SOUTH ASIA: Talks About Promoting Tourism, But Does Very Little

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Sep 25 1997 (IPS) - South Asian countries met in Colombo this week to explore prospects of forging a common front to jointly promote the region of over one billion people as a tourist destination.

Although few decisions were taken, the meeting which concluded late Wednesday made several recommendations towards boosting intra-regional tourism.

The region — considered one of the best tourist destinations because of its wide expanse of Himalayan peaks, beautiful beaches, cultural sites and friendly people — accounts for a mere one percent of the world tourism market.

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, opening the two- day meeting of tourism ministers from South Asia on Tuesday, said SAARC countries should “do more” to promote tourism individually and collectively to raise arrival levels from the current disappointing levels.

“Ours is a region which has a rich cultural heritage and beautiful natural sites. … Sri Lanka alone has seven UNESCO world heritage sites,” she said. SAARC is a 12-year-old regional grouping of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives called the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation. The group wants to develop economic and trade ties between members and improve the life of its people who live in one of the most impoverished regions in the world.

Tourism, for many in the region which accounts for one-fifth of the world’s population, is a money spinner and in addition to revenue generation, the employment potential is enormous.

In addition to promoting tourism from outside the region, South Asian countries also want to boost intra-region tourism — which conference delegates found needed to be given a boost.

Kumaratunga, whose government will host the next SAARC summit in Colombo next year to coincide with the 50th year after the country gained independence from British colonial rule, said that the tourism industry has been the main engine of development and growth in many developed and developing nations.

She noted that a SAARC committee on tourism, appointed in 1991 to initiate joint action in tourism, had been unable to implement decisions taken by it and “I believe this is why it was felt that the ministers’ meeting at a higher level would be able to initiate decisions and implement them.”

According to a Sri Lankan working paper presented at the conference, the SAARC Technical Committee on Tourism had discussed various fields of cooperation and decided on measures such as the preparation of a joint brochure, introduction of joint tour packages, preparation of a travel guide, a documentary film, among others.

“Implementation of these proposals has been entrusted to different member countries (for example, joint brochure, joint tour packages and travel guide to Sri Lanka, documentary film to Nepal) on the understanding that each member country should provide the necessary information and materials and also make financial contributions towards the production costs.

“Evaluations of the progress made on the implementation of the above activities at subsequent Technical Committee meetings have revealed that practically all the above proposals still remain unimplemented, except perhaps conducting a few educational tours for tourism officials, hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka,” the paper said.

Kumaratunga said that countries in the region have done little to develop tourism with the exception of the Maldives, which is dotted by dozens of tiny islands complete with sun-kissed beaches and upmarket facilities and available exclusively for tourism.

Sri Lankan officials said they were pushing for a proper mechanism to implement decisions taken by the committee and had recommended that SAARC utilise the services of San Francisco- based PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) for this purpose.

They say PATA is an international tourism marketing organisation with a wide range of in-house capabilities. It has regional offices (the office located in Singapore covers the South Asian region) with regional programmes to assist its members and also funds committed to undertake such programmes.

“PATA is offering its services free of charge. The SAARC members therefore have only to bear the costs of implementing the various projects which will be undertaken on their behalf,” the Sri Lankan working paper said.

But the Sri Lankan proposal failed to make it to the future agenda of the tourism ministers, with the conference merely deciding “to create monitoring cells in the Ministries of

Tourism of the member countries to monitor the implementation of decisions of the Technical Committee on Tourism.”

In a statement called the Colombo resolution issued late on Wednesday night at the conclusion of the meeting, the seven countries agreed to several steps that would help people travel within the region.

These include simplifying visa procedures, the promotion of direct air-links between SAARC capitals, supporting steps towards free convertibility of SAARC currencies to facilitate easier travel and for tourism to be granted export industry status.

It was also decided that the private sector would play an active role in the promotion of tourism both intra-regionally and international. Ministers agreed to meet periodically “but not less than once in two years to further promote regional co- operation in tourism.”