A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Monday, July 17, 2017
Does Tourism Benefit Third World Sri Lanka?
Third World governments invariably justify the promotion of tourism as
a driving force for economic development. I question this claim and say
that it is time to stop treating tourism as a holy cow to be protected
and nurtured at all costs.
Tourism discourses are full of high-sounding rhetoric, liberally
peppered with such terms as ‘poverty reduction’, ‘economic growth’,
‘sustainability’, ‘fair trade’, ’employment generation’, ‘good
governance’, ‘corporate social responsibility’, and ‘peace-building’.
Moreover, concepts of ‘new tourisms’, such as community-based
ecotourism, cultural tourism and niche markets are projected as ways
forward to reform mass tourism, which is increasingly dreaded because of
its negative impacts.
But what about the reality behind the glossy rhetoric that smacks of
populist propaganda? What can be observed is, the more tourism
authorities vow to protect ecosystems and natural resources in
vulnerable destinations, the more the environment gets thrown out of
balance due to the continued frenzied construction of tourism
facilities.
The more we are told about tourism as a force for peace and
understanding, the more the world is affected by both ‘cold’ and ‘hot’
wars, many of which are against ideologies or cultures and
human-rights-abusing dictatorships use tourism to prop up their bad
image.
The more decision-makers parade tourism policies for poverty
elimination, the more the gap widens between the rich and the poor among
and within nations, due to aggressive and unfair economic
liberalisation. While people in rich countries drown in conspicuous
consumption thereby destroying their own and others’ life bases,
communities in less and least developed countries only receive the
crumbs from the wealth that capitalist growth produces.
A destructive global business
Like other big industries, tourism is characterised by unhealthy mass
concentrations of people, mass production, and mass activities. Today,
it is common for people to criss-cross the globe to search for an exotic
paradise, go shopping, attend a conference, play golf, cheer at a big
sporting event, gamble in a casino, get thrilled in a theme park, relax
in a spa resort or have medical or cosmetic surgery in a five-star
hospital.
En-route, the travelling consumers can satisfy their needs and desires
in the same fast food chains, supermarkets and designer brand shops like
at home. Tourism is a truly global business that turns everything on
Earth – even the most sacred domains – into commodities.
Most travellers would not want to wake up to the fact that they are just
feeding a multi-billion-dollar industry and contributing to
unsustainable patterns of consumption and production. And there is
little awareness that as always, it is the poor who have to pay for the
social and environmental costs of excessive tourism.
Governments emphasise tourism as a driving force for economic
development. The Asia-Pacific region is the acknowledged motor behind
the global tourism growth, with China and India representing the
fastest-growing markets.
Illusory economic picture
Positive tourism data often serve to justify expensive infrastructure
developments that primarily benefit the top echelons in travel and
tourism. Many of the projects are based on external borrowings,
deepening the financial debt crisis for poor nations, and many of the
supplies and equipment used in the development of these projects are
imported and the personnel involved in construction engaged from abroad.
Meanwhile, governments increasingly neglect the basic needs of local
communities. Sri Lanka spent huge amounts of aid and taxpayers’ money to
help the tourism industry back on its feet, while fishing and
agricultural communities were displaced; and until today, poor tsunami
victims are lacking adequate housing, water supply, social services and
opportunities to rebuild economic livelihoods.
Leakages and Tricking Down Effects
Tourism is a big money-spinner, but local residents do not get a fair
share because most of the tourism revenue is siphoned away by
urban-based and foreign investors. The tourism sector is notorious for
causing financial ‘leakage’ (due to high import content, repatriation of
profits by foreign-owned tourism companies, etc.), and unbalanced and
inequitable distribution of income.
Globalisation has only worsened the economic conditions for poor
countries. Tourism services negotiations have been used particularly by
the US and the European Union to increase pressure on governments of
developing countries to abolish restrictions on foreign ownership and to
allow a high degree of self-regulation by transnational corporations in
the sector.
As a result, tourism-related industries in developing countries are
experiencing unprecedented mergers and acquisitions, squeezing local
businesses that are ill-equipped to face the cut-throat competition
favouring giant foreign firms.