Don’t ape the West, say eco warriors

Delegates at the ASEAN Tourism Forum conference in Cambodia last week were urged to celebrate and protect the diversity of ASEAN cultures rather than pursue the sameness of western cities and destinations.

Assoc. Prof Bill Carter of the University of Sunshine Coast Australia warned of the risk of producing tourism destinations in the same mould, thereby reducing the diversity and richness of culture and experiences that ASEAN countries have to offer.

“Health standards, quality related to service levels and transport and good presentation are important and should be developed.

“But celebrate your unique architecture, music, cuisine and way of life – that is what international tourists will value – and pay a premium to experience,” said Carter.

Another keynote speaker, Queensland-based archaeologist Gordon Grimwade said his key message for ASEAN countries was for heritage site managers to ensure that they have good visitor management processes.

“It is vital that important heritage sites are properly managed and not visited to death.”

He said training and skill development for guides was a vital element, not only to improve the quality of presentations for tourists but in order to protect the heritage assets.

“Guides play an important role in informing visitors of the ways they can minimise their impacts and how they can support conservation efforts.”

Adjunct Professor Steve Noakes, representing the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), told delegates of the importance of professional standards across all aspects of tourism management.

He said that the rapid growth of tourism in the ASEAN region created an urgent need for countries to move ahead with certification systems that build quality levels.


“Many ASEAN countries have expressed support for certification schemes, many have good policies on certification, but largely there is a lack of action on implementing schemes on the ground.” 


Noakes praised the efforts of Thailand with its Green Leaf program. He also praised Cambodia for signing a Memorandum of Understanding that will see the minimum standards of the GSTC applied across an industry certification programme.

He said Laos would probably be the most manageable candidate for the development of a certification programme in the immediate future given its commitment to ecotourism, work to date on product development and its commitment to quality systems.

Dr Lee Choon Loong CEO of Discovery MICE, outlined the significant social environmental and business benefits of pursuing ecotourism.

Dr Lee underlined the fact that the diversity of ASEAN culture and environments provided a great competitive advantage to the region.

But he warned that there was much to be done to achieve co-ordination across stakeholders, portfolios and governments.

Dr Lee outlined the principles of ecotourism – based on work that has been done over the past 20 years across the globe, underlining the need to keep emerging destinations informed of ecotourism principles and practices.

Thanks go to Tony Charters and Associates Tourforce for this report. Go to http://tonycharters.com/TourforceEd37.html