Connection Of Tourism
Kamala Sarup
Violence and terrorism always hurts the tourism business, causing a great decline in the industry. The tourism industry should invite all interested business groups to the table and seek their advice on how best to develop new tourism products within the country. A strong emphasis should be given on promoting tourism.
Recently, journalist I K Pradhan said the following about the challenges of today's tourism industry.
“What is essential today, is concentration of management efforts to make the tourism system operate in total rather than directing the individuals’ attention to promote conflict of ideas and policies. Concerned governmental agencies have to recognize the pivotal role of private sector and help them in the planning of commercial services and facilities in the vicinity of parks and their large land holdings, with the active cooperation of local bodies. Much new research or new methodology is not required to inter-link commercial activities."
"It is only a new collaborative partnership. When the travel trade operators are concerned with directing their attention more towards the better service to guests, the result is better planning and development. Public and private enterprise on being allowed to develop rare resources like the lake sites in the mountain areas, river-beaches in the low lands or jungle safari camps in forest premises, they must at the same time be made to realize the importance of these national assets and their protection through institutionalized state control."
"For instance, in any of our water front areas, instead of congested use of every available space, adequate wedges of development must be kept free for natural scenery, vistas around and access, absolutely essential to all our areas of water resources. Collaborative efforts are needed to carry out more extensive and deeper market research programs, not only to identify the list of activities, but also to tap interest groups. There is every possibility that the individuals who desire scenery, as available in our natural parks and recreational centers, also prefer musical entertainment, cultural programs, food festivals etc. "
"Planned clustering of tourist service development becomes necessary to cater to the special interest guests. Good inter-connection of transportation modes is expected to help the visitors to obtain correct and complete information on means of access, no matter where one is going to! "
Pradhan further argued “Environmental consideration is one of the key factors in effective management and development of tourism. With the advancement of urbanization and modernization of infrastructures, the quality of environment assumed much more crucial position in the overall functioning of the tourism system."
"With the uncontrolled, wanton exploitation of green vegetation areas and reckless deforestation, race for commercialization, due cultural and social erosion factors, the environmental issue has become a matter of paramount importance. This is apparent vis-à-vis the tragic decline of tourist inflow and tourism economy of Nepal, to a great extent because of severe setback in social environment with disturbance of peace, security as well as instability in political environment also."
"There has been multiple adverse impact. Yet efforts have to be continued to whatever extent possible to maintain tourism’s sustainable development, as this sector has always been strong bedrock to support the national economy significantly. Development and promotion of tourism are directly related with the level of environmental quality. This implies primarily in relation to the natural as well as physical environment of our internal destinations. Combat against menacing pollution does not end only with a short-term program. The concerned governmental agency cannot afford to rest on its oars, by simply declaring policies."
"At the national level, it is necessary to create a permanent pool of our own national expertise and professional resource persons and utilize their valuable experiences in various spheres of tourism management," he concluded.
What is tourism and development than? Simply put, tourism and development is gain and maintenance of the same. To acquire development is one thing; to hold onto it is quite another. The wise stewards of tourism development are the longest-lived - tourism and development carries responsibilities.
In the West, there is a long understanding of tourism development in Europe. For the past several years we have been independently researching tourism development as a current worldwide development. It has been most instructive. We have been following and affected by tourism development since the mid-sixties, led by a very capable tourist operater for those times.
Journalist and Story Writer Kamala Sarup associates and writes for http://www.mediaforfreedom.com/. She is specializes in in-depth reporting and writing on peace, anti-war, women, terrorism, democracy, and development. Some of her publications are: Women's Empowerment in South Asia, Nepal (booklets); Prevention of Trafficking in Women Through Media, (book); Efforts to Prevent Trafficking in for Media Activism (media research). She has also written two collections of stories. Sarup's interests include international conflict resolution, cross-cultural communication, philosophy, feminism, political, socio-economic and literature. Her current plans are to move on to humanitarian work in conflict areas in the near future. She also is experienced in organizational and community development. A meeting of jury members held on March 21, 2007 in Geneva decided to honor Sarup, with an Honorable Mention International Award for reporting on women's issues. http://www.mediaforfreedom.com/
