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.
Global Tourism Activists Meet. CypntS
Representatives from several countries will be meeting, for the first time, at
September 28 to October 2, 1991. Plans are well underway for the
meeting, during which matters relating to the structure and functioning of the
international tourism critique networks will be discussed. Apart from individual
organisations, existing networks such as NANET, TEN/TWI and constituent
members of ECTWT will be present. ECTWT and TEN are joint coordinators,
with the Middle East Conference of Churches playing host in Cyprus.
Consultation on Tourism as a Challen~e to Re~ions. Goa
ECTWT, together with the Archdiocese of Goa and the Catholic Bishops
Conference of India, proposes to hold this consultation, November 4-9, 1991.
About 60 participants are expected. The consultation aims to achieve a
perspective and planned response to the challenge that tourism presents to
all religions, especially in India. Write to Fr Desmond de Souza, ECTWT, do
Redemptorist Fathers, 876 Alto Porvorim, Goa 403 521.
National Forum on the Impact of Tourism, Philippines
The Center for Solidarity Tourism, Manila, toget~erwith several Filipino NGOs,
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,
to 'facilitate the long and difficult task of organising the victims of tourism' and
economic chaos where cost-push inflation devaluation in an eternal
'prepare them to take an active role in meeting the challenges posed'
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.
ENVIROfOUR VIENNA 1992
The International Society for Environmental Protection is
conferel1ce 'on strategies for reducing the environmental impact
Vienna, November 1992. It aims to analyse the impact of tourism
professional travel on the environment, and to evaluate the effects of
environmental measures, addressing d wide range of issues. ISEp, founded
renowned scientists in 1987, includes in its aims 'the elaboration of
ecological, economic and sociological strategies for the preservation and
creation of a humane environment for all people: Write to Dr Susanne
Burgstaller, ISEP, Marxergasse 3, A-1030 Vienna, Austria.
Other fumms
Tourism as a social concern will be raised at 2 forums planned in Thailand,
First, at the NGOs parallel meeting during the World BankllMF General
Assembly in October, 1991. Second, at the PP21 (Peoples' Plan for the 21st
next year. While we do not yet have further details of either, it is obvious
that tourism has to be increasingly recognised as an issue linked with other
social concerns, and events such as these provide the networks of tourism
critique opportunities to do so in an effective integrative way.
Sustainable Tourism, fco Institute, Costa Rica
The Eco Institute wants to bring a sustainable development approach to Costd
Rica's tourism industry, before it is too late. The plan has 3 elements: to convene
a task force-think tank to develop themes and affect public policy; act as a
watchdog, reviewing tourism projects; and develop/fund small-scale pilot
demonstrating the benefits of sustainable development The three­
year project wi II be coordinated by Deirdre Evans-Pritchilrd, who has extensive
developments, nationally and globally? In a post-glasnost world, can we
experience in tourism research.
Please note the correct numbers at which to contact us:
Phone' 812-542313
Tplp)!' AJ.r;-fU,OO n:n IIIJ (ATTN 007)
-Fax:
Cable:
812-542627 (ATTN 020)/217890 (EQ.. U
EQUATIONS BANGAlORE-560 038 INDIA ~
.. A.JlONS.))
IOn the Beach: Sexism and Tourism' she focusses on structural
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.
EQUATIONS at worll
Durin~ the Government-sponsored India Tourism Year, we have
~un a number of new projects. Elsewhere in this newsletter.
you Win read a summary report of a 21-day'Visit to the southwest
coastal states (Kamataba and Kerala). as well as a resPQnse toa
series of articles (by H.and CGantzer) re~din~ tourism·activism
in Goa, We are also involved in activities planned later this year
at M~ore. Tamil Nadu and Ban~l()fe, Towards the end of the
year. we hope to convene a meetinqfor Delhi-based peopJewho
expreSsed an. interest in our activities.
Resources
Third World Tourism Research 1950-1984, by H Leo Theuns. Peter Lang
Publkation~jupiterstr. Ii Cl/-3000 Bern, Ii 283p~ 1991.
one specialised research area: tourism in the developing nations. This
bibliography, hopes to facilitate and promote research on tourism in developing
countries a subject of utmost importance due to its nature and immense
potential for growth.
TOE-DOC, No, l wurism, Development & Environment Project, ECTW7;
POBox 24, Chorakheboa, Bangkok 10230 60p~ june 1991.
This first issue is a documentation consisting of selected newspaper clippings
and articles on development and environmental issues related to tourism. Part
of EGVVT's project on "Tourism, Development and the Environment'; this issue
of TOE-DOC focusses on a general view of trends in tourism policy and
development, cases of socially and environmentally degrading tourism projects,
articles on debates and activities "towards sustainable development" and also
a section "Golf Course Monitor'~
Tourism in the People's Republic of Chinaby Anna Gerstlache!; Renate Areig
Eva Sternk:ld 7iJurism ~'7 Centrally Planned Economies Case Study No. 2.
ECTW7; POBox 2~ Chorakheblla, Bangkok 1021088pp. 1991.
This study examines the initial use of tourism by the People's Republic to gain
more political recognition in the world by presenting successful socialist
achievements. Though it started with an alternative, politically oriented
to tourism, it ultimately fell victim to the massive powers of the
international tourism industry. China today stands as one of the only nations
to have experienced both the alternative approach of limited and controlled
, tourism as well as mass tourism, The Chinese experience would be of relevance
to those other centrally planned economies which aim to integrate this sector
into th~ir overall economic devE'lopement
Bananas, Beaches & Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics,
CQntd. overleaf
by Cynthia Enloe. Universityo/Cali/ornia Pres~ Berke/e); 94720 244pp. 1989,
The author takes a second look at familiar scenes- governments restricting
imported goods; bankers negotiating foreign loans, soldiers serving overseas
and show that the real landscape is not exclusively male. She also challenges
~~Q~.;~ 1/;'h~~ ('~;i::~;t(!tc~, l:nt~::~~~~~:Gr;~! !r; ~hC'
I
dimensions of tourism to drive home her arguments about the gender bias,
ALTERNATIVE NETWORK LETTER
A Third World Tourism Critique
For Private Circulation Only
Dear Reader,
Greetings from yet another republic that's going bananas!
The mandarins at South Block (that awesome seat of power in New Delhi) are
at it again. Voted into power by a narrow margin in the recent elections, the
new government is taking no chances: sweeping economic reforms are
underway, in a complete break from the past.
Liberalisation is the key, we are told, and the' Indian economy must be freed
from its shackles. In a succession of quick and dramatic announcements, our
currency was devalued twice, industrial licensing abolished (by and large),
multinationals afforded free entry into key sectors, and fertilizer subsidies
slashed.
Prices rose. The word went out: stagflation is likely to grab us by the seats of
our pants, necessitating another ueV31U3UU pushing India to the brink of
Questions: Who cuts the cake? Who gets the crumbs? WIll breadlines make
headlines?
Critics of t~ new economic policies have accused the government of wilting
. e pressure of the World Bank and IMF, organisations which are currently
~ A Letter from ••.
considering India's plea for massive loans to offset a 'critical' balance of payment~
situation. A charge hotly denied by our policy-makers, though our economic
reforms parallel those initiated by other developing nations indebted to the
WBiIMF,
And so emerges the golden dawn of a new economic era. Among the too 10
industries slated for this futuristic push are tourism and food processing.
that, I hear someone say - 'food processing'? Gentle reader; that'~ just an
euphemism for what is known elsewhere as 'agribusiness: which, in case you
haven't heard the jingle, is 'good~usiness is big business is .. :
The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is
in its final stages at Geneva, where an international agreement on agricultural
production and trade is being finalised. The European Community (and to a
lesser extent, the LJS) are opposing reforms to current agricultural policy. in
effect, this allows rich nations to dump their produce on poorer countries
detri menta I to the interests of Thi rd World farmers and exporters. If the richer
nations go ahead with their plans, it will be 'a recipe for continufd food
dependency and mass hunger in the South; according to one observer.
Questions: Can tourism as an issue be viewed independently of macro­
continue to ignore an unipolar reality? Who calls the shots in such a world,
at the IMF/WB, in GATT, in tourism, et al? How do we resPoilCl to slIch
questions?
Lest we get let's ask ourselves more ... of such quest:olis.
vuerulouslv yours,
Paul Gonsalves
Vol. 7 No.2 October 1991
The Key to Mustang
By Manjulhree Thapa
L
ower Mustang, home of the Thakalis with its district capital at Jomsom,
has gradually been transformed by trekkers on the ':.\nnapurna Circuit;1
pilgrims to Muktinath, and apple
In contrast, the Bhutia inhabitants of Upper Mustang, the ancient
of Lo, live much as their forbears did for centuries, farming in the spring,
their animals to high pastures in the summer and engaging in trade in the winter.
For the Loba from Upper Mustang, change has often taken away, not brought,
benefits, Since 1959, the Chinese Government has prevented access to the
traditional grazing grounds north of the border, so livestock has dwindled.
Because farming on the wind-s\,\'ept, desert land remains as unyielding as ever,
seasonal migration has increasingly become a necessity. Cultural poverty has
come hand in hand with material poverty. There are fewer artisans and the Lobas'
gumpas seem neglected and in need of repair.
Mustang, up from Kagbeni village, two hours north of Jomsom, is
restricted territory to non-Nepal is. The government has given running water
to most villages and brought in a few health posts and schools, and the price
of rice is subsidised. Clearly, such measures are inadequate, and cannot
substitute for the development activity and alternate sources of income
from tourism, that the Loba sees when he looks south. And he is asking for
the same.
Except for a brief period in the early 19505, Upper Mustang has been closed
off from the south and, obviously, the north. Its special geographical situation,
of being surrounded on three sides by Tibet, made upper Mustang the ideal
base for the Tibetan resistance to carry out operations against the Chinese. Under
INSIDE
When Tourism's Profits Go Abroad .......... 5
Please Don't Come to Goa .. .............. B
jnVf:~tilllS ill /Yldl-Deveio[Jlllt=fli ..... 14
Summary Findings .. ............ 16
 2 19
contd. from page 1
pressure from Beijing, Kathmandu disbanded the guerrillas and made Upper
off-limits.
the Khampa "marauders" have been forgotten, the Nepali
government continues to close off the area north of Kagbeni. Perhaps the
restrictions remain due to bureaucratic inertia, and a long-standing and perhaps
ill-founded fear of ruffling Chinese feathers.
Among those advocating the opening of Mustang are many inhabitants of
Upper Mustang, from the walled township of Lo Manthang and villages such
as Charang, Chemi and Sama.
"Over 90 per cent of the people of the upper areas want Mustang to be
opened;' asserts Jabyang Bista, who lives in the northernmost village of
Chosyere. "Maybe some people in southern Mustang want it closed, but the
people in the north want it opened:'
Opening Upper Lo could make the villages of lower Mustang mere night­
stops for tourists headed for the Tibetan culture of the north. Understandably,
some lodge-owners in Tukuche, Jomsom and Marpha prefer to keep the northern
areas closed. Most, however, recognise the windfall that could accrue to the
whole area from the opening.
Thus, when King Birendra made an unoffi~ial visit in January 1990, the 16
Pradhan Panchas of Upper and Lower Mustang presented him with the
that the north be opened. Unfortunately, the Lobas have little
wi'th no ethnic representation during the years of the Panchayat rule.
Most believe that the promise of an untouched Tibetan culture more Tibetan
than Tibet itself will lure Westerners in search of new Himalayan destinations.
Travel agents in Kathmandu, eager to cash in are pushing for an early opening.
Tek Chandra Pokharel, President of the Nepal Association of Travel Agents,
believes that tourists' eagerness to enter Mustang would prompt them to pay
high rates. Also, because Mustang lies in a rain shadow area, it could be
promoted as a viable destination during the monsoon, the low tourist season.
The government, meanwhile, continues to show ambivalence. Damodar
Gautam, Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism till recently, agreed that isolating
Mustang from the world will push it further into darkness". He has advocated
/I
opening all of Nepal's restricted areas.
Understandably, the Tourism Ministry advocates Mustang's opening, but the
decision rests with the Ministry of Home Affairs. The government would not
open Mustang before establishing proper trails, police checkposts, health posts,
a communications network and lodges. However, no move has yet been made
towards building such infrastructure.
There are some who agree against exposing upper Mustang's fragile ecology
and culture to the consumerist world outside.
Bishnu Raj Hirachan says that the desert environment cannot support the
demands of tourism. "People will sell their firewood for a little bit of money
without realising the long term problems this creates:'
The ecology of Upper Lo certainly requires detailed
from Chuksang and Chele, north ofKagbeni, have to hike tvvo days
forests near Samar for thei r firewood. The inhabitants around Lo M;mth,mo
use dung. Both sources of fuel are dV"indling.
Hemanta Mishra, chief ofthe King Mahendr;; Trust for Nature Conservation
in Kathmandu, argues that Mustang's culture, one of the last reoresenting old
Buddhism, should be protected. Besides, he contends, the
itself will benefit little from opening. "first, travel agencies
and then othpr outside communities, but not the Loba."
The important question, then, is not whether Mustang should be opened,
more attractive,
but how and when. Is high-cost!ool-\iolume TOUrism a
or the c't>me one-come all
and for different
Some advocate "controlled tourism", but in
ends. Those in the high-end of Kathmandu's propose [ow­
volume access which they say would protect the and cultural
environments as well as bring most benefit-but to whom?
A. V. Jim Edwards, chairman of the Tiger Mountain travel group, suggests the
government charge an entry fee of around US $100 per person and !laB..)w Gilly
a few travel agencies with the highest foreign currency turnover to take in a
iimited number of persons:'
There are other more creative, if unlikely, proposals. Keshab Lamichane, who
runs Nepal Cultural Experience, a special interest tour operator, submitted a
proposal several years ago to conduct exclusive tours in the restricted area for
"high class" tourists. Among other things, Lamichane proposed that three houses
of the King of Mustang be turned into a museum, and that programmes be
organised- to ed ucate travellers about the natural and cultural heritage of the
region. According to Lamichane, his plan would maximise income while
minimising the adverse cultural effects of tourism. "Let the local people
the quality of their lives, but let them not wear ties".
Some Lobas advocate decentralised, locally controlled tourism. Tashi Zampa
suggests that a law be passed curtailing the rights of people from outside to
buy property or to run business in upper Mustang. Only that would ensure
that the people of the area benefit from tourism,
Another Loba, Kelsang Tashi, is confident that the Loba can learn to handle
tourism when it arrives. liThe younger generations are not like their
have seen the way things are in the rest of the country. They have studied. Even
the Sherpas did not know how to run business in the beginning. Like
we will learn:' Tashi's wife, Chimi Dolkar, is convinced that Upper Mustang
must be opened. Some can be porters, those who are able will run hotels. Right
now, even those want to cannot earn money;' She says the suggested entry fee
into Upper Mustang should go directly into development programmes for the
of all the talk of "proper infrastructure': in all likelihood, Upper Lo
open without any preparation when the time comes. Neither the
nor the Tourism Ministry have taken steps to prepare Loba
inevitable openi ng. A study of the effect of opening Ladakh, TIbet,
Bhutan, Southern Dolpo and Kanchenjunga, as well as the ample sociological
studies of the Sherpas since the 1960s should provide valuable material for
discussion and action.
On how best to open up the area, many heads will have to come together;
government officials of the various ministries, the representatives of Upper and
Lovver Mustang, the travel trade, conservationists and specialists in the relevant
academic disciplines. A commission comprising of such individuals; with a
workable mandate, might be the first step towards a proximate and sensible
plan of action.
HIMAL, Mar/Apr 1991
In Quotes
The indian association of tour operators has ur~ed the
~ovemment to rationaiise the steep hil<e in hotel tariff and
-waive expenditure tax onbiqand medium size hotels saying
that this would badly hit the foreiQn tourist inflow
While India's foreiQn exchanlJe, earnings remained static at
$1.2 billion durinq the past five years. Indonesia which had
also gone tn for il bi9 IMP loan to tide over its BOP crisis
has more than doubled its tourism earnin~s and Malaysia
and Thailand hod raised it three fold.
Instead of making it mandatory for hotels to fix tariff on
dollar rates. the government should have linl<ed tariff to a
basl<et of currency.
The tour operators association has also termed as discrimi­
natory the imposition of expenditure tax on hotels charging
room tariff of more than Rs. 400 per day.
t ECONOMIC TIMES. 27 August 1991
I The Gantzer pieces resuit from 'thrpe weeks of research' in Goa during the
L Those who have expressed their doubts about t.Ol:rism are resident in Goa.
Tourism in Goa ... (conld from pag'" 10)
metro cities like Bombay and Calcutta, it can easily exist in the relative
anonymity of mass tourism resorts.
The resistance to tourism in Goa has never stated that there should be no
tourism at all. There are several groups who oppose mindless tourism
(not just the 4 mentioned by the Gantzers), each of whom have
obiectives and approaches. However, what all of them are asking for - even
is for acheck on unbalanced development. In fact, this is
that the Gantzers argue in favour of, in a recent article unrelated to
(Indian Express 18/6/91). Thev suggest the need for a Tourism
j
Areas Protection Act, and define its
Yet in one of their articles (Navhind
the 'agitators' have gone to court because 'these cases could drag on
One might well ask, what is the purpose of the law existing or proposed
- and where it is not abided by, what are the means of enforcing
The articles also seek to create on aura of doubt about the motive behind
the resistance. More than once, we are casually informed that foreign money
is involved ('a small group of agitators, some admittedly supported by foreign
funds'). To my knowledge, this is furthest from the truth. Those who have
opposed tourism in Goa have consciously avoided a foreign-funded label. That
they are linked with people internationally who are concerned about the
impacts of disastrous tourism is a fact: this is not the same as being foreign
funded.
However, there is an important issue to be considered: the hotel industry is
open today to 51 percent multinational holdings, and in the case of NRls, 100
percent. These investments and their profits are fully repatriable, a result of the
massive liberalisation in Indian tourism policy. (Whether such a policy actually
retains the foreign exchange it supposedly brings in would be interesting to
examine, but is beyond the scope of the present discussion.)
The Indian middle-class can be illogically moralistic on some matters: the
Gantzers refer to this when commenting on the 'sex and drugs' issue. Foreign
money is another such. While it is perfectly acceptable for industry to merrily
profit from loads of foreign invested dollars and deutsche marks, it is not so
in the case of people who raise questions, often at great personal risk. While
deriding this double-edged morality of our people, it is ironic that the authors
appeal to this quality in their 'foreign money' comments.
When all is said and done, it is hard to understand why these articles come
down so harshly on the very legitimate questions raised abouttourism in Goa.
After all, the Gantzers have raised similar questions at variolJs times. In late
1986, they wrote: : ..we have travelled extensively across our mountains and
we have seen the havoc being wreaked by distant DeoDle in power who have
no awareness or concern for
than in UP's ham-handed
6/9/90).
issues which hold good in Uttar Pradesh somehow become
iiTelevant when thev reach GO;}? !nsteari of dismissing the
'~pIL"prvirllJ' and
their views have also bef'fl
Correa committee appointt'd by the Goa g(}~ernment recommended
that the government withdraw its Ma·~ter Pian for Tourism (proposed in June
1987), which was done in 1988. There are other such instances.
I have on purpose avoided - by and large - referring to the varied and
complex questions thrown up by the resistance to touriml in Goa. These are
issues intricately intertwined with wider issues such as political histOlY, pmt­
colonial culture and identity, and more recently, the directions of Goa's
economic development. I have merely dealt with one aspect (related to
economic development), that of national tourism pniicv.
pre-Lent Carnival, which in recent years has been turned into a tourist spectacle.
If these doubts are groundless, if the agitators 'have either been misled, or
have deliberately distorted facts: why botheLwith them at all? If the agitators;
opinions are a lot of poppycock, why is it necessary to write six articles (at least)
about these matters?
Questions persist.
Travels in Five Tibets (conrd. from p.lgp.12)
quest
the accounts are cliched, unreflective survivals of a bygone genre'~ (his
exceptions are David Snellgrove, Peter Matthiessen and Andrew Harvey, among
others).
Tourism literature, particularly adventure tomism literature, is booming of
course, beckoning tourists to the last hidden place. This literature, says Bishop,
"has had profound influence on the shaping of the contemporary images of
Tibetan landscape and cu Iture': What th is infl uence is and why "contemporary
images" no longer constitute a Western collective imagining, Bishop does not
explain. One feels he has been confined by his own academic model of the
creation, evolution and dissolution of a sacred place.
The current interest in Tibet, although primarily touristic, would seem to
indicate that Tibet is not yet an "empty vessel'~ It is regretted that Bishop has
not looked a little closer at the travel writing of the 1970s and 80s, at two schools
in particular: the contemporary descendants of the spiritual quest literature,
and the new travel-realism writers of Britain, Ireland, and Eastern Europe.
Bishop is correct in stating that the focus of the spiritual quest was displaced
with the movement of high lamas to the West. However, he seems unaware
of the literary result of that movement. The lamas' Western students have been
translating and practicing Tib,etan Buddhism for the last 15 or 20 years. They
are knowledgeable about Tibetan history, iconography, and the lineages of
teachings, and their vision of Tibet IS informed by the great Tibetan literary
tradition itself. Their writing, like Keith Dowman's The Power-Places olCentral
Tibet based on a ninth-century Tibetan pilgrim's guider has incorporated the
l
Tibetans' vision of their own culture.
The new "hard-boiled" school of travel writing, well represented in the
periodic Mvel editions of the British magazine Granta, is in part a child of war
journalism, in part a product of Europe's powerful ecological and democratic
consciousness. It is hyper
and sensitive to the nuance of recent history. These writers have ~~•. ,~ ••~.
Tibet as they have touched other countries in pain: Cambodic
The travel-realism writers will see Tibet with its bones
while the Buddhisl wriiers will explore Tibet with full knowledge of its
and religious tradition:.. Both will create fH .V imaginal olaces. ard the
will be
J Fn"derick is travpl wnlu and editor of Shangri-La, the in-flight rlagazine of Royal Nepal
Airlines
(Reprinted from HIMAl, May/June 1990)
---­
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 18
History of A Small Place
Pay for Environment
Caren Kaplan
Jamaica Ki ncaid's A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics
of displacement. Kincaid locates Antigua, the island where she was born, as
not only a "small place" on the map, but a place in history. In the process of
remapping this location, Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage
points.
InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semi­
collapse. Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like
something else. She explores the contradictions of representation by
investigating the stakes in each position available in that location. Who benefits
from perpetuating the representation of paradise? Who benefits from the raw
sewage in the pretty bay, the erosion of Antiguan culture, the condos and time­
shares... ? Since the "exotic" food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the
same plane as the tourist, A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of
modernity's representational imperatives.
Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and
counter-discourse of Antigua's relationship with the rest of the world. In this
text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one, at least on the part
of the native. The text is addressed to "you'; the past, present, or potential tourist.
The narrator, Kincaid., however, is not truly a native anymore since she lives
and writes in the United States. This displaced position gives Kincaid's text a
particular value; it mediates the very oppositions it constructs, breaks open
contradictions, makes connections. For example, the subject position of "native"
is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity, as Kincaid illustrates a point made
by Arjun Appadurai; the opposition between native and tourist is constructed
by a transnational culture of tourism-that is, the native is constructed and
"incarcerated" by the anthropological discourse of western travel. Kincaid's
poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions
like "native" and "traveler" even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized
identities.
The story of Antigua's colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of
the author's personal history. Her memories become a counter-narrative to
official histories and public relations campaigns. Yet, Kincaid is equally frustrated
with island approaches to time and history. She writes:
To the people in a small place, the division of Time into the Pasf;
the Present,and the Future does not exist. An event that occurred one
hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as ifit were happening
at this very moment. And then, an event that is occurring at th/5 very
moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as
if it had happened one hundred years ago.
Rather than impose linear, teleological time in the form of conventional
history, Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds
of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and
experience, honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism.
She maps even as she tells, in the process inventing a historical poetics of
displacement. Antigua as chronotope collapses linear; imperial time
masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and
experience.
The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami, New York,
and London, The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in
the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism.
Antiguans, in their small place on the map and in history, are inextricably linked
to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home. This map
of transnational, global conditions is, in part, the work of the text. It is this strategy
of insisting on Antigua's tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating
for specific, localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics
of displacement. Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of
the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation.
Edward Said has described this impulse as "cartogaphic," arguing that the
ro<;trf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination, It is necessary,
he suggests, to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not
"pristine and prehistorical" but historically constituted by present concerns.
3
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
and geographical investigation of location in the expanded, global sense.
Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol. 3. No 1. (1991)
Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)
structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture.
While the organisation does not directly promote tourism, says INTACH's
Harshad Kumari, it does contain the concept of tourism, insofar as it has to
do with the country's heritage, under its umbrella. 'We believe in local people
being able to use their old structures, not just in restoring them for the heck
of it. Once a building is saved, restoration takes care of itself:' she says, citing
successful examples in Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jodhpur.
"Right now, the sort of tourism that's happening is not benefitting the local
people at all:' she feels, adding, "By linking heritage and tourism, we should
make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town;'
Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition, and the
musical nights in Jhalawar, apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight
into local culture than the package-tour, may well be a step towards greater
cultural awareness.
SUNDAY, 3 March 1991
Serve them right (contd, from page 7)
comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison, it
will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten, chewed and
swallowed up - reminiscent, to the untrained eye, of d large choru~ of
eaters in a circus or a magic show. Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his
shoes in Gold Rush.
No, despite the economic problems engendered by unification,
is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some
their calories from porcelain. (In any case there's always beer to fall back upon
if need be.) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery
- plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental
problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes. An Indian
who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate, thrown away after use, as
the prototype of the paper or plastic plate, might think that crockery made
of bread is a genuine innovation. But he would do well to remember that
plantain-leaf plates, as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall
knows, are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away. The difference bet"veen
India and Germany then, is essentially this: we feed our cows with dispo~able
whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates.
Editorial, DECCAN HERALD, 7 March 1991
Summary Findings (contd trom page 16)
there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products. On
the supply side, this' is matched by the 'need' for foreign exchange.
4. This will make the task of seeking 'alternatives' (such as avariety ot
alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive. In
a sense, the Third World cannot do 'without' tourism, in the present stage
of economic development. By the same logic, domestic tourism is not a
viable proposition either.
5. The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent
limitations: that is, if it proves to be economically not viable. Therefore, this
points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies
of the industry, its linkages, the convergence of different state inter/entior-s,
and so on. In particular, we need to examine the links of tourism with
changes in land use patterns in the coastal
Letter to EQUATIONS
Dear friends,
Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent
discussion with Suresh in Calcutta.
1. For EQUATIONS' advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of
Tourism, it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the cost­
benefit analysis of Tourism, i.e. taking into account the high impore content
ofelite tourism, the capital-intensive bias, and also the various impacts
(such as on the emnronment), what picturefinally emerges? It is important
to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed
approach; and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily
mean anything. Huwever, in one's dealings with guvernment etc., this
is something they understand. But all the limitations to this approach also
have to be simultaneously propagated. Actually, using cost-benefit
approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game. Just
by changing some assumptions one could get a different result. Corrversely,
a 'desirable' or 'good' project, can never make it is based on the market
mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes
and destroys alternatives.
let ..... , as in the Tehri dam case, it does help to get into this.
One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India,
elsewhere and bring this together. Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism
projects, and more ambitiously, for the state or national level.
2. Ultimately, given what one is campaigning against, it is a losing battie
in the short-run. But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other
strategies, which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle
and taking on work in the area of <alternatives~ Thus, design ofedu­
catiot1.al curricula and carrying {)u,! educational programmes (jor, say,
students and youth), on critiques of tourism, on responsible travel as
learning and interacting with diverse peoples, places and cultures.
Actually, both the 'campaigning against' and the articulation and
attempting of (alternatives' have to be undertaken. From a social
perspective, one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and
ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams. But such
common perpective, coming together and taking on of roles within a
common perspective, interaction and exchange is all too rare in our
(voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within one's
organisation; which only destroys you. This needs to be reflected on.
Because, even concentrating on one stream alone, is basically counter­
productive. So haw can all the various efforts, that all· need to be
simultaneously undertaken, be realised?
At the very least, within one organisation, one may find that rather
than get burnt out just 'fighting against; one pulls out and takes on the
(alternatives' itself, as a means of retaining sanity, learning and being
energised!
Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources
to reaching out to political parties, MPs, MLAs, gcrvernment officials;
<lobbying: This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task, and full
of all kinds of dangers. But it is also something that needs to be
systematically done; part of the (long-run" efforts, mentioned earlier:
I write all this because J myselfam concerned ff,bnut, lile Tourism
very glad to find a group such ~hai
I strongly closer and
inte1'{lCtiosz bet'Ween activistgro"dps is badly net'ded
an alternalive culture in the 'voluntary sector ~;, ana ,JeWuse ;. jj'Ij'seq
am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above.
These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and
I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you 'What to do. From the
little! knuw about EQUATIONS and its work, I have strong
admiration for your efforts. I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself
as one ofyou, one ofthe larger struggle all of us, in our awn way, are
involved in.
_r'lease lel me kn071i what jYJU think"
Your; 3irrcere{v,
V. Calcutta_
T
he travel industry, environmentalists and officials from developing
countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses
will have to pay much more.
"A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply:' World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific
Asia Travel Association.
Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty, he
told the conference which ended on April 14. "It makes perfect sense that visitors
should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions;' he said.
Much of the world's remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash
is a higher priority than conservation. The travel industry must show
governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for
tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit,
speakers stressed.
•A Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on
one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial
companies and a logging firm with strong political backing.
"It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business,
conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence;'
Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque, now seconded
to the WWF. Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up
with financial clout, Roque said, which conference speakers believed the tourist
industry could provide.
"Despite the fears of conservationists, tourism and ecology need not be mutually
exclusive:' said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd, a pioneer in nature tours
in the Himalayas. "Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part
of the same picture:'
Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more
money from fewer tourists, Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating
cash for community projects and preservation.
Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas. Firms competing for
high-volume business were bound to cut costs, Choegyal said, "and
environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints:'
Traditional life in Indonesia's overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the
conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the
expense of the environment, said the nation's tourist planning chief, himself
Balinese. "Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-
and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by
investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large;' I
Gede A'rdika said.
A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter
to locals. "Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product
as much as they feel part-ownership;' researcher Charles Tambiah said.
pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines
blasted apart (-'/ dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from
needed to feed their families. "Tourism as aspot of affluence and
luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b(' slJ,tain6::-,jp development;'
he said.
" But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would
otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWF's
Bunting. He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature
reserve. "Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and
so were very familiar with trails and watering spots. The animals they used to
hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see':
5di~gE;5t<;-d tourists themselyes couid be 11.) illl!J1(Jve
environment in the developing world.
CCI, Apr/May 199!
 4 17
The Jumbos are Coming
talk less about the romantic attractions of mountai n wilderness areas and more
by I. Rajeswary
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,
tourism was Uganda's third most important foreign exchange earner after coffee
and cotton. In 1971, it drew 85,000 visitors who spend US $27 million.
But tourism ground to a halt between 1972 and 1979 during Idi Amin's
turbulent reign. Guns and ammunition were easily available and Amin's trigger­
soldiers, who were given afree run of national parks, slaughtered whole
of elephants for ivory. By 1982, the elephant population in Queen
Elizabeth National Park had dwindled to 152, down from 3,000 in the 19705.
In 1980, conc;erned over the decline of wildlife and tourism, the government
that ousted Idi Amin turned to the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) for help in training a
40-man anti-poaching strike force. The new unit produced immediate results
in Murchison Falls, Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo Valley national parks.
In Murchison Falls, the number of elephant carcasses encountered on ranger
patrols dropped from 120 in 1980 to none in 1982 and the elephant herd there
is now slowly increasing. The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth Park
has quadrupled.
When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, his administration sought
additional UN DP assistance to rehabilitate the country's wildlife and national
parks. As part of a $1.7 million project, carried out by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the UN (FAO), 49 two-way radios were distributed to Uganda's
Park and game officials. For the first time, all national park officials can
communicate with each other and to their headquarters in Kampala, the capital.
With the help of mobile radios, rangers here in the Ishasha area - the
southernmost section of Queen Elizabeth Park - have arrested 66 poachers
since the project was launched two years ago. "In Africa': says Tanzanian Raphael
Jingu, the FAO/UNDP project's chief technical adviser, "anti-poaching forms
the backbone of wildlife management'
The poachers, who are usually armed and operate their own four-wheel drive
vehicles, mainly seek hippopotamuses, buffaloes and Uganda Kobs, aform of
deer unique to Uganda. These days, elephants are largely spared because of
the stiff penalties if caught. IlPoachers flee when they see our rangers:' say:. Abu
Baker Juma, the Ishasha sector game warden. "Being able to co-ordinate our
with radios gives us a huge tactical advantage:'
Statistics bear Mr. Juma out. In 1988, there were 209 poaching incidents in
the park, dropping to 156 in 1989 a decline of 25 per cent. "In fact;' says
Dr. Eric Edroma, Uganda National Parks director, "animals which used to run
when they saw people now stand and gaze at them because they are not afraid:'
Uganda's rangers and wardens constantly live on edge. Last October, in a
shoot-out at Murchison Falls Park, 30 poachers were killed. "I am very
of my rangers;' says Dr. Edroma. fiT hey are well trained and equipped:"
Sometimes, hOlNeVer, his men are not so lucky. Recently, knife-wielding relatives
of a poacher, who had been arrested earlier, attacked a ranger from Ishasha
in a market place. The ranger lost a finger in the attack.
T~ work of the rangers and wardens in protecting wildlife is only one part
of a larger government effort to revive tourism. Officials in this land-locked
country are well aware that they must compete with neighbouring Kenya, which
currently attracts the lion's share of visitors seeking African safaris.
Because services at most Ugandan hotels and lodges in the parks are minimal
at best, the government asked WTO, with UNDP fundi ng, to draft a master plan
to renovate hotels, re-surface pot-holed roads and upgrade the skills of those
in the hotel industry. ''l\s Uganda's economic and social conditions
tourism can become the country's main foreign exchange earner,' says Mr. jingu.
Even without such improvements, the number of visitors to Uganda rose from
8,622 in 1982 to almost 40,000 in 1986. The increase is due at least partially
to the fact that poaching is down and the parks themselves are now better
managed. Tourist arrival figures since 1986 are not available.
Mr. Jingu credits the new order in the parks to UNDP-financed intensive
training courses that gave 300 rangers and 300 park wardens a chance to
upgrade their technical and managerial skills. In addition, four wardens were
sent on fellowships to the College of African Wildlife and Management in
Tanzania, Africa's first centre devoted to wildlife conservation.
UNDP also recruited a United Nations Volunteer, Mohamed Bereteh, a
wildlife management specialist from Sierra Leone. His assignment: to educate
Ugandans living within Queen Elizabeth Park about the need to preserve big
game. Mr. Mohamed relies on films to impress upon viewers, who include
primary and secondary school students, the importance of conservation. But
his task is complicated by traditional beliefs. "Some Ugandans believe that a
woman's fertility increases if she eats hippo meat;' says Mr. Mohamed. ''l\nd
a man is considered less of aman if he does not provide hippo meat for his wife:'
But Mr. Mohamed's message is slowly getting through. Last year, two such
sessions led by Mr. Mohamed were well attended. "The Ugandans used to view
these workshops as agovernment scam to nab poachers;' he says. "What turned
them around was seeing actual footage of their natural wildlife heritage and
what poaching could do to them.
UN DP's assistance ends in December. Officials want the project extended.
The government is interested in conservation but we have limited resources;'
1/
says Dr. Edrorna, in explaining why his government has yet to contribute its
share of $53,000 to the project. "It has other priorities. If the extension is not
forthcoming, it will be a real tragedY:'
An important long term strategy, says Mr. Jingu, is to convince people living
within the parks that they can profit from managing and protecting wildlife on
thei r own initiative. The government wants to adopt an approach to community
participation in wildlife management that has already been tested in Zimbabwe.
Under this arrangement the government entrusts a section of national park to
the villagers who live there, provided they follow specific regulations: hunting
is permitted only in designated areas, only a limited number of animals can
be hunted at anyone time, and tourists who want to hunt must pay a fee to
the vi lIagers, who are allowed to set the price. Th is gives villagers a major
incentive to turn in any poachers.
"It has worked in Zimbabwe;' says Mr. Jingu, "and Iam sure it can work here!l.
If the necessary funds are forth--com ing, Uganda may soon have aconservation
policy that employs both the carrot and the stick.
WORLD DEVELOPMENT, (UNDP), March 1991
Massive MP Campaign
by Rakesh Khar
'Temptations 50 irresistible that you will fall for them. Forts, that still echo past
j
glories. Palaces; that stiil shimmer with grandeur. Love, still in passionate
embrace in stone. FOIesis with wildlife in natural display. Get away to the centre
of it all. Madhya Pradesh (/viP) - the heart of India. The sightseer's paradi5e,
with many a beautiful
Thus speaks a colourfully designed booklet. The booklet forms a part of a
massive campaign afoot to launch the state in a big way on the tourism map
of the country. So here is astate with 40 backward districts offering fun lovers
the natural wonders, scenic splendours and a lot more beautifully wrapped
up in 26 economical and convenient packages.
Tourism in Madhya Pradesh has come of age. The M.P. State Tourism
Development Corporation ended 1989-90 on abright note. Not only did it show
a gross profit of Rs 38.83 lakhs, but it also showed a net profit of Rs 1.33 lakhs.
''The corporation expects to end 1990-91 showing gross profit of Rs 60 lakhs
and a net profit of Rs 5 lakhs", says Mr G 5 Chahal, a senior official.
Faced with the arduous task of promoting tourism in astate which symbolises
utter backwardness, the corporation has succeeded in establishing Madhya
Pradesh as a front-runner tourist destination through the extensive promotional
campaigns conducted in and outside the state. The corporation claims to have
also consolidated its pioneering activity of organising package tours.
order to create better awareness of the rich folklore and folk traditions as
al~o it<; varied cultural heritage, a numberoffairs and festivals have been selected
for development and promotion. These include the Panchmarhi festival, Bhojpur
Orchha festival and Malwa festival.
ECONOMIC TIMES, 16 April, 1991
Nepal: A Tourism Tragedy
• about toilets, garbage disposal a!ld fuel.
Tourism in Nepal is increasing by over 77 per cent a year: it is the only hard
currency earner for the world's fourth poorest nation; and is being promoted
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.
The slopes ofthe world's highest peaks in the Himalaya were once a pristine
wilderness. Desecration by climbers and trekkers has set in motioR their
ecological degradation. Until a decade or two ago, it was a relativelv minor
problem: today it has reached disastrous proportions.
The worstaffected region is around Everest: 'There is so much junk
that a full-scale expedition is needed to remove it; says Chris Bon/ngton, an
Everest explorer. In recent years, climbing from the northeast ridge on the Tibet
side, has become the craze. As a result, Rongbuk the world's highest monastery;
j
has become a toilet and rubbish dumb. Once-cfear view; .of magnificent
mountain vistas are now obscenely impeded by abandoned oxygen canisters,
paper; foil and other garbage.
Part ofthe problem lies in the growing number ofexpeditions to the top of
Everest. Each year there are more than 300 expeditions and 7O~OOO trekkers
the Himalaya. Of these, a large proportion are Everest climbers, 13
in the current season. The Nepal Government has more than 700 Everest
climbing requests pending till 2003.
The indian Mountaineering Association has laid down guidelines for anyone
climbing in the Indian Himalaya: it offers cash incentives to all expeditions
which clean up their camps behind them. The Himalaya Adventure Tru.st has
astrictcode of conduct for trekkers, and Nepal tourism authorities have made
it mandatnry for expeditions to leave no litter.
Though this has helped wdecrease the size ofexpedition teams, the number
ofteams remains high, and is increasing. 104 peaks in Nepal are open
climbers, 17 to joint expeditions, and 5 reserved for Nepalese climbers. 18 minor
peaks are open to trekkers, administered directly by the Nepa! Mountaineering
Association.
Frustrated in its efforts to control the ecological impacts ofEverest climbing,
the Nepal GO'vernment has finally decided that Everest can no longerbe climbed
after 7994. Tourism authorities estimate that 50 fonnes of waste currently litter
Everest slopes, in the years since it was thrown open to the public in 1952.
While this may help limit further destruction ofthe world's highest peak, the
question ofthe existing garbage remains: will Nepal decide to allow dean-up
expeditions after 79941
Moreover; it is not Everest alone which stands it; danger of permanent
destruction. It is high time that Nepal (and other countries in the Himalayan
region) came up with ajoint environment protection plan under the auspices
ofan officially constituted environment protection authoritY. laxes on mountain
climbing could help to finance such a venture.
Thi5, is what the article Mr Himalayan Environment; seems to suggest.
Mr. Himalayan Environment
The Swiss Alpine Club has recently appointed a permanent official
for the protection of the environment. Shouldn't therE:' be at least one ,',;Ir.
Environment for the Himalayas? He could easily be financed by a small head
tax on all visitors.
This is not a plea to stop tourism. That would be impossible anyway. It is a
to regulate its future development far more strictly and that is not an easy
task. If there is a lesson to be learnt from the experience of the Alps, it is this:
protection of the mountai n environment needs determined action and hard
work at all levels, from the highest government authorities to the lowliest
individual. Interests of local people have to be catered for so that they have
a vested Interest In protecting the environment. The Swiss, for examDle, have
an active programme of aid to mountain communities.
Protection needs some down-ta-earth action. Perhaps one way to start is to
Once there is a heavier investment in tourism in the Himalayas, it will be
difficult to fight destruction because money talks, and loudly too. Before this
happens, I suggest that the Himalayas should be divided - with the 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
come all.
The second one would be open only by special permission to a limited
number of climbers and scientists. There are already a number of national
these could be upgraded and perhaps even linked.
The third one \'vould be inviolate and kept free of human intrusion. It would
be a or two above the national park status. This raises some basic
questions. Do we want to preserve some corners of the earth free from man's
interference or do we want to open up every bit of it to human exploitation.
Do we have the right to use up all the earth? Or are we willing to leave some
space for the snow leopards, ghurrals and the abominable snowman?
As Reinhold Messner wrote recently, "Man, through the centuries, has always
chosen places which seemed special and declared them holy and untouchable.
There, the Gods Iived....Today more than ever we have a need for unexplored
wilderness:'
And our Gods have always lived in the Himalayas.
by Aamir Ali, HIMAl 28 May/June 1990
Upturning Virgin Soil
he term 'tourism development' implies much more than running tourist
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
of running resorts and bus services for tourists, it has set its sights on the
development of virgin land along the Konkan coast The corporation has
identified 32 locations where international standard, upmarket as vvell as budget
hotels are expected to corne up within the next decade.
In achange from its earlier policy, MTDC is now planning to withdraw from
operational activities and become a nodal agency for the development of
tourism by undertaki ng a different set of activities. Taking care of infrastructural
providi ng land, offering basic amenities for motorists using national
highways, are some of the major plans chalked out by MTDC
The corporation has a"PerspectiveGlvwth Plan'; basea on which it has asked
for the allocation of funds from the Central government in the Eighth Five Year
Plan. Its plans involve roping in private developers to bui Id resorts/hotels and
thereby develop the locations as tourist spots. The land is provided by
MTDCIWe get the land either through an allotment from the government or
we acquire directly'~ says Kawale.
However, MTDCs offer to private developers has not met with a great deal
of enthusiasm. According to Mukhtar Hussain of Suman Motels Ltd which runs
five to six motels in Maharashtra (but aren't bui Iding any on MTDC land), 'Their
location lS for the promotion of tourism, our location is for busi ness faei Iities:'
Another private developer is more explicit when he say\ "Basically the plots.
Which MTDC are offering are not developed locations. They are beautifUl
but ...ve arc sceptical about the availability of infrastructural facilities:'
complain that not enough publicity has been given to MTDCs
procedures. This means that only linsiders' have an opportunity to participate.
Whilst MTDC plans to team-up with the concerned authorities for the
of water, electricity and roads, private developers complain that most
locations have no rail connections, another negative factor. Also, they are not
interested in the development of hotels as a majority of them are slated to fall
into the two or three star category. aimed at the tourist on abudget. ''l\lso there
is no assurance of a minimum level of room occupancy;' states a developer.
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
A
fter a preliminary fumble, the oversized bulb.. which illuminate the
police parade grounds in Jhalawar are dimmed, throwing into sharp
relief the makeshift stage which is humming with activity. All evening,
the grounds have been filling up with the local people who have greeted this
three-day festival of music with as much enthusiasm as they do a mela, except
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
initiative is the panacea for the ilis of astagnating tourist profile. The idea that
own traditional song and dance.
is doing the rounds in the Mantralaya is that of 'cutting ITDC loose'. Which
Many of the people milling about the grounds,
were not present at the
occasion: Pandit Ravi Shankar began the festivities with an impassioned
recital. The choice of venue was also apt-the Bhawani Natyashala
house) had been built, in 1921, in the style of an opera house and is believed
to be one among only five of its kind in the country.
Over the years, the Natyashala fell on bad days. It came to be used, without
any regard for its antiquity or uniqueness of design, in turn as a cinema hall
and a badminton court.
* don't compare well with the competition.
It took aformer district collector's effort to have the cinema closed and the court
shifted, and it now devolves upon the convenor of the Indian National Trust
settle down, leaving the five-stars to the private sector.
for Art and Cultural Heritage (lNTACH), Thakur Ranvir Singh, to set about getting
Meanwhile, Kerala is being projected as the model to be emulated. As apart
the theatre restored to its original state.
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
been freshly painted. The action has meanwhile shifted to the police grounds
to accommodate more people (the theatre cannot seat too manv) and admit
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
is followed by recitals by Aminuddin Dagar and Naina Devi, and aperformance
100 crores. Recent reports in the Economic Times suggest that the KTDC is also
by
envisaging a tie-up with,a leading international hotel chain for consultancy,
Raghuraj Singh Hada, hunched over the microphone placed unconventional Iv
marketing and training.
on the floor of the stage, prepares to introduce the items on the agenda.
a flourish, he presents a succession of performers drawn from the neighbouring
towns of Kota and Boondi which, with Jhalawar, make up the distinctive Hadoti
region in this corner of south-east Rajasthan.
The night air is redolent with the sound of dhol and man/eera as phad singers
come on with their ditties, followed by colourful tribal dancers and performers
who manage incredible feats of balance and dexterity involving fire and swords.
A folk singer from Boondi puts his signature to the show when he gets everyone
in the audience, even those who don't understand the language, to join him
in a well-remembered tune, clapping along and singing, infected by his stage
presence.
A ready interpreter sits in the front row, next to Vasundhara
the official in charge of urban development at city hall, calls lithe world's biggest
this area and co-organiser of the event, who is following proceedings with
evident enjoyment. "The response is unprecedented;' she says, "I did not expect
For years, one of the most pressing problems confronting this city has been
so many people.:'
"I am trying to promote a new concept in tourism-not the Jaipur-Udaipur kind
where you are packaged for two or three days;' she says, going on to elaborate,
"Here, people can laze and loll about the district at their own pace. This is an
experiment to see how the concept would work-to bring tourism out of its
five-star cloister:'
For outsiders, too, the folk evening was a delight. Away from the false confines
of theapna utsavs, this was folk art in its own space and place, and it felt right.
Despite the rough edges and the lack of soohistication, the
not the
as authentic.
an annual affair-an
area to more people.
What has begun as an 'experiment' in Jhalawar is cautiously being explored
in other parts of the state as "heritage tourism'~ The concept of 'palace hotels'
is only one facet of this; INTACH has been pushing the idea of preserving
medieval towns, stemming the decay of years and curbing the rise of new-fangled
Contd. on page 18
Penan~ Hill Condo-versy
Privatisation Spree in Kerala?
Tread Gently by K. T. Suresn
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?
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
by the booming island's urban growth, it is a symbol of Penang's beauty. to conquer moun cain trail and apple pie
So when a commercial plan for its development came to light, it triggered futile attempts to pound every last partide of dust
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
by developer Bukit Pi nang Leisure envisioned a200-room hotel, condominiums, investors. The reasons stated for it are:
With especially desiflned Dunlop retreads.
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.
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
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
they sit on some of the finest properties in the countrv.ITDC hotels
So do Bukit Pinilng Leisure's other owners. Yayasan Bumiputera Pulau Pinang, from beneath the feet of /"'DrbintrT
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
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
Lim':; approval has prompted a "Save Penang Hill" campaign. 1'1 regard the furiously scrubbing the stream clean with Blue Omo
hili as almost sacred;' says Ahmad, a member of the Friends of Penang Hill. while others scratch at the sweat and grime
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)
Act:' Under the 1976 federal law, a plan for development of Penang was and watch as rivulets of bleached common sense
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
of special character: "Its natural vegetation, topography and character as a hill tourism
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
consultations before
paradinf/ around in her bikini top
project has bypassed th'is'crucial step;' he ·argues. "Members of the public, resi­
realises how absurd she looks
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/,
snow-capped mountain peaks?)
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
"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
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
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
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.
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
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.
(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,
and the three malnutrieioned children
Kam U-Tee, retired general manager the Penang Water Authority, said in understands the
a letter to Berjaya that the catchments yield about 22 millions gallons of water business district".
but then who listens to them anyway:)
a day. It would cost at least $2AOO dai Iy to pump that volume from the mainland.
in addition to a $37-million outlay for headworks to raise the water level at Tread gently screams the universal voice of reason the presence of Government ministries, which employ 61,000 people, in historic
source, he said. as the needJe balances precariously over the newest sound quarters where exhaust fumes in narrow streets are destroying priceless
Bukit Pinang Leisure has encounted another obstacle. In September the and the turntable beqins to spin. monuments.
federal Environment Department rejected the developer's environmental impact INDIAN EXPRESS, 15 May, 1991
HIMAl, March/April 1991
assessment. Director-General of Environment Abu Bakar Jaafar said the project
would affect water supply and cause river siltation and soi I erosion. The
Biased Action ~~
developer was advised to go back to the drawing board.
Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon, who took over from Lim in October, and the ON lIj. eRiGHT.....
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.
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
conceptual plan that will issued by the Goa Southern Planning Development Agency and the central
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
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
quite a number of hurdles:'Provided a compromise can be reached, peace high court. Charlston Hotel's illegal construction has been partly demolished
should once again prevail on Penang Hill. by the government.
ASIAWEEK,. April 12 1991 The Independent, 20 Aug. 91
Ponnappa in TIMES OF INDIA
 14
Investing in Mal-Development
This is probably why many WTs openly shun their fellow travellers as
The Crossing ofJapanese aDA and Resort Development
by Noda Misato
In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of Transport launched its 4-year "Ten Million
Project" promoting overseas travel with the ambitious goals of building mutual
understanding between the Japanese and other peoples, accelerating
internationalism among Japanese people, improving the foreign trade
imbalance, and bringing economic prosperity to foreign countries. The project's
target, ten million tourists by 1991, from which the name derived will
be reached ayear before the target date. This flood of tourist money has
hopes, especially in Asia's chronically poor countries, that the resort
would boost their suffering economies. A lot is expected of Japan, which also
brings an en0rmous amount of foreign aid ostensibly designed for economic
development. Given all this, it should not be surprising that tourism is now
being included as a part of ODA (Official Development Assistance).
In 1989, the Ministry of Transport publicized its Holiday Village Plans for "total
support in the development of international resorts:' This project was to aim
at "giving aid to support the systematic development of international resorts
through the International Cooperation Association, giving yen loans through
the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) for tourist-related
infrastructure, and taking advantage of non-governmental fUnds and skills for
the so-called superstructure such as hotels, recreation facilities, and the like:'
This grand design clearly shows what attitude the Japanese government will
take towards resort development in 'Third World' countries, and how it is going
to use the existing aid system for tourism in a way similar to its approach in
other sectors.
In Aid of Tourism
1. Yen loans
According to a report from the OECF, which administers ODA tied loans,
the total amount of yen loans for the period from 1966 to 1988 was 7.83 trillion
spread across 137 projects. Less than 1 percent of that total, roughly 30
yen, made up 6 projects tategorized as tourism. Notice, however that
infrastructure projects such as road and airport construction which are needed
to promote tourism are not included in the tourism category. Such aid
clearly show a transition from constructing superstructure facilities, sucn as
hotels, to providing the surrounding infrastructure related to tourism, and more
recently to providing comprehensive and basic facilities for expanding tourism.
A clear example of this type of loan is the provisional Project for Basic Facilities
for Resorts in Thailand. It is a regional development program to encourage
employment and the acquisition of foreign currency primarily through
promoting tourism. The project will provide basic infrastructure such as roads,
communications, waterworks, etc., for resorts in eight regions and their
neighboring areas in Thailand. The loan will be used to purchase equipment
and pay expenses for consulting work and other services.
2. Development research
JICA (the Japan International Cooperative Agency), a government agency
whose mission includes monitoring technical assistance, has begun to include
tourism in its development research projects. From the prominence given to
it by the Japanese government, one can easily infer that tourism now ranks with
agriculture and manufacturing as an important sector for community
development. It is likely that any particular project based upon 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
of this phenomenon i~ action. This project will identify potential areas for
development in the eastern region' of the Malay Peninsula, and conduct
feasibility studies for total community development programs using tourism
as its main focus.
-",, i.rcli'le~~ .mu uvet!)eas experb
A "Seminar for the Promotion of Tourism" is organized each year by )lCA,
bringing about 20 participants from allover the world to Japan for a group
training course. In 1989, the twenty-fifth seminar was held with twenty
participants from nineteen countries: South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya,
Mauritius, Tanzania, Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Papua New Guinea
and Greece. Those invited are either gCNernment tourism administrators or from
large commercial enterprises. The International Tourism Promotion Association
administers the two month seminar, designed to-introduce the relevant Japanese
administrative bodies, their policies, and the situation in the Japanese tourism
industry. During the same year, Japan dispatched 15 tourism experts to
developing countries: three each to India, Fiji, and Mexico, two to China, one
to oversee both Indonesia and Malaysia, and another two to the UN Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Tourism as Maldevelopment
In concluding this glance at institutiondl aid to tourism, we find it hard to
be optimistic about the influence of resort development on 'Third World'
peoples through Japanese governmental aid. This is especially worrisome in
light of the present ~ituations of Japan's ODA and domestic resort development.
Th us resort development causes the same problems as foreign aid-{]esignated
development in general. Often the kind of projects are more appropriate for
the donors than the receivers, as can be seen in examples such as the
construction of the National Historic Park in Indonesia which evicted the
residents from the surrounding area even before any promises of sufficient
compensation. Furthermore, the hosting of large scale tourism means a
outsiders, all with different cultural backgrounds, cascading in
people's daily lives. The accompanying socio-cultural problems can no
longer be ignored. How is Japan responding to these problems? Promotional
schemes alone only further aggravate the problem, notwithstanding the high
sounding language of Japanese government agencies.
Those who promote tourism depend upon a pristine and scenic natural
environment and diverse cultures, both of which resort development is
threatening to destroy.
AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 22.(4), 1991
Indonesia's Hotel Conglomerates
Indonesian conglomerates will dominate the tourism sector by the end of
next yea~ says a noted observer of the economy_
"Conglomerates such as the Bimantara, Rajawali, Salim and Summa groups
will be among the country's top 10 hoteliers next year along with pioneers in
the sector," Christianto Wibisono of the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDB!)
said.
PDBI, in a report, said inadequate air transportation connecting Indonesia
to other countries and the less'than significant role of the local people might
create problems for the development of the sector and cause it to lag behind
that of other countries.
The PDBI report said the current air seat capacity for international airlines
serving routes to Indonesia was still smaller than which
discourage visitors from travelling into the country.
liThe government's protection of Garuda Indonesia, the national flag carrie~
should not affect the flow of visitors into the country. The permission granted
to private airlines serving domestic routes to operate jet aircraft is expected
to motivate Garuda to strengthen its position as an international airline more
able to compete:' th~ report said. •
PDBI also called on the government to pay special attention to local people
whose property was affe(:ted by tourism projects.
liThe government should protect these people, for example, by asking the
tourist resort developers to provide shares for them. In this way, they will learn
about business practices and earn capital gain. This would be better than giving
asmall portion of shares to them as an act of charity 20 years after the projects
go into full operation;' it said.
The PDBI report also said the government should take the local people's
partiCipation senousiy to prevent the eruptron ot social unrest because large
tourist resorts in the country had been unfairly edging out small-scale and
medium-size businesses.
7
Happy Tourist, Unhappy Traveller
by Robert Shepherd
P
umpernickel Bakery in Thamel, down town Kathmandu, is a favourite
spot for foreigners. Even during off-season! the bakery's garden tables
fill quickly each morning. The service is good; the bread, fresh; the
croissants, delicious and the coffee, passable. The staff members are unobtrusive
and polite and with thei r brown faces a rarity in the restaurant, where the rest
of the people are foreign travellers.
They are travellers and not tourists. A young English woman, on her way home
from a year abroad in Australia, tried to explain the difference to me. She said
that 'travellers' live 'like the people'; they travel the way 'the people travel'; and
they are 'in touch' with, and have 'a feel' fo~ 'the people: The tourists, on the
other hand, travel in air-conditioned buses, live in five-star hotels and eat at
overpriced restaurants. And they never drink the water. There are no tourists
at Pumpernickel: only travellers.
Touring extensively around the world, the long-term world travellers (WT),
the majority of whom are North American, Western European, Japanese and
Australian, share a common ideology. They view the Third World as their
iaboratory and look upon themselves as romantic, even intrepid, adventurers.
They sneer at tourists and laugh at those who have remained back home in
Peoria. They share a common language, English, and even a common dress
code in Nepal: cheap cotton drawstring pants, rubber sandals, and printed t­
shirts. The t-shirts are the public resumes: in one giance one can discern who
has come up from Kenya, Bali, Bangkok or Goa.
World travellers adorn themselves with the handicrafts of this week's locale.
In Kathmandu, turquoise and silver rings, bracelets, earrings, sheep-skin
shoulder bags, wool caps and vests. It is said the jewelry is actually mass ­
produced in Lhasa. The caps are Afghani, and the vests are multi-coloured
combinations with tassels hanging from the edges. Who wears this stuff? Not
the Nepalis. In Kathmandu, they are the ones trying to dress like us!
In their attempts to 'become native' the world travellers often corrupt
indigenous systems.
At the bakery, several Germans, aSwede and an American couple are engaged
in a heated discussion about exchange rates, whicli is a favourite topic among
WTs, in addition to the black market. They can quote the going rates for the
dollar in Delhi, Kathmandu, Borneo or Burma. Thev also know where to sell
whiskey and cigarettes, blue jeans and cameras.
An Australian advised me: "See, you buy your Indian rupees in Kathmandu,
get an air ticket to the border, buy your Johnny Walkers and Marlboros at duty­
free and sell them for twice over what you paid, once you land:' He continued,
"if you are going on to Burma, hold on to your stuff, The country is quite screwed
up and the people will buy anything you've got, even the shirt off your back'~
I wondered where he was headed. "0h, I'm off to an ashram near Bangalore
for a month of meditation:' Ashrams, shrines and mosques are the traditional
destinations tor Wls. Those who iook for spirituai wisdom are aii young, white,
educated, affluent, radical, chic. They search for "meaning': they overflow with
good intention.
One day, in Kathmandu's main bazaar area, I noticed abackpacker haggling
with an Indian selling oranges from a basket strapped to his bicycle. "How
much?" the backpacker asked. "One orange, three rupees'; said the Indian. "One
rupee': the westerner insisted, Ithere/~ He dropped the rupee into the basket
and walked away pleased at his bargaining skills. After all, he had successfully
acted just iike the 'people', He has just had an "experience;~ Some Nepali
bystanders cluck with sympathy for the indian, Who swears in Hindi.
Beneath the WT's talk about cross-cultural sensitivity ana "experience" is a
sense of cultural imperialism that would have done ihe Victorians
Notwithstanding their beatific expression, world traveiiers are CUl-Ulival
practitioners of the mundane living. In Nepal, as elsewhere.. they compete at
agame with the odds stacked heavily in theirfavour. They use lheir economic
to secure shamelessly that which the society can olfer and than which
!i cannot and shOUld not also ofter.
The-world traveller expects to find a unique culture in the 'exotic' East, onlY
to wait in iine behind the same people whom they seemingly wanted to avoid.
saunter through the .streets of Thamel. They throw hostile glances at other
foreigners whose only fault is to walk the same street.
Tony Wheeler's Lonely Planet guide books are one of the main reasons why
the WTs end up in the same places. The difference between this guidebook
and others is that it targets a different audience and never describes them.as
tourists. Tony Wheeler calls them travellers who "want to see the country at
ground level, to breathe it, experience it and live it': He writes that tourists stay
in Hiltons, travellers do not. Instead, travellers should gO tramDing through the
back alleys of the Third World and absorb exoticism
has built a multi-national publishing business
of this planet.
What happens, of course, is that no world traveller is alone when he "does"
Bali or Rangoon or Kathmandu. After all, they carry the same book. They check
in at the same hotels. They eat in the same restaurants. They discover the same
hideaways off the well-trodden paths. The traveller longs to discover the
particular place to which no tourist or traveller has been. Yet, he keeps running
into many others like himself.
Western isation had consu med Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.
But it has yet to hurdle the Himalayas. In Nepal samosas and mo-mos are in
fashion: not Big Macs. Yes, Michael Jackson is popular among young people,
but Kumar Basnet and Nara~'an Gopal still outsell him in the tape shoos. The
of the country's first escalator is frontpage news.
Into this other-world enters the world travellers. They speak tngllsn, are
obsessed with money, and dress in odd peasant costumes. Off they go to the
mountains in search of experience. The handful of Nepalis they come into
contact with are guides and lodgeowners - whose burden it is to "represent"
the society and culture.
The East is not the West. Religious! linguistic and philosophical differences
separate the two. Yet! world travellers al'proach the East, including countries
like Nepal, as if they were on a jaunt into the Parisian countryside. They do
not realise that Hnding a bathroom, exchanging money, buying hasish and
dinner does not constitute "inter-cultural communication'
Frozen out of the cultures they travel _
among their own kind. That is why they crowd the tourist ghettos. Subdividing
into factions, they share their cultural illusions and seek to alleviate their secret
boredom. They trade tales and anecdotes over omelets and pizzas and they
huddle together to watch American videos. Make-believe hippie and aspiring
Buddhist, both wili be watching a scratched copy of Rambo.
Truly, the "traveller" is no different from the "tourists". He carries the same
shackles: an ignorance of the language, the culture, and the people and their
idiosyncrasies. However, the tourists, by recognising and accepting the
differences between themselves and others admit that they are outsiders or
the premise that travel is a privilege and not
the possibi lity of such an acknowledgment.
cheaply and dreSSing like a native can transform
them into cultural insiders. V. S. Naipaul writes of them as those "who wish
themselves on societies more fragile than their own...who in the end do no
more than celebrate thei r own security"
~i!MAl, Sept/Oct 1990
Serve them RIghi
ravellers from the time of Marco Polo and before have always been laden
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
to be peopied with non-travelling circuses of beggars and performers assembled
precisely with the idea of causing wonderment among the travelling public.
Travellers on the German railways may soon see something that convinces them
that the entire German people are a travelling circus. Fori as the uninitiated
stranger sits in the dining-car of a German train and sees the woifing of meat
alia potatoes foiiowed by the reassuring gulping down of coffee, the odds are
he won't be prepared for what comes next. If he is: !uckv enough to see what
c:,;,r.tli. on pale 18
 8 13
Please don't come to Goa
KAIGA:
by Mario Cabral e Sa
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
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
to Goa! Or, you might find yourself agreeing, in seif-commiseration, with the
private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network. Between her first
visit when she was young and a dreamer, and her latest visit as a world-wise
and established hack, Goa had "Iost her innocence': And Goans no longer acted
without aforethought malice.
One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism,
particularly on small places like Goa. And the first veiled warnings came through
the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a
UNDP team of experts who had come down in the '70s to advise the Goan
administration on tourism strategies. One of the documents was a Dutch study
containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity
it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution: cultural
pollution which is irreversible. _ have been already ordered to close down their casinos. The Colombo police
Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a
collective fixation. Cabbies cheat remorselessly. Touts and guides craftily exploit
visitors. Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge. About 20 average-sized or
12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200;
two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound
of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150
per portion excluding taxes and additionals; at five-star hotels, of course, they
are priced at Rs 280 and more. The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martin's
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
substances like fish bones, for instance.
Recently, a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs. 5,000
each, by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college
drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes. The clients wanted
"college girls". Such "clients" are becoming sickeningly common in Goa. And
they almost uniformly end up stranded at night, in a dark unlit alley near the
town's best known girls' hostel. Serves them right, yes. But considerfor a minute
that the cheats are the sons and, on occasion, daughters of perfectly respectable
families with a hard-earned tradition in civility, decency. honesty and hospitality.
Once, revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely
stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders. They would sing a song or two,
wish them a happy New Year and then proffer, with a!ouch of elegance, their
collection boxes. The coHections were scrupulously used for community
purposes: repairing a crumbling roadside oratory, a tea party for orphans and
.destitutes, or a parish youth,hop. Now, roads are barricaded, threats issued,
abuses hurled and money extorted. And the money is used to buy booze, or
worse, drugs.
Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous, so suddenly? The reasons
are many. Unemployment is the most common denominator, ennui the most
frequent motivation. And to top it all, there is that nagging feeling that the land
and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have
nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa. The grievance
is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism.
Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their
organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force. What they
discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more, and that, as a result,
the 80 per cent are a sullen, unhappy lot.
"Why you ,worry, man. It's peanuts for toem (tourists), man;' a tour operator
told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign
tourists.
Call it loss of innocence, if you will. But a more apt conclusion might be
that familiarity has bred contempt. And as Mother Rabbit once said: many a
crude attempt.
THE INDEPENDENT, 3 April 1991
Colombo Closes Casinos
Will Tourists Really 'Boycott' Goa?
By Ashwani Talwar
C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world. Sri lanka has announced
a total ban on all casinos in the country. Although not quite Las Vegas,
Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to
gamble your money away. Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city
- were listed as tourist attractions. Smaller casinos had been around for about
a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the city's five
star hotels also opening them. Baccarat, Black Jack and Roulette had helped
set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on
the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties.
But casinos remained a matter of controversy. The government was under
pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy
was particu larly harsh in its criticism. Critics, however have not picked on casi nos
alone. During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and
restaurants. Their clientele includes school children and office workers who
drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening. Then
there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television.
The cabinet spokesman, Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe, told reporters that the
necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the
ban on all gambling establishments into effect. Two government-owned hOWls
had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places, but
these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation.
Some things will, however, continue as before. Betting on horses is still okay
and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good
amount of money to the state treasury every year.
Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead
to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million
as annual levy from major casinos, but little foreign exchange was involved.
The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino
business, the minister said. He listed infiltration of the mafia, prostitution and
drug trafficking.
THE TIMES OF INDIA, 10 June, 1991
JGF Condemns ICasinos'
The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has «;mdemned the attempted
moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca, with the
supposed clearance of the government of Goa.
JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr. Sunder Advani
that the clearance for the casino will be given 'soon' by the government.
The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence, only because
of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that
be. JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos
on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue
from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects
in the State. JGF also warned that it will not be too long before 'Sex
Tourism' will be justified as a revenue earner, as in the case ofThailand.
The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross
envi ron mental violations.
JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of
the hotel by tourists and investors, and calls upon people not to invest
or patronise the Ramada Hotel.
JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest 'gimmick'
of the Ramada Group to present a 'green and environment conscious
image: The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American
Express and Nature Conservancy, Washington to ensure this image,
with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and
paying for their stay with an American Express card, would be
contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation.
HERALD, Panjim, 19 May, 1991
The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the
struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry. The case, that she
uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga. The Kaiga Nuclear
Complex, in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms. from Goa's border.
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
destination 'paradises; which are not saddled with such 'ogres' next door?
Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss
any such notions by suggesting that "public opinion in North America and
Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness'; the
following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans, Karnatakans and
Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned). Public
reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions,
programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive
contamination, has reached an all time high.
As the 'Economist' has suggested, the North American and European public's
attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect 'green
politics' and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott.
Adults, including those "who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes
or driving fast cars - want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl"
or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants.
Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international
'tourist pool zones' - for instance, that in Austria, Denmark and Norway, public
pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a
resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident.
In the USA and Europe, furthermore, there are increasing signs that public
and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either
be fully closed down, replaced by other power stations (using different energy
sources) or converted to conventional power stations. As 'The Economist' has
confirmed: By '~priI9th, 1990, a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n)
place in Midland, Michigan, USA: the commissioning of the world's first power
station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel. Mr William McCormick
the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation, the plant's main owner, confidently
predicts that other conversions will follow. The reason is simple: utilities across
America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants.
''The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation
from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about
everywhere. Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or
moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the
now gas-fired station at Mid land. He hopes that CMS Energy's pioneering effort
at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for
conversions (in the USA, Europe and Japan). Mr McCormick even has a snappy
marketing slogan. 'We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade;
he declares:'
In Britain, too, as the Social and Community Planning Research Group
recently ascertained through an extensive 'British Social Attitudes Survey' "the
more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public)
in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern,
rather than a reversal of it': In the report, it was also found that "the proportion
of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power
generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35% in 1983 to 21%.
However, almost half (49%) of those questioned (in the most recent report)
selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear
reactors" (ie. As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned; the statement wh ich
comes 'closest' to reflecting their own feelings is that is 'creates very serious
risks for the future').
Indeed, as the report's findings were to conclude: "Clearly there has been
a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in
all age groups (concerning the 'unsafe' nature of nuclear power stations). The
crucial point is that overall, seven out of ten men and more than eight out of
ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power
stations".
Moreover, in Sweden, concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear
power by 201o..In Spain, public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that
five reactors under construction have been cancelled. In Italy too, following
a public referendum the 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
pool' which visits Goa, is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active
recreational, vocal and economic boycott of those areas/nations who are actively
promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations
- at a feverish pace (ie. India, and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region).
As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist: '~s green
issues become international, it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie
greenery and sovereignty. There will be international pressure for agreements
to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea, to transfer cash and
technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up" as
opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the
envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as
India's, whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core
systems (eg. the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently
unstable. As the Economist's analyst has concluded: "Governments that are
reluctant to sign will be pilloried" (03.03.90).
Given this background, 'International' tourist threats to 'boycott Goa' once
the Kaiga plant is commissioned, should not be dismissed lightly. Tourists from
these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott 'en masse' those
holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant 'radio-active
hazards'. The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely
affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station.
In conclusion, it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions
expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural
analysts, John Elkington, Tom Burke and Julia Hales: "The average tourist (from
North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the
chemistry of the upper stratosphere, but some forms of pollution, like the
radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, have
significantly dented the tourism industry's receipts.
'~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes, for example, In
tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by
more than 30 per cent. .. In today's world, such developments can spell
economic ruin for countries (like India's-my emphasis) that have hitched their
fortunes to the international tourism industry" to the point where "such revenues
are taken seriously (by the government), and the comings and goings of overseas
visitors are watched intently':
Goa's, Karnataka's and Kerala's tourist trade, indeed, perhaps stand to be
destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel, a region in Byelorussia,
USSR. As the Sunday Independent, a widely read and respected British
newspaper, recently informed its readers of the fate of this region: "Gomel (is)
a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place
at this time of year (April 1990), when the pear trees are in blossom and the
chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks.
"Today, (however), Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth. Gomel was
once a (major) tourist centre. Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come,
people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk.
Local's, discovering I was visiting in the town, brought me flowers and
chocolates. 'Come again, please come again: they said.
'Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Val atava, a contaminated area, Gomel itself
is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation. 'only five curies per square kilo­
metre. We're supposed to be grateful for that', says Dr. Zdota, sneering at the
'acceptable norms' of pollution set by the scientists': Yet, it is precisely this 'low,
sate level' of 'radioactive contamination' which has effectively destroyed the
tourist trade and the economy of the region. Will Goa, Kerala and Karnataka
be next?

12
Travels in Five Tibets
Lhasa. Few succeeded, but most wrote about the attempt and the sub-genre
The Myth of Shangri-La, Peter Bishop, University of California Press,
landscapes: noble, heroic journeys, mystical pilgrimages, high adventure, and
Berkeley, 1990
Review by John Frederick
The Myth ofShangri-La by Peter Bishop, who teaches at the South Australian
College of Advanced Education is a study ofTibet in the collective imagination
of the British over a 200-year period. It is not a study of the land and people,
but of a collection of imaginal'Tibets: products of the travel literature from 177.1
to 1969.
Imaginal places are common to every society. They are created, reformed
and dissolved according to changing social, religious and gea-political
consciousness. Kailas for South Asian Hindus, EI Dorado for sixteenth-century
and the Island of Origin for Hawaiians. They are lands invested with
a people's dreams and aspirations: peace, wealth, pleasure, sanctity,
They are spun into being by storytellers, poets, film-makers and travel writers.
Some places are contemporary, some ancient in all, reality is subordinated
to fantasy. The modern Asian myth of America, fal and rich, diplomas and videos
dropping from the trees, has little relation to the hard work, iron streets and
shopping malls experienced by Americans themselves. Westerners, in
their turn, willingly ignore the cultural degradation behind the pai nted masks
and palm trees
For Westerners, Tibet has been one imaginal place among many: the Andes,
the sources of the Nile, the Arctic, the European Alps. Bishop has chosen his
topic well. The centuries from the entrance of the first modern British traveller
in 1774 to the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959 "coincided almost exactly with
the rise and fall of European, particularly, British, aspirations:' Bishop's
examination of primarily British travel writing is intended to be a window "into
the changing aspirations, the soul, of modern
There has been and still is no single "Tibet" in the Western imagination. There
have been a succession - evolving, declining, contradicting each other. Bishop
chooses to delineate five, with reasonable historical justification, and is careful
to note that within each a myriad of smaller "Tibets" are subsumed.
In the first, from 1773 to 1792, Tibet developed in the British imagination
from an undefined geographica I location to a "place': the rudiments of a literary
landscape aesthetic formed, and from disillusionment with Christianity and
Western spiritual ity there began a fascination with the Tibetan style of Buddhism,
at once highly literate and rational, patently idolatrous and mystical. Following
the Gurkha invasions ofTibet the country was closed to travellers. Bishop shows
how the recurrent inaccessibility ofTibet contributed to its creation as asacred
place, and "sealed Western fantasies into an almost closed vessell!.
the next two "Tibets': from 1792 to 1875, few travellers managed to
cross the borders. Alrnpst none reached Lhasa. The British Empire expanded
and with it expanded its geo-political imagination. Britain looked outward.
"Nineteenth-century rationalism provided idealised images of coherence,
unification and identity (of foreign civilisations) which belied intense internal
social fragmentation and conflict:'
With India and the rest of the Empirer the Himalaya was systemically surveyed.
Brian Hodgson made his immense study of the geology, customs, languages,
and zoology of the Himalaya. Joseph Hooker and other naturalists
on the closed borders ofTibet, recording the mountain landscaoe with
scientific precision.
The genre of travel writing was forming, in some confusion. Mid-century
Rationalism lay in a rumpled bed with the transcendent visions of emergent
European Romanticism. The genre found cohesion in the publication of the
fourth volume of John Ruskin's Modern Painters in 1854, at the peak of British
mountain enthusiasm, when the Alps were the focus of physical challenge and
the Himalaya the focus of mountain fantasy. Ruskin's landscape aesthetic
combined careful observation and precise description with a subdued,
unromantic evocation of the inner experience of the landscape. With Ruskin,
says Bishop, the modern literary relationship of man and the wilderness
During the closing years of the nineteenth century, the fourth "Tibet';
once again entered, trom every direction. "lnU)~5 one British lournallst
exclaimed, Tibet may be said to be at present in a state of siege:"Russian, French
and British explorers vied with each other to cross the cold plateau and enter
of Tibet travel writing was born. British bookshops displayed an array of mythical
ethnological fantasies. Forbidden Lhasa and its God-King, the Dalai Lama, were
the axis mundi of the sacred place.
For Victorian travellers, the world was closing in. Tibec almost alone, seemed
untouched. "The increasing sense of global unity was accompanied by a
realisation of global fragility, destruction, loss... The deforestation of the
Himalaya was already causing concern and sadness even at this early date.. :'
But perhaps the deepest sense of loss, as well asource of irritation, was caused
by mass tourism and its effect on the wild places of the world. "Those who
had suffered the wind and cold of the Tibetan plateau thought themselves, not
incorrectly, an elite. They were explorers, not tourists, struggling with
contradictory desires to explore the land and to keep it untouched, to preserve
in the world one last sacred place:'
Until the twentieth century, the fifth "Tibet", there was an essential unity in
the travel writers' visions and thus in the British collective fantasy. From 1904
to 1959, Bishop sees afragmentation of the fantasy into four quite distinct and
contradictory imaginal places. Different visions were inevitable as information
about Tibet accumulated, as western travel writing evolved and as the writers
responded personally to the pain or the two World Wars and the Great
Depression of the 19305.
One Ti bet was descendant from the long fasci nation with Buddh ism: the land
of the lamas and mystical accomplishment, the land of spiritual perfection in
a debased world. This vision was exemplified by Alexander David-Neel and,
to Bishop's credit, the scholar Giuseppe Tucci. In contrast, there was the
"realistic" Tibet of Spencer Chapman and others - pictures of mundane
everyday life, uninquisitive and anti-religious.
The other two Tibets of the twentieth century were, in Bishop's consideration,
the final, dissolving forms of the cultural fantasy, the conclusion of the growing,
changing vision which he had traced over 200 years. In these, Tibet the
geographical reality was disassociated with Tibet the imaginal place. In 1949,
the American tourism writer Lowell Thomas and his son visited Lhasa. Lowell
Junior depOsited upon the world a model of the Tibetan tourism fantasy ­
cultural resonance, historical depth and sensitivity to landscape had disappeared
beneath cliches and expressions of naive amazement. The other Tibet, the
was fixed in the public imagination by James Hilton's immensely popular
Lost Horizon, published in 1933, during'the Depression. Lost Horizon
dramatised the disilfusionment of the West, its spiritual emptiness and fears
of social disorder. The perfect land of Shangri-La reflected acute Western
longings: peace, righteousness, psychic fulfillment. The collective fantasy of
Tibet had become abstract, the land had disappeared,
Even before the exit of the Dalai Lama and the dismantling of traditional
society, Tibet itself had ceased to be the locus of the Tibet rnyth. Realism had
turned on the house lights and bared the mysteries; the tourism writers had
reduced the noble and remarkable to the banal, and the vision had
removed Shangri-La from earth altogether: Tibet had become, In Bishop's words;
/Ian empty vessel".
The Myth ofShangri-La is a book for academics. It is extraordinarily rich in
analyses, but is somewhat cor'lfused by a hazy methodology based in archetypal
psychology. Bishop examines travel texts with tools from a variety of disciplines.
Each examin.ation is valid and revealing, but all are jumbled together; analytical
perspectives change from paragraph to paragraph with no apparent order. This
is unfortunate, for the book is !ikelydestined for graduate library stacks, rather
than the audience upon which it could have made a profound impact: travel
writers themselves.
The tools of French de-constructionism are skillfully used to place the texts
within appropriate geo-political, social and psychological contexts, Humanistic
geography, such as Bachelard's and Lowenthal's work on the perception of place
and landscape, illuminates the evolution of the landscape aesthetic in travel
Bishop charts the development of the Western fascination, and later
obsession, with Tibetan Buddhism and Eastern spirituality with great skill. His
several-page definition of the art of travel writing should be required
for every travei writer. One wishes each of these studies were a separate
monograph.
The book stops abruptly with a cursory conclusive chapter! as if Bishop
[enid on page 19
Horrors Under the Carpet
by lynne Reid Banks
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
wished to help India's export trade, there would be nothing more to pay for
the carpets, which would be delivered to our door. He didn't bother to mention
demurrage and handling charges, which came to nearly d third of the
price. We could have got them almost as cheaply in a sale of Indian
carpets here in Britain-I saw some in Piccadilly last month.
And, of (nurse, if we'd bought them here it would have been easier not to
think about how they were made. When you buy them from the factory, there's
no question of that. The Indian merchant is at no pains to hide the children
from you; in fact he very cheerfully takes you to see them, seven years old and
upward, huge-eyed, thin as reeds, hands flashing at the looms, You are shown
them, you watch them work, you photograph ri'lem. Then you go and choose
your carpet. So you can't claim you didn't know. There's absolutely no excuse.
Why then did we buy acarpet made with child labour? This is the question
I have been addressing ever since I got back to England, where I promptly fel!
foul of a friend who works for Anti-Slavery International. He didn't reproach
me at all, he simply handed me some pamphlets. One was actually called
C;rpel Boys of India. Another was Child-slaves. I read them and felt as if I were
waking from a bad dream-the bad dream of a visit to India.
This has been designated (by the India Tourist Board) "Visit India Year':
advice to anyone who is looking for a happy, carefree holidav from which
will return unchanged is, don't. Don't go there.
Don't listen to all the friends who will tell you how wonderful it is. It isn't
wonderful. It's a nightmare. The only way to enjoy it is the way
resolutely closing your eyes to everything except its ambivalent attractions.
The worker-children are happy, look they are smiling. They are full of mischief.
Oh yes, see that little imp? He iikes to pick my pockets, ma-dam! And that's his
daddy there, working with him, they work as a family. School? Of course, that's
the law, they spend half-days in school, and of course, sir, if we didn't
this skill thev would have nothing, no future. As it is they earn well,
for a carpet that takes them three months to make. £ no!
That seems too little? But for them it is a good living.
And by buying, you heip India. You help us gain self-sufficiency and
prosperity. Dangerous? Well, yes, the tuft-cutters
be careful, Occasionally, they cut their hands, But it is than starving in
the streets. Now corne outside, madam, sir, and se~ how the carpets are washed
with a special, secret chemical. The colours will never fade. are Cl treasure
you will keep forever, to remind you of India. Only when corne home,
when you awake from your Third World trance in which your values became
distorted, and think about it, do you realise how true that IS.
When I read the oamohlets and I~a,rned how,v,fl" wf>\e deceived bY,ti:Jt
these children rea:ry ;;o\'<' [hey die aebl­
bonded i:md exploited, and wretchetl dfe t~leir conditions and
prospects, ! wondered despaiiingly would
be able to spread them on my floor and heardly
had never bought them. I hoped they might be 10SI ;n iransit.
But 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,
:n the fields in their gorgeous, colourful clothes. Like the cun!
of nuts and seeds and fruits on baskets and barrows. ~:ke :11-:: erribroidcrv
silverware, the silks, the jewellery, the rav;ch;nn
you outside the tourist sites. Like the Taj.
hidden price-tag.
Thf' VAT was nothing. The real bill has not been (he re3i bill is th~l
! compare myself to a man who goes to Bangkok and has sex vvith a child
prostitute and says, "If didn't pay her she would starve. If! did~it use her someone
else would. That's the way things work here:' Does that man, who is not much
worse, now, than I am, wake up when he comes horne.o his norma! life and
,I· . r ' '....... .......
I : ~. _ " '" t ~ ,,;; 1 ~. . ~
r
liI~ !IVlllodl, ~~e:'lern VclIUe" clIIU trllllK Ueal \jUU, W~i,,!l ',Vd':> I li1I!IKHI~
I look at my carpet every day and that is what I ask.
GUARDIAN WEEKLY,S May 1991
9
Mushroom Menace
by Boney Thomas
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.
Found during the monsoons in the pine forests of Kodaikanal, this relatively
unknown mushroom is fast becoming a much sought after commodity among
addicts with the active connivance of the underworld.
two good rain showers, mushrooms sprout all over in the rich dark
feet of tall pine trees in Kodaikanal. Soon the underworld is busy
organising its gathering, distribution and sale. Tourist:. from allover - both
domestic and foreign arrive to experience a "trip" from these mushrooms.
]0 get adequately high, addicts consume about 12 mushrooms. It is
consumed by beating it with eggs to make an omelette. It is mixed with
shakes. Twelve mushrooms would induce a hallucinatory stupor lasting for four
to seven hours depending on the physical strength of the consumer.
A few years ago none at Kodaikanal had ever heard of these mushrooms. It
is believed that a Swedish tourist who spotted them made enquiries with
peddlers. They were ignorant of its potential until then. Another theory about
its discovery is that someone had unwittingly picked up a few narcotic
mushrooms and discovered its "high" after preparing a dish.
Now-a-days some restaurants at Kodaikanal serve food mixed with
mushrooms on the sly to discerning customers.
At first, the sale of these mushrooms depended wholly on climatic conditions.
As the procurement of the mush rooms began and ended with the monsoons,
the sale was seasonal. But with more and more locals and 'tourists taking to
them, efforts were made to preserve them in order to extend the scope of sales.
Soon, sun-dried mushrooms made their appearance in the drug market. But
this method of preservation was abandoned as dried mushrooms retained only
half their narcotic effect, and hence sold at half the price. After much trial and
erro~ honey was found to be a better medium of preservation. it did not reduce
the narcotic effect at all. This helped increase its sale and distribution to far
off regions like Goa and Kovalam.
these mushrooms are peddled on a large scale, there has been no
reports ot police having booked anyone for possessing them. These mushrooms
are collected by plantation workers and then transferred to professional drug
peddlers who are protected by the underworld. There are virtually no obstacles
in carti ng away the mushrooms from the pine forests. Most preventive officers
are not trained to distinguish the magic mushrooms the hctrmless edible
Soon, the monsoon season will arrive, bringing droves tourists {o
l<odaikanai in search of haliuClnatory trips with "magic" mushrooms.
avaiiable in a natUial state, ther is a possibility
into nnJgs through them.
INDiAN aPRESS, 15 June, 1991
MORE TOUR\5l5 V'SIT'STA"tE
HALE51D
Accordi~~ to th~ state10ur.ism Dept.
mope f.?rel~o t(lOPlsts ha\Je "ISlted this
state inan '1ast ~e8r. Of the siKteen
fcrei9,oers who 11ave visited the state
so far -this ~ear. one was from PaKi'5tan.
f
two were from Sri Lanka and foor from
. All fOur from Nepal however were
.-:;. \
minor CHrIS W'It\100t DdSSDorts .ihe remaillioQ
.• ,. • .
nine lOOIe Amne5t~lntep!\31i0n3\1 cf1iGid\S ~ .u..-"
I
on
';,. lije iJJe7t
POl!'lna~~""nH[S Of §NIDIA
 10
Tourism in Goa : Questions Persist
Paul S Gonsalves
& Views
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
is ill-founded, even politically motivated.
So far, I have come across 6 such articles: 3 in aGoan daily (Navhind Times),
one in the Economic Times (21/4/91) and 2 in the Indian Express (23/3 and 23/6).
The average newspaper reader in India has heard little of the resistance in
Goa. Indeed, the romantic view of Goa holds good for most Indians and so,
if on reading the Gantzer pieces, one is told that a bunch of local 'agitators'
have been up to no good, why, that must be so. Can we visit Goa during the
next vacation?
It is not so much what the Gantzers state that is of concern, rather than what
they do not. I will simply place a few facts on record and let the readers decide
whether there is substance in the claims of the resistance.
Firstly, the people of Goa are not alone in opposing tourism. The debate on
Third World Tourism is more than 30 years old internationally. A recent
bibliography by Leo Theuns (1991) lists 2166 entries until 7984. And the debate
has become sharper in the years thence. So has the resistance. The Gantzers
themselves gave an indication of this (increasing resistance) and the reasons
thereof in ~n article in early 1989: 'The tourism industry'S growing concern with
uncontrolled tourism development in fragile socio-ecosystems brought forth
platitudinous assurances from tourism planners. But when they did nothing,
irate citizens reacted against such destructive 'development~ .. there is no sign
from the Ministry (of Tourism) that the message has been heard, and acted upon,
In 1989, such movements against unplanned tourism are likely to grow. (Indian
Express, 10/1/89)
While stating the positive co-relation between tourism and environment, the
Gantzers cite the examples of Sweden and Singapore. India has neither the
economic resources nor the political-legal mechanisms that both these countries
have used to achieve a balance. In fact, while we might admire the peace and
prosperity of ou r Th ird World neighbour, Singapore, there are many who wou Id
decry the draconian laws which have made it so.
Perhaps tourism can be positively integrated with environmental concerns,
even in Goa. The point that the anti-tourism activists are at pains to make is
that, if tourism continues to grow (especialiy in the form of hotels and other
coastal constructions) at its present rate in Goa, very soon there will be no
environment left for it to integrate with. Again, to quote an observation of the
Gantzers in 1990: '...apprehensions thatthe Himachal board or. tourism woulrl
find ways to help hoteliers rather than tourists has cometrue... it has not shown
the remotest concern at the deteriorating environment (in Shimla and
Manali)...Jhere are other instances. of the use of tourism to destroy the
envi ronment wh ich attracts tourists in the fi rst place. UP i'. particularly short~
sighted and vicious...And so our beaches and mountains and other natural
resources are in danger of being destroyed by crimina! act and culpable
negligence with the open connivance of administrators and politicians..: (Indian
Express, 9/6/90).
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;
not tourism. A basic issue stated by the 'agitators' is that it is Central tourism
policy which has led to this state of affairs today. '\ policy geared to liberalisation
without checks and controls. A policy geared to maximise foreign investment
without let or hindrance. A policy which is in no sense a tourism policy, but
more precisely, a hotel policy.
As the Gantzers have had occasion to say: 'l\s we anticipated when (the
National Committee on Tourism) was set up with a heavy bias towards hotels
and hoteliers, it has tended to confuse the interest of the hotels with those of
tourism in general ... the Committee recommends the setting up of a Tourism
Finance Corporation when wpat they rf'ally hilvf' in mind is a Hotel Finance
Corporation. The obvious obsession with this one segment of the tourism
industry will make it suspect in the eyes of others... But that isn't all. The
Committee has made some positively dangerous proposals ... giving tax
INDIA ~ News
Noting that the stage is set for the globalisation of economy, Mr DiNar
concessions and investment subsidies to all areas of high tourism interest will
destroy every hill resort. Developers will rush in, and violate every rule, ravage
the ecology and leave despoiled mountains in their wake. And indeed, such
'developers' are wreaking havoc even today: (Indian Express; 31/8/1988).
Needless to add, to date there have been no published studies of the carrying
cClpacity of Indian tourism destinations, leave alone environmental impact
assessments. If national tourism policy is implemented without defining external
boundaries (that such studies can help establish), it is inevitable that
environmental destruction will follow as predicted by the Gantzers in 1988.
Although the recent articles castigate the 'agitators' for not havi ng stati stical
evidence for their claims, there are at least two reports which lay a strong
evidential basis (apart from the many documents published by those in the
resistance). Harm Zebregs, in his draft report of tourism and Goan economy
(based on 3 months of field research in Goa) concludes that the earnings and
employment projections of the industry are questionable. Menezes and Lobo,
in a report of over 100 pages, detail the corruption, irregularities and
malpractises in Goan tourism (Miriithu, London, 1991). And since the Ministry
of Environment (under Mrs Maneka Gandhi) and the Bombay High Court have
on occasion upheld the view that certain hotels have violated the law, surely
the Gantzers ought to castigate the arms of government as well.
Moreover, it is hardly essential in all matters of life to seek an evidential basis.
We are human beings, and we can see and hear and feel and experience. We
do not need to read the Wholesale Price Index on a daily basis to realise that
inflation is upon us.
The Gantzers ridicule Bailancho Saad (a women's group) and others fortheir
'fear' that tourism will lead to 'sexual exploitation of their women: 'Why do
such agitationists have such a low opinion of their women?~ they query. They
quote a 'charming Thai lady' who cannot understand why Indians do not accept
'extra-marital' affairs as awoman's right, and suggest that what is okay in Thai land
ought to be okay in India.
However, the issue is dearly not extra-maritai sex, whether or not it is okay.
It is one of prostitution and its accompanying threat, AIDS, Perhaps we should
also hear from another Thai per!>on, Mechai Viravaidya, a well-known AIDS
activist and now Minister of Tourism: 'When the figures are projected to the
entire Thai population, a conservative estimate is 125,000 HIV-positive
individuals, more than the total number of hospital beds in Thailand. Estimates
go as high as 400,000, partly because no one can agree on the number of
prostitutes in Thailand. Surveys of commercial sex workers show that 40 to 72
percent of them were HIV-positive.
'Government and business hesitate to confront the linkage between AIDS
and Thailand's prostitution problem because it threatens tourist spending:
Hopefully, with people like Dr Viravaidya at the helm of affairs, Thailand \"ill
avert a major tragedy one which threatens not just the tourism industry, but
Thai society itself. Whatever choices Thailand makes for itself, it is hardly an
example India should emulate.
And these fears are not entirely unfounded: early this year, Goan police
uncovered a child prostitution racket in Margoa, run by a Dr Freddy Peat, with
alleged international connections. The similarity between this and the tv1ark
Morgan affair in Thailand (which carne to light in 1989) are striking, not least
for their linkages with tourism.
Prostitution is not the same as a casual extra-marital affair. It is born out of
economic need, and fuelled by a market demand. Nobody claims that tourism
is the only calise of prostitution: but it certainly provides an environment for
the demand to be expressed (by male and female travellers) and met without
SOCIal restriction. The social and economic status of Indian women, by and
large, is such that tourism-led prostitution is a distinct possibility. If it exists in
eontd. on page 19
11
New Low
T
he tourism industry is in a major panic as foreign tourist arrivals have
taken an unprecedented plunge during the much trumpeted Visit India
Year. During the last six months, it is estimated that the foreign tourist
arrivals have dropped by a staggering 40 per cent, reducing the foreign currenlY
brought in by close to Rs 1,000 crore.
This wili prove a body blow to the balance of payments situation and further
aggravate the foreign exchange crisis which has been playing havoc with the
country's economy. And, even more alarmingly, the tourist situation is not likely
to improve in the immediate future.
Most of the hoteliers conceded that that occupancy of their hotels by foreign
tourists has plunged. Reinforcing the point further, Mr Indra Arya of Sita World
Travels said that dose to 40 per cent of the international tourists' incoming
bookings were cancelled between January and March this year.
Ms Prema Nair, information officer in the mi nistry of tourism said that there
has been a rapid decline in tourist arrivals this season, with few seen in tourist
offices and fewer making enquiries at ministry counters.
Accusing fingers should not be pointed at the Gulf war, severa! of them pointed
out. While Thail<lnd, which is celebrating its tourism year, is doing exceedingly
for india, it has been an unmitigated disaster. But, the type of tourists who
arrive in Thailand and the tourist attractions that it offers are different from those
of India, asserted Mr' C R V Rao, director in the ministry of tourism.
Despite another tourist season coming up during September-December 1991,
the immediate future of tourism looks bleak. With the violence breaking out
in places like jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Assam, and Punjab, northern india
had already been removed from the tourist map of all v;sitors. The violence
which broke out on the basis of the Mandai commission report and the Ayodhya
controversy, further undermined the rourism potential that these places offered.
The focus during the past couple of years had been to include south India
into the foreign tourists itinerary. Now, sources in the ministry of tourism
concede that the sprouting up of LfTE violence in Tamil Nadu couki result in
south India also being erasc!d from the map of the foreign tourist.
As it is, India has jllst been a mere dot-on the world tourist mJp, attracting
a meagre 0.4 per cent of the 415 million world tourist traffic. Consequently, the
country has been tapping just 0.6 per cent of the co:ossal US $ 230 billion globai
tourism industrv. Now, things are turning out from bad to worse.
THE TIMES OF INDiA, 15 June 1991
tourism Consultancy
T
he Union GCNernment had deCIded to set up 2. national-level consultancy
organisation for tourism projEcts, lvIr 0 ~~ Davar, Chairman, Industrial
Finance Corporation of India, said recentlv
The proposed organisation would baSically aim at assisting entrepreneurs
to build a base of their own in the location of their choice.
Pointing out that the IFCI and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI)
would offer more assistance for non-conventiona! activities in tourism sector,
he hoped that the Union government would give tourism its rightful status in
the Eighth Five Year Plan.
Speaking on the occasion, TFCI Managing Di rLuor Mr Subramanyam stressed
the need to tap projects other than those helping the hotel industry to strengthen
tourism in the country. The TFCI had assisted six tourism projects in Karnataka.
The Corporation was conducting a study on levies on tourism-related industries
in different state~ and their efforts on tourism growth, he added.
Mr Davar said the planned economy in the country had failed to meet the
needs of the people and called for rebuilding tht: de-Ieg:ilated economy. The
market economy needs a different set-up, approach and tools and the country
should channel its resources and re-ork~nt its policies and programmes
in that direction.
cautioned against working in isolation. "If we work in isolation in any field we
will be left behind"
DECCAN HERALD, 23 June, 1991
Hotel Demolished
T
he Goa Government displayed its might at Cobrawaddo, Calangute
yesterday morning when a 250-strong demolition squad began razing
to the ground the two-storeyed Chalston Hotel on the basis that it is an
illegal construction falling within 200 metres of the High Tide Line.
The curiosity of the hundreds of people who rushed to the area turned to
remorse, however, when they observed the questionable manner in which the
action was carried out, not giving the owner sufficient time to salvage their
property worth over Rs 50 lakh.
Eye-witnesses said that the task force dealt with the furniture and furnishings
in .the most barbaric fashion throwing them out of the windows.
Items like air-conditioners were also pushed out of the window. The most
noticeable items were the beds, which lay heaped in the debris, some split apart,
others completely disintegrated. According to the owner the demolition started
without adequate time being provided for retrieving their belongings. The total
loss was estimated at nearly Rs 2 crore.
Government officials said that the hotel was a 'real gone case' as no conversion
of land was done, no PDA permission was sought, there was no access road
and that the structure violated the 200 metre ban from HTL.
The demolition work b~gan in the morning with a bang with the squad in
an apparent hurry to destroy the building in a day's time. Such was their
missionary zeal that they denied the owners the sought after three hours time
to salvage all the furniture. Caught in the wild confusao were the hotel guests
including a Madrasi filming company, who were residing there at the time. They
were running helter-skelter as much to'Save their lives as their filming equipment.
When contacted the officials said that they were simply executing gLlVernment
orders given to them only the previous night. The demolition was to be carried
out last year, they said, but the exercise was put off for several reasons,
Asked for his reactions, secretary town planning RSSethi stated that the hotel
did not deserve the slightest mercy. Much as he sympathized with them, he
wondered why they went ahead with the construction after their conversior­
grant was withdrawn by the government in 1981. The notice for demolition was
served last year.
He pointed out that the case was studied in depth by the Goa Government
and the Environment Ministry. There was no way Chalston Hotel could escape
the demolition, he added.
He a/:;o stated that if the proprietor had any valid documents, they could have
produced them before the Town and Country Planning's Board meeting held
last month.
Sethi also claimed that it is a misconception that they were only clamping
dOVl'n on medium class hotels: he affirmed that justice would be meted out
to all defaulters.
GOMANTAK TIMES, 14 April 19'71
Women's Voice
T
he Goa women's collective 'Bailancho Saad' has charged that the present
national touri~m policy, being augmented by the Visit India Year and
similar programmes, would lead to an economic disaster and destabilise
the social and physical environment of the country.
In a critique of plans for the year currently being observed, the Goa-based
Saad said culture was being commerr:ia!ised to suit touristic needs, while
festivals were being 'celebrated' out of their milieu and time. Stereotypes and
distorted images of different regions were also being created, they said.
Heliskiing or 'International sea-food festivals' aimed at the elite were an
outrage on a nation like ours.
Pointing out that Kashmir has been left out of the tour routes for the 1991
.- Visit India Year, the Saad said this indicated the fickle nature of tounsm.
DECCAN HERALD, 31 May, 1991
 10
Tourism in Goa : Questions Persist
Paul S Gonsalves
& Views
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
is ill-founded, even politically motivated.
So far, I have come across 6 such articles: 3 in aGoan daily (Navhind Times),
one in the Economic Times (21/4/91) and 2 in the Indian Express (23/3 and 23/6).
The average newspaper reader in India has heard little of the resistance in
Goa. Indeed, the romantic view of Goa holds good for most Indians and so,
if on reading the Gantzer pieces, one is told that a bunch of local 'agitators'
have been up to no good, why, that must be so. Can we visit Goa during the
next vacation?
It is not so much what the Gantzers state that is of concern, rather than what
they do not. I will simply place a few facts on record and let the readers decide
whether there is substance in the claims of the resistance.
Firstly, the people of Goa are not alone in opposing tourism. The debate on
Third World Tourism is more than 30 years old internationally. A recent
bibliography by Leo Theuns (1991) lists 2166 entries until 7984. And the debate
has become sharper in the years thence. So has the resistance. The Gantzers
themselves gave an indication of this (increasing resistance) and the reasons
thereof in ~n article in early 1989: 'The tourism industry'S growing concern with
uncontrolled tourism development in fragile socio-ecosystems brought forth
platitudinous assurances from tourism planners. But when they did nothing,
irate citizens reacted against such destructive 'development~ .. there is no sign
from the Ministry (of Tourism) that the message has been heard, and acted upon,
In 1989, such movements against unplanned tourism are likely to grow. (Indian
Express, 10/1/89)
While stating the positive co-relation between tourism and environment, the
Gantzers cite the examples of Sweden and Singapore. India has neither the
economic resources nor the political-legal mechanisms that both these countries
have used to achieve a balance. In fact, while we might admire the peace and
prosperity of ou r Th ird World neighbour, Singapore, there are many who wou Id
decry the draconian laws which have made it so.
Perhaps tourism can be positively integrated with environmental concerns,
even in Goa. The point that the anti-tourism activists are at pains to make is
that, if tourism continues to grow (especialiy in the form of hotels and other
coastal constructions) at its present rate in Goa, very soon there will be no
environment left for it to integrate with. Again, to quote an observation of the
Gantzers in 1990: '...apprehensions thatthe Himachal board or. tourism woulrl
find ways to help hoteliers rather than tourists has cometrue... it has not shown
the remotest concern at the deteriorating environment (in Shimla and
Manali)...Jhere are other instances. of the use of tourism to destroy the
envi ronment wh ich attracts tourists in the fi rst place. UP i'. particularly short~
sighted and vicious...And so our beaches and mountains and other natural
resources are in danger of being destroyed by crimina! act and culpable
negligence with the open connivance of administrators and politicians..: (Indian
Express, 9/6/90).
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;
not tourism. A basic issue stated by the 'agitators' is that it is Central tourism
policy which has led to this state of affairs today. '\ policy geared to liberalisation
without checks and controls. A policy geared to maximise foreign investment
without let or hindrance. A policy which is in no sense a tourism policy, but
more precisely, a hotel policy.
As the Gantzers have had occasion to say: 'l\s we anticipated when (the
National Committee on Tourism) was set up with a heavy bias towards hotels
and hoteliers, it has tended to confuse the interest of the hotels with those of
tourism in general ... the Committee recommends the setting up of a Tourism
Finance Corporation when wpat they rf'ally hilvf' in mind is a Hotel Finance
Corporation. The obvious obsession with this one segment of the tourism
industry will make it suspect in the eyes of others... But that isn't all. The
Committee has made some positively dangerous proposals ... giving tax
INDIA ~ News
Noting that the stage is set for the globalisation of economy, Mr DiNar
concessions and investment subsidies to all areas of high tourism interest will
destroy every hill resort. Developers will rush in, and violate every rule, ravage
the ecology and leave despoiled mountains in their wake. And indeed, such
'developers' are wreaking havoc even today: (Indian Express; 31/8/1988).
Needless to add, to date there have been no published studies of the carrying
cClpacity of Indian tourism destinations, leave alone environmental impact
assessments. If national tourism policy is implemented without defining external
boundaries (that such studies can help establish), it is inevitable that
environmental destruction will follow as predicted by the Gantzers in 1988.
Although the recent articles castigate the 'agitators' for not havi ng stati stical
evidence for their claims, there are at least two reports which lay a strong
evidential basis (apart from the many documents published by those in the
resistance). Harm Zebregs, in his draft report of tourism and Goan economy
(based on 3 months of field research in Goa) concludes that the earnings and
employment projections of the industry are questionable. Menezes and Lobo,
in a report of over 100 pages, detail the corruption, irregularities and
malpractises in Goan tourism (Miriithu, London, 1991). And since the Ministry
of Environment (under Mrs Maneka Gandhi) and the Bombay High Court have
on occasion upheld the view that certain hotels have violated the law, surely
the Gantzers ought to castigate the arms of government as well.
Moreover, it is hardly essential in all matters of life to seek an evidential basis.
We are human beings, and we can see and hear and feel and experience. We
do not need to read the Wholesale Price Index on a daily basis to realise that
inflation is upon us.
The Gantzers ridicule Bailancho Saad (a women's group) and others fortheir
'fear' that tourism will lead to 'sexual exploitation of their women: 'Why do
such agitationists have such a low opinion of their women?~ they query. They
quote a 'charming Thai lady' who cannot understand why Indians do not accept
'extra-marital' affairs as awoman's right, and suggest that what is okay in Thai land
ought to be okay in India.
However, the issue is dearly not extra-maritai sex, whether or not it is okay.
It is one of prostitution and its accompanying threat, AIDS, Perhaps we should
also hear from another Thai per!>on, Mechai Viravaidya, a well-known AIDS
activist and now Minister of Tourism: 'When the figures are projected to the
entire Thai population, a conservative estimate is 125,000 HIV-positive
individuals, more than the total number of hospital beds in Thailand. Estimates
go as high as 400,000, partly because no one can agree on the number of
prostitutes in Thailand. Surveys of commercial sex workers show that 40 to 72
percent of them were HIV-positive.
'Government and business hesitate to confront the linkage between AIDS
and Thailand's prostitution problem because it threatens tourist spending:
Hopefully, with people like Dr Viravaidya at the helm of affairs, Thailand \"ill
avert a major tragedy one which threatens not just the tourism industry, but
Thai society itself. Whatever choices Thailand makes for itself, it is hardly an
example India should emulate.
And these fears are not entirely unfounded: early this year, Goan police
uncovered a child prostitution racket in Margoa, run by a Dr Freddy Peat, with
alleged international connections. The similarity between this and the tv1ark
Morgan affair in Thailand (which carne to light in 1989) are striking, not least
for their linkages with tourism.
Prostitution is not the same as a casual extra-marital affair. It is born out of
economic need, and fuelled by a market demand. Nobody claims that tourism
is the only calise of prostitution: but it certainly provides an environment for
the demand to be expressed (by male and female travellers) and met without
SOCIal restriction. The social and economic status of Indian women, by and
large, is such that tourism-led prostitution is a distinct possibility. If it exists in
eontd. on page 19
11
New Low
T
he tourism industry is in a major panic as foreign tourist arrivals have
taken an unprecedented plunge during the much trumpeted Visit India
Year. During the last six months, it is estimated that the foreign tourist
arrivals have dropped by a staggering 40 per cent, reducing the foreign currenlY
brought in by close to Rs 1,000 crore.
This wili prove a body blow to the balance of payments situation and further
aggravate the foreign exchange crisis which has been playing havoc with the
country's economy. And, even more alarmingly, the tourist situation is not likely
to improve in the immediate future.
Most of the hoteliers conceded that that occupancy of their hotels by foreign
tourists has plunged. Reinforcing the point further, Mr Indra Arya of Sita World
Travels said that dose to 40 per cent of the international tourists' incoming
bookings were cancelled between January and March this year.
Ms Prema Nair, information officer in the mi nistry of tourism said that there
has been a rapid decline in tourist arrivals this season, with few seen in tourist
offices and fewer making enquiries at ministry counters.
Accusing fingers should not be pointed at the Gulf war, severa! of them pointed
out. While Thail<lnd, which is celebrating its tourism year, is doing exceedingly
for india, it has been an unmitigated disaster. But, the type of tourists who
arrive in Thailand and the tourist attractions that it offers are different from those
of India, asserted Mr' C R V Rao, director in the ministry of tourism.
Despite another tourist season coming up during September-December 1991,
the immediate future of tourism looks bleak. With the violence breaking out
in places like jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Assam, and Punjab, northern india
had already been removed from the tourist map of all v;sitors. The violence
which broke out on the basis of the Mandai commission report and the Ayodhya
controversy, further undermined the rourism potential that these places offered.
The focus during the past couple of years had been to include south India
into the foreign tourists itinerary. Now, sources in the ministry of tourism
concede that the sprouting up of LfTE violence in Tamil Nadu couki result in
south India also being erasc!d from the map of the foreign tourist.
As it is, India has jllst been a mere dot-on the world tourist mJp, attracting
a meagre 0.4 per cent of the 415 million world tourist traffic. Consequently, the
country has been tapping just 0.6 per cent of the co:ossal US $ 230 billion globai
tourism industrv. Now, things are turning out from bad to worse.
THE TIMES OF INDiA, 15 June 1991
tourism Consultancy
T
he Union GCNernment had deCIded to set up 2. national-level consultancy
organisation for tourism projEcts, lvIr 0 ~~ Davar, Chairman, Industrial
Finance Corporation of India, said recentlv
The proposed organisation would baSically aim at assisting entrepreneurs
to build a base of their own in the location of their choice.
Pointing out that the IFCI and Tourism Finance Corporation of India (TFCI)
would offer more assistance for non-conventiona! activities in tourism sector,
he hoped that the Union government would give tourism its rightful status in
the Eighth Five Year Plan.
Speaking on the occasion, TFCI Managing Di rLuor Mr Subramanyam stressed
the need to tap projects other than those helping the hotel industry to strengthen
tourism in the country. The TFCI had assisted six tourism projects in Karnataka.
The Corporation was conducting a study on levies on tourism-related industries
in different state~ and their efforts on tourism growth, he added.
Mr Davar said the planned economy in the country had failed to meet the
needs of the people and called for rebuilding tht: de-Ieg:ilated economy. The
market economy needs a different set-up, approach and tools and the country
should channel its resources and re-ork~nt its policies and programmes
in that direction.
cautioned against working in isolation. "If we work in isolation in any field we
will be left behind"
DECCAN HERALD, 23 June, 1991
Hotel Demolished
T
he Goa Government displayed its might at Cobrawaddo, Calangute
yesterday morning when a 250-strong demolition squad began razing
to the ground the two-storeyed Chalston Hotel on the basis that it is an
illegal construction falling within 200 metres of the High Tide Line.
The curiosity of the hundreds of people who rushed to the area turned to
remorse, however, when they observed the questionable manner in which the
action was carried out, not giving the owner sufficient time to salvage their
property worth over Rs 50 lakh.
Eye-witnesses said that the task force dealt with the furniture and furnishings
in .the most barbaric fashion throwing them out of the windows.
Items like air-conditioners were also pushed out of the window. The most
noticeable items were the beds, which lay heaped in the debris, some split apart,
others completely disintegrated. According to the owner the demolition started
without adequate time being provided for retrieving their belongings. The total
loss was estimated at nearly Rs 2 crore.
Government officials said that the hotel was a 'real gone case' as no conversion
of land was done, no PDA permission was sought, there was no access road
and that the structure violated the 200 metre ban from HTL.
The demolition work b~gan in the morning with a bang with the squad in
an apparent hurry to destroy the building in a day's time. Such was their
missionary zeal that they denied the owners the sought after three hours time
to salvage all the furniture. Caught in the wild confusao were the hotel guests
including a Madrasi filming company, who were residing there at the time. They
were running helter-skelter as much to'Save their lives as their filming equipment.
When contacted the officials said that they were simply executing gLlVernment
orders given to them only the previous night. The demolition was to be carried
out last year, they said, but the exercise was put off for several reasons,
Asked for his reactions, secretary town planning RSSethi stated that the hotel
did not deserve the slightest mercy. Much as he sympathized with them, he
wondered why they went ahead with the construction after their conversior­
grant was withdrawn by the government in 1981. The notice for demolition was
served last year.
He pointed out that the case was studied in depth by the Goa Government
and the Environment Ministry. There was no way Chalston Hotel could escape
the demolition, he added.
He a/:;o stated that if the proprietor had any valid documents, they could have
produced them before the Town and Country Planning's Board meeting held
last month.
Sethi also claimed that it is a misconception that they were only clamping
dOVl'n on medium class hotels: he affirmed that justice would be meted out
to all defaulters.
GOMANTAK TIMES, 14 April 19'71
Women's Voice
T
he Goa women's collective 'Bailancho Saad' has charged that the present
national touri~m policy, being augmented by the Visit India Year and
similar programmes, would lead to an economic disaster and destabilise
the social and physical environment of the country.
In a critique of plans for the year currently being observed, the Goa-based
Saad said culture was being commerr:ia!ised to suit touristic needs, while
festivals were being 'celebrated' out of their milieu and time. Stereotypes and
distorted images of different regions were also being created, they said.
Heliskiing or 'International sea-food festivals' aimed at the elite were an
outrage on a nation like ours.
Pointing out that Kashmir has been left out of the tour routes for the 1991
.- Visit India Year, the Saad said this indicated the fickle nature of tounsm.
DECCAN HERALD, 31 May, 1991

12
Travels in Five Tibets
Lhasa. Few succeeded, but most wrote about the attempt and the sub-genre
The Myth of Shangri-La, Peter Bishop, University of California Press,
landscapes: noble, heroic journeys, mystical pilgrimages, high adventure, and
Berkeley, 1990
Review by John Frederick
The Myth ofShangri-La by Peter Bishop, who teaches at the South Australian
College of Advanced Education is a study ofTibet in the collective imagination
of the British over a 200-year period. It is not a study of the land and people,
but of a collection of imaginal'Tibets: products of the travel literature from 177.1
to 1969.
Imaginal places are common to every society. They are created, reformed
and dissolved according to changing social, religious and gea-political
consciousness. Kailas for South Asian Hindus, EI Dorado for sixteenth-century
and the Island of Origin for Hawaiians. They are lands invested with
a people's dreams and aspirations: peace, wealth, pleasure, sanctity,
They are spun into being by storytellers, poets, film-makers and travel writers.
Some places are contemporary, some ancient in all, reality is subordinated
to fantasy. The modern Asian myth of America, fal and rich, diplomas and videos
dropping from the trees, has little relation to the hard work, iron streets and
shopping malls experienced by Americans themselves. Westerners, in
their turn, willingly ignore the cultural degradation behind the pai nted masks
and palm trees
For Westerners, Tibet has been one imaginal place among many: the Andes,
the sources of the Nile, the Arctic, the European Alps. Bishop has chosen his
topic well. The centuries from the entrance of the first modern British traveller
in 1774 to the flight of the Dalai Lama in 1959 "coincided almost exactly with
the rise and fall of European, particularly, British, aspirations:' Bishop's
examination of primarily British travel writing is intended to be a window "into
the changing aspirations, the soul, of modern
There has been and still is no single "Tibet" in the Western imagination. There
have been a succession - evolving, declining, contradicting each other. Bishop
chooses to delineate five, with reasonable historical justification, and is careful
to note that within each a myriad of smaller "Tibets" are subsumed.
In the first, from 1773 to 1792, Tibet developed in the British imagination
from an undefined geographica I location to a "place': the rudiments of a literary
landscape aesthetic formed, and from disillusionment with Christianity and
Western spiritual ity there began a fascination with the Tibetan style of Buddhism,
at once highly literate and rational, patently idolatrous and mystical. Following
the Gurkha invasions ofTibet the country was closed to travellers. Bishop shows
how the recurrent inaccessibility ofTibet contributed to its creation as asacred
place, and "sealed Western fantasies into an almost closed vessell!.
the next two "Tibets': from 1792 to 1875, few travellers managed to
cross the borders. Alrnpst none reached Lhasa. The British Empire expanded
and with it expanded its geo-political imagination. Britain looked outward.
"Nineteenth-century rationalism provided idealised images of coherence,
unification and identity (of foreign civilisations) which belied intense internal
social fragmentation and conflict:'
With India and the rest of the Empirer the Himalaya was systemically surveyed.
Brian Hodgson made his immense study of the geology, customs, languages,
and zoology of the Himalaya. Joseph Hooker and other naturalists
on the closed borders ofTibet, recording the mountain landscaoe with
scientific precision.
The genre of travel writing was forming, in some confusion. Mid-century
Rationalism lay in a rumpled bed with the transcendent visions of emergent
European Romanticism. The genre found cohesion in the publication of the
fourth volume of John Ruskin's Modern Painters in 1854, at the peak of British
mountain enthusiasm, when the Alps were the focus of physical challenge and
the Himalaya the focus of mountain fantasy. Ruskin's landscape aesthetic
combined careful observation and precise description with a subdued,
unromantic evocation of the inner experience of the landscape. With Ruskin,
says Bishop, the modern literary relationship of man and the wilderness
During the closing years of the nineteenth century, the fourth "Tibet';
once again entered, trom every direction. "lnU)~5 one British lournallst
exclaimed, Tibet may be said to be at present in a state of siege:"Russian, French
and British explorers vied with each other to cross the cold plateau and enter
of Tibet travel writing was born. British bookshops displayed an array of mythical
ethnological fantasies. Forbidden Lhasa and its God-King, the Dalai Lama, were
the axis mundi of the sacred place.
For Victorian travellers, the world was closing in. Tibec almost alone, seemed
untouched. "The increasing sense of global unity was accompanied by a
realisation of global fragility, destruction, loss... The deforestation of the
Himalaya was already causing concern and sadness even at this early date.. :'
But perhaps the deepest sense of loss, as well asource of irritation, was caused
by mass tourism and its effect on the wild places of the world. "Those who
had suffered the wind and cold of the Tibetan plateau thought themselves, not
incorrectly, an elite. They were explorers, not tourists, struggling with
contradictory desires to explore the land and to keep it untouched, to preserve
in the world one last sacred place:'
Until the twentieth century, the fifth "Tibet", there was an essential unity in
the travel writers' visions and thus in the British collective fantasy. From 1904
to 1959, Bishop sees afragmentation of the fantasy into four quite distinct and
contradictory imaginal places. Different visions were inevitable as information
about Tibet accumulated, as western travel writing evolved and as the writers
responded personally to the pain or the two World Wars and the Great
Depression of the 19305.
One Ti bet was descendant from the long fasci nation with Buddh ism: the land
of the lamas and mystical accomplishment, the land of spiritual perfection in
a debased world. This vision was exemplified by Alexander David-Neel and,
to Bishop's credit, the scholar Giuseppe Tucci. In contrast, there was the
"realistic" Tibet of Spencer Chapman and others - pictures of mundane
everyday life, uninquisitive and anti-religious.
The other two Tibets of the twentieth century were, in Bishop's consideration,
the final, dissolving forms of the cultural fantasy, the conclusion of the growing,
changing vision which he had traced over 200 years. In these, Tibet the
geographical reality was disassociated with Tibet the imaginal place. In 1949,
the American tourism writer Lowell Thomas and his son visited Lhasa. Lowell
Junior depOsited upon the world a model of the Tibetan tourism fantasy ­
cultural resonance, historical depth and sensitivity to landscape had disappeared
beneath cliches and expressions of naive amazement. The other Tibet, the
was fixed in the public imagination by James Hilton's immensely popular
Lost Horizon, published in 1933, during'the Depression. Lost Horizon
dramatised the disilfusionment of the West, its spiritual emptiness and fears
of social disorder. The perfect land of Shangri-La reflected acute Western
longings: peace, righteousness, psychic fulfillment. The collective fantasy of
Tibet had become abstract, the land had disappeared,
Even before the exit of the Dalai Lama and the dismantling of traditional
society, Tibet itself had ceased to be the locus of the Tibet rnyth. Realism had
turned on the house lights and bared the mysteries; the tourism writers had
reduced the noble and remarkable to the banal, and the vision had
removed Shangri-La from earth altogether: Tibet had become, In Bishop's words;
/Ian empty vessel".
The Myth ofShangri-La is a book for academics. It is extraordinarily rich in
analyses, but is somewhat cor'lfused by a hazy methodology based in archetypal
psychology. Bishop examines travel texts with tools from a variety of disciplines.
Each examin.ation is valid and revealing, but all are jumbled together; analytical
perspectives change from paragraph to paragraph with no apparent order. This
is unfortunate, for the book is !ikelydestined for graduate library stacks, rather
than the audience upon which it could have made a profound impact: travel
writers themselves.
The tools of French de-constructionism are skillfully used to place the texts
within appropriate geo-political, social and psychological contexts, Humanistic
geography, such as Bachelard's and Lowenthal's work on the perception of place
and landscape, illuminates the evolution of the landscape aesthetic in travel
Bishop charts the development of the Western fascination, and later
obsession, with Tibetan Buddhism and Eastern spirituality with great skill. His
several-page definition of the art of travel writing should be required
for every travei writer. One wishes each of these studies were a separate
monograph.
The book stops abruptly with a cursory conclusive chapter! as if Bishop
[enid on page 19
Horrors Under the Carpet
by lynne Reid Banks
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
wished to help India's export trade, there would be nothing more to pay for
the carpets, which would be delivered to our door. He didn't bother to mention
demurrage and handling charges, which came to nearly d third of the
price. We could have got them almost as cheaply in a sale of Indian
carpets here in Britain-I saw some in Piccadilly last month.
And, of (nurse, if we'd bought them here it would have been easier not to
think about how they were made. When you buy them from the factory, there's
no question of that. The Indian merchant is at no pains to hide the children
from you; in fact he very cheerfully takes you to see them, seven years old and
upward, huge-eyed, thin as reeds, hands flashing at the looms, You are shown
them, you watch them work, you photograph ri'lem. Then you go and choose
your carpet. So you can't claim you didn't know. There's absolutely no excuse.
Why then did we buy acarpet made with child labour? This is the question
I have been addressing ever since I got back to England, where I promptly fel!
foul of a friend who works for Anti-Slavery International. He didn't reproach
me at all, he simply handed me some pamphlets. One was actually called
C;rpel Boys of India. Another was Child-slaves. I read them and felt as if I were
waking from a bad dream-the bad dream of a visit to India.
This has been designated (by the India Tourist Board) "Visit India Year':
advice to anyone who is looking for a happy, carefree holidav from which
will return unchanged is, don't. Don't go there.
Don't listen to all the friends who will tell you how wonderful it is. It isn't
wonderful. It's a nightmare. The only way to enjoy it is the way
resolutely closing your eyes to everything except its ambivalent attractions.
The worker-children are happy, look they are smiling. They are full of mischief.
Oh yes, see that little imp? He iikes to pick my pockets, ma-dam! And that's his
daddy there, working with him, they work as a family. School? Of course, that's
the law, they spend half-days in school, and of course, sir, if we didn't
this skill thev would have nothing, no future. As it is they earn well,
for a carpet that takes them three months to make. £ no!
That seems too little? But for them it is a good living.
And by buying, you heip India. You help us gain self-sufficiency and
prosperity. Dangerous? Well, yes, the tuft-cutters
be careful, Occasionally, they cut their hands, But it is than starving in
the streets. Now corne outside, madam, sir, and se~ how the carpets are washed
with a special, secret chemical. The colours will never fade. are Cl treasure
you will keep forever, to remind you of India. Only when corne home,
when you awake from your Third World trance in which your values became
distorted, and think about it, do you realise how true that IS.
When I read the oamohlets and I~a,rned how,v,fl" wf>\e deceived bY,ti:Jt
these children rea:ry ;;o\'<' [hey die aebl­
bonded i:md exploited, and wretchetl dfe t~leir conditions and
prospects, ! wondered despaiiingly would
be able to spread them on my floor and heardly
had never bought them. I hoped they might be 10SI ;n iransit.
But 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,
:n the fields in their gorgeous, colourful clothes. Like the cun!
of nuts and seeds and fruits on baskets and barrows. ~:ke :11-:: erribroidcrv
silverware, the silks, the jewellery, the rav;ch;nn
you outside the tourist sites. Like the Taj.
hidden price-tag.
Thf' VAT was nothing. The real bill has not been (he re3i bill is th~l
! compare myself to a man who goes to Bangkok and has sex vvith a child
prostitute and says, "If didn't pay her she would starve. If! did~it use her someone
else would. That's the way things work here:' Does that man, who is not much
worse, now, than I am, wake up when he comes horne.o his norma! life and
,I· . r ' '....... .......
I : ~. _ " '" t ~ ,,;; 1 ~. . ~
r
liI~ !IVlllodl, ~~e:'lern VclIUe" clIIU trllllK Ueal \jUU, W~i,,!l ',Vd':> I li1I!IKHI~
I look at my carpet every day and that is what I ask.
GUARDIAN WEEKLY,S May 1991
9
Mushroom Menace
by Boney Thomas
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.
Found during the monsoons in the pine forests of Kodaikanal, this relatively
unknown mushroom is fast becoming a much sought after commodity among
addicts with the active connivance of the underworld.
two good rain showers, mushrooms sprout all over in the rich dark
feet of tall pine trees in Kodaikanal. Soon the underworld is busy
organising its gathering, distribution and sale. Tourist:. from allover - both
domestic and foreign arrive to experience a "trip" from these mushrooms.
]0 get adequately high, addicts consume about 12 mushrooms. It is
consumed by beating it with eggs to make an omelette. It is mixed with
shakes. Twelve mushrooms would induce a hallucinatory stupor lasting for four
to seven hours depending on the physical strength of the consumer.
A few years ago none at Kodaikanal had ever heard of these mushrooms. It
is believed that a Swedish tourist who spotted them made enquiries with
peddlers. They were ignorant of its potential until then. Another theory about
its discovery is that someone had unwittingly picked up a few narcotic
mushrooms and discovered its "high" after preparing a dish.
Now-a-days some restaurants at Kodaikanal serve food mixed with
mushrooms on the sly to discerning customers.
At first, the sale of these mushrooms depended wholly on climatic conditions.
As the procurement of the mush rooms began and ended with the monsoons,
the sale was seasonal. But with more and more locals and 'tourists taking to
them, efforts were made to preserve them in order to extend the scope of sales.
Soon, sun-dried mushrooms made their appearance in the drug market. But
this method of preservation was abandoned as dried mushrooms retained only
half their narcotic effect, and hence sold at half the price. After much trial and
erro~ honey was found to be a better medium of preservation. it did not reduce
the narcotic effect at all. This helped increase its sale and distribution to far
off regions like Goa and Kovalam.
these mushrooms are peddled on a large scale, there has been no
reports ot police having booked anyone for possessing them. These mushrooms
are collected by plantation workers and then transferred to professional drug
peddlers who are protected by the underworld. There are virtually no obstacles
in carti ng away the mushrooms from the pine forests. Most preventive officers
are not trained to distinguish the magic mushrooms the hctrmless edible
Soon, the monsoon season will arrive, bringing droves tourists {o
l<odaikanai in search of haliuClnatory trips with "magic" mushrooms.
avaiiable in a natUial state, ther is a possibility
into nnJgs through them.
INDiAN aPRESS, 15 June, 1991
MORE TOUR\5l5 V'SIT'STA"tE
HALE51D
Accordi~~ to th~ state10ur.ism Dept.
mope f.?rel~o t(lOPlsts ha\Je "ISlted this
state inan '1ast ~e8r. Of the siKteen
fcrei9,oers who 11ave visited the state
so far -this ~ear. one was from PaKi'5tan.
f
two were from Sri Lanka and foor from
. All fOur from Nepal however were
.-:;. \
minor CHrIS W'It\100t DdSSDorts .ihe remaillioQ
.• ,. • .
nine lOOIe Amne5t~lntep!\31i0n3\1 cf1iGid\S ~ .u..-"
I
on
';,. lije iJJe7t
POl!'lna~~""nH[S Of §NIDIA
 8 13
Please don't come to Goa
KAIGA:
by Mario Cabral e Sa
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
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
to Goa! Or, you might find yourself agreeing, in seif-commiseration, with the
private view of a travel writer of the Diners Club network. Between her first
visit when she was young and a dreamer, and her latest visit as a world-wise
and established hack, Goa had "Iost her innocence': And Goans no longer acted
without aforethought malice.
One had been warned about the deleterious effects of mass tourism,
particularly on small places like Goa. And the first veiled warnings came through
the travel literature left behind by an unlikely band of good samaritans - a
UNDP team of experts who had come down in the '70s to advise the Goan
administration on tourism strategies. One of the documents was a Dutch study
containing the warning that whi Ie tourism may appear to be an innocent activity
it could cause more permanent damage than even industrial pollution: cultural
pollution which is irreversible. _ have been already ordered to close down their casinos. The Colombo police
Tourism is seasonal and the lust for a quick buck has almost become a
collective fixation. Cabbies cheat remorselessly. Touts and guides craftily exploit
visitors. Hotels are only too pleased to overcharge. About 20 average-sized or
12 large tiger prawns to a kilo are available in the market for less than Rs 200;
two or three of these prawns drowned in a sea of sauce or smothered in a mound
of mashed potatoes are sold at two to three star hotels for as much as Rs 150
per portion excluding taxes and additionals; at five-star hotels, of course, they
are priced at Rs 280 and more. The same portion is available for Rs 60 at Martin's
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
substances like fish bones, for instance.
Recently, a group of five lechers from Tamil Nadu were robbed of Rs. 5,000
each, by one of the more notorious Goan gangs - all of them school and college
drop outs - which specializes in tourism-related crimes. The clients wanted
"college girls". Such "clients" are becoming sickeningly common in Goa. And
they almost uniformly end up stranded at night, in a dark unlit alley near the
town's best known girls' hostel. Serves them right, yes. But considerfor a minute
that the cheats are the sons and, on occasion, daughters of perfectly respectable
families with a hard-earned tradition in civility, decency. honesty and hospitality.
Once, revellers on their way to New Yeardinner-dances and balls were politely
stopped at cross-roads by groups of serenaders. They would sing a song or two,
wish them a happy New Year and then proffer, with a!ouch of elegance, their
collection boxes. The coHections were scrupulously used for community
purposes: repairing a crumbling roadside oratory, a tea party for orphans and
.destitutes, or a parish youth,hop. Now, roads are barricaded, threats issued,
abuses hurled and money extorted. And the money is used to buy booze, or
worse, drugs.
Why have so many Goans become so unscrupulous, so suddenly? The reasons
are many. Unemployment is the most common denominator, ennui the most
frequent motivation. And to top it all, there is that nagging feeling that the land
and its inhabitants are being exploited by people and organisations which have
nothing to do with Goa and are doing next to nothing for Goa. The grievance
is that they are the only ones to benefit from mass tourism.
Most five-star hotels claim that the number of locals employed in their
organisation ranges between 70 to 80 per cent of their work force. What they
discreetly hide is that the other 20 per cent earn far more, and that, as a result,
the 80 per cent are a sullen, unhappy lot.
"Why you ,worry, man. It's peanuts for toem (tourists), man;' a tour operator
told this writer when he tried to investigate a complaint of a group of foreign
tourists.
Call it loss of innocence, if you will. But a more apt conclusion might be
that familiarity has bred contempt. And as Mother Rabbit once said: many a
crude attempt.
THE INDEPENDENT, 3 April 1991
Colombo Closes Casinos
Will Tourists Really 'Boycott' Goa?
By Ashwani Talwar
C olombo is off the Casino circuit of the world. Sri lanka has announced
a total ban on all casinos in the country. Although not quite Las Vegas,
Colombo was gaining a reputation as one of the exotic places to
gamble your money away. Casinos - there are nearly ten main ones in the city
- were listed as tourist attractions. Smaller casinos had been around for about
a decade but there was a sort of boom in more recent years with the city's five
star hotels also opening them. Baccarat, Black Jack and Roulette had helped
set off the losses suffered by the big hotels due to the disturbed conditions on
the island which kept the tourists away through most of the Eighties.
But casinos remained a matter of controversy. The government was under
pressure from several quarters for encouraging gambling and the Buddhisrclergy
was particu larly harsh in its criticism. Critics, however have not picked on casi nos
alone. During the last few months slot machines have come up in shops and
restaurants. Their clientele includes school children and office workers who
drop a few coins in just before catching the bus home in the evening. Then
there are state ru n lotteries promoted in special program mes over the television.
The cabinet spokesman, Mr Ranil Wickraamasinghe, told reporters that the
necessary legislation will be introduced in the Parliament shortly to bring the
ban on all gambling establishments into effect. Two government-owned hOWls
had also begun a crackdown on jackpot slot machines at public places, but
these were unauthorised in any case and there was no need of new legislation.
Some things will, however, continue as before. Betting on horses is still okay
and government has no plans to do away with its lotteries which bring in a good
amount of money to the state treasury every year.
Mr Wickramasinghe said that closing down of casinos will not directly lead
to any major 105s of revenue to the government The state charged Rs five million
as annual levy from major casinos, but little foreign exchange was involved.
The government decision had taken in account the side effects of the casino
business, the minister said. He listed infiltration of the mafia, prostitution and
drug trafficking.
THE TIMES OF INDIA, 10 June, 1991
JGF Condemns ICasinos'
The Jagrut Goenkaranch i Fouz UG F) has «;mdemned the attempted
moves of the Ramada to start a casino at their hotel at Varca, with the
supposed clearance of the government of Goa.
JGF is not surprised at the bold announcement of Mr. Sunder Advani
that the clearance for the casino will be given 'soon' by the government.
The Ramada Hotel owners speak with such confidence, only because
of the political and economic clout they wield with the powers that
be. JGF will oppose any attempt by the government to foist casinos
on the people of Goa with the argument that the part of the revenue
from these gambling houses could be used for social welfare projects
in the State. JGF also warned that it will not be too long before 'Sex
Tourism' will be justified as a revenue earner, as in the case ofThailand.
The Ramada Hotel in Goa today stands as a monument of gross
envi ron mental violations.
JGF has renewed its call for a national and international boycott of
the hotel by tourists and investors, and calls upon people not to invest
or patronise the Ramada Hotel.
JGF also warned the people not to fall prey to the latest 'gimmick'
of the Ramada Group to present a 'green and environment conscious
image: The Ramada Hotel management collaborated with American
Express and Nature Conservancy, Washington to ensure this image,
with the scheme that every visitor staying at the Ramada Hotel and
paying for their stay with an American Express card, would be
contributing one US dollar to environmental conservation.
HERALD, Panjim, 19 May, 1991
The author Gabriella Petra da Rosa argues here for linking up the
struggle against the Nuclear and Tourism industry. The case, that she
uses to i1lustrate her argument is that at Kaiga. The Kaiga Nuclear
Complex, in Kamataka is to come up 22 kms. from Goa's border.
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
destination 'paradises; which are not saddled with such 'ogres' next door?
Whilst Indian gCNernment and pro-nuclear estate lobbyists may hastily dismiss
any such notions by suggesting that "public opinion in North America and
Europe is hardly likely to be shaken with such knowledge and awareness'; the
following must be borne in mind by all concerned Goans, Karnatakans and
Keralites (where another nuclear power station is also being planned). Public
reaction in North America and Europe against nuclear power constructions,
programmes and areas perceived to be under the threat of radioactive
contamination, has reached an all time high.
As the 'Economist' has suggested, the North American and European public's
attitude to nuclear power shows how concepts of relative risk affect 'green
politics' and subsequent decisions as to which holiday spots to visit or to boycott.
Adults, including those "who (even) risk their lives daily smoking cigarettes
or driving fast cars - want great protection from the tiny chance of a Chernobyl"
or radiation related illnesses arising from nuclear power plants.
Feel ings run so high concerning this matter - throughout these international
'tourist pool zones' - for instance, that in Austria, Denmark and Norway, public
pressure alone has been strong enough to ensure that nuclear power as a
resource has been rejected since even before the Chernobyl incident.
In the USA and Europe, furthermore, there are increasing signs that public
and political pressure will ensure that nuclear power stations in future will either
be fully closed down, replaced by other power stations (using different energy
sources) or converted to conventional power stations. As 'The Economist' has
confirmed: By '~priI9th, 1990, a back to the future cereOlony (will have) take(n)
place in Midland, Michigan, USA: the commissioning of the world's first power
station converted from nuclear to conventional fuel. Mr William McCormick
the chairman of CMS Energy Corporation, the plant's main owner, confidently
predicts that other conversions will follow. The reason is simple: utilities across
America have found it next to impossible to complete half-built nuclear plants.
''The partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the clouds of radiation
from Chernobyl in 1986 produced fierce opposition to nuclear power just about
everywhere. Mr McCormick reckons that $20 billion-worth of abandoned or
moth-balled nuclear plants in the United States could be converted like the
now gas-fired station at Mid land. He hopes that CMS Energy's pioneering effort
at Midland will give the company a headstart in a potentially huge market for
conversions (in the USA, Europe and Japan). Mr McCormick even has a snappy
marketing slogan. 'We are in the business of turning lemons into lemonade;
he declares:'
In Britain, too, as the Social and Community Planning Research Group
recently ascertained through an extensive 'British Social Attitudes Survey' "the
more favourable view of nuclear power taken by our respondents (the public)
in 1985 now looks like a mere fluctuation in a trend towards increasing concern,
rather than a reversal of it': In the report, it was also found that "the proportion
of residents expressing even qualified confidence in the safety of nuclear power
generation (wherever it may be) had thus fallen from 35% in 1983 to 21%.
However, almost half (49%) of those questioned (in the most recent report)
selected the pessimistic statement offered about the potential dangers of nuclear
reactors" (ie. As far as nuclear pawer stations are concerned; the statement wh ich
comes 'closest' to reflecting their own feelings is that is 'creates very serious
risks for the future').
Indeed, as the report's findings were to conclude: "Clearly there has been
a large increase since 1985 in the perception of risk among both sexes and in
all age groups (concerning the 'unsafe' nature of nuclear power stations). The
crucial point is that overall, seven out of ten men and more than eight out of
ten women appear to be worried about the future threats posed by nuclear power
stations".
Moreover, in Sweden, concrete plans have been laid to phase out nuclear
power by 201o..In Spain, public pressure has been vocal enough to ensure that
five reactors under construction have been cancelled. In Italy too, following
a public referendum the 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
pool' which visits Goa, is increasingly being shaped towards assuming an active
recreational, vocal and economic boycott of those areas/nations who are actively
promoting their nuclear power programmes-amidst human rights violations
- at a feverish pace (ie. India, and hence the Goa-Karnataka tourist region).
As a political commentator recently observed in The Economist: '~s green
issues become international, it wi II become harder for any country to reconci Ie
greenery and sovereignty. There will be international pressure for agreements
to reduce the emission of gases to stop polluting the sea, to transfer cash and
technology to the Third World and Eastern Europe to help them clean-up" as
opposed to press ahead with any ideas to further pollute and threaten the
envi ronment th rough the development of nuclear power program mes such as
India's, whose technology is still rooted to the use of outdated reactor core
systems (eg. the CANDU design) which are scientifically known to be inherently
unstable. As the Economist's analyst has concluded: "Governments that are
reluctant to sign will be pilloried" (03.03.90).
Given this background, 'International' tourist threats to 'boycott Goa' once
the Kaiga plant is commissioned, should not be dismissed lightly. Tourists from
these areas have already displayed their propensity to boycott 'en masse' those
holiday zones which are perceived to present any significant 'radio-active
hazards'. The Goa and Karnataka tourist trade is therefore likely to be severely
affected in this way with the commissioning of the Kaiga nuclear power station.
In conclusion, it is important to perhaps pay careful attention to the opinions
expressed by some of Britains leading environmental and consumer behavioural
analysts, John Elkington, Tom Burke and Julia Hales: "The average tourist (from
North America and Europe) may not spend much time thinking about the
chemistry of the upper stratosphere, but some forms of pollution, like the
radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986, have
significantly dented the tourism industry's receipts.
'~ few months after Chenobyl erupted into the headli nes, for example, In
tourist reported that bookings for tours in the Soviet Union had dropped by
more than 30 per cent. .. In today's world, such developments can spell
economic ruin for countries (like India's-my emphasis) that have hitched their
fortunes to the international tourism industry" to the point where "such revenues
are taken seriously (by the government), and the comings and goings of overseas
visitors are watched intently':
Goa's, Karnataka's and Kerala's tourist trade, indeed, perhaps stand to be
destabilised in no different a way to that of Gomel, a region in Byelorussia,
USSR. As the Sunday Independent, a widely read and respected British
newspaper, recently informed its readers of the fate of this region: "Gomel (is)
a city of half a million peopte in Southern Byelorussia-a pleasant enough place
at this time of year (April 1990), when the pear trees are in blossom and the
chickens scratch in the lanes of wooden houses behind the modern blocks.
"Today, (however), Gomel is one of the saddest places on earth. Gomel was
once a (major) tourist centre. Now only the poorest Soviet travellers come,
people-from God-forsaken and even more polluted places like Chelyabirisk.
Local's, discovering I was visiting in the town, brought me flowers and
chocolates. 'Come again, please come again: they said.
'Apart from jts high-rise suburb of Val atava, a contaminated area, Gomel itself
is officially sard to be relatively free of radiation. 'only five curies per square kilo­
metre. We're supposed to be grateful for that', says Dr. Zdota, sneering at the
'acceptable norms' of pollution set by the scientists': Yet, it is precisely this 'low,
sate level' of 'radioactive contamination' which has effectively destroyed the
tourist trade and the economy of the region. Will Goa, Kerala and Karnataka
be next?
 14
Investing in Mal-Development
This is probably why many WTs openly shun their fellow travellers as
The Crossing ofJapanese aDA and Resort Development
by Noda Misato
In 1987 the Japanese Ministry of Transport launched its 4-year "Ten Million
Project" promoting overseas travel with the ambitious goals of building mutual
understanding between the Japanese and other peoples, accelerating
internationalism among Japanese people, improving the foreign trade
imbalance, and bringing economic prosperity to foreign countries. The project's
target, ten million tourists by 1991, from which the name derived will
be reached ayear before the target date. This flood of tourist money has
hopes, especially in Asia's chronically poor countries, that the resort
would boost their suffering economies. A lot is expected of Japan, which also
brings an en0rmous amount of foreign aid ostensibly designed for economic
development. Given all this, it should not be surprising that tourism is now
being included as a part of ODA (Official Development Assistance).
In 1989, the Ministry of Transport publicized its Holiday Village Plans for "total
support in the development of international resorts:' This project was to aim
at "giving aid to support the systematic development of international resorts
through the International Cooperation Association, giving yen loans through
the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) for tourist-related
infrastructure, and taking advantage of non-governmental fUnds and skills for
the so-called superstructure such as hotels, recreation facilities, and the like:'
This grand design clearly shows what attitude the Japanese government will
take towards resort development in 'Third World' countries, and how it is going
to use the existing aid system for tourism in a way similar to its approach in
other sectors.
In Aid of Tourism
1. Yen loans
According to a report from the OECF, which administers ODA tied loans,
the total amount of yen loans for the period from 1966 to 1988 was 7.83 trillion
spread across 137 projects. Less than 1 percent of that total, roughly 30
yen, made up 6 projects tategorized as tourism. Notice, however that
infrastructure projects such as road and airport construction which are needed
to promote tourism are not included in the tourism category. Such aid
clearly show a transition from constructing superstructure facilities, sucn as
hotels, to providing the surrounding infrastructure related to tourism, and more
recently to providing comprehensive and basic facilities for expanding tourism.
A clear example of this type of loan is the provisional Project for Basic Facilities
for Resorts in Thailand. It is a regional development program to encourage
employment and the acquisition of foreign currency primarily through
promoting tourism. The project will provide basic infrastructure such as roads,
communications, waterworks, etc., for resorts in eight regions and their
neighboring areas in Thailand. The loan will be used to purchase equipment
and pay expenses for consulting work and other services.
2. Development research
JICA (the Japan International Cooperative Agency), a government agency
whose mission includes monitoring technical assistance, has begun to include
tourism in its development research projects. From the prominence given to
it by the Japanese government, one can easily infer that tourism now ranks with
agriculture and manufacturing as an important sector for community
development. It is likely that any particular project based upon 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
of this phenomenon i~ action. This project will identify potential areas for
development in the eastern region' of the Malay Peninsula, and conduct
feasibility studies for total community development programs using tourism
as its main focus.
-",, i.rcli'le~~ .mu uvet!)eas experb
A "Seminar for the Promotion of Tourism" is organized each year by )lCA,
bringing about 20 participants from allover the world to Japan for a group
training course. In 1989, the twenty-fifth seminar was held with twenty
participants from nineteen countries: South Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya,
Mauritius, Tanzania, Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Papua New Guinea
and Greece. Those invited are either gCNernment tourism administrators or from
large commercial enterprises. The International Tourism Promotion Association
administers the two month seminar, designed to-introduce the relevant Japanese
administrative bodies, their policies, and the situation in the Japanese tourism
industry. During the same year, Japan dispatched 15 tourism experts to
developing countries: three each to India, Fiji, and Mexico, two to China, one
to oversee both Indonesia and Malaysia, and another two to the UN Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Tourism as Maldevelopment
In concluding this glance at institutiondl aid to tourism, we find it hard to
be optimistic about the influence of resort development on 'Third World'
peoples through Japanese governmental aid. This is especially worrisome in
light of the present ~ituations of Japan's ODA and domestic resort development.
Th us resort development causes the same problems as foreign aid-{]esignated
development in general. Often the kind of projects are more appropriate for
the donors than the receivers, as can be seen in examples such as the
construction of the National Historic Park in Indonesia which evicted the
residents from the surrounding area even before any promises of sufficient
compensation. Furthermore, the hosting of large scale tourism means a
outsiders, all with different cultural backgrounds, cascading in
people's daily lives. The accompanying socio-cultural problems can no
longer be ignored. How is Japan responding to these problems? Promotional
schemes alone only further aggravate the problem, notwithstanding the high
sounding language of Japanese government agencies.
Those who promote tourism depend upon a pristine and scenic natural
environment and diverse cultures, both of which resort development is
threatening to destroy.
AMPO Japan-Asia Quarterly Review 22.(4), 1991
Indonesia's Hotel Conglomerates
Indonesian conglomerates will dominate the tourism sector by the end of
next yea~ says a noted observer of the economy_
"Conglomerates such as the Bimantara, Rajawali, Salim and Summa groups
will be among the country's top 10 hoteliers next year along with pioneers in
the sector," Christianto Wibisono of the Indonesian Business Data Center (PDB!)
said.
PDBI, in a report, said inadequate air transportation connecting Indonesia
to other countries and the less'than significant role of the local people might
create problems for the development of the sector and cause it to lag behind
that of other countries.
The PDBI report said the current air seat capacity for international airlines
serving routes to Indonesia was still smaller than which
discourage visitors from travelling into the country.
liThe government's protection of Garuda Indonesia, the national flag carrie~
should not affect the flow of visitors into the country. The permission granted
to private airlines serving domestic routes to operate jet aircraft is expected
to motivate Garuda to strengthen its position as an international airline more
able to compete:' th~ report said. •
PDBI also called on the government to pay special attention to local people
whose property was affe(:ted by tourism projects.
liThe government should protect these people, for example, by asking the
tourist resort developers to provide shares for them. In this way, they will learn
about business practices and earn capital gain. This would be better than giving
asmall portion of shares to them as an act of charity 20 years after the projects
go into full operation;' it said.
The PDBI report also said the government should take the local people's
partiCipation senousiy to prevent the eruptron ot social unrest because large
tourist resorts in the country had been unfairly edging out small-scale and
medium-size businesses.
7
Happy Tourist, Unhappy Traveller
by Robert Shepherd
P
umpernickel Bakery in Thamel, down town Kathmandu, is a favourite
spot for foreigners. Even during off-season! the bakery's garden tables
fill quickly each morning. The service is good; the bread, fresh; the
croissants, delicious and the coffee, passable. The staff members are unobtrusive
and polite and with thei r brown faces a rarity in the restaurant, where the rest
of the people are foreign travellers.
They are travellers and not tourists. A young English woman, on her way home
from a year abroad in Australia, tried to explain the difference to me. She said
that 'travellers' live 'like the people'; they travel the way 'the people travel'; and
they are 'in touch' with, and have 'a feel' fo~ 'the people: The tourists, on the
other hand, travel in air-conditioned buses, live in five-star hotels and eat at
overpriced restaurants. And they never drink the water. There are no tourists
at Pumpernickel: only travellers.
Touring extensively around the world, the long-term world travellers (WT),
the majority of whom are North American, Western European, Japanese and
Australian, share a common ideology. They view the Third World as their
iaboratory and look upon themselves as romantic, even intrepid, adventurers.
They sneer at tourists and laugh at those who have remained back home in
Peoria. They share a common language, English, and even a common dress
code in Nepal: cheap cotton drawstring pants, rubber sandals, and printed t­
shirts. The t-shirts are the public resumes: in one giance one can discern who
has come up from Kenya, Bali, Bangkok or Goa.
World travellers adorn themselves with the handicrafts of this week's locale.
In Kathmandu, turquoise and silver rings, bracelets, earrings, sheep-skin
shoulder bags, wool caps and vests. It is said the jewelry is actually mass ­
produced in Lhasa. The caps are Afghani, and the vests are multi-coloured
combinations with tassels hanging from the edges. Who wears this stuff? Not
the Nepalis. In Kathmandu, they are the ones trying to dress like us!
In their attempts to 'become native' the world travellers often corrupt
indigenous systems.
At the bakery, several Germans, aSwede and an American couple are engaged
in a heated discussion about exchange rates, whicli is a favourite topic among
WTs, in addition to the black market. They can quote the going rates for the
dollar in Delhi, Kathmandu, Borneo or Burma. Thev also know where to sell
whiskey and cigarettes, blue jeans and cameras.
An Australian advised me: "See, you buy your Indian rupees in Kathmandu,
get an air ticket to the border, buy your Johnny Walkers and Marlboros at duty­
free and sell them for twice over what you paid, once you land:' He continued,
"if you are going on to Burma, hold on to your stuff, The country is quite screwed
up and the people will buy anything you've got, even the shirt off your back'~
I wondered where he was headed. "0h, I'm off to an ashram near Bangalore
for a month of meditation:' Ashrams, shrines and mosques are the traditional
destinations tor Wls. Those who iook for spirituai wisdom are aii young, white,
educated, affluent, radical, chic. They search for "meaning': they overflow with
good intention.
One day, in Kathmandu's main bazaar area, I noticed abackpacker haggling
with an Indian selling oranges from a basket strapped to his bicycle. "How
much?" the backpacker asked. "One orange, three rupees'; said the Indian. "One
rupee': the westerner insisted, Ithere/~ He dropped the rupee into the basket
and walked away pleased at his bargaining skills. After all, he had successfully
acted just iike the 'people', He has just had an "experience;~ Some Nepali
bystanders cluck with sympathy for the indian, Who swears in Hindi.
Beneath the WT's talk about cross-cultural sensitivity ana "experience" is a
sense of cultural imperialism that would have done ihe Victorians
Notwithstanding their beatific expression, world traveiiers are CUl-Ulival
practitioners of the mundane living. In Nepal, as elsewhere.. they compete at
agame with the odds stacked heavily in theirfavour. They use lheir economic
to secure shamelessly that which the society can olfer and than which
!i cannot and shOUld not also ofter.
The-world traveller expects to find a unique culture in the 'exotic' East, onlY
to wait in iine behind the same people whom they seemingly wanted to avoid.
saunter through the .streets of Thamel. They throw hostile glances at other
foreigners whose only fault is to walk the same street.
Tony Wheeler's Lonely Planet guide books are one of the main reasons why
the WTs end up in the same places. The difference between this guidebook
and others is that it targets a different audience and never describes them.as
tourists. Tony Wheeler calls them travellers who "want to see the country at
ground level, to breathe it, experience it and live it': He writes that tourists stay
in Hiltons, travellers do not. Instead, travellers should gO tramDing through the
back alleys of the Third World and absorb exoticism
has built a multi-national publishing business
of this planet.
What happens, of course, is that no world traveller is alone when he "does"
Bali or Rangoon or Kathmandu. After all, they carry the same book. They check
in at the same hotels. They eat in the same restaurants. They discover the same
hideaways off the well-trodden paths. The traveller longs to discover the
particular place to which no tourist or traveller has been. Yet, he keeps running
into many others like himself.
Western isation had consu med Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.
But it has yet to hurdle the Himalayas. In Nepal samosas and mo-mos are in
fashion: not Big Macs. Yes, Michael Jackson is popular among young people,
but Kumar Basnet and Nara~'an Gopal still outsell him in the tape shoos. The
of the country's first escalator is frontpage news.
Into this other-world enters the world travellers. They speak tngllsn, are
obsessed with money, and dress in odd peasant costumes. Off they go to the
mountains in search of experience. The handful of Nepalis they come into
contact with are guides and lodgeowners - whose burden it is to "represent"
the society and culture.
The East is not the West. Religious! linguistic and philosophical differences
separate the two. Yet! world travellers al'proach the East, including countries
like Nepal, as if they were on a jaunt into the Parisian countryside. They do
not realise that Hnding a bathroom, exchanging money, buying hasish and
dinner does not constitute "inter-cultural communication'
Frozen out of the cultures they travel _
among their own kind. That is why they crowd the tourist ghettos. Subdividing
into factions, they share their cultural illusions and seek to alleviate their secret
boredom. They trade tales and anecdotes over omelets and pizzas and they
huddle together to watch American videos. Make-believe hippie and aspiring
Buddhist, both wili be watching a scratched copy of Rambo.
Truly, the "traveller" is no different from the "tourists". He carries the same
shackles: an ignorance of the language, the culture, and the people and their
idiosyncrasies. However, the tourists, by recognising and accepting the
differences between themselves and others admit that they are outsiders or
the premise that travel is a privilege and not
the possibi lity of such an acknowledgment.
cheaply and dreSSing like a native can transform
them into cultural insiders. V. S. Naipaul writes of them as those "who wish
themselves on societies more fragile than their own...who in the end do no
more than celebrate thei r own security"
~i!MAl, Sept/Oct 1990
Serve them RIghi
ravellers from the time of Marco Polo and before have always been laden
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
to be peopied with non-travelling circuses of beggars and performers assembled
precisely with the idea of causing wonderment among the travelling public.
Travellers on the German railways may soon see something that convinces them
that the entire German people are a travelling circus. Fori as the uninitiated
stranger sits in the dining-car of a German train and sees the woifing of meat
alia potatoes foiiowed by the reassuring gulping down of coffee, the odds are
he won't be prepared for what comes next. If he is: !uckv enough to see what
c:,;,r.tli. on pale 18
 6 15
Heritage ~ourism
A
fter a preliminary fumble, the oversized bulb.. which illuminate the
police parade grounds in Jhalawar are dimmed, throwing into sharp
relief the makeshift stage which is humming with activity. All evening,
the grounds have been filling up with the local people who have greeted this
three-day festival of music with as much enthusiasm as they do a mela, except
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
initiative is the panacea for the ilis of astagnating tourist profile. The idea that
own traditional song and dance.
is doing the rounds in the Mantralaya is that of 'cutting ITDC loose'. Which
Many of the people milling about the grounds,
were not present at the
occasion: Pandit Ravi Shankar began the festivities with an impassioned
recital. The choice of venue was also apt-the Bhawani Natyashala
house) had been built, in 1921, in the style of an opera house and is believed
to be one among only five of its kind in the country.
Over the years, the Natyashala fell on bad days. It came to be used, without
any regard for its antiquity or uniqueness of design, in turn as a cinema hall
and a badminton court.
* don't compare well with the competition.
It took aformer district collector's effort to have the cinema closed and the court
shifted, and it now devolves upon the convenor of the Indian National Trust
settle down, leaving the five-stars to the private sector.
for Art and Cultural Heritage (lNTACH), Thakur Ranvir Singh, to set about getting
Meanwhile, Kerala is being projected as the model to be emulated. As apart
the theatre restored to its original state.
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
been freshly painted. The action has meanwhile shifted to the police grounds
to accommodate more people (the theatre cannot seat too manv) and admit
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
is followed by recitals by Aminuddin Dagar and Naina Devi, and aperformance
100 crores. Recent reports in the Economic Times suggest that the KTDC is also
by
envisaging a tie-up with,a leading international hotel chain for consultancy,
Raghuraj Singh Hada, hunched over the microphone placed unconventional Iv
marketing and training.
on the floor of the stage, prepares to introduce the items on the agenda.
a flourish, he presents a succession of performers drawn from the neighbouring
towns of Kota and Boondi which, with Jhalawar, make up the distinctive Hadoti
region in this corner of south-east Rajasthan.
The night air is redolent with the sound of dhol and man/eera as phad singers
come on with their ditties, followed by colourful tribal dancers and performers
who manage incredible feats of balance and dexterity involving fire and swords.
A folk singer from Boondi puts his signature to the show when he gets everyone
in the audience, even those who don't understand the language, to join him
in a well-remembered tune, clapping along and singing, infected by his stage
presence.
A ready interpreter sits in the front row, next to Vasundhara
the official in charge of urban development at city hall, calls lithe world's biggest
this area and co-organiser of the event, who is following proceedings with
evident enjoyment. "The response is unprecedented;' she says, "I did not expect
For years, one of the most pressing problems confronting this city has been
so many people.:'
"I am trying to promote a new concept in tourism-not the Jaipur-Udaipur kind
where you are packaged for two or three days;' she says, going on to elaborate,
"Here, people can laze and loll about the district at their own pace. This is an
experiment to see how the concept would work-to bring tourism out of its
five-star cloister:'
For outsiders, too, the folk evening was a delight. Away from the false confines
of theapna utsavs, this was folk art in its own space and place, and it felt right.
Despite the rough edges and the lack of soohistication, the
not the
as authentic.
an annual affair-an
area to more people.
What has begun as an 'experiment' in Jhalawar is cautiously being explored
in other parts of the state as "heritage tourism'~ The concept of 'palace hotels'
is only one facet of this; INTACH has been pushing the idea of preserving
medieval towns, stemming the decay of years and curbing the rise of new-fangled
Contd. on page 18
Penan~ Hill Condo-versy
Privatisation Spree in Kerala?
Tread Gently by K. T. Suresn
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?
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
by the booming island's urban growth, it is a symbol of Penang's beauty. to conquer moun cain trail and apple pie
So when a commercial plan for its development came to light, it triggered futile attempts to pound every last partide of dust
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
by developer Bukit Pi nang Leisure envisioned a200-room hotel, condominiums, investors. The reasons stated for it are:
With especially desiflned Dunlop retreads.
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.
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
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
they sit on some of the finest properties in the countrv.ITDC hotels
So do Bukit Pinilng Leisure's other owners. Yayasan Bumiputera Pulau Pinang, from beneath the feet of /"'DrbintrT
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
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
Lim':; approval has prompted a "Save Penang Hill" campaign. 1'1 regard the furiously scrubbing the stream clean with Blue Omo
hili as almost sacred;' says Ahmad, a member of the Friends of Penang Hill. while others scratch at the sweat and grime
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)
Act:' Under the 1976 federal law, a plan for development of Penang was and watch as rivulets of bleached common sense
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
of special character: "Its natural vegetation, topography and character as a hill tourism
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
consultations before
paradinf/ around in her bikini top
project has bypassed th'is'crucial step;' he ·argues. "Members of the public, resi­
realises how absurd she looks
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/,
snow-capped mountain peaks?)
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
"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
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
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
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.
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
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.
(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,
and the three malnutrieioned children
Kam U-Tee, retired general manager the Penang Water Authority, said in understands the
a letter to Berjaya that the catchments yield about 22 millions gallons of water business district".
but then who listens to them anyway:)
a day. It would cost at least $2AOO dai Iy to pump that volume from the mainland.
in addition to a $37-million outlay for headworks to raise the water level at Tread gently screams the universal voice of reason the presence of Government ministries, which employ 61,000 people, in historic
source, he said. as the needJe balances precariously over the newest sound quarters where exhaust fumes in narrow streets are destroying priceless
Bukit Pinang Leisure has encounted another obstacle. In September the and the turntable beqins to spin. monuments.
federal Environment Department rejected the developer's environmental impact INDIAN EXPRESS, 15 May, 1991
HIMAl, March/April 1991
assessment. Director-General of Environment Abu Bakar Jaafar said the project
would affect water supply and cause river siltation and soi I erosion. The
Biased Action ~~
developer was advised to go back to the drawing board.
Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon, who took over from Lim in October, and the ON lIj. eRiGHT.....
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.
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
conceptual plan that will issued by the Goa Southern Planning Development Agency and the central
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
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
quite a number of hurdles:'Provided a compromise can be reached, peace high court. Charlston Hotel's illegal construction has been partly demolished
should once again prevail on Penang Hill. by the government.
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
talk less about the romantic attractions of mountai n wilderness areas and more
by I. Rajeswary
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,
tourism was Uganda's third most important foreign exchange earner after coffee
and cotton. In 1971, it drew 85,000 visitors who spend US $27 million.
But tourism ground to a halt between 1972 and 1979 during Idi Amin's
turbulent reign. Guns and ammunition were easily available and Amin's trigger­
soldiers, who were given afree run of national parks, slaughtered whole
of elephants for ivory. By 1982, the elephant population in Queen
Elizabeth National Park had dwindled to 152, down from 3,000 in the 19705.
In 1980, conc;erned over the decline of wildlife and tourism, the government
that ousted Idi Amin turned to the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) and the World Tourism Organization (WTO) for help in training a
40-man anti-poaching strike force. The new unit produced immediate results
in Murchison Falls, Queen Elizabeth and Kidepo Valley national parks.
In Murchison Falls, the number of elephant carcasses encountered on ranger
patrols dropped from 120 in 1980 to none in 1982 and the elephant herd there
is now slowly increasing. The elephant population in Queen Elizabeth Park
has quadrupled.
When Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, his administration sought
additional UN DP assistance to rehabilitate the country's wildlife and national
parks. As part of a $1.7 million project, carried out by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the UN (FAO), 49 two-way radios were distributed to Uganda's
Park and game officials. For the first time, all national park officials can
communicate with each other and to their headquarters in Kampala, the capital.
With the help of mobile radios, rangers here in the Ishasha area - the
southernmost section of Queen Elizabeth Park - have arrested 66 poachers
since the project was launched two years ago. "In Africa': says Tanzanian Raphael
Jingu, the FAO/UNDP project's chief technical adviser, "anti-poaching forms
the backbone of wildlife management'
The poachers, who are usually armed and operate their own four-wheel drive
vehicles, mainly seek hippopotamuses, buffaloes and Uganda Kobs, aform of
deer unique to Uganda. These days, elephants are largely spared because of
the stiff penalties if caught. IlPoachers flee when they see our rangers:' say:. Abu
Baker Juma, the Ishasha sector game warden. "Being able to co-ordinate our
with radios gives us a huge tactical advantage:'
Statistics bear Mr. Juma out. In 1988, there were 209 poaching incidents in
the park, dropping to 156 in 1989 a decline of 25 per cent. "In fact;' says
Dr. Eric Edroma, Uganda National Parks director, "animals which used to run
when they saw people now stand and gaze at them because they are not afraid:'
Uganda's rangers and wardens constantly live on edge. Last October, in a
shoot-out at Murchison Falls Park, 30 poachers were killed. "I am very
of my rangers;' says Dr. Edroma. fiT hey are well trained and equipped:"
Sometimes, hOlNeVer, his men are not so lucky. Recently, knife-wielding relatives
of a poacher, who had been arrested earlier, attacked a ranger from Ishasha
in a market place. The ranger lost a finger in the attack.
T~ work of the rangers and wardens in protecting wildlife is only one part
of a larger government effort to revive tourism. Officials in this land-locked
country are well aware that they must compete with neighbouring Kenya, which
currently attracts the lion's share of visitors seeking African safaris.
Because services at most Ugandan hotels and lodges in the parks are minimal
at best, the government asked WTO, with UNDP fundi ng, to draft a master plan
to renovate hotels, re-surface pot-holed roads and upgrade the skills of those
in the hotel industry. ''l\s Uganda's economic and social conditions
tourism can become the country's main foreign exchange earner,' says Mr. jingu.
Even without such improvements, the number of visitors to Uganda rose from
8,622 in 1982 to almost 40,000 in 1986. The increase is due at least partially
to the fact that poaching is down and the parks themselves are now better
managed. Tourist arrival figures since 1986 are not available.
Mr. Jingu credits the new order in the parks to UNDP-financed intensive
training courses that gave 300 rangers and 300 park wardens a chance to
upgrade their technical and managerial skills. In addition, four wardens were
sent on fellowships to the College of African Wildlife and Management in
Tanzania, Africa's first centre devoted to wildlife conservation.
UNDP also recruited a United Nations Volunteer, Mohamed Bereteh, a
wildlife management specialist from Sierra Leone. His assignment: to educate
Ugandans living within Queen Elizabeth Park about the need to preserve big
game. Mr. Mohamed relies on films to impress upon viewers, who include
primary and secondary school students, the importance of conservation. But
his task is complicated by traditional beliefs. "Some Ugandans believe that a
woman's fertility increases if she eats hippo meat;' says Mr. Mohamed. ''l\nd
a man is considered less of aman if he does not provide hippo meat for his wife:'
But Mr. Mohamed's message is slowly getting through. Last year, two such
sessions led by Mr. Mohamed were well attended. "The Ugandans used to view
these workshops as agovernment scam to nab poachers;' he says. "What turned
them around was seeing actual footage of their natural wildlife heritage and
what poaching could do to them.
UN DP's assistance ends in December. Officials want the project extended.
The government is interested in conservation but we have limited resources;'
1/
says Dr. Edrorna, in explaining why his government has yet to contribute its
share of $53,000 to the project. "It has other priorities. If the extension is not
forthcoming, it will be a real tragedY:'
An important long term strategy, says Mr. Jingu, is to convince people living
within the parks that they can profit from managing and protecting wildlife on
thei r own initiative. The government wants to adopt an approach to community
participation in wildlife management that has already been tested in Zimbabwe.
Under this arrangement the government entrusts a section of national park to
the villagers who live there, provided they follow specific regulations: hunting
is permitted only in designated areas, only a limited number of animals can
be hunted at anyone time, and tourists who want to hunt must pay a fee to
the vi lIagers, who are allowed to set the price. Th is gives villagers a major
incentive to turn in any poachers.
"It has worked in Zimbabwe;' says Mr. Jingu, "and Iam sure it can work here!l.
If the necessary funds are forth--com ing, Uganda may soon have aconservation
policy that employs both the carrot and the stick.
WORLD DEVELOPMENT, (UNDP), March 1991
Massive MP Campaign
by Rakesh Khar
'Temptations 50 irresistible that you will fall for them. Forts, that still echo past
j
glories. Palaces; that stiil shimmer with grandeur. Love, still in passionate
embrace in stone. FOIesis with wildlife in natural display. Get away to the centre
of it all. Madhya Pradesh (/viP) - the heart of India. The sightseer's paradi5e,
with many a beautiful
Thus speaks a colourfully designed booklet. The booklet forms a part of a
massive campaign afoot to launch the state in a big way on the tourism map
of the country. So here is astate with 40 backward districts offering fun lovers
the natural wonders, scenic splendours and a lot more beautifully wrapped
up in 26 economical and convenient packages.
Tourism in Madhya Pradesh has come of age. The M.P. State Tourism
Development Corporation ended 1989-90 on abright note. Not only did it show
a gross profit of Rs 38.83 lakhs, but it also showed a net profit of Rs 1.33 lakhs.
''The corporation expects to end 1990-91 showing gross profit of Rs 60 lakhs
and a net profit of Rs 5 lakhs", says Mr G 5 Chahal, a senior official.
Faced with the arduous task of promoting tourism in astate which symbolises
utter backwardness, the corporation has succeeded in establishing Madhya
Pradesh as a front-runner tourist destination through the extensive promotional
campaigns conducted in and outside the state. The corporation claims to have
also consolidated its pioneering activity of organising package tours.
order to create better awareness of the rich folklore and folk traditions as
al~o it<; varied cultural heritage, a numberoffairs and festivals have been selected
for development and promotion. These include the Panchmarhi festival, Bhojpur
Orchha festival and Malwa festival.
ECONOMIC TIMES, 16 April, 1991
Nepal: A Tourism Tragedy
• about toilets, garbage disposal a!ld fuel.
Tourism in Nepal is increasing by over 77 per cent a year: it is the only hard
currency earner for the world's fourth poorest nation; and is being promoted
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.
The slopes ofthe world's highest peaks in the Himalaya were once a pristine
wilderness. Desecration by climbers and trekkers has set in motioR their
ecological degradation. Until a decade or two ago, it was a relativelv minor
problem: today it has reached disastrous proportions.
The worstaffected region is around Everest: 'There is so much junk
that a full-scale expedition is needed to remove it; says Chris Bon/ngton, an
Everest explorer. In recent years, climbing from the northeast ridge on the Tibet
side, has become the craze. As a result, Rongbuk the world's highest monastery;
j
has become a toilet and rubbish dumb. Once-cfear view; .of magnificent
mountain vistas are now obscenely impeded by abandoned oxygen canisters,
paper; foil and other garbage.
Part ofthe problem lies in the growing number ofexpeditions to the top of
Everest. Each year there are more than 300 expeditions and 7O~OOO trekkers
the Himalaya. Of these, a large proportion are Everest climbers, 13
in the current season. The Nepal Government has more than 700 Everest
climbing requests pending till 2003.
The indian Mountaineering Association has laid down guidelines for anyone
climbing in the Indian Himalaya: it offers cash incentives to all expeditions
which clean up their camps behind them. The Himalaya Adventure Tru.st has
astrictcode of conduct for trekkers, and Nepal tourism authorities have made
it mandatnry for expeditions to leave no litter.
Though this has helped wdecrease the size ofexpedition teams, the number
ofteams remains high, and is increasing. 104 peaks in Nepal are open
climbers, 17 to joint expeditions, and 5 reserved for Nepalese climbers. 18 minor
peaks are open to trekkers, administered directly by the Nepa! Mountaineering
Association.
Frustrated in its efforts to control the ecological impacts ofEverest climbing,
the Nepal GO'vernment has finally decided that Everest can no longerbe climbed
after 7994. Tourism authorities estimate that 50 fonnes of waste currently litter
Everest slopes, in the years since it was thrown open to the public in 1952.
While this may help limit further destruction ofthe world's highest peak, the
question ofthe existing garbage remains: will Nepal decide to allow dean-up
expeditions after 79941
Moreover; it is not Everest alone which stands it; danger of permanent
destruction. It is high time that Nepal (and other countries in the Himalayan
region) came up with ajoint environment protection plan under the auspices
ofan officially constituted environment protection authoritY. laxes on mountain
climbing could help to finance such a venture.
Thi5, is what the article Mr Himalayan Environment; seems to suggest.
Mr. Himalayan Environment
The Swiss Alpine Club has recently appointed a permanent official
for the protection of the environment. Shouldn't therE:' be at least one ,',;Ir.
Environment for the Himalayas? He could easily be financed by a small head
tax on all visitors.
This is not a plea to stop tourism. That would be impossible anyway. It is a
to regulate its future development far more strictly and that is not an easy
task. If there is a lesson to be learnt from the experience of the Alps, it is this:
protection of the mountai n environment needs determined action and hard
work at all levels, from the highest government authorities to the lowliest
individual. Interests of local people have to be catered for so that they have
a vested Interest In protecting the environment. The Swiss, for examDle, have
an active programme of aid to mountain communities.
Protection needs some down-ta-earth action. Perhaps one way to start is to
Once there is a heavier investment in tourism in the Himalayas, it will be
difficult to fight destruction because money talks, and loudly too. Before this
happens, I suggest that the Himalayas should be divided - with the 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
come all.
The second one would be open only by special permission to a limited
number of climbers and scientists. There are already a number of national
these could be upgraded and perhaps even linked.
The third one \'vould be inviolate and kept free of human intrusion. It would
be a or two above the national park status. This raises some basic
questions. Do we want to preserve some corners of the earth free from man's
interference or do we want to open up every bit of it to human exploitation.
Do we have the right to use up all the earth? Or are we willing to leave some
space for the snow leopards, ghurrals and the abominable snowman?
As Reinhold Messner wrote recently, "Man, through the centuries, has always
chosen places which seemed special and declared them holy and untouchable.
There, the Gods Iived....Today more than ever we have a need for unexplored
wilderness:'
And our Gods have always lived in the Himalayas.
by Aamir Ali, HIMAl 28 May/June 1990
Upturning Virgin Soil
he term 'tourism development' implies much more than running tourist
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
of running resorts and bus services for tourists, it has set its sights on the
development of virgin land along the Konkan coast The corporation has
identified 32 locations where international standard, upmarket as vvell as budget
hotels are expected to corne up within the next decade.
In achange from its earlier policy, MTDC is now planning to withdraw from
operational activities and become a nodal agency for the development of
tourism by undertaki ng a different set of activities. Taking care of infrastructural
providi ng land, offering basic amenities for motorists using national
highways, are some of the major plans chalked out by MTDC
The corporation has a"PerspectiveGlvwth Plan'; basea on which it has asked
for the allocation of funds from the Central government in the Eighth Five Year
Plan. Its plans involve roping in private developers to bui Id resorts/hotels and
thereby develop the locations as tourist spots. The land is provided by
MTDCIWe get the land either through an allotment from the government or
we acquire directly'~ says Kawale.
However, MTDCs offer to private developers has not met with a great deal
of enthusiasm. According to Mukhtar Hussain of Suman Motels Ltd which runs
five to six motels in Maharashtra (but aren't bui Iding any on MTDC land), 'Their
location lS for the promotion of tourism, our location is for busi ness faei Iities:'
Another private developer is more explicit when he say\ "Basically the plots.
Which MTDC are offering are not developed locations. They are beautifUl
but ...ve arc sceptical about the availability of infrastructural facilities:'
complain that not enough publicity has been given to MTDCs
procedures. This means that only linsiders' have an opportunity to participate.
Whilst MTDC plans to team-up with the concerned authorities for the
of water, electricity and roads, private developers complain that most
locations have no rail connections, another negative factor. Also, they are not
interested in the development of hotels as a majority of them are slated to fall
into the two or three star category. aimed at the tourist on abudget. ''l\lso there
is no assurance of a minimum level of room occupancy;' states a developer.
BUSINESS INDIA, 1.5-28 April 1991
 18
History of A Small Place
Pay for Environment
Caren Kaplan
Jamaica Ki ncaid's A Small Place can be read as a pol iticized site of a poetics
of displacement. Kincaid locates Antigua, the island where she was born, as
not only a "small place" on the map, but a place in history. In the process of
remapping this location, Kincaid remakes history from her multiple vantage
points.
InA Small Place the island of Antigua is limping along in postcolonial semi­
collapse. Kincaid describes a place that looks like paradise but feels like
something else. She explores the contradictions of representation by
investigating the stakes in each position available in that location. Who benefits
from perpetuating the representation of paradise? Who benefits from the raw
sewage in the pretty bay, the erosion of Antiguan culture, the condos and time­
shares... ? Since the "exotic" food the tourist eats is probably flown in on the
same plane as the tourist, A Small Place abounds in ironic revelations of
modernity's representational imperatives.
Kincaid uses the practice of tourism as a lens to view the discourse and
counter-discourse of Antigua's relationship with the rest of the world. In this
text the conflict between native and tou rist is an open one, at least on the part
of the native. The text is addressed to "you'; the past, present, or potential tourist.
The narrator, Kincaid., however, is not truly a native anymore since she lives
and writes in the United States. This displaced position gives Kincaid's text a
particular value; it mediates the very oppositions it constructs, breaks open
contradictions, makes connections. For example, the subject position of "native"
is investigated in its full-blown ambiguity, as Kincaid illustrates a point made
by Arjun Appadurai; the opposition between native and tourist is constructed
by a transnational culture of tourism-that is, the native is constructed and
"incarcerated" by the anthropological discourse of western travel. Kincaid's
poetics of displacement acknowledges the constraints of historical constructions
like "native" and "traveler" even as it resists the boundaries of essentialized
identities.
The story of Antigua's colonial and postcolonial experience is also part of
the author's personal history. Her memories become a counter-narrative to
official histories and public relations campaigns. Yet, Kincaid is equally frustrated
with island approaches to time and history. She writes:
To the people in a small place, the division of Time into the Pasf;
the Present,and the Future does not exist. An event that occurred one
hundred years ago might be as vivid to them as ifit were happening
at this very moment. And then, an event that is occurring at th/5 very
moment might pass before them with such a dimne~s that it is as
if it had happened one hundred years ago.
Rather than impose linear, teleological time in the form of conventional
history, Kincaid struggles with the legacy of imperialism and the split worlds
of haves and have-nots by inventing a method of collating memory and
experience, honoring oral history without valorizing universal essentialism.
She maps even as she tells, in the process inventing a historical poetics of
displacement. Antigua as chronotope collapses linear; imperial time
masquerading as official history to rechart the stories of island culture and
experience.
The co-ordinates on the map drawn by A Small Place are Miami, New York,
and London, The effects of English economic imperialism have combined in
the post-independence era with North American cultural imperialism.
Antiguans, in their small place on the map and in history, are inextricably linked
to the fortunes and vicissitudes of power centres far from their home. This map
of transnational, global conditions is, in part, the work of the text. It is this strategy
of insisting on Antigua's tortured connections with its colonizers while agitating
for specific, localized forms of knowledge that constitutes ahistoricized poetics
of displacement. Kincaid is careful to place Antigua squarely in the midst of
the problem of constituting history by asserting an alternate representation.
Edward Said has described this impulse as "cartogaphic," arguing that the
ro<;trf)IQniai writer rF~daims t~rritory even in the imagination, It is necessary,
he suggests, to map or invent an identity in relation to a location that is not
"pristine and prehistorical" but historically constituted by present concerns.
3
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
and geographical investigation of location in the expanded, global sense.
Extract from an essay in PUBLIC CULTURE Vol. 3. No 1. (1991)
Heritage Tourism (contd from page 6)
structures which do not fit into the pattern of Rajasthani architecture.
While the organisation does not directly promote tourism, says INTACH's
Harshad Kumari, it does contain the concept of tourism, insofar as it has to
do with the country's heritage, under its umbrella. 'We believe in local people
being able to use their old structures, not just in restoring them for the heck
of it. Once a building is saved, restoration takes care of itself:' she says, citing
successful examples in Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Jodhpur.
"Right now, the sort of tourism that's happening is not benefitting the local
people at all:' she feels, adding, "By linking heritage and tourism, we should
make sure that the revenue taken off the tourist percolates into the town;'
Cultural festivals are as good a way as any of hearkening to tradition, and the
musical nights in Jhalawar, apart from affording the tourist amore leisured insight
into local culture than the package-tour, may well be a step towards greater
cultural awareness.
SUNDAY, 3 March 1991
Serve them right (contd, from page 7)
comes next with a dining-car full of diners finishing their meals in unison, it
will be the multiple crunch of plates and cups being bitten, chewed and
swallowed up - reminiscent, to the untrained eye, of d large choru~ of
eaters in a circus or a magic show. Or of a hungry Charlie Chaplin eating his
shoes in Gold Rush.
No, despite the economic problems engendered by unification,
is not suffering from a food scarcity that obliges its people to extract some
their calories from porcelain. (In any case there's always beer to fall back upon
if need be.) The German railways have thought up this idea of edible crockery
- plates and cups made of bread or maize - to combat the environmental
problem of disposable (mainly plastic) but not bio-degradable dishes. An Indian
who is already familiar with the plantain-leaf plate, thrown away after use, as
the prototype of the paper or plastic plate, might think that crockery made
of bread is a genuine innovation. But he would do well to remember that
plantain-leaf plates, as any dairy-farmer who operates nextto a marriage hall
knows, are eaten - by cows - after being thrown away. The difference bet"veen
India and Germany then, is essentially this: we feed our cows with dispo~able
whereas the Germans will soon feed on both cows and disposable plates.
Editorial, DECCAN HERALD, 7 March 1991
Summary Findings (contd trom page 16)
there is likely to be an increasing demand instead on tourism products. On
the supply side, this' is matched by the 'need' for foreign exchange.
4. This will make the task of seeking 'alternatives' (such as avariety ot
alternative forms of tourism) more difficult to realise than we perceive. In
a sense, the Third World cannot do 'without' tourism, in the present stage
of economic development. By the same logic, domestic tourism is not a
viable proposition either.
5. The only hindrance to the present development model is its inherent
limitations: that is, if it proves to be economically not viable. Therefore, this
points at the need for EQUATIONS to conduct more serious micro-studies
of the industry, its linkages, the convergence of different state inter/entior-s,
and so on. In particular, we need to examine the links of tourism with
changes in land use patterns in the coastal
Letter to EQUATIONS
Dear friends,
Let me briefly recapitulate some points I had made during my recent
discussion with Suresh in Calcutta.
1. For EQUATIONS' advocacy and campaigning work on the subject of
Tourism, it would greatly help to have facts and figures about the cost­
benefit analysis of Tourism, i.e. taking into account the high impore content
ofelite tourism, the capital-intensive bias, and also the various impacts
(such as on the emnronment), what picturefinally emerges? It is important
to emphasise that cost-benefit analysis is an extremely limited andflawed
approach; and getting a positive benefit-to-cost ratio does not necessarily
mean anything. Huwever, in one's dealings with guvernment etc., this
is something they understand. But all the limitations to this approach also
have to be simultaneously propagated. Actually, using cost-benefit
approach to attack destructive projects is basically a losing game. Just
by changing some assumptions one could get a different result. Corrversely,
a 'desirable' or 'good' project, can never make it is based on the market
mechanism and the market mechanism subsidises destructive processes
and destroys alternatives.
let ..... , as in the Tehri dam case, it does help to get into this.
One should first try to find out all that already exists - for India,
elsewhere and bring this together. Cost-benefit study ofspecifu tourism
projects, and more ambitiously, for the state or national level.
2. Ultimately, given what one is campaigning against, it is a losing battie
in the short-run. But it can be won in the long-tum by adopting other
strategies, which are based on disengaging from the losing short-run banle
and taking on work in the area of <alternatives~ Thus, design ofedu­
catiot1.al curricula and carrying {)u,! educational programmes (jor, say,
students and youth), on critiques of tourism, on responsible travel as
learning and interacting with diverse peoples, places and cultures.
Actually, both the 'campaigning against' and the articulation and
attempting of (alternatives' have to be undertaken. From a social
perspective, one can appreciate the needfor a social division ofeffore (and
ongoing mutual exchange) between these two broad streams. But such
common perpective, coming together and taking on of roles within a
common perspective, interaction and exchange is all too rare in our
(voluntary sector~ So one is left with doing everything within one's
organisation; which only destroys you. This needs to be reflected on.
Because, even concentrating on one stream alone, is basically counter­
productive. So haw can all the various efforts, that all· need to be
simultaneously undertaken, be realised?
At the very least, within one organisation, one may find that rather
than get burnt out just 'fighting against; one pulls out and takes on the
(alternatives' itself, as a means of retaining sanity, learning and being
energised!
Another possibility is to devoJe a speci[u amount oftime and resources
to reaching out to political parties, MPs, MLAs, gcrvernment officials;
<lobbying: This is quite a diffullit and resource-intensive task, and full
of all kinds of dangers. But it is also something that needs to be
systematically done; part of the (long-run" efforts, mentioned earlier:
I write all this because J myselfam concerned ff,bnut, lile Tourism
very glad to find a group such ~hai
I strongly closer and
inte1'{lCtiosz bet'Ween activistgro"dps is badly net'ded
an alternalive culture in the 'voluntary sector ~;, ana ,JeWuse ;. jj'Ij'seq
am interested in taking up the kinds ofeducational wvrk mentioned above.
These points are made in a fraternal spirit ofsolidarity and respect and
I hope you will not think I am trying to tell you 'What to do. From the
little! knuw about EQUATIONS and its work, I have strong
admiration for your efforts. I only make these suggestiorlS seeing myself
as one ofyou, one ofthe larger struggle all of us, in our awn way, are
involved in.
_r'lease lel me kn071i what jYJU think"
Your; 3irrcere{v,
V. Calcutta_
T
he travel industry, environmentalists and officials from developing
countries have decided people wanting to visit unspoiled wildernesses
will have to pay much more.
"A lot of countries are selling their tourism too cheaply:' World Wildlife Fund
(WWF) Asian director Bruce Bunting told the annual conference of the Pacific
Asia Travel Association.
Tourists were travelling far and wide in search of isolated natural beauty, he
told the conference which ended on April 14. "It makes perfect sense that visitors
should be willing to help pay the costs of maintaining conditions;' he said.
Much of the world's remaining wilderness is in poor countries where cash
is a higher priority than conservation. The travel industry must show
governments and people of the developing world that preserving forests for
tourism is a better economic bet than cutting them down for a one-off profit,
speakers stressed.
•A Philippines delegate described efforts to set up a marine park in EI Nido on
one of the archipelagos southwestern islands dominated by commercial
companies and a logging firm with strong political backing.
"It is a Third World classic - the clash of vested interests of big business,
conservationists and people on the very edge of subsistence;'
Undersecretary for Environment and Research Celso Roque, now seconded
to the WWF. Conservationists would always lose unless they could come up
with financial clout, Roque said, which conference speakers believed the tourist
industry could provide.
"Despite the fears of conservationists, tourism and ecology need not be mutually
exclusive:' said Lisa Choegyal ofTiger Mountain Ltd, a pioneer in nature tours
in the Himalayas. "Financial imperatives and preservation ideals must be part
of the same picture:'
Higher entrance fees to national parks would allow governments to make more
money from fewer tourists, Keeping infrastruqural needs down and generating
cash for community projects and preservation.
Speakers warned against mass tourism in delicate areas. Firms competing for
high-volume business were bound to cut costs, Choegyal said, "and
environmental luxuries are the first to be cut by economic constraints:'
Traditional life in Indonesia's overloaded resort island of Bali which hosted the
conference was threatened by developers racing to make a quick buck at the
expense of the environment, said the nation's tourist planning chief, himself
Balinese. "Developments around the world suggest investors are always short-
and the cost of environmental damage is not necessarily borne by
investors but in fact is borne by the taxpayers and the population at large;' I
Gede A'rdika said.
A key to keeping wild areas intact is ensuring that tourist dollars filter
to locals. "Local people will feel the urge to protect a tourism product
as much as they feel part-ownership;' researcher Charles Tambiah said.
pointed outthatcoral which attracted visitors to Cebu in the Philippines
blasted apart (-'/ dynamite fishermen who gamed nothing from
needed to feed their families. "Tourism as aspot of affluence and
luxury amidst unmitigated poverty cannot b(' slJ,tain6::-,jp development;'
he said.
" But tourism could provide an alternative income to poor people who would
otherwise be cutting down forests or shooting wildlife to liver said WWF's
Bunting. He described a project to hire villagers as guides in a Thai nature
reserve. "Many of the villagers had been poachers of wildlife in the park and
so were very familiar with trails and watering spots. The animals they used to
hunt and sell are now the same animals which visitors pay to see':
5di~gE;5t<;-d tourists themselyes couid be 11.) illl!J1(Jve
environment in the developing world.
CCI, Apr/May 199!
 2 19
contd. from page 1
pressure from Beijing, Kathmandu disbanded the guerrillas and made Upper
off-limits.
the Khampa "marauders" have been forgotten, the Nepali
government continues to close off the area north of Kagbeni. Perhaps the
restrictions remain due to bureaucratic inertia, and a long-standing and perhaps
ill-founded fear of ruffling Chinese feathers.
Among those advocating the opening of Mustang are many inhabitants of
Upper Mustang, from the walled township of Lo Manthang and villages such
as Charang, Chemi and Sama.
"Over 90 per cent of the people of the upper areas want Mustang to be
opened;' asserts Jabyang Bista, who lives in the northernmost village of
Chosyere. "Maybe some people in southern Mustang want it closed, but the
people in the north want it opened:'
Opening Upper Lo could make the villages of lower Mustang mere night­
stops for tourists headed for the Tibetan culture of the north. Understandably,
some lodge-owners in Tukuche, Jomsom and Marpha prefer to keep the northern
areas closed. Most, however, recognise the windfall that could accrue to the
whole area from the opening.
Thus, when King Birendra made an unoffi~ial visit in January 1990, the 16
Pradhan Panchas of Upper and Lower Mustang presented him with the
that the north be opened. Unfortunately, the Lobas have little
wi'th no ethnic representation during the years of the Panchayat rule.
Most believe that the promise of an untouched Tibetan culture more Tibetan
than Tibet itself will lure Westerners in search of new Himalayan destinations.
Travel agents in Kathmandu, eager to cash in are pushing for an early opening.
Tek Chandra Pokharel, President of the Nepal Association of Travel Agents,
believes that tourists' eagerness to enter Mustang would prompt them to pay
high rates. Also, because Mustang lies in a rain shadow area, it could be
promoted as a viable destination during the monsoon, the low tourist season.
The government, meanwhile, continues to show ambivalence. Damodar
Gautam, Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism till recently, agreed that isolating
Mustang from the world will push it further into darkness". He has advocated
/I
opening all of Nepal's restricted areas.
Understandably, the Tourism Ministry advocates Mustang's opening, but the
decision rests with the Ministry of Home Affairs. The government would not
open Mustang before establishing proper trails, police checkposts, health posts,
a communications network and lodges. However, no move has yet been made
towards building such infrastructure.
There are some who agree against exposing upper Mustang's fragile ecology
and culture to the consumerist world outside.
Bishnu Raj Hirachan says that the desert environment cannot support the
demands of tourism. "People will sell their firewood for a little bit of money
without realising the long term problems this creates:'
The ecology of Upper Lo certainly requires detailed
from Chuksang and Chele, north ofKagbeni, have to hike tvvo days
forests near Samar for thei r firewood. The inhabitants around Lo M;mth,mo
use dung. Both sources of fuel are dV"indling.
Hemanta Mishra, chief ofthe King Mahendr;; Trust for Nature Conservation
in Kathmandu, argues that Mustang's culture, one of the last reoresenting old
Buddhism, should be protected. Besides, he contends, the
itself will benefit little from opening. "first, travel agencies
and then othpr outside communities, but not the Loba."
The important question, then, is not whether Mustang should be opened,
more attractive,
but how and when. Is high-cost!ool-\iolume TOUrism a
or the c't>me one-come all
and for different
Some advocate "controlled tourism", but in
ends. Those in the high-end of Kathmandu's propose [ow­
volume access which they say would protect the and cultural
environments as well as bring most benefit-but to whom?
A. V. Jim Edwards, chairman of the Tiger Mountain travel group, suggests the
government charge an entry fee of around US $100 per person and !laB..)w Gilly
a few travel agencies with the highest foreign currency turnover to take in a
iimited number of persons:'
There are other more creative, if unlikely, proposals. Keshab Lamichane, who
runs Nepal Cultural Experience, a special interest tour operator, submitted a
proposal several years ago to conduct exclusive tours in the restricted area for
"high class" tourists. Among other things, Lamichane proposed that three houses
of the King of Mustang be turned into a museum, and that programmes be
organised- to ed ucate travellers about the natural and cultural heritage of the
region. According to Lamichane, his plan would maximise income while
minimising the adverse cultural effects of tourism. "Let the local people
the quality of their lives, but let them not wear ties".
Some Lobas advocate decentralised, locally controlled tourism. Tashi Zampa
suggests that a law be passed curtailing the rights of people from outside to
buy property or to run business in upper Mustang. Only that would ensure
that the people of the area benefit from tourism,
Another Loba, Kelsang Tashi, is confident that the Loba can learn to handle
tourism when it arrives. liThe younger generations are not like their
have seen the way things are in the rest of the country. They have studied. Even
the Sherpas did not know how to run business in the beginning. Like
we will learn:' Tashi's wife, Chimi Dolkar, is convinced that Upper Mustang
must be opened. Some can be porters, those who are able will run hotels. Right
now, even those want to cannot earn money;' She says the suggested entry fee
into Upper Mustang should go directly into development programmes for the
of all the talk of "proper infrastructure': in all likelihood, Upper Lo
open without any preparation when the time comes. Neither the
nor the Tourism Ministry have taken steps to prepare Loba
inevitable openi ng. A study of the effect of opening Ladakh, TIbet,
Bhutan, Southern Dolpo and Kanchenjunga, as well as the ample sociological
studies of the Sherpas since the 1960s should provide valuable material for
discussion and action.
On how best to open up the area, many heads will have to come together;
government officials of the various ministries, the representatives of Upper and
Lovver Mustang, the travel trade, conservationists and specialists in the relevant
academic disciplines. A commission comprising of such individuals; with a
workable mandate, might be the first step towards a proximate and sensible
plan of action.
HIMAL, Mar/Apr 1991
In Quotes
The indian association of tour operators has ur~ed the
~ovemment to rationaiise the steep hil<e in hotel tariff and
-waive expenditure tax onbiqand medium size hotels saying
that this would badly hit the foreiQn tourist inflow
While India's foreiQn exchanlJe, earnings remained static at
$1.2 billion durinq the past five years. Indonesia which had
also gone tn for il bi9 IMP loan to tide over its BOP crisis
has more than doubled its tourism earnin~s and Malaysia
and Thailand hod raised it three fold.
Instead of making it mandatory for hotels to fix tariff on
dollar rates. the government should have linl<ed tariff to a
basl<et of currency.
The tour operators association has also termed as discrimi­
natory the imposition of expenditure tax on hotels charging
room tariff of more than Rs. 400 per day.
t ECONOMIC TIMES. 27 August 1991
I The Gantzer pieces resuit from 'thrpe weeks of research' in Goa during the
L Those who have expressed their doubts about t.Ol:rism are resident in Goa.
Tourism in Goa ... (conld from pag'" 10)
metro cities like Bombay and Calcutta, it can easily exist in the relative
anonymity of mass tourism resorts.
The resistance to tourism in Goa has never stated that there should be no
tourism at all. There are several groups who oppose mindless tourism
(not just the 4 mentioned by the Gantzers), each of whom have
obiectives and approaches. However, what all of them are asking for - even
is for acheck on unbalanced development. In fact, this is
that the Gantzers argue in favour of, in a recent article unrelated to
(Indian Express 18/6/91). Thev suggest the need for a Tourism
j
Areas Protection Act, and define its
Yet in one of their articles (Navhind
the 'agitators' have gone to court because 'these cases could drag on
One might well ask, what is the purpose of the law existing or proposed
- and where it is not abided by, what are the means of enforcing
The articles also seek to create on aura of doubt about the motive behind
the resistance. More than once, we are casually informed that foreign money
is involved ('a small group of agitators, some admittedly supported by foreign
funds'). To my knowledge, this is furthest from the truth. Those who have
opposed tourism in Goa have consciously avoided a foreign-funded label. That
they are linked with people internationally who are concerned about the
impacts of disastrous tourism is a fact: this is not the same as being foreign
funded.
However, there is an important issue to be considered: the hotel industry is
open today to 51 percent multinational holdings, and in the case of NRls, 100
percent. These investments and their profits are fully repatriable, a result of the
massive liberalisation in Indian tourism policy. (Whether such a policy actually
retains the foreign exchange it supposedly brings in would be interesting to
examine, but is beyond the scope of the present discussion.)
The Indian middle-class can be illogically moralistic on some matters: the
Gantzers refer to this when commenting on the 'sex and drugs' issue. Foreign
money is another such. While it is perfectly acceptable for industry to merrily
profit from loads of foreign invested dollars and deutsche marks, it is not so
in the case of people who raise questions, often at great personal risk. While
deriding this double-edged morality of our people, it is ironic that the authors
appeal to this quality in their 'foreign money' comments.
When all is said and done, it is hard to understand why these articles come
down so harshly on the very legitimate questions raised abouttourism in Goa.
After all, the Gantzers have raised similar questions at variolJs times. In late
1986, they wrote: : ..we have travelled extensively across our mountains and
we have seen the havoc being wreaked by distant DeoDle in power who have
no awareness or concern for
than in UP's ham-handed
6/9/90).
issues which hold good in Uttar Pradesh somehow become
iiTelevant when thev reach GO;}? !nsteari of dismissing the
'~pIL"prvirllJ' and
their views have also bef'fl
Correa committee appointt'd by the Goa g(}~ernment recommended
that the government withdraw its Ma·~ter Pian for Tourism (proposed in June
1987), which was done in 1988. There are other such instances.
I have on purpose avoided - by and large - referring to the varied and
complex questions thrown up by the resistance to touriml in Goa. These are
issues intricately intertwined with wider issues such as political histOlY, pmt­
colonial culture and identity, and more recently, the directions of Goa's
economic development. I have merely dealt with one aspect (related to
economic development), that of national tourism pniicv.
pre-Lent Carnival, which in recent years has been turned into a tourist spectacle.
If these doubts are groundless, if the agitators 'have either been misled, or
have deliberately distorted facts: why botheLwith them at all? If the agitators;
opinions are a lot of poppycock, why is it necessary to write six articles (at least)
about these matters?
Questions persist.
Travels in Five Tibets (conrd. from p.lgp.12)
quest
the accounts are cliched, unreflective survivals of a bygone genre'~ (his
exceptions are David Snellgrove, Peter Matthiessen and Andrew Harvey, among
others).
Tourism literature, particularly adventure tomism literature, is booming of
course, beckoning tourists to the last hidden place. This literature, says Bishop,
"has had profound influence on the shaping of the contemporary images of
Tibetan landscape and cu Iture': What th is infl uence is and why "contemporary
images" no longer constitute a Western collective imagining, Bishop does not
explain. One feels he has been confined by his own academic model of the
creation, evolution and dissolution of a sacred place.
The current interest in Tibet, although primarily touristic, would seem to
indicate that Tibet is not yet an "empty vessel'~ It is regretted that Bishop has
not looked a little closer at the travel writing of the 1970s and 80s, at two schools
in particular: the contemporary descendants of the spiritual quest literature,
and the new travel-realism writers of Britain, Ireland, and Eastern Europe.
Bishop is correct in stating that the focus of the spiritual quest was displaced
with the movement of high lamas to the West. However, he seems unaware
of the literary result of that movement. The lamas' Western students have been
translating and practicing Tib,etan Buddhism for the last 15 or 20 years. They
are knowledgeable about Tibetan history, iconography, and the lineages of
teachings, and their vision of Tibet IS informed by the great Tibetan literary
tradition itself. Their writing, like Keith Dowman's The Power-Places olCentral
Tibet based on a ninth-century Tibetan pilgrim's guider has incorporated the
l
Tibetans' vision of their own culture.
The new "hard-boiled" school of travel writing, well represented in the
periodic Mvel editions of the British magazine Granta, is in part a child of war
journalism, in part a product of Europe's powerful ecological and democratic
consciousness. It is hyper
and sensitive to the nuance of recent history. These writers have ~~•. ,~ ••~.
Tibet as they have touched other countries in pain: Cambodic
The travel-realism writers will see Tibet with its bones
while the Buddhisl wriiers will explore Tibet with full knowledge of its
and religious tradition:.. Both will create fH .V imaginal olaces. ard the
will be
J Fn"derick is travpl wnlu and editor of Shangri-La, the in-flight rlagazine of Royal Nepal
Airlines
(Reprinted from HIMAl, May/June 1990)
---­
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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.
Global Tourism Activists Meet. CypntS
Representatives from several countries will be meeting, for the first time, at
September 28 to October 2, 1991. Plans are well underway for the
meeting, during which matters relating to the structure and functioning of the
international tourism critique networks will be discussed. Apart from individual
organisations, existing networks such as NANET, TEN/TWI and constituent
members of ECTWT will be present. ECTWT and TEN are joint coordinators,
with the Middle East Conference of Churches playing host in Cyprus.
Consultation on Tourism as a Challen~e to Re~ions. Goa
ECTWT, together with the Archdiocese of Goa and the Catholic Bishops
Conference of India, proposes to hold this consultation, November 4-9, 1991.
About 60 participants are expected. The consultation aims to achieve a
perspective and planned response to the challenge that tourism presents to
all religions, especially in India. Write to Fr Desmond de Souza, ECTWT, do
Redemptorist Fathers, 876 Alto Porvorim, Goa 403 521.
National Forum on the Impact of Tourism, Philippines
The Center for Solidarity Tourism, Manila, toget~erwith several Filipino NGOs,
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,
to 'facilitate the long and difficult task of organising the victims of tourism' and
economic chaos where cost-push inflation devaluation in an eternal
'prepare them to take an active role in meeting the challenges posed'
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.
ENVIROfOUR VIENNA 1992
The International Society for Environmental Protection is
conferel1ce 'on strategies for reducing the environmental impact
Vienna, November 1992. It aims to analyse the impact of tourism
professional travel on the environment, and to evaluate the effects of
environmental measures, addressing d wide range of issues. ISEp, founded
renowned scientists in 1987, includes in its aims 'the elaboration of
ecological, economic and sociological strategies for the preservation and
creation of a humane environment for all people: Write to Dr Susanne
Burgstaller, ISEP, Marxergasse 3, A-1030 Vienna, Austria.
Other fumms
Tourism as a social concern will be raised at 2 forums planned in Thailand,
First, at the NGOs parallel meeting during the World BankllMF General
Assembly in October, 1991. Second, at the PP21 (Peoples' Plan for the 21st
next year. While we do not yet have further details of either, it is obvious
that tourism has to be increasingly recognised as an issue linked with other
social concerns, and events such as these provide the networks of tourism
critique opportunities to do so in an effective integrative way.
Sustainable Tourism, fco Institute, Costa Rica
The Eco Institute wants to bring a sustainable development approach to Costd
Rica's tourism industry, before it is too late. The plan has 3 elements: to convene
a task force-think tank to develop themes and affect public policy; act as a
watchdog, reviewing tourism projects; and develop/fund small-scale pilot
demonstrating the benefits of sustainable development The three­
year project wi II be coordinated by Deirdre Evans-Pritchilrd, who has extensive
developments, nationally and globally? In a post-glasnost world, can we
experience in tourism research.
Please note the correct numbers at which to contact us:
Phone' 812-542313
Tplp)!' AJ.r;-fU,OO n:n IIIJ (ATTN 007)
-Fax:
Cable:
812-542627 (ATTN 020)/217890 (EQ.. U
EQUATIONS BANGAlORE-560 038 INDIA ~
.. A.JlONS.))
IOn the Beach: Sexism and Tourism' she focusses on structural
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.
20
EQUATIONS at worll
Durin~ the Government-sponsored India Tourism Year, we have
~un a number of new projects. Elsewhere in this newsletter.
you Win read a summary report of a 21-day'Visit to the southwest
coastal states (Kamataba and Kerala). as well as a resPQnse toa
series of articles (by H.and CGantzer) re~din~ tourism·activism
in Goa, We are also involved in activities planned later this year
at M~ore. Tamil Nadu and Ban~l()fe, Towards the end of the
year. we hope to convene a meetinqfor Delhi-based peopJewho
expreSsed an. interest in our activities.
Resources
Third World Tourism Research 1950-1984, by H Leo Theuns. Peter Lang
Publkation~jupiterstr. Ii Cl/-3000 Bern, Ii 283p~ 1991.
one specialised research area: tourism in the developing nations. This
bibliography, hopes to facilitate and promote research on tourism in developing
countries a subject of utmost importance due to its nature and immense
potential for growth.
TOE-DOC, No, l wurism, Development & Environment Project, ECTW7;
POBox 24, Chorakheboa, Bangkok 10230 60p~ june 1991.
This first issue is a documentation consisting of selected newspaper clippings
and articles on development and environmental issues related to tourism. Part
of EGVVT's project on "Tourism, Development and the Environment'; this issue
of TOE-DOC focusses on a general view of trends in tourism policy and
development, cases of socially and environmentally degrading tourism projects,
articles on debates and activities "towards sustainable development" and also
a section "Golf Course Monitor'~
Tourism in the People's Republic of Chinaby Anna Gerstlache!; Renate Areig
Eva Sternk:ld 7iJurism ~'7 Centrally Planned Economies Case Study No. 2.
ECTW7; POBox 2~ Chorakheblla, Bangkok 1021088pp. 1991.
This study examines the initial use of tourism by the People's Republic to gain
more political recognition in the world by presenting successful socialist
achievements. Though it started with an alternative, politically oriented
to tourism, it ultimately fell victim to the massive powers of the
international tourism industry. China today stands as one of the only nations
to have experienced both the alternative approach of limited and controlled
, tourism as well as mass tourism, The Chinese experience would be of relevance
to those other centrally planned economies which aim to integrate this sector
into th~ir overall economic devE'lopement
Bananas, Beaches & Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics,
CQntd. overleaf
by Cynthia Enloe. Universityo/Cali/ornia Pres~ Berke/e); 94720 244pp. 1989,
The author takes a second look at familiar scenes- governments restricting
imported goods; bankers negotiating foreign loans, soldiers serving overseas
and show that the real landscape is not exclusively male. She also challenges
~~Q~.;~ 1/;'h~~ ('~;i::~;t(!tc~, l:nt~::~~~~~:Gr;~! !r; ~hC'
I
dimensions of tourism to drive home her arguments about the gender bias,
ALTERNATIVE NETWORK LETTER
A Third World Tourism Critique
For Private Circulation Only
Dear Reader,
Greetings from yet another republic that's going bananas!
The mandarins at South Block (that awesome seat of power in New Delhi) are
at it again. Voted into power by a narrow margin in the recent elections, the
new government is taking no chances: sweeping economic reforms are
underway, in a complete break from the past.
Liberalisation is the key, we are told, and the' Indian economy must be freed
from its shackles. In a succession of quick and dramatic announcements, our
currency was devalued twice, industrial licensing abolished (by and large),
multinationals afforded free entry into key sectors, and fertilizer subsidies
slashed.
Prices rose. The word went out: stagflation is likely to grab us by the seats of
our pants, necessitating another ueV31U3UU pushing India to the brink of
Questions: Who cuts the cake? Who gets the crumbs? WIll breadlines make
headlines?
Critics of t~ new economic policies have accused the government of wilting
. e pressure of the World Bank and IMF, organisations which are currently
~ A Letter from ••.
considering India's plea for massive loans to offset a 'critical' balance of payment~
situation. A charge hotly denied by our policy-makers, though our economic
reforms parallel those initiated by other developing nations indebted to the
WBiIMF,
And so emerges the golden dawn of a new economic era. Among the too 10
industries slated for this futuristic push are tourism and food processing.
that, I hear someone say - 'food processing'? Gentle reader; that'~ just an
euphemism for what is known elsewhere as 'agribusiness: which, in case you
haven't heard the jingle, is 'good~usiness is big business is .. :
The Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is
in its final stages at Geneva, where an international agreement on agricultural
production and trade is being finalised. The European Community (and to a
lesser extent, the LJS) are opposing reforms to current agricultural policy. in
effect, this allows rich nations to dump their produce on poorer countries
detri menta I to the interests of Thi rd World farmers and exporters. If the richer
nations go ahead with their plans, it will be 'a recipe for continufd food
dependency and mass hunger in the South; according to one observer.
Questions: Can tourism as an issue be viewed independently of macro­
continue to ignore an unipolar reality? Who calls the shots in such a world,
at the IMF/WB, in GATT, in tourism, et al? How do we resPoilCl to slIch
questions?
Lest we get let's ask ourselves more ... of such quest:olis.
vuerulouslv yours,
Paul Gonsalves
Vol. 7 No.2 October 1991
The Key to Mustang
By Manjulhree Thapa
L
ower Mustang, home of the Thakalis with its district capital at Jomsom,
has gradually been transformed by trekkers on the ':.\nnapurna Circuit;1
pilgrims to Muktinath, and apple
In contrast, the Bhutia inhabitants of Upper Mustang, the ancient
of Lo, live much as their forbears did for centuries, farming in the spring,
their animals to high pastures in the summer and engaging in trade in the winter.
For the Loba from Upper Mustang, change has often taken away, not brought,
benefits, Since 1959, the Chinese Government has prevented access to the
traditional grazing grounds north of the border, so livestock has dwindled.
Because farming on the wind-s\,\'ept, desert land remains as unyielding as ever,
seasonal migration has increasingly become a necessity. Cultural poverty has
come hand in hand with material poverty. There are fewer artisans and the Lobas'
gumpas seem neglected and in need of repair.
Mustang, up from Kagbeni village, two hours north of Jomsom, is
restricted territory to non-Nepal is. The government has given running water
to most villages and brought in a few health posts and schools, and the price
of rice is subsidised. Clearly, such measures are inadequate, and cannot
substitute for the development activity and alternate sources of income
from tourism, that the Loba sees when he looks south. And he is asking for
the same.
Except for a brief period in the early 19505, Upper Mustang has been closed
off from the south and, obviously, the north. Its special geographical situation,
of being surrounded on three sides by Tibet, made upper Mustang the ideal
base for the Tibetan resistance to carry out operations against the Chinese. Under
INSIDE
When Tourism's Profits Go Abroad .......... 5
Please Don't Come to Goa .. .............. B
jnVf:~tilllS ill /Yldl-Deveio[Jlllt=fli ..... 14
Summary Findings .. ............ 16