UN body aims to return to conflict zones to measure peace thro'tourism
PASSIKUDAH, Batticaloa: Sri Lanka? Wasn't there a war there?
One of the highpoints of the conference was the thoughts expressed by two Sri Lankan families involved in tourism with distinctive brands - Jetwing and Dilmah.
Their message was quite clear: Don't hurt local communities. Local communities should not only be part of the development but also the decision-making process as equal partners.
Hiran Cooray, Chairman of Jetwings Hotels, explained how his father taught him not to upset local communities, seemingly like following the well-known phrase "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". He said: "When we first started a small hotel in Negombo (many decades back), he used to tell me not to hurt the fishermen; don't drive too fast (as I was learning to drive); don't toot the horn. He was essentially telling us to respect local communities and this was long before linkages between tourism and community development were spoken on."
He said what is exciting now is that 40 per cent of the tourists are not staying at hotels but in homes and small tourist accommodations. This is helping the informal sector and helping these small units to flourish and in the process help local communities.
Stressing the need for more local community engagement in tourism, he referred to their own experience in Jaffna where the Jetwing group has only a 25 per cent stake in the newly-opened Jetwing hotel there with the balance coming from the public and the Tamil diaspora. "Eventually the people there should own and manage this property," he said.
Speaking at another panel discussion, but reflecting similar thoughts was Dilmah's Operations Director - Malik Fernando, whose father founded the famous Dilmah tea brand. The younger Mr. Fernando, who handles the company's leisure brand the best-known being Ceylon Tea Trails, said their focus was to preserve Sri Lanka's cultural heritage (British-built tea bungalows). He said local hoteliers need to be supported for while international brands are welcome, its mostly local hotels that are sustainable and have more links with the community.
Anita Mendiratta, Special Advisor to the UNWTO Secretary-General and international consultant, had an interesting perspective: Why should people care for tourism if they are not part of the development process?