Powerful Photographic Exhibition Exposes the Impacts of Tourism on Tsunami-Affected Communities
Thursday, 20 Feb, 2010
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Destination Tsunami Stories and Struggles from India’s Southern Coast opens 23 February – 31 March 2010 at The Guardian Gallery, London
A powerful new exhibition by campaigning group Tourism Concern, Destination Tsunami tells the stories and conveys the hardships endured by Indian survivors of the 2004 tsunami as they now attempt to withstand the multiple pressures of rapid tourism development.
This includes the threat of displacement from their land, environmental degradation, loss of livelihoods and alienation from traditional ways of life. Despite massive flows of aid to the region, many families are still waiting for their tsunami-damaged homes to be rebuilt. Others endure cramped and undignified living conditions, while the funds that were meant to assist them are channeled instead into beachfront beautification schemes for tourists. Says Tourism Concern
Tricia Barnett of Tourism Concern said: “Five years on from the tsunami, many coastal communities in Southern India are still struggling to rebuild their lives. We need to ask where all the aid money donated by the British public went. Can the drive to develop coastlines for tourism in the name of economic growth justify the destruction of so many poor peoples’ lives and the undermining of their basic human rights?”
Says Tourism Concern: “Destination Tsunami also pays tribute to those resisting the developers and government policies that often promote tourism at their expense. It creates a unique space for the voices of Indian fishing and farming communities, activists, displaced families, the old and the young, the dispossessed and the defiant, to be heard by holidaymakers and the tourism industry in the UK.”
“Destination Tsunami poses challenging questions about who is paying the real cost of tourism development. We want this exhibition to raise awareness of the issues faced by local people and to challenge the UK Government and international development agencies of the urgent need to include tourism issues within their remits”, says Barnett.
Valere Tjolle
Valere Tjolle is editor of the 2010 Sustainable Tourism Report Suite details at:www.travelmole.com/stories/1141006.php
Valere
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