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Photo:Vipin Chandran

People friendly Votaries of responsible tourism. Anna Spenceley

For the ecosystem to be in some sort of order globally, responsible behaviour is warranted from all sections of society. In the ongoing second International Conference on Responsible Tourism in Destinations, at Le Meridien in the city, hot discussions are on to find ways to take tourism forward without killing the golden goose, and ways to make the community be part of it all.

As Dr. Anna Spenceley encapsulates the entire concept of sustainable tourism into its three constituent parts – environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and socio-political sustainability – it sounds as if responsible tourism is not such an impossible dream after all. And the best part of it all is that it puts people first.

As part of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism, South Africa she explicates how the concept works.

“At the Kruger National Park for instance before allocation of land and other permissions tenders were called from the private sector operators to see what they would do to help in the development of population in and around the park. The tenders that had conditions that would benefit the local community were selected,” she says. Binding the companies contractually with what they promised to do for the benefit of the local community was more effective than imposing conditions, she adds.

In South Africa, for instance, as part of the guidelines for responsible tourism, a range of opportunities for the local community has been identified. These include small guest houses (within the local community), restaurants with local cuisine, through community tour guiding, entertainment (music, dance etc), arts and crafts, traditional hunting and medicine to laundry, gardening and speciality agriculture. “By promoting local industry – say the sale of locally made goods – what happens is that the money goes right back,” she says.

Claire Howse, foreign delegates

Claire Howse, Sustainability director, of a company called CCAfrica which has done much in this field is here to share her experiences.

She tells the story of the Phinda Game Reserve, which has won several global eco awards, how 17,000 hectares in Phinda, South Africa, partly farmland, was reclaimed as a game reserve, involving the community there. Phinda now flourishes as a tourism destination, harbouring the cheetah and the black rhino.

“A project like this can pay for itself. It was a sparsely populated place with some farmland. There was no wildlife there at all. We convinced the local people about the efficacy of the project and turned it into a conservation area. We transported black rhinos, the cheetah and other rare breeds into the place. We have 40 exclusive lodges there. The community has jobs now and in other projects in Africa, the community is our landlord and we merely do conservation and tourism in such places to keep the whole system going. We have the expertise to capture game and transport it to other places. We are trying to do something like that in Madhya Pradesh now. We are doing this with gaur there,” she says. With the snakes, small animals and the bigger ones, in course of time it become a self sustainable animal community, as in any forest. Tourism in such places keep the economics of it all right.

Sarada Muraleedharan, executive director, Kudumbasree

On home turf, responsible tourism on the economic front is carefully developing with the kudumbasree units.

Says Sarada Muralidharan, Executive director, Kudumbasree, “We are trying to procure local stuff with quality from the women under the kudumbasree umbrella for tourism purposes in association with the hotel industry. In Kumarakam we gave the women, 748 of them, technical know how and they are doing so much in the agricultural sector, like supplying banana leaves to the big hotels, making quality souvenirs, and becoming economically independent the while.”

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