THIS paper promotes a paradigm shift in the Indian government’s attitude towards tourism policy formulation. Domestic and international tourism in Asia are on the edge of an explosive growth phase. A visit to any of the major heritage sites in the region clearly demonstrates the increasing number of visitors from China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan. It is predicted that there will be over 200 million middle class Chinese within five years, and many will join the ranks of international tourism. The wealthy middle class in India is equally mobile and looking at travel as a source of education and recreation, even as religious tourism and pilgrimage travel are major sources of activity. Discount airline travel in Asia is now a reality and will grow exponentially in the next few years. India must recognise the tourism trends that are emerging in Asia and respond with well-considered policies.

The Government of India should focus tourism development policy on capturing the benefits from tourism for the myriad regional and local communities that make up the nation. The current emphasis of promoting the country as an international destination merely to increase the numbers of tourists who might visit, a very common approach worldwide, is no longer appropriate.

Richard Engelhardt from UNESCO in Bangkok has long promoted the concept that tourism policy should benefit local people. The ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Charter reinforces the need for local communities to benefit from tourism. Robertson Collins, the former Chairman of the Icomos International Cultural Tourism Committee, is very strong in his belief that the last thing any nation or government should be doing is promoting tourism since international tourism is growing of its own accord, and fast. National and regional governments, and tourism agencies in particular, should primarily be looking to protect their tourism assets for the long term, not encouraging short term exploitation.

Tourism is largely a private sector activity that utilises public assets for private gain. This subsidy cannot be sustained into the long term without some tangible contribution on their part to the economic life of the host communities. The public sector should protect and promote local identity and facilitate tourism activity, but not build infrastructure or attractions that are simply aimed at boosting tourism. Investment in, and protection of, public assets should primarily benefit the local community, generate local pride and enhance local economic activity. An increase in tourism is the bonus.

Tourism is inextricably linked with natural and cultural heritage conservation. Those who protect and conserve the natural and cultural heritage, in all its forms, hold the keys to perhaps half of the world’s tourism assets. The recent Indian Ocean tsunami demonstrated the shortcomings of relying on coastal recreation as a major component of tourism activity. Nations in Asia need to build up their cultural heritage tourism assets if they are to provide greater security and diversity for their tourism industries.

It is essential, therefore, for the Indian government to identify as wide a range as possible of natural and cultural heritage tourism assets within each locality and region, and to facilitate local business to capture tourism revenue. The national government should promote and facilitate tourism, but let local business people take both the risk and the profit.

 

The real clients for any national government tourism policy initiatives are all those who comprise the regional and local communities across India. Tourists and the tourism industry are simply the actors.

The tourism industry is very good at spreading the mantra that tourism will bring major economic benefits. But how often do those benefits flow back to the travel company, the hotel chain or the tourism operator who might be based overseas? What good are thousands, even millions, of tourists to the national economy if most of what they spend goes elsewhere? The host country, or region must provide and maintain airports, ports, roads and public amenities, sustain natural and cultural heritage sites, provide water and sewerage infrastructure for the increased traffic, but few international visitors rarely stay long in most of the places they visit. Few in the local community can identify what benefits are actually captured from the tourist traffic.

The critical issue for tourism policy development in India is for the local economy to retain as much tourism revenue as possible.

 

Government agencies have long believed that they must spend lots of money creating tourist attractions in order to encourage tourism into the less travelled parts of the country. How many national, state or local governments have promoted the construction of a local museum, art gallery, cultural centre, tourism recreation facility or theme-park in an effort to boost local tourism? How much money has been poured into these so-called attractions and how many have failed to produce the long-term local economic benefits expected of them? While some manufactured ‘tourist attractions’ have become major drawcards, many have not.

This situation cannot be sustained in the long term. The role of the public sector should be to protect, enhance and promote local identity and facilitate tourism activity, not to build infrastructure that is primarily aimed at increasing tourist numbers. Investment in public infrastructure and protection of heritage assets should primarily benefit the local community and enhance local economic activity. A new local museum or cultural centre should primarily boost local pride and a community’s sense of its own identity. Tourism will be the bonus outcome of such ventures.

Tourists are prepared to spend far more on interesting local merchandise, regional crafts, good local or regional cuisine and accommodation than they do on entrance fees to local attractions. This is the tourist income that will more typically stay in the local community, boosting local employment and encouraging other forms of local investment.

There is no doubt that the local communities are the major stakeholders in tourism throughout India. They are the people who can provide local services, supply the local produce, develop locally designed merchandise based on local themes or traditions, care for the natural and cultural landscapes or historic places that form the basis for tourism and provide local tourism services. In this context, tourists and the tourism industry are simply the actors.

It is essential for tourism policy-making in India to concentrate on enhancing the quality of life of the local people. Tourists will always be attracted to places where the local community takes pride in the place, is dynamic and ready to welcome visitors.

 

Cultural tourism in Asia relies on a combination of emerging trends in tourism as a whole, and the ever growing sophistication of cultural heritage conservation activities, particularly for the major monuments and historic cities.

Tourism in Asia is growing exponentially and is expected to continue over the coming years. Increasing wealth among the middle classes of Asia is generating a great deal of international travel within Asia as well as an increasing level of domestic tourism in many countries. The Borobudur World Heritage Site in Indonesia welcomes nearly 2.5 million visitors per annum, of which only about 150,000 are international arrivals.

While events such as the SARS epidemic, Asian bird flu and the 2004 tsunami caused short term reductions in arrivals, people from outside Asia are increasingly enjoying a combination of recreational or resort holidays and cultural sites. The large numbers of Europeans and Australians affected in Thailand and Sri Lanka by the tsunami provides graphic evidence of the popularity of the region. Many of these people indicated that they were frequent visitors to the same locations, giving them a great attachment to the place and the local people.

 

The travel industry has responded with vastly increased capacity and competitive business practices. Airline capacities are rapidly increasing in Vietnam, China and elsewhere, an important factor, given the large distances and generally poor surface transport options across the region. Charter airlines are emerging in Asia and will have the same effect on travel as has been experienced in Europe over recent years, with greatly reduced prices and increasing numbers of travellers.

Packaged tourism is increasingly recognising the potential of world heritage and other major cultural heritage sites. This carries the danger of high concentrations of visitors in very restricted locations. Tourism activity in Angkor Wat in Cambodia is far in excess of any other part of the country. This is encouraging many Cambodians to move to the local area in the hope of finding work, creating population imbalances and some resentment, not only in Siem Reap but elsewhere in the country.

Asia has some spectacular world heritage listed sites. These are dominating the packaged tour market and leading to concentrations of visitors at relatively few locations. An increasing number of arrivals is placing considerable pressure on many of the major cultural heritage sites in the region and the capacity of local infrastructure to respond. In Siem Reap, the local service town for Angkor Wat, the number of hotel beds has doubled and then doubled again in the last two years.

 

Packaged tourism is tending to move people from attraction to attraction more quickly than was the traditional pace of tourism. In many major sites, visits are often reduced to one or two days before moving on to the next attraction. This places increased strain on transportation, hotels, local infrastructure and the local environment.

Short duration stays make it difficult for visitors to interact with local people and local cultures. Packaged tours tend to concentrate the economic benefits from tourism activity into the hands of a small number of operators, restricting the flow of economic benefits to local economies.

Many national tourism policies in Asia remain focused on a drive for larger numbers of international visitors. These policies often ignore the need for greater direct economic returns from tourism in the face of a simple desire for more numbers. The tourism industry maintains pressure on governments to provide more public resources, such as airports, roads, telecommunications, water and sewerage infrastructure to facilitate their activity and profit potential.

Conservation of the historic built environment in Asia has made great progress over the last ten years. There is now a growing body of skilled practitioners and professional managers working on the major sites across the region. The primary weakness is a lack of comprehensive and effective legislation for the protection and management of the broader historic environment, including historic urban areas. Protection of major monuments and archaeological sites is well established. Much work needs to be done in relation to protecting the broader historic cultural landscape.

 

The international conservation industry already works in a well coordinated way towards a set of commonly agreed objectives. There is now considerable activity and coordination in professional education and training, skills and experience, sharing of professional expertise, adoption of common protocol and standards. Over the last quarter century, modern communications, affordable travel, international conferences, postgraduate training and shared information have generated a remarkably consistent approach to the conservation of cultural heritage across the world. Icomos, Unesco, the World Heritage Convention and organisations such as the Getty, Ford Foundation and the World Monuments Fund provide an international global architecture for conservation that is underwritten by a consistent methodology and philosophy, one that extends across most parts of the world.

The office of the Unesco Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific has developed a number of excellent programmes over recent years to build public awareness and professional skills training across the region.

Unesco Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards: The awards programme recognizes the achievement of the private sector and public-private initiatives in successfully restoring structures of heritage value in the Asia-Pacific region.

UNESCO-AHPADA 2005 Seal of Excellence for Handicraft Products in Southeast Asia: The Seal programme serves as a quality control mechanism and marketing device for the promotion of craft products which meet rigorous standards of excellence.

Asian Academy For Heritage Management provides opportunities for universities across Asia and the Pacific to share teaching programmes and students studying heritage management and building conservation.

The emerging Hoi An Protocols, which are aimed at providing a core set of heritage management principles for professional heritage work across Asia extend the principles of the Venice Charter into the concepts of authenticity, intangible heritage and cultural landscapes.

China Principles: The Australian Heritage Commission, together with the Getty Conservation Institute, worked closely with the Chinese government to produce a set of heritage management and building conservation principles of relevance to the Chinese situation.

 

The cultural identity of individual communities, and its manifestation as tangible and intangible cultural heritage, is increasingly being seen as a major factor that can enable them to withstand and respond to the power of globalised market forces. Cultural identity enhances the capacity of human beings, whether individually or in groups, to recognise and manage their environment. Culture positively enables individuals to establish, maintain and extend their social relations (social capital) just as much as their ability to manage their economic and physical environment.

Capitalising on their cultural distinctiveness presents individual communities throughout the world with a significant opportunity to reduce poverty and provide a sustainable future by drawing down some of the direct economic benefits from tourism expenditure. A key part of this process is the presentation and interpretation of their cultural heritage.

 

Despite the focus of many national and regional government tourism departments on capturing ever-increasing numbers of visitors, there is an emerging school of thought that promotes the opposite point of view. Government tourism policy should as its first priority increase the benefits flowing to local communities. Governments need to recognise that their primary role is to protect and conserve the natural and cultural heritage resources and contemporary attractions upon which the tourism industry operates. Without a long term sustainability of these resources, both the local community and the tourism industry will suffer.

The drive to ensure that local communities benefit from tourism activities was greatly enhanced by the recently developed Lijiang Models for Cooperation among Local Stakeholders in Tourism Projects. This project was an initiative of the Unesco Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific and the Nordic World Heritage Office. This project examined the interaction between tourism and the local community in ten world heritage listed towns and cities across the Asia Pacific region. It produced case studies of each town and from the combined findings of the research, developed ‘models’ to enable local communities to benefit from employment, education and local investment, by establishing productive relationships with the tourism industry.

The tourism industry, through its peak body, the World Tourism Organisation in Madrid, has recognised the negative impacts that arise from excessive tourism pressure on heritage sites. Their recently published Guidebook for Tourism Congestion Management at Natural and Cultural Sites stresses the need for strong and cooperative action by both the tourism industry and those who manage destinations and sites. WTO also publishes a range of advisory booklets on planning for sustainable tourism.

 

The first book in the Unesco Impact series, Tourism and Heritage Site Management in the World Heritage Town of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, examines the positive and negative impacts of tourism in Luang Prabang and suggests a strategy for sustainably managing tourism in this world heritage town. (For further information about the Impact series, visit: http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/impact).

The Icomos International Cultural Tourism Charter encourages communities to explore their special cultural and cultural heritage features and then present these to visitors. Since tourism is one of the foremost vehicles of cultural exchange, visitors can experience and understand the host community’s heritage and culture first hand. It also encourages the conservation industry to ensure that tourism and visitor programmes are an integral part of any major conservation project.

Traditionally, heritage site managers and conservators of many historic places were not motivated to present their work to visitors, preferring to rate conservation activities as far more important than the visitor experience. The Charter has been responsible for a radical shift in thinking in this regard. Its international standing encourages site managers and other custodians to refocus their work and include strong programmes of public involvement.

The Charter is one of the first international documents to encourage a productive and responsible relationship between the tourism industry and those who conserve the world’s cultures and cultural heritage. By promulgating its six principles, the Charter provides an opportunity for international best practice benchmarking. Heritage sites, museums, and historic places across the world can assess their management and interpretation practices against a common set of criteria, irrespective of the nature of their site or the scale and complexity of their tourism experience. With a consistent set of evaluation principles, managers can compare their performance with others, progressively building a stronger programme for managing the interaction between heritage values and the visitor.

 

Current tourism promotion for India is based around the ‘Incredible India’ theme. This promotes a number of key aspects of India’s tourism attractions:

* The spectacular historic monuments including the Taj Mahal, historic forts and towns and a number of major world heritage sites.

* Lifestyle tourism based around spas and yoga, often including luxury hotels and resorts.

* The Colours of India, from the wonderful textiles of Rajasthan to the exotic face masks of Kerala.

This promotional campaign seeks to condense tourism in India into a single image of exotic colour and lifestyle. There is little emphasis on the broader history, cultural heritage, living culture and enormous diversity of India. This is a weakness in that it seems to be targeted at a limited audience and offers only a limited range of experiences.

 

Based on the above analysis, the following recommendations are suggested for tourism policy development by the Government of India, as part of a review of the enormous potential contribution by tourism to the nation and the economies of its many domestic communities.

* Respect and promote cultural diversity across the nation.

* Promote cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible as tourism assets.

* Present the richness and complexity of the country and its myriad communities and heritage characteristics.

* Identify and develop a wider range of primary sites to take the pressure off the major attractions such as the Taj Mahal. Recognise the broad range of places that INTACH describes as ‘unprotected’, being the sites not actively managed by ASI.

* Encourage ASI to proactively embrace tourism on their archaeological sites, as part of their overall conservation strategies.

* Engage the local communities in the identification of their culture and cultural heritage assets that might be developed as tourism assets.

* Focus more closely on capturing the economic benefits from tourism for local communities and economies.

* Encourage a paradigm shift in state and regional tourism policy formulation whereby the tourism departments work to strengthen and conserve tourism assets, rather than constantly trying to boost visitor numbers in an open ended manner.

* Encourage the tourism industry, local authorities (at destinations) and site managers to embrace policies contained in the WTO Guidebook for Tourism Congestion Management at Natural and Cultural Site (2005).

* Embrace the Unesco Bangkok Lijiang Models for Cooperation among Local Stakeholders in Tourism Projects as a working methodology.