The responsible approach to tourism

By Cheranka Mendis

Armed with years of expertise in tourism, environment and sustainability, United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) – Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism Coordinator Deirdre Shurland is now in Sri Lanka to partake in the Sustainable Tourism Initiative 2014 organised by the European Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ECCSL). Here on a six-day visit, Shurland will meet with officials of Sri Lanka Tourism Board, the Central Bank, Tourism Committee of the ECCSL and industry stakeholders for a round of discussions on adopting and streamlining sustainable tourism practices in the fast growing industry of tourism. She will conduct a workshop in Negombo for hoteliers in the area and deliver the keynote address at the public seminar titled ‘Sustainable Tourism Initiative 2014’ scheduled for this Friday at The Kingsbury.
Shurland joined the Daily FT to share her thoughts on sustainability and tourism.
Following are excerpts from the interview:

Q: How would you describe the concept of ‘sustainability’?

A: In today’s world it has gone beyond environment related activities and encompasses at the very basic level three dimensions, which are financial sustainability, environmental and social.
From our stand point i.e. UNEP; we are interested in the interaction between man and his environment. Unfortunately our actions are consumption related and rates of consumption have exceeded the natural balance of the earth. We have to try and re-establish that balance.
There is also a widening economic gap between those who have and those who haven’t. We therefore do not have the luxury of thinking about how much we are consuming individually but as a common. We must assess whether the standard of living can be enjoyed at adequate levels of comfort to suit their economic positions. It is a therefore three dimensional view; with the vision of quality of life, good living, health and wellness. Sustainability has evolved over the last few decades and has transcended the environmental realm to talk about people’s interaction with environment, their health, wellness, ability to grow food, raise their children, earn a reasonable standard of living, etc.

Q: In that context what is sustainable tourism?

A: In this case we look at tourism as the interaction of visitors – visitors from within the country from one region to another or international visitors to the country; the economic benefits for the country and the people from the exchange of visitors in to their region and people being able to enjoy what the destination has to offer. It is a question about getting the balance right.

Q: How relevant is a sustainable tourism industry to Sri Lanka?

A: Here in Sri Lanka unlike a lot of other destinations there is abundance in terms of the natural wealth among the people. For me personally, this being my first trip here, it is inescapable how the tagline ‘land of smiles’ is so appropriate. You also have the natural assets, culture, heritage, food, entertainment in the form of festivals. You have a mix bag. There is such variety of assets that from the tourism standpoint, it is important to ensure that your kids and grandkids are able to enjoy more or less the same standard of living you enjoy today. It is a question of sustaining all those beautiful assets that come inherently within Sri Lanka naturally as well as intrinsically for many generations. It is important that tourism maintains that because it is a fantastic, dynamic industry. There is great opportunity if it’s done right, and great benefits, but it could also do significant damage if people are allowed to do as they please and if they are allowed to exploit resources as they choose. We need to be controlled as human beings. It is important that tourism as an industry define limits and play a role in the development dynamic of the country.

Q: Have you studied the conditions of Sri Lanka before, if so where do you think we stand in sustainability and tourism?

A: I have just arrived and discussions with various stakeholders will begin today (Tuesday) with the tourism authorities. I have prepared myself as best as I can. One of the things we understand very well as an external agency coming in to the country is that the experts are here, expertise is here. We help in terms of providing advice and how we manage, providing access to tools and resources as a community. We come to help essentially, and lend our expertise in the area that our colleagues here in Sri Lanka have identified as priorities.

Q: What are the key challenges the industry is likely to face as a developing tourism destination in terms of sustainability?

A: First thing is infrastructure – i.e. institutions with technical expertise and know-how. Comparatively speaking this is a big country and you have a lot of challenges. It is important to have infrastructure institutions not only in Colombo but throughout the country in major cities to be able to carry out and implement the plans that the country decide on. Then there is people’s conservation ethics. Resources will always be scarce. We need to change our mindsets about conservation both at the luxury end and budget end of the market. We must go back to basics as a destination to remind ourselves not to waste and leave it for someone else. We are responsible for what we consume, how we consume and what we generate as waste and where we dispose it as waste. It is important to remind people that conservation is very much a part of who we are.
We are trusted with an earth of finite resources and we do have the responsibility as well as the technology within ourselves to protect it, if we only have the will. When we talk about will, I refer to leadership. It transcends the political will, communities, corporations, businesses – if you don’t have good, inspired leaders to understand the fundamental truths you are going to have challenges. People need to be led, and led well.

Q: Sri Lanka has a lot of hotels coming up, how do we successfully bridge development with sustainability – any recommendations?

A: It is very much according to the needs and objectives of the country. If the country goes for mass tourism the expectations are that the controls, parameters and guidelines have to be in place. It must be firmly in place for people to understand the limits. I am not against the mass tourism product at all. There are lot of people who are. But it becomes difficult to defend it when you see the destruction and impact it has in some destinations. If there is no capacity at the destination to manage a product such as this, then there is a problem.
My role is to try and find creative ways to convince local plans that if they don’t have the infrastructure in place, to scale it back a bit or to the point where your local response mechanisms are not overwhelmed. It is about finding the balance according to the needs and priorities of the destination.

Q: What are the current global trends in this field?

A: Being in the UN, one of the fairly rapidly moving trends is governments prioritising tourism. We are just coming out of the ‘ten-year framework of programs for sustainable consumption and production’ which was one of the outcomes of the Rio+20 conferences in Brazil in 2012.
What that means is governments agreed on five priorities, one of which is sustainable tourism which includes eco-tourism. This is first time in a long time that we had the political authorities of over 100 governments prioritising tourism. That is beginning to reshape and reorganise institutions around how can we provide services for the global sector through the political leadership; bringing all stakeholders together, not just governments but private sectors and NGOs to work together to accomplish a goal which has already been established at the Rio+20 conference.

Q: Could you explain this framework please?

A: From my standpoint, we can already see the institutional changes. What this framework intends to do principally is to bring stakeholders together – UN agencies, technical bodies, governments as tourism stakeholders – in an organised way in order to plan means and priorities of the countries, together with donors. This is important because we struggle to find financing for sustainable tourism. In the past few decades (and even now), if there was financing for tourism it was for building infrastructure but the sustainable tourism which is providing the guidelines, tools, training people, building capacity, focusing efforts in terms of preventing degradation, loss of biodiversity, responding to climate change – these are now being prioritised at the global level. It is important for countries like Sri Lanka to pay attention and I think they are starting to do so.

Q: What are the other drivers?

A: Climate change is the biggest driver. Forget the institutional organisation, climate change today is the biggest challenge we are facing; and we will probably continue to face the impacts for several decades more. It is inescapable. The IPCCs (Intergovernmental Plan on Climate Change) recent report is mostly bad news. We are talking not only about melting glaciers, but about storm surges, more intense hurricanes, flooding in areas that have never been flooded before and creating a huge problem. It is very important for the tourism industry, given the potential scale in the country, to respond in a way that does not aggravate the problem and not create problems for those downstream and help improve the situation. Especially if we have a coastal product it is increasingly important for tourism operations to step back behind the high wave mark. Planning of the product is very important – it will be hugely costly to try to retrofit and will face problems as it develops. Going forward even if it’s refurbishing a hotel or re-establishing a new product line we must think on the lines of what is going to be the potential impact.