This Tourism Week. Sunday, 25 August, 2002. Knysna.

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This Tourism Week. Sunday, 25 August, 2002. Knysna.

 

The World Summit on Sustainable Development

So the Great Day is here, and this evening the politicians of the world will pat themselves on the back in that orgy of self-aggrandisement that we call an ‘opening ceremony.’ The World Summit on Sustainable Development will be on its way.

It’s going to be interesting to see what, if anything, it achieves, and how its outcomes will affect our industry. Because the gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening, and it’s affecting Tourism here in the Southern Cape.

            I worry about this ‘sustainable’ thing. Any fool knows, well… any fool except George Bush, who chooses to fiddle about at his Texas ranch rather than attend the Summit … any fool knows that the world’s resources are finite, that there is only so much water, so much air and so much land, and that we’re using them up at an unconscionable rate. To speak about a sustainable tourism industry is to lose sight of the fact that we do not have a sustainable – read ‘renewable’ – source of energy to fuel the fleets of cars, buses, trains and planes that are required to move the traveling masses around the globe (actually, it’s my belief that we do have just such a resource – in the hemp plant – but that it’s demonisation is perpetuated by the George Bushes of this world whose aim is to protect the oil industry – the one industry that’s doing the most damage. My view and not a popular one because of the ‘other’ uses of hemp, but there you are. Let’s rather kill the entire world than see a single person smoke himself into oblivion).

Sorry, I digress. We were talking about tourism.

We’re in a unique situation in this country, where tourism has reaped the Apartheid dividend and we now find ourselves playing by world rules. Basically, what we have is a first world tourism industry in a third world country, and many of us are trying to marry the two through a thing we call ‘community development’ (which is itself a problematic term because it places poorer black and coloured people in ‘communities.’ What – aren’t white people part of  the community?).

            We know that successful marketing rests on delivering an experience beyond what the guest expects, and we, as tourism professionals, know how to deliver. Partly, I believe, because of our training, but largely, I’m sure, because we ourselves are experienced tourists. So we know, instinctively, what to do and how to do it.

But for the vast majority of our countrymen, travel is a difficult and expensive necessity, a way of moving between our places of work – where we live for much of our time – and our traditional homes. Under the old regime it was the migrant labour system and, call it what you will, it’s with us still today.

On the face of it, why should these reluctant travelers embrace our industry, where travel is often a luxury and undertaken for pleasure? What possible benefit can it have for them?

You and I know that tourism’s payback stretches way beyond the confines of what we do (so much so that the travel and tourism economy is three times bigger than the industry). But I suspect we’re alone in this because even apparently educated people don’t seem to concede that they’re affected by tourism. I recently talked to my stationer who surprised me by the depth of his disdain for tourists. Notwithstanding the postcards he offers for sale (which are bought by whom?), this poor man made it quite clear that, to him, tourists are nothing more than bothersome hoards who get in his way when he needs parking or when he goes into our local shopping malls.

Funny thing, though. Most of my clients – all of whom make their money from tourists – buy from this same stationer.

And he don’t need tourism?

And I’ve recently written about the taxi owner whose main (only?) contract requires him to ferry staff to and from work at a large local hotel, but who belligerently told the chief of his local tourism bureau that he ‘doesn’t benefit from tourism.’

He doesn’t benefit from tourism?

            D’you see the pattern here? Let me suggest it, then: whilst we’re doing a fine job of marketing our individual establishments, none of us is doing enough to market tourism. And the results could be disastrous. Because the human being is strange animal, far quicker to condemn and even to destroy what we don’t know rather than try to understand it.

Which is why it’s encumbent upon the politicians of the world to get together at the Summit to discuss how we can put a limit to the destruction of our planet – many much of whose workings are still a mystery to us; and why it’s encumbent upon the tourism industry to throw its weight behind ‘community development’ (yes, I do have a problem with the term, but let’s stick to it because we both understand what it means).

We have to stop being modest about it and start educating the uninitiated about how what we do positively affects their lives.

As I see it, this will have a two-fold benefit. If we’re successful, our environment will become more tourist friendly, which will have the knock-on effect of attracting more visitors and increasing our bottom lines. And it will open the eyes of the previously neglected to opportunities that can be exploited to create businesses – and therefore wealth – for themselves (I hope I’m right in this, because if I hear talk of one more ‘cultural village’ I think I’ll puke. When you as a Christian travel to Israel, you don’t check out the Jews or Muslims in ‘cultural villages,’ do you? No. You wouldn’t dream of it. You may visit a museum, synagogue or mosque, but you don’t stand and gawk at individual people as they go about their daily lives. So why are you so keen to support the idea here at home?).

Of course, there’s another significant thing here: only once black and coloured people start to enter the tourism mainstream from this angle, from the point of view of their potential ownership of the industry, can transformation, which is the precursor to sustainability because it implies inclusivity, really succeed.

And, with the emergence of a black and coloured middle class in this country, transformation is the secret to unlocking a new domestic market.

Itself an important item on the agenda, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Conference on Responsible Tourism

I’m really sorry that I was unable to attend this weeks’ Conference on Responsible Tourism, which was timed to coincide with the lead up to the Summit. I wonder, then, if any of my readers who were fortunate enough to attend might like to provide us with a report on the proceedings – from a personal point of view, of course?

No financial reward, you understand. But some things in life offer rewards beyond what mere money can buy.

“In a democracy, the individual enjoys not only the ultimate power but carries the ultimate responsibility.”  Norman Cousins, editor, humanitarian and author

… Have a Great Tourism Week!

 

MARTIN HATCHUEL – BarefootWriter

 

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