Financial Times

Eight Ways to Prevail: A recipe for tourism

By Random Access Memory (RAM)
RAM could not help but be enthralled by a recent discourse made by Phillipe Bourguignon, the former head of the famous French tourist resort chain Club Med and the current Chairman of Aegis Media France.

His presentation was titled 'Eight ways to prevail' and his audience: top tourism leaders of the world, seeking directions on what the new lifestyle and human development trends of the future would be.

For us Sri Lankans, who place major emphasis on tourism for our way forward for the country, badly needing the foreign exchange it can bring, what he says, could bring a sigh of relief. The canvass of the future he paints is a tailor made picture of the immense value Sri Lanka could offer with her manifold resources, some would call are under developed. The future potential and value, he predicts will be for destinations that are able to provide travellers an opportunity to experience the pristine quality of the natural environment, and interact with people who take pride in their culture and hold closely on to their value systems and ethos. This, he calls the realising of the 'Spirit of Travel'.

We in Sri Lanka had over 20 years of a virtual 'standing still' of our economy. Our natural areas are still in pristine condition relative to many other countries of the world. Our villages to an extent have semblances of their rural identity compared to other countries that have gone the way of modernisation in rapid strides. Except for those among the Colombo elite, that believe that the way forward for Sri Lanka is to become another city built after a Singapore type model, most others have a concern for regaining the country's lost values and take pride in what we are and who we are. For there is a trend of tribalisation amidst the dominance of globalisation, that unfolds around us.

We indeed have lessons to learn from many and we do not want to be a zoo like tourist destination of mass resorts, casinos and racecourses, exchanging our souls to visitors for money. But the foreign exchange we can earn with dignity from a right modality of tourism will certainly be of a better moral positioning, than what we earn through the virtual slave like trade of sending our mothers and sisters to various countries to work as untrained housemaids or domestic workers.

In looking at the demand for travel, Bourguignon says that, "yesterday's holidays meant conviviality, kindliness, a festive spirit, a chance of scene.

The holiday's of tomorrow will mean discovering oneself and other people, bodily communication charged with emotion, doing things together, giving and receiving, taking part in things.

Yesterday's culture was based on beautiful sites and excellent hotels. Tomorrow's culture will be based on cultural hybridisation, aesthetic and moral discoveries, rediscovering simplicity". He adds that the travellers of the future will be more independent even when they travel in groups, seeking mental recuperation, saying 'No' to too much perfection, exaggerated excellence and will not have a constant desire to seek still more. They will seek meaning and substance rather than glamour or glitter, seeking a consumerism of knowledge, accompanied by an intellectual and cultural wanderlust. The 'Land of opportunity' he states will be companies (destinations) that will reconcile complexity with simplicity, large enough to be competitive but small enough to be beautiful. Travel experiences with meaningful interactions with people and a personal touch in its organisation, is what's on call.

The recommended eight ways to prevail are to: 1. Provide good value (value for money) 2. Provide enduring value (integrity and social responsibility) 3. Have respect for the environment (natural, socio-cultural) 4. Build brands backed by strong core values 5. Build destinations with a 'new' image 6. Respond to the new 'spirit of travel' demand

7. Respond to the new ways of people's thinking about their leisure and 8. Enhance their in-situ experience by making travel organisation easier, through the use of information technology.

It is reported that some hotels in Sri Lanka are building models of villages inside hotels while the fences with the villages, both physical and mental, remain. We certainly do not need hotels and resorts in villages. What we need is a sensitive, responsible, honest and mutually beneficial integration with people to gain the most from the new up market 'spirit of travel’s’ demand of the future.

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