Sustainable tourism and lessons from Bhutan’s happiness philosophy
Sri Lanka Design Festival’s 2021 edition concludes today with a timely convention focusing on revitalizing the tourism industry in response to post-pandemic challenges and the mounting issue of climate change. Sharing a regional view, former Prime Minister of Bhutan Dasho Tshering Tobgay will deliver the keynote address on “Bhutan’s development philosophy of Gross National Happiness and its connection with sustainable tourism”.
Tshering Tobgay will talk about how Bhutan - the only carbon negative country in the world, has invested years on the topic of sustainable innovation and how the country not only advocates these practices, but truly lives and breathes them by the Bhutanese people being active practitioners of the conscious ways to use natural resources, culture and history by incorporating both new and traditional views on sustainability. This practice where policy makers actively involve the people in the ideas they implement, and the general public of a nation becoming the foremost practitioners and advocates of these national measures is one of the most important aspects of Bhutan’s success that will be highlighted in the talk.
Held under the theme impACT,
SLDF 2021 organized and conceptualized by the Academy of Design (AOD), stems from an agenda of national interest to power three key identified industries—craft SMEs, agriculture and tourism— amongst several other supporting industries that can drive maximum impact across the island, parallel to the state efforts to revitalize
Sri Lanka’s economy.
With tourism as part of the economic trinity of key industries that AOD and SLDF focus on to revive with design intervention, this conference will share key market shifts, strategic recommendations and action points for businesses, as hospitality adapts to a permanently altered landscape, in which experiences harness the power of digital and experiential design to a new type of conscious traveller of the post pandemic future.
Sri Lanka has always had the vision of being a sustainability influencer not only by sharing its own island initiatives built over the last two decades, especially in industries such as tourism, but also by sharing the impactful progress made in the South Asian region which has much to offer in this post pandemic world.
Sharing the perspective of a consumer, traveller, the conference also brings in Bandana Tewari, lifestyle journalist, sustainability activist and former editor-at-large, Vogue India. Someone who truly embraces slow experiential travel, she used to be based in Mumbai, and now spends part of the year in Bali. Tewari writes for The Business of Fashion extensively on a variety of topics from indigenous ‘made-by-hand’ economies of India and Indonesia.
She is a TEDx speaker and travels the world speaking in conferences about mindfulness in the luxury business.
The conference hosts and speakers Chris Sanderson and Martin Raymond, co-founders of The Future Laboratory, one of the world’s leading strategic foresight consultancies will shed insight on the future traveller, the trends and changes shaping the future landscape of the sector.
Sharing a Sri Lankan perspective on design experiences and sustainability, what it means for the island and what the next phase for the sector are, will be conference hosts Malik J. Fernando and Miguel Cunat. Fernando is a Director of Dilmah Tea and MD of Resplendent Ceylon. After the Easter Sunday outrage, Mr. Fernando spearheaded the Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance to mobilize the private tourism sector under the Love Sri Lanka banner.
Miguel Cunat is the Chief Experience and Sustainability Officer at The Fabulous Getaway and Managing Partner at Sustainable Sri Lanka, an entrepreneur and consultant with extensive experience in building innovative travel and tourism businesses. Moving to Sri Lanka in 2003, beginning his career in the travel and tourism sector, he has co-founded several innovative specialist tourism businesses in Sri Lanka and has also been an advisor to numerous others.
The event is open to all to watch today Sunday 17th at 3 p.m. (IST).
Registrations -