrum collapsed. In 1990, the amount of
people who have expressed an interest in ourperspectives and future plans For although the tourist industry has been developing these last few years, Escherichia coli, a bacterium of faecal origin, reached levels that
Responses in the region. In particular, we see the potential for much greater involvement the profits mai nly accrue outside the country. Tour operators are paid in Europe. made it dangerous to go swimming along the coast. After
a. EQUATIONS plans to facilitate a seminar - workshop on tourism issues
in Kerala. As the tourism industry increasingly plays an important role in They pay their bills in Europe: airfares are paid to European airlines, and hotel criticisms from conservationists, the Government is now aiming
in the region, inviting a number of NGOs and others whom we visited. For
the Indian economy, there is a greater need for awareness and mobilisation fees are mostly paid in Europe to the Scandanavian, French, German and to diversify to take the pressure off coastal development, with
this, we are seeking the help of interested local individuals.
at various levels of society. Gambian investors who have built the hotels. The employment benefit is of plans for inland skiing and nature holidays.
b. EQUATIONS should also respond to the request of the Kanvarthirtha people.
3. The shift from elitist (traditional) tourism to recent mass tourism is a reflection course considerable. Waiters and cooks and bed makers are all Gambians (or
Source: Consumer Currents, No. 135, April 1991
We can begin by publicising the issues, as well as by sharing information
of the economies of scale at work in the industry. As there is a low demand Senegalese); so are the tie-dye ladies and their teenaged models, the dancers
with Kanvarthirtha about tourism issues generally.
(in the international market) for Third World agricultural-industrial products, and musicians, the carvers and leather workers, the tour guides and the taxi
contd on page 19
 4 17

The Jumbos are Coming training courses that gave 300 rangers and 300 park wardens a chance to
upgrade their technical and managerial skills. In addition, four wardens were Nepal: A Tourism Tragedy
talk less about the romantic attractions of mountai n wilderness areas and more
• about toilets, garbage disposal a!ld fuel.
by I. Rajeswary sent on fellowships to the College of African Wildlife and Management in Tourism in Nepal is increasing by over 77 per cent a year: it is the only hard Once there is a heavier investment in tourism in the Himalayas, it will be
Tanzania, Africa's first centre devoted to wildlife conservation. currency earner for the world's fourth poorest nation; and is being promoted difficult to fight destruction because money talks, and loudly too. Before this

T here was a time when elephants and lions, rhinoceroses and hippo­
potamuses 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 30,000 elephants. Up unti 11972,
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
vigorously. The result is predictable: footpaths are destroyed, sewage gets into
rivers, litter mounts and forests disappear at an alarming rate. 400,000 ha of
j

forest are cleared each year; and each hectare cleared loses 30.75 tons of
soiL.devastating landslides and ffoods wreck both land and economy.
happens, I suggest that the Himalayas should be divided - with the co­
operation 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
tourism was Uganda's third most important foreign exchange earner after coffee primary and secondary school students, the importance of conservation. But come all.
and cotton. In 1971, it drew 85,000 visitors who spend US $27 million. his task is complicated by traditional beliefs. "Some Ugandans believe that a
The slopes ofthe world's highest peaks in the Himalaya were once a pristine
The second one would be open only by special permission to a limited
But tourism ground to a halt between 1972 and 1979 during Idi Amin's wilderness. Desecration by climbers and trekkers has set in motioR their
woman's fertility increases if she eats hippo meat;' says Mr. Mohamed. ''l\nd number of climbers and scientists. There are already a number of national
turbulent reign. Guns and ammunition were easily available and Amin's trigger­ ecological degradation. Until a decade or two ago, it was a relativelv minor
a man is considered less of aman if he does not provide hippo meat for his wife:' these could be upgraded and perhaps even linked.
soldiers, who were given afree run of national parks, slaughtered whole problem: today it has reached disastrous proportions.
But Mr. Mohamed's message is slowly getting through. Last year, two such The third one \'vould be inviolate and kept free of human intrusion. It would
of elephants for ivory. By 1982, the elephant population in Queen sessions led by Mr. Mohamed were well attended. "The Ugandans used to view
The worstaffected region is around Everest: 'There is so much junk
that a full-scale expedition is needed to remove it; says Chris Bon/ngton, an be a or two above the national park status. This raises some basic
Elizabeth National Park had dwindled to 152, down from 3,000 in the 19705. these workshops as agovernment scam to nab poachers;' he says. "What turned questions. Do we want to preserve some corners of the earth free from man's
In 1980, conc;erned over the decline of wildlife and tourism, the government them around was seeing actual footage of their natural wildlife heritage and
Everest explorer. In recent years, climbing from the northeast ridge on the Tibet
interference or do we want to open up every bit of it to human exploitation.
that ousted Idi Amin turned to the United Nations Development Programme what poaching could do to them. side, has become the craze. As a result, Rongbuk the world's highest monastery;
j
Do we have the right to use up all the earth? Or are we willing to leave some
(UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) for help in training a UN DP's assistance ends in December. Officials want the project extended. has become a toilet and rubbish dumb. Once-cfear view; .of magnificent
space for the snow leopards, ghurrals and the abominable snowman?
40-man anti-poaching strike force. The new unit produced immediate results The government is interested in conservation but we have limited resources;'
mountain vistas are now obscenely impeded by abandoned oxygen canisters,
1/
paper; foil and other garbage. As Reinhold Messner wrote recently, "Man, through the centuries, has always
in Murchison Falls, Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo Valley national parks. says Dr. Edrorna, in explaining why his government has yet to contribute its chosen places which seemed special and declared them holy and untouchable.
In Murchison Falls, the number of elephant carcasses encountered on ranger share of $53,000 to the project. "It has other priorities. If the extension is not 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 There, the Gods Iived....Today more than ever we have a need for unexplored
patrols dropped from 120 in 1980 to none in 1982 and the elephant herd there forthcoming, it will be a real tragedY:' wilderness:'
is now slowly increasing. The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth Park An important long term strategy, says Mr. Jingu, is to convince people living the Himalaya. Of these, a large proportion are Everest climbers, 13
in the current season. The Nepal Government has more than 700 Everest And our Gods have always lived in the Himalayas.
has quadrupled. within the parks that they can profit from managing and protecting wildlife on
When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, his administration sought thei r own initiative. The government wants to adopt an approach to community climbing requests pending till 2003. by Aamir Ali, HIMAl 28 May/June 1990
additional UN DP assistance to rehabilitate the country's wildlife and national participation in wildlife management that has already been tested in Zimbabwe. The indian Mountaineering Association has laid down guidelines for anyone
parks. As part of a $1.7 million project, carried out by the Food and Agriculture Under this arrangement the government entrusts a section of national park to climbing in the Indian Himalaya: it offers cash incentives to all expeditions
Organization of the UN (FAO), 49 two-way radios were distributed to Uganda's the villagers who live there, provided they follow specific regulations: hunting which clean up their camps behind them. The Himalaya Adventure Tru.st has Upturning Virgin Soil
Park and game officials. For the first time, all national park officials can is permitted only in designated areas, only a limited number of animals can astrictcode of conduct for trekkers, and Nepal tourism authorities have made
he term 'tourism development' implies much more than running tourist
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
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 is gives villagers a major
incentive to turn in any poachers.
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
T 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
since the project was launched two years ago. "In Africa': says Tanzanian Raphael "It has worked in Zimbabwe;' says Mr. Jingu, "and Iam sure it can work here!l. climbers, 17 to joint expeditions, and 5 reserved for Nepalese climbers. 18 minor of running resorts and bus services for tourists, it has set its sights on the
Jingu, the FAO/UNDP project's chief technical adviser, "anti-poaching forms If the necessary funds are forth--com ing, Uganda may soon have aconservation peaks are open to trekkers, administered directly by the Nepa! Mountaineering development of virgin land along the Konkan coast The corporation has
the backbone of wildlife management' policy that employs both the carrot and the stick. Association. identified 32 locations where international standard, upmarket as vvell as budget
The poachers, who are usually armed and operate their own four-wheel drive WORLD DEVELOPMENT, (UNDP), March 1991 Frustrated in its efforts to control the ecological impacts ofEverest climbing, hotels are expected to corne up within the next decade.
vehicles, mainly seek hippopotamuses, buffaloes and Uganda Kobs, aform of the Nepal GO'vernment has finally decided that Everest can no longerbe climbed
In achange from its earlier policy, MTDC is now planning to withdraw from
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
Massive MP Campaign 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. operational activities and become a nodal agency for the development of
tourism by undertaki ng a different set of activities. Taking care of infrastructural
Baker Juma, the Ishasha sector game warden. "Being able to co-ordinate our by Rakesh Khar While this may help limit further destruction ofthe world's highest peak, the
providi ng land, offering basic amenities for motorists using national
with radios gives us a huge tactical advantage:' 'Temptations 50 irresistible that you will fall for them. Forts, that still echo past question ofthe existing garbage remains: will Nepal decide to allow dean-up
j
highways, are some of the major plans chalked out by MTDC
Statistics bear Mr. Juma out. In 1988, there were 209 poaching incidents in glories. Palaces; that stiil shimmer with grandeur. Love, still in passionate expeditions after 79941
the park, dropping to 156 in 1989 a decline of 25 per cent. "In fact;' says embrace in stone. FOIesis with wildlife in natural display. Get away to the centre Moreover; it is not Everest alone which stands it; danger of permanent The corporation has a"PerspectiveGlvwth Plan'; basea on which it has asked
Dr. Eric Edroma, Uganda National Parks director, "animals which used to run of it all. Madhya Pradesh (/viP) - the heart of India. The sightseer's paradi5e, destruction. It is high time that Nepal (and other countries in the Himalayan for the allocation of funds from the Central government in the Eighth Five Year
when they saw people now stand and gaze at them because they are not afraid:' with many a beautiful region) came up with ajoint environment protection plan under the auspices Plan. Its plans involve roping in private developers to bui Id resorts/hotels and
Uganda's rangers and wardens constantly live on edge. Last October, in a ofan officially constituted environment protection authoritY. laxes on mountain thereby develop the locations as tourist spots. The land is provided by
Thus speaks a colourfully designed booklet. The booklet forms a part of a
shoot-out at Murchison Falls Park, 30 poachers were killed. "I am very climbing could help to finance such a venture. MTDCIWe get the land either through an allotment from the government or
massive campaign afoot to launch the state in a big way on the tourism map
of my rangers;' says Dr. Edroma. fiT hey are well trained and equipped:" we acquire directly'~ says Kawale.
of the country. So here is astate with 40 backward districts offering fun lovers Thi5, is what the article Mr Himalayan Environment; seems to suggest.
Sometimes, hOlNeVer, his men are not so lucky. Recently, knife-wielding relatives the natural wonders, scenic splendours and a lot more beautifully wrapped However, MTDCs offer to private developers has not met with a great deal
of a poacher, who had been arrested earlier, attacked a ranger from Ishasha up in 26 economical and convenient packages. of enthusiasm. According to Mukhtar Hussain of Suman Motels Ltd which runs
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
Tourism in Madhya Pradesh has come of age. The M.P. State Tourism Mr. Himalayan Environment five to six motels in Maharashtra (but aren't bui Iding any on MTDC land), 'Their
Development Corporation ended 1989-90 on abright note. Not only did it show location lS for the promotion of tourism, our location is for busi ness faei Iities:'
of a larger government effort to revive tourism. Officials in this land-locked a gross profit of Rs 38.83 lakhs, but it also showed a net profit of Rs 1.33 lakhs. The Swiss Alpine Club has recently appointed a permanent official Another private developer is more explicit when he say\ "Basically the plots.
country are well aware that they must compete with neighbouring Kenya, which ''The corporation expects to end 1990-91 showing gross profit of Rs 60 lakhs for the protection of the environment. Shouldn't therE:' be at least one ,',;Ir. Which MTDC are offering are not developed locations. They are beautifUl
currently attracts the lion's share of visitors seeking African safaris. and a net profit of Rs 5 lakhs", says Mr G 5 Chahal, a senior official. Environment for the Himalayas? He could easily be financed by a small head but ...ve arc sceptical about the availability of infrastructural facilities:'
Because services at most Ugandan hotels and lodges in the parks are minimal Faced with the arduous task of promoting tourism in astate which symbolises tax on all visitors. complain that not enough publicity has been given to MTDCs
at best, the government asked WTO, with UNDP fundi ng, to draft a master plan utter backwardness, the corporation has succeeded in establishing Madhya This is not a plea to stop tourism. That would be impossible anyway. It is a procedures. This means that only linsiders' have an opportunity to participate.
to renovate hotels, re-surface pot-holed roads and upgrade the skills of those Pradesh as a front-runner tourist destination through the extensive promotional to regulate its future development far more strictly and that is not an easy
Whilst MTDC plans to team-up with the concerned authorities for the
in the hotel industry. ''l\s Uganda's economic and social conditions campaigns conducted in and outside the state. The corporation claims to have task. If there is a lesson to be learnt from the experience of the Alps, it is this:
of water, electricity and roads, private developers complain that most
tourism can become the country's main foreign exchange earner,' says Mr. jingu. also consolidated its pioneering activity of organising package tours. protection of the mountai n environment needs determined action and hard
locations have no rail connections, another negative factor. Also, they are not
Even without such improvements, the number of visitors to Uganda rose from order to create better awareness of the rich folklore and folk traditions as work at all levels, from the highest government authorities to the lowliest
interested in the development of hotels as a majority of them are slated to fall
8,622 in 1982 to almost 40,000 in 1986. The increase is due at least partially al~o it<; varied cultural heritage, a numberoffairs and festivals have been selected individual. Interests of local people have to be catered for so that they have
into the two or three star category. aimed at the tourist on abudget. ''l\lso there
to the fact that poaching is down and the parks themselves are now better for development and promotion. These include the Panchmarhi festival, Bhojpur a vested Interest In protecting the environment. The Swiss, for examDle, have
is no assurance of a minimum level of room occupancy;' states a developer.
managed. Tourist arrival figures since 1986 are not available. Orchha festival and Malwa festival. an active programme of aid to mountain communities.
Mr. Jingu credits the new order in the parks to UNDP-financed intensive ECONOMIC TIMES, 16 April, 1991 Protection needs some down-ta-earth action. Perhaps one way to start is to BUSINESS INDIA, 1.5-28 April 1991
 18
3

History of A Small Place In describing one small place in the vast world, Kincaid's memories construct
a counter-narrative that resists nostalgia and universality in favor of a historical
Letter to EQUATIONS
Pay for Environment
Caren Kaplan and geographical investigation of location in the expanded, global sense.

T
Dear friends, he travel industry, environmentalists and officials from developing
Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol. 3. No 1. (1991) countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses
Jamaica Ki ncaid's A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent
of displacement. Kincaid locates Antigua, the island where she was born, as discussion with Suresh in Calcutta. will have to pay much more.
not only a "small place" on the map, but a place in history. In the process of 1. For EQUATIONS' advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of "A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply:' World Wildlife Fund
remapping this location, Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)
Tourism, it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the cost­ (WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific
points. structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture. benefit analysis of Tourism, i.e. taking into account the high impore content Asia Travel Association.
InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semi­ ofelite tourism, the capital-intensive bias, and also the various impacts
While the organisation does not directly promote tourism, says INTACH's Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty, he
collapse. Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like (such as on the emnronment), what picturefinally emerges? It is important
Harshad Kumari, it does contain the concept of tourism, insofar as it has to to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed told the conference which ended on April 14. "It makes perfect sense that visitors
something else. She explores the contradictions of representation by
do with the country's heritage, under its umbrella. 'We believe in local people approach; and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions;' he said.
investigating the stakes in each position available in that location. Who benefits
from perpetuating the representation of paradise? Who benefits from the raw being able to use their old structures, not just in restoring them for the heck mean anything. Huwever, in one's dealings with guvernment etc., this Much of the world's remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash
sewage in the pretty bay, the erosion of Antiguan culture, the condos and time­ of it. Once a building is saved, restoration takes care of itself:' she says, citing is something they understand. But all the limitations to this approach also is a higher priority than conservation. The travel industry must show
shares... ? Since the "exotic" food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the successful examples in Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jodhpur. have to be simultaneously propagated. Actually, using cost-benefit governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for
same plane as the tourist, A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of "Right now, the sort of tourism that's happening is not benefitting the local approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game. Just tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit,
modernity's representational imperatives. people at all:' she feels, adding, "By linking heritage and tourism, we should by changing some assumptions one could get a different result. Corrversely, speakers stressed.
Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town;' a 'desirable' or 'good' project, can never make it is based on the market
mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes •A Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on
counter-discourse of Antigua's relationship with the rest of the world. In this Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition, and the one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial
and destroys alternatives.
text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one, at least on the part musical nights in Jhalawar, apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight companies and a logging firm with strong political backing.
let ..... , as in the Tehri dam case, it does help to get into this.
of the native. The text is addressed to "you'; the past, present, or potential tourist. into local culture than the package-tour, may well be a step towards greater One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India,
The narrator, Kincaid., however, is not truly a native anymore since she lives "It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business,
cultural awareness. elsewhere and bring this together. Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence;'
and writes in the United States. This displaced position gives Kincaid's text a SUNDAY, 3 March 1991
projects, and more ambitiously, for the state or national level. Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque, now seconded
particular value; it mediates the very oppositions it constructs, breaks open
2. Ultimately, given what one is campaigning against, it is a losing battie to the WWF. Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up
contradictions, makes connections. For example, the subject position of "native"
in the short-run. But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other with financial clout, Roque said, which conference speakers believed the tourist
is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity, as Kincaid illustrates a point made Serve them right (contd, from page 7) strategies, which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle industry could provide.
by Arjun Appadurai; the opposition between native and tourist is constructed and taking on work in the area of <alternatives~ Thus, design ofedu­
by a transnational culture of tourism-that is, the native is constructed and comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison, it "Despite the fears of conservationists, tourism and ecology need not be mutually
catiot1.al curricula and carrying {)u,! educational programmes (jor, say,
"incarcerated" by the anthropological discourse of western travel. Kincaid's will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten, chewed and exclusive:' said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd, a pioneer in nature tours
students and youth), on critiques of tourism, on responsible travel as
poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions swallowed up - reminiscent, to the untrained eye, of d large choru~ of in the Himalayas. "Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part
learning and interacting with diverse peoples, places and cultures.
like "native" and "traveler" even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized eaters in a circus or a magic show. Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his Actually, both the 'campaigning against' and the articulation and of the same picture:'
identities. shoes in Gold Rush. attempting of (alternatives' have to be undertaken. From a social
No, despite the economic problems engendered by unification, Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more
The story of Antigua's colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of perspective, one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and
is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some money from fewer tourists, Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating
the author's personal history. Her memories become a counter-narrative to ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams. But such cash for community projects and preservation.
official histories and public relations campaigns. Yet, Kincaid is equally frustrated their calories from porcelain. (In any case there's always beer to fall back upon common perpective, coming together and taking on of roles within a
with island approaches to time and history. She writes: if need be.) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery common perspective, interaction and exchange is all too rare in our Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas. Firms competing for
To the people in a small place, the division of Time into the Pasf;
- plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental (voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within one's high-volume business were bound to cut costs, Choegyal said, "and
the Present,and the Future does not exist. An event that occurred one problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes. An Indian organisation; which only destroys you. This needs to be reflected on. environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints:'
hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as ifit were happening who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate, thrown away after use, as Because, even concentrating on one stream alone, is basically counter­ Traditional life in Indonesia's overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the
at this very moment. And then, an event that is occurring at th/5 very the prototype of the paper or plastic plate, might think that crockery made productive. So haw can all the various efforts, that all· need to be
conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the
moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as of bread is a genuine innovation. But he would do well to remember that simultaneously undertaken, be realised?
expense of the environment, said the nation's tourist planning chief, himself
if it had happened one hundred years ago. plantain-leaf plates, as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall 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 Balinese. "Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-
Rather than impose linear, teleological time in the form of conventional knows, are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away. The difference bet"veen
(alternatives' itself, as a means of retaining sanity, learning and being and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by
history, Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds India and Germany then, is essentially this: we feed our cows with dispo~able
energised! investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large;' I
of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates.
Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources Gede A'rdika said.
experience, honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism. Editorial, DECCAN HERALD, 7 March 1991 to reaching out to political parties, MPs, MLAs, gcrvernment officials;
She maps even as she tells, in the process inventing a historical poetics of A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter
<lobbying: This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task, and full to locals. "Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product
displacement. Antigua as chronotope collapses linear; imperial time of all kinds of dangers. But it is also something that needs to be
masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and as much as they feel part-ownership;' researcher Charles Tambiah said.
systematically done; part of the (long-run" efforts, mentioned earlier:
experience. Summary Findings (contd trom page 16) I write all this because J myselfam concerned ff,bnut, lile Tourism pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines
The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami, New York, very glad to find a group such ~hai blasted apart (-'/ dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from
and London, The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products. On I strongly closer and needed to feed their families. "Tourism as aspot of affluence and
the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism. the supply side, this' is matched by the 'need' for foreign exchange. inte1'{lCtiosz bet'Ween activistgro"dps is badly net'ded luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b(' slJ,tain6::-,jp development;'
Antiguans, in their small place on the map and in history, are inextricably linked 4. This will make the task of seeking 'alternatives' (such as avariety ot an alternalive culture in the 'voluntary sector ~;, ana ,JeWuse ;. jj'Ij'seq he said.
to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home. This map alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive. In am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above.
" But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would
of transnational, global conditions is, in part, the work of the text. It is this strategy a sense, the Third World cannot do 'without' tourism, in the present stage These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and
of economic development. By the same logic, domestic tourism is not a I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you 'What to do. From the otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWF's
of insisting on Antigua's tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating
viable proposition either. little! knuw about EQUATIONS and its work, I have strong Bunting. He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature
for specific, localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics
admiration for your efforts. I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself reserve. "Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and
of displacement. Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of 5. The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent
as one ofyou, one ofthe larger struggle all of us, in our awn way, are so were very familiar with trails and watering spots. The animals they used to
the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation. limitations: that is, if it proves to be economically not viable. Therefore, this
involved in. hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see':
Edward Said has described this impulse as "cartogaphic," arguing that the points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies
ro<;trf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination, It is necessary, of the industry, its linkages, the convergence of different state inter/entior-s, _r'lease lel me kn071i what jYJU think" 5di~gE;5t<;-d tourists themselyes couid be 11.) illl!J1(Jve
he suggests, to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not and so on. In particular, we need to examine the links of tourism with Your; 3irrcere{v, environment in the developing world.
"pristine and prehistorical" but historically constituted by present concerns. changes in land use patterns in the coastal V. Calcutta_ CCI, Apr/May 199!
 2 19
contd. from page 1 runs Nepal Cultural Experience, a special interest tour operator, submitted a Tourism in Goa ... (conld from pag'" 10) If these doubts are groundless, if the agitators 'have either been misled, or
pressure from Beijing, Kathmandu disbanded the guerrillas and made Upper proposal several years ago to conduct exclusive tours in the restricted area for have deliberately distorted facts: why botheLwith them at all? If the agitators;
off-limits. "high class" tourists. Among other things, Lamichane proposed that three houses metro cities like Bombay and Calcutta, it can easily exist in the relative opinions are a lot of poppycock, why is it necessary to write six articles (at least)
the Khampa "marauders" have been forgotten, the Nepali of the King of Mustang be turned into a museum, and that programmes be anonymity of mass tourism resorts. about these matters?
government continues to close off the area north of Kagbeni. Perhaps the organised- to ed ucate travellers about the natural and cultural heritage of the The resistance to tourism in Goa has never stated that there should be no
Questions persist.
restrictions remain due to bureaucratic inertia, and a long-standing and perhaps region. According to Lamichane, his plan would maximise income while tourism at all. There are several groups who oppose mindless tourism
ill-founded fear of ruffling Chinese feathers. minimising the adverse cultural effects of tourism. "Let the local people (not just the 4 mentioned by the Gantzers), each of whom have
Among those advocating the opening of Mustang are many inhabitants of the quality of their lives, but let them not wear ties". obiectives and approaches. However, what all of them are asking for - even
is for acheck on unbalanced development. In fact, this is
Travels in Five Tibets (conrd. from p.lgp.12)
Upper Mustang, from the walled township of Lo Manthang and villages such Some Lobas advocate decentralised, locally controlled tourism. Tashi Zampa
as Charang, Chemi and Sama. suggests that a law be passed curtailing the rights of people from outside to that the Gantzers argue in favour of, in a recent article unrelated to
"Over 90 per cent of the people of the upper areas want Mustang to be buy property or to run business in upper Mustang. Only that would ensure (Indian Express 18/6/91). Thev suggest the need for a Tourism
j

opened;' asserts Jabyang Bista, who lives in the northernmost village of that the people of the area benefit from tourism, Areas Protection Act, and define its
Chosyere. "Maybe some people in southern Mustang want it closed, but the Another Loba, Kelsang Tashi, is confident that the Loba can learn to handle Yet in one of their articles (Navhind
tourism when it arrives. liThe younger generations are not like their the 'agitators' have gone to court because 'these cases could drag on quest
people in the north want it opened:'
have seen the way things are in the rest of the country. They have studied. Even One might well ask, what is the purpose of the law existing or proposed the accounts are cliched, unreflective survivals of a bygone genre'~ (his
Opening Upper Lo could make the villages of lower Mustang mere night­
the Sherpas did not know how to run business in the beginning. Like - and where it is not abided by, what are the means of enforcing exceptions are David Snellgrove, Peter Matthiessen and Andrew Harvey, among
stops for tourists headed for the Tibetan culture of the north. Understandably,
we will learn:' Tashi's wife, Chimi Dolkar, is convinced that Upper Mustang The articles also seek to create on aura of doubt about the motive behind others).
some lodge-owners in Tukuche, Jomsom and Marpha prefer to keep the northern
must be opened. Some can be porters, those who are able will run hotels. Right the resistance. More than once, we are casually informed that foreign money Tourism literature, particularly adventure tomism literature, is booming of
areas closed. Most, however, recognise the windfall that could accrue to the
now, even those want to cannot earn money;' She says the suggested entry fee is involved ('a small group of agitators, some admittedly supported by foreign course, beckoning tourists to the last hidden place. This literature, says Bishop,
whole area from the opening.
funds'). To my knowledge, this is furthest from the truth. Those who have "has had profound influence on the shaping of the contemporary images of
Thus, when King Birendra made an unoffi~ial visit in January 1990, the 16 into Upper Mustang should go directly into development programmes for the
opposed tourism in Goa have consciously avoided a foreign-funded label. That Tibetan landscape and cu Iture': What th is infl uence is and why "contemporary
Pradhan Panchas of Upper and Lower Mustang presented him with the
that the north be opened. Unfortunately, the Lobas have little of all the talk of "proper infrastructure': in all likelihood, Upper Lo they are linked with people internationally who are concerned about the images" no longer constitute a Western collective imagining, Bishop does not
wi'th no ethnic representation during the years of the Panchayat rule. open without any preparation when the time comes. Neither the impacts of disastrous tourism is a fact: this is not the same as being foreign explain. One feels he has been confined by his own academic model of the
nor the Tourism Ministry have taken steps to prepare Loba funded. creation, evolution and dissolution of a sacred place.
Most believe that the promise of an untouched Tibetan culture more Tibetan
inevitable openi ng. A study of the effect of opening Ladakh, TIbet, However, there is an important issue to be considered: the hotel industry is The current interest in Tibet, although primarily touristic, would seem to
than Tibet itself will lure Westerners in search of new Himalayan destinations.
Bhutan, Southern Dolpo and Kanchenjunga, as well as the ample sociological open today to 51 percent multinational holdings, and in the case of NRls, 100 indicate that Tibet is not yet an "empty vessel'~ It is regretted that Bishop has
Travel agents in Kathmandu, eager to cash in are pushing for an early opening.
studies of the Sherpas since the 1960s should provide valuable material for percent. These investments and their profits are fully repatriable, a result of the not looked a little closer at the travel writing of the 1970s and 80s, at two schools
Tek Chandra Pokharel, President of the Nepal Association of Travel Agents,
discussion and action. massive liberalisation in Indian tourism policy. (Whether such a policy actually in particular: the contemporary descendants of the spiritual quest literature,
believes that tourists' eagerness to enter Mustang would prompt them to pay
On how best to open up the area, many heads will have to come together; retains the foreign exchange it supposedly brings in would be interesting to and the new travel-realism writers of Britain, Ireland, and Eastern Europe.
high rates. Also, because Mustang lies in a rain shadow area, it could be
government officials of the various ministries, the representatives of Upper and examine, but is beyond the scope of the present discussion.) Bishop is correct in stating that the focus of the spiritual quest was displaced
promoted as a viable destination during the monsoon, the low tourist season.
Lovver Mustang, the travel trade, conservationists and specialists in the relevant The Indian middle-class can be illogically moralistic on some matters: the with the movement of high lamas to the West. However, he seems unaware
The government, meanwhile, continues to show ambivalence. Damodar
academic disciplines. A commission comprising of such individuals; with a Gantzers refer to this when commenting on the 'sex and drugs' issue. Foreign of the literary result of that movement. The lamas' Western students have been
Gautam, Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism till recently, agreed that isolating
workable mandate, might be the first step towards a proximate and sensible money is another such. While it is perfectly acceptable for industry to merrily translating and practicing Tib,etan Buddhism for the last 15 or 20 years. They
Mustang from the world will push it further into darkness". He has advocated
/I

plan of action. profit from loads of foreign invested dollars and deutsche marks, it is not so are knowledgeable about Tibetan history, iconography, and the lineages of
opening all of Nepal's restricted areas. HIMAL, Mar/Apr 1991 in the case of people who raise questions, often at great personal risk. While teachings, and their vision of Tibet IS informed by the great Tibetan literary
Understandably, the Tourism Ministry advocates Mustang's opening, but the
deriding this double-edged morality of our people, it is ironic that the authors tradition itself. Their writing, like Keith Dowman's The Power-Places olCentral
decision rests with the Ministry of Home Affairs. The government would not
appeal to this quality in their 'foreign money' comments. Tibet based on a ninth-century Tibetan pilgrim's guider has incorporated the
l
open Mustang before establishing proper trails, police checkposts, health posts,
When all is said and done, it is hard to understand why these articles come Tibetans' vision of their own culture.
a communications network and lodges. However, no move has yet been made
down so harshly on the very legitimate questions raised abouttourism in Goa. The new "hard-boiled" school of travel writing, well represented in the
towards building such infrastructure.
After all, the Gantzers have raised similar questions at variolJs times. In late periodic Mvel editions of the British magazine Granta, is in part a child of war
There are some who agree against exposing upper Mustang's fragile ecology
journalism, in part a product of Europe's powerful ecological and democratic
and culture to the consumerist world outside.
Bishnu Raj Hirachan says that the desert environment cannot support the
In Quotes 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 consciousness. It is hyper
no awareness or concern for and sensitive to the nuance of recent history. These writers have ~~•. ,~ ••~.
demands of tourism. "People will sell their firewood for a little bit of money
than in UP's ham-handed Tibet as they have touched other countries in pain: Cambodic
without realising the long term problems this creates:'
The indian association of tour operators has ur~ed the 6/9/90). The travel-realism writers will see Tibet with its bones
The ecology of Upper Lo certainly requires detailed
~ovemment to rationaiise the steep hil<e in hotel tariff and issues which hold good in Uttar Pradesh somehow become while the Buddhisl wriiers will explore Tibet with full knowledge of its
from Chuksang and Chele, north ofKagbeni, have to hike tvvo days
-waive expenditure tax onbiqand medium size hotels saying iiTelevant when thev reach GO;}? !nsteari of dismissing the and religious tradition:.. Both will create fH .V imaginal olaces. ard the
forests near Samar for thei r firewood. The inhabitants around Lo M;mth,mo
that this would badly hit the foreiQn tourist inflow '~pIL"prvirllJ' and will be
use dung. Both sources of fuel are dV"indling.
Hemanta Mishra, chief ofthe King Mahendr;; Trust for Nature Conservation J Fn"derick is travpl wnlu and editor of Shangri-La, the in-flight rlagazine of Royal Nepal
While India's foreiQn exchanlJe, earnings remained static at Airlines
in Kathmandu, argues that Mustang's culture, one of the last reoresenting old $1.2 billion durinq the past five years. Indonesia which had (Reprinted from HIMAl, May/June 1990)
Buddhism, should be protected. Besides, he contends, the also gone tn for il bi9 IMP loan to tide over its BOP crisis
itself will benefit little from opening. "first, travel agencies has more than doubled its tourism earnin~s and Malaysia
and then othpr outside communities, but not the Loba." their views have also bef'fl
and Thailand hod raised it three fold. Correa committee appointt'd by the Goa g(}~ernment recommended
The important question, then, is not whether Mustang should be opened,
more attractive, Instead of making it mandatory for hotels to fix tariff on that the government withdraw its Ma·~ter Pian for Tourism (proposed in June
but how and when. Is high-cost!ool-\iolume TOUrism a
dollar rates. the government should have linl<ed tariff to a 1987), which was done in 1988. There are other such instances.
or the c't>me one-come all
and for different basl<et of currency. I have on purpose avoided - by and large - referring to the varied and

---­
Some advocate "controlled tourism", but in
ends. Those in the high-end of Kathmandu's propose [ow­ complex questions thrown up by the resistance to touriml in Goa. These are
volume access which they say would protect the and cultural
The tour operators association has also termed as discrimi­ issues intricately intertwined with wider issues such as political histOlY, pmt­
environments as well as bring most benefit-but to whom? natory the imposition of expenditure tax on hotels charging colonial culture and identity, and more recently, the directions of Goa's ----~-.-

room tariff of more than Rs. 400 per day. economic development. I have merely dealt with one aspect (related to '~
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 t ECONOMIC TIMES. 27 August 1991
economic development), that of national tourism pniicv. \
I
a few travel agencies with the highest foreign currency turnover to take in a
iimited number of persons:'
I 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. Y,iy~~V7trn\~
)J:,p,Jbr~YJJ!tI)~1J w~Wy.4§j!.11)1
There are other more creative, if unlikely, proposals. Keshab Lamichane, who L Those who have expressed their doubts about t.Ol:rism are resident in Goa. IN? f / 7 1/1!

l.,-rl..WJ J
 20

NETWORK We invite Network members to contribute to the Network Letter

by sharing their work, ideas and plans through these pages.
NEWS
ROUNDUP
Communication is vital to the life of a Network, especially when
physical distances cannot easily be bridged by closer contacts.
ALTERNATIVE NETWORK LETTER
Global Tourism Activists Meet. CypntS
A Third World Tourism Critique
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 For Private Circulation Only Vol. 7 No.2 October 1991
international tourism critique networks will be discussed. Apart from individual
organisations, existing networks such as NANET, TEN/TWI and constituent Durin~ the Government-sponsored India Tourism Year, we have
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
Dear Reader,
Greetings from yet another republic that's going bananas!
The Key to Mustang
Consultation on Tourism as a Challen~e to Re~ions. Goa coastal states (Kamataba and Kerala). as well as a resPQnse toa By Manjulhree Thapa
series of articles (by H.and CGantzer) re~din~ tourism·activism The mandarins at South Block (that awesome seat of power in New Delhi) are
ECTWT, together with the Archdiocese of Goa and the Catholic Bishops at it again. Voted into power by a narrow margin in the recent elections, the
Conference of India, proposes to hold this consultation, November 4-9, 1991. in Goa, We are also involved in activities planned later this year new government is taking no chances: sweeping economic reforms are
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 underway, in a complete break from the past.
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 Liberalisation is the key, we are told, and the' Indian economy must be freed
expreSsed an. interest in our activities. from its shackles. In a succession of quick and dramatic announcements, our
Redemptorist Fathers, 876 Alto Porvorim, Goa 403 521.
currency was devalued twice, industrial licensing abolished (by and large),
National Forum on the Impact of Tourism, Philippines multinationals afforded free entry into key sectors, and fertilizer subsidies
The Center for Solidarity Tourism, Manila, toget~erwith several Filipino NGOs, slashed.
has formed the Phi Iippine Support Group for Victi ms ofTourism. The Support
Group, coordinated by CST, plans to hold a 2-week national forum in Manila,

Resources 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
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
economic chaos where cost-push inflation devaluation in an eternal
'prepare them to take an active role in meeting the challenges posed' Publkation~jupiterstr. Ii Cl/-3000 Bern, Ii 283p~ 1991.
merry-go-round.
Dates to be announced, while funding is being sought. Contributions to Norma
This resource book with its over 2,000 entries, reveals the growing interest in
Tinambacan, CST, 444 Guadalupe Bliss, Makati, Metro Manila. one specialised research area: tourism in the developing nations. This Questions: Who cuts the cake? Who gets the crumbs? WIll breadlines make
bibliography, hopes to facilitate and promote research on tourism in developing headlines?
ENVIROfOUR VIENNA 1992
The International Society for Environmental Protection is countries a subject of utmost importance due to its nature and immense Critics of t~ new economic policies have accused the government of wilting

L
ower Mustang, home of the Thakalis with its district capital at Jomsom,
conferel1ce 'on strategies for reducing the environmental impact potential for growth. . e pressure of the World Bank and IMF, organisations which are currently
has gradually been transformed by trekkers on the ':.\nnapurna Circuit;1
Vienna, November 1992. It aims to analyse the impact of tourism TOE-DOC, No, l wurism, Development & Environment Project, ECTW7; pilgrims to Muktinath, and apple
professional travel on the environment, and to evaluate the effects of POBox 24, Chorakheboa, Bangkok 10230 60p~ june 1991. ~ A Letter from ••. In contrast, the Bhutia inhabitants of Upper Mustang, the ancient
environmental measures, addressing d wide range of issues. ISEp, founded of Lo, live much as their forbears did for centuries, farming in the spring,
This first issue is a documentation consisting of selected newspaper clippings
renowned scientists in 1987, includes in its aims 'the elaboration of considering India's 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.
and articles on development and environmental issues related to tourism. Part
ecological, economic and sociological strategies for the preservation and 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,
of EGVVT's project on "Tourism, Development and the Environment'; this issue
creation of a humane environment for all people: Write to Dr Susanne reforms parallel those initiated by other developing nations indebted to the benefits, Since 1959, the Chinese Government has prevented access to the
of TOE-DOC focusses on a general view of trends in tourism policy and
Burgstaller, ISEP, Marxergasse 3, A-1030 Vienna, Austria. WBiIMF, traditional grazing grounds north of the border, so livestock has dwindled.
development, cases of socially and environmentally degrading tourism projects,
Other fumms articles on debates and activities "towards sustainable development" and also And so emerges the golden dawn of a new economic era. Among the too 10 Because farming on the wind-s\,\'ept, desert land remains as unyielding as ever,
Tourism as a social concern will be raised at 2 forums planned in Thailand, a section "Golf Course Monitor'~ industries slated for this futuristic push are tourism and food processing. seasonal migration has increasingly become a necessity. Cultural poverty has
First, at the NGOs parallel meeting during the World BankllMF General 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'
Assembly in October, 1991. Second, at the PP21 (Peoples' Plan for the 21st Tourism in the People's Republic of Chinaby Anna Gerstlache!; Renate Areig euphemism for what is known elsewhere as 'agribusiness: which, in case you gumpas seem neglected and in need of repair.
next year. While we do not yet have further details of either, it is obvious Eva Sternk:ld 7iJurism ~'7 Centrally Planned Economies Case Study No. 2. haven't heard the jingle, is 'good~usiness is big business is .. : Mustang, up from Kagbeni village, two hours north of Jomsom, is
that tourism has to be increasingly recognised as an issue linked with other ECTW7; POBox 2~ Chorakheblla, Bangkok 1021088pp. 1991. restricted territory to non-Nepal is. The government has given running water
This study examines the initial use of tourism by the People's Republic to gain 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 price
social concerns, and events such as these provide the networks of tourism
more political recognition in the world by presenting successful socialist in its final stages at Geneva, where an international agreement on agricultural of rice is subsidised. Clearly, such measures are inadequate, and cannot
critique opportunities to do so in an effective integrative way.
achievements. Though it started with an alternative, politically oriented production and trade is being finalised. The European Community (and to a substitute for the development activity and alternate sources of income
Sustainable Tourism, fco Institute, Costa Rica to tourism, it ultimately fell victim to the massive powers of the 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
The Eco Institute wants to bring a sustainable development approach to Costd international tourism industry. China today stands as one of the only nations effect, this allows rich nations to dump their produce on poorer countries the same.
Rica's tourism industry, before it is too late. The plan has 3 elements: to convene to have experienced both the alternative approach of limited and controlled 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
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 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 situation,
watchdog, reviewing tourism projects; and develop/fund small-scale pilot to those other centrally planned economies which aim to integrate this sector dependency and mass hunger in the South; according to one observer. of being surrounded on three sides by Tibet, made upper Mustang the ideal
demonstrating the benefits of sustainable development The three­ into th~ir overall economic devE'lopement Questions: Can tourism as an issue be viewed independently of macro­ base for the Tibetan resistance to carry out operations against the Chinese. Under
year project wi II be coordinated by Deirdre Evans-Pritchilrd, who has extensive

Bananas, Beaches & Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics,

developments, nationally and globally? In a post-glasnost world, can we CQntd. overleaf
experience in tourism research.
by Cynthia Enloe. Universityo/Cali/ornia Pres~ Berke/e); 94720 244pp. 1989, continue to ignore an unipolar reality? Who calls the shots in such a world,
The author takes a second look at familiar scenes- governments restricting
at the IMF/WB, in GATT, in tourism, et al? How do we resPoilCl to slIch INSIDE
Please note the correct numbers at which to contact us: imported goods; bankers negotiating foreign loans, soldiers serving overseas
questions? When Tourism's Profits Go Abroad .......... 5

Phone' 812-542313 and show that the real landscape is not exclusively male. She also challenges Lest we get let's ask ourselves more ... of such quest:olis. Please Don't Come to Goa .. .............. B

Tplp)!' AJ.r;-fU,OO n:n IIIJ (ATTN 007) ~~Q~.;~ 1/;'h~~ ('~;i::~;t(!tc~, l:nt~::~~~~~:Gr;~! !r; ~hC' jnVf:~tilllS ill /Yldl-Deveio[Jlllt=fli ..... 14
-Fax:
Cable:
812-542627 (ATTN 020)/217890 (EQ.. U
EQUATIONS BANGAlORE-560 038 INDIA ~
.. A.JlONS.)) I
IOn the Beach: Sexism and Tourism' she focusses on structural
dimensions of tourism to drive home her arguments about the gender bias,
vuerulouslv yours, Summary Findings .. ............ 16
Paul Gonsalves
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.