'Tourism opens doors for women'

Sri Lanka hosts World Tourism Day Celebrations in Bentota:

by Rosanne Koelmeyer Anderson

Bentota came alive on September 27 as the United Nations World Tourism Day theme 'Tourism opens doors for women' was celebrated in grandeur along Bentota's sandy beach, festooned with traditional ornamental decorations set to greet the special invitees, both local and foreign to this year's host country Sri Lanka, an active member of the UNWTO for the past thirty years.

The importance of women in the tourism sector, improving the role of women in tourism and accentuating the role of women particularly in developing countries, predominantly of women who have played prominent roles in tourism around the world were the key topics of discussion.

The Secretary General of the UNWTO, Francesco Frangialli, Tourism Minister, Milinda Moragoda and Chief Minister of the Southern Province, Shan Wijayalal de Silva were present to welcome the women tourism leaders and achievers who gathered in Sri Lanka to conduct the summit 'Tourism opens doors to women', depicting Sri Lanka's rich culture amidst much pomp and pageantry set in motion for the distinguished invitees.

The echoing sound of eastern drum beats, performances by mask dancers as well as other cultural displays enhanced the evenings entertainment to unfold a line up of splendid entertainment, the cynosure of all eyes.

This was the first time that the UNWTO took up gender issues while the theme 'Tourism opens doors for women' has an inter- relationship with the Millennium Development Goals and gender equality which not only gives a society balance, but strengthens economies and social structures.

The topic of discussion was the need of the hour as statistics show that there are 1.3 billion people living in poverty around the world and 70 per cent of them are women. It is also estimated that women do about 66 per cent of the world's work in return for less than 5 per cent of its income and societies where women are more equal stand a much greater chance of achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

In this context one of the most important characteristics of tourism is its great capacity to create employment for women and youth in particular at a community level in poorer countries, a major potential for responding to the war on poverty.

At the conclusion of the discussions at Bentota ,Chaired by H.E. Nilofar Bakhatiar it was concluded that a UNWTO-UNIFEM annual report on the state of women in tourism be initiated, that this be made an annual forum and to establish a broader biennial worldwide conference, to foster a network of activists, ambassadors and advocates to support the work of the UNWTO Special Advisor on women in tourism and the establishment of a task force to develop a draft programme of activity, to put in place a data collection system including desk research, case studies and alignment with the Tourism Satellite Account where feasible.

This information will expand the website www.tourismgender.com into a portal for gathering and presenting information and serving as a framework campaign aimed at the industry, governments, media and women themselves.

It will also create a global awards scheme, to strongly urge UNWTO and its member states to take affirmative action within their power to actively involve women from all social, economic and cultural spheres into stategy, policy and operational decision making. It will urge UNWTO to emphasise these issues within the framework of its Global Code of Ethics for Tourism.

According to the Global Code of Ethics, tourism is a beneficial activity for host countries and communities in that the local population should be associated with tourism activities and share equitably in the economic,social and cultural benefits they generate and particularly in the creation of direct and indirect jobs resulting from them.

Tourism policies should be applied in such a way as to help raise the standard of living of the populations of the regions visited and meet their needs. The planning and architectural approach to and operation of tourism resorts and accommodation should aim at integrate them, to the extent possible.

In the local economic and social fabric; where skills are equal, priority should be given to local manpower; special attention should be paid to the specific problems of coastal areas and island territories and to vulnerable rural or mountain regions for which tourism often represents a rare opportunity for development in the face of the decline of traditional economic activities.

Tourism professionals, particularly investors, governed by the regulations laid down by the public authorities should carry out studies of the impact of their development projects on the environment and natural surroundings and they should also deliver with the greatest transparency and objectivity 'information of their future programmes their foreseeable repercussions and foster dialogue on their contents with the population concerned.

Renton de Alwis, Chairman of the Tourist Board said Sri Lankan tourism in its endeavour to make the event a success as the host country also presented an innovative tour package to invite women professionals to visit Sri Lanka combining air travel accommodation and tour options which will be valid till end October.

The vision of Sri Lanka is to become a carbon neutral destination. The World Tourism Organisation will back Sri Lanka's claim where the concept of a 'Tourism Earth Lung Destination' was also launched at the second Climate Change and Tourism Conference to be held in Davos, Switerzland.

Sri Lanka Tourism called on the World Tourism Organisation, Secretary General, Francesco Frangialli and the Assistant Secretary General, Prof Geoffrey Lipman at the World Tourism Day Celebrations to endorse and support the idea of promoting a carbon clean Sri Lanka as a 'Tourism Earth Lung Destination' recommending it as a pioneer initiative of Sri Lanka Tourism that will open new dimensions for international tourism.

For this year's celebration the UNWTO also launched a campaign and photo exhibition to increase public awareness of the great opportunities that our sector provides for women.

On October 1 under the new Tourism Act No 38 of 2005 the Sri Lanka Tourist Board was restructured and a Tourism Development Authority was set up while promotional functions will be detached from the Authority under the new entity viz Tourism Promotion Bureau.

Similarly, Human resource development will be entrusted to Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management while the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau hitherto functioned as a guaranteed company has been incorporated as a statutory body.

An oversight committee has been appointed by the Minister of Tourism to monitor the implementation of the new act and the institutional network to identify and rectify operational issues.

The committee is chaired by M.D.D. Peiris, snr. Advisor to Hon. Minister and consists of Secretary/Ministry of Tourism, Addl. Secretary/Ministry of Tourism and several industry leaders.

A set of dynamic institutional infrastructure is now in place to spearhead distinctive tourism functions starting from product development to marketing, human resources development and MICE tourism promotion.

Meanwhile, every effort has been taken to ensure participation of tourism SME sector in the decision making and implementation processes while the Chairman and the Board of Directors have been appointed under the new Tourism Act formulated after 41 years from the first legislation.

It is firmly believed that this administrative reconstructing process will ensure larger participation of the private sector in managing tourism in this country for improved productivity and efficiency, said Renton de Alwis, Chairman of the Tourist Board.

[email protected]