TALES OF TOURISM FROM KOVALAM

By T.G. Jacob

Odyssey, 1998

Pb; pp. 160; Rs. 150

ISBN 81-900615-1-8

The tourism model of development is projected as the latest panacea for employment generation and poverty alleviation, environmental regeneration, preservation of ancient monuments, greater national integration and cohesion, and advancement of women and other disadvantaged groups. The Central and State governments are gearing themselves up to realise the as yet largely untapped potential of this third largest foreign exchange earner for the country. On the agenda are plans for the development of all manners of tourism – ranging from health, pilgrim and adventure tourism to heritage tourism, ecotourism, village tourism and so on. It is an ever elongating list of images and packages being offered by the Indian branch of this multibillion global leisure industry. The budgetary allocation for this sector has been increased by a record 60 per cent, and the industry has recently been accorded export status, allowing heavy revenue concessions along with a 100 per cent tax exemption for tour and travel agencies.

 Against this governmental strategy there have been in recent years many warning voices and a great deal of local level resistance pointing out the damage that has been wreaked on the local economy, environment and culture in developed tourist enclaves. Whether it is the coasts of Goa, Orissa or Keralam; Jammu and Kashmir; or other countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand in South and East Asia, the stories that emerge have a similar pattern. They tell of increasing land alienation, the snatching away of the livelihood of fisherfolk, deforestation, destruction of good agricultural and orchard lands, deterioration of traditional pasturelands, inadequate sewage disposal and accumulation of garbage by greedy hoteliers. Side by side there is the proliferation of drug, liquor and sex trades, the latter including child prostitution, and an allied presence of a criminal underworld.  

“Tales of Tourism from Kovalam,” a recent release of Odyssey, an alternative publisher, adds another significant testimony to the growing body of literature about the adverse impacts of tourism development, “which currently occupies the top position in world trade and services and forms an integral part of the global liberalisation process and structural adjustment plans in the neo-colonial world (p. 11).  This gripping reportage about the tragic fate of Kovalam, a beach resort in Keralam, is a result of the author’s living for a year-and-a-half among the local people there, and also visiting other tourist locales in the State.  

It was thirty odd years ago that Kovalam got launched on its growth trajectory as a tourist enclave, being “discovered” as a beautiful yet cheap haven by hippies straggling in from Goa. Today, it is a full blown tourist resort, with regular biweekly incoming international chartered flights during the season from October to March, and a daily crush of domestic tourists descending on its beaches almost all the year round.  

Till the 1960s, as the author describes it, Kovalam village had a coconut based economy, with fishing as a subsidiary activity. The scope for developing coconut based small scale industries of both household and factory varieties was very much there, and the village society on its own was gradually evolving towards a value adding production base, trader capitalists had already emerged; and Kovalam was catering to the coir demands of the neighbouring heavy fishing village of Vizhinjam, as well as Kollam and Alappuzha further afield. With its evolution into a tourist enclave a large number of trees have been cut down; cultivation is no longer done in a systematic way, severely affecting coconut production and related occupations.

Uprooting the coconut trees means uprooting a culture which had self-reliance as the cornerstone, and replacing it by slavishness, a parasitic culture of making easy money without productive labour, which is the essence of touristic culture.” (p. 44). 

This is the opinion of the author, and he goes on to elucidate the various ramifications of a tourism- based economy and culture, giving the earlier social and literary history of the place as a backgrounder. According to him, new class relations and points of tension have emerged: on the one hand, there is the new rich tourism bourgeoisie, and on the other an increasingly impoverished majority of the local people. With the decline of traditional economic activities and increasing land alienation by the hotel and resort proprietors, who are mainly outsiders, the local people find employment only as lowly paid construction workers, sweepers, gardeners, launderers, room boys, shack restaurant owners and workers, auto rickshaw and taxi drivers and such like. With the rise of chartered tourism small businesses are the losers. The related construction boom has given an impetus to stone quarrying in the area, which, topographically, is largely tough rock. This sector employs as its core workforce women and children to break the granite into small pieces and, of course, wages are on sub-human levels. The contrast between the opulent and wasteful lifestyles of affluent tourists and the living conditions of women and children sitting by the roadsides breaking granite is heartbreaking and thought provoking. 

Other signs of decay are described in vivid detail in the book, giving case histories of individuals involved. Drug and sex trades along with foreign exchange racketeering are organised by crime syndicates having political backing. Growing hard drug addiction among the youth, high incidence of alcoholism, spread of STDs including AIDS, are the fallout. Petty thievery and land disputes, even within families, vitiate the atmosphere. Hitherto unknown, communal feelings against Kashmiri Muslim traders are being instigated by the RSS. The destruction of a people is accompanied by environmental degradation, and the once lovely beaches and rocky islands are increasingly despoiled and ravaged. 

The forex generated in the State through the tourism industry and Gulf remittances are siphoned out to the Centre. The Central government and big businesses are in ever increasing need of foreign exchange to service debts and finance imports. However, due to the structure of the tourism industry, which is dominated by global aircraft companies, multinational tour operators, hotel chains, beverage companies and financial institutions, very little of the foreign exchange earned remains in the country. The major share gets drained out through profit repatriation and management fees etc.  Giving the industry an export status will exacerbate the trend of outflow because of increased imports of special equipment, beverages and many other items specifically for this industry, especially for its luxury segment.

 “Keralam, with its scenic assets, climatic advantages, cheap narcotics, relatively literate population, and political stability is regarded as an ideal region for sale to the tourists, multinational tour operators and hotel chains,” says the author (p. 137). The State government merely facilitates the outflow. Within the State only a few traders, politicians, bureaucrats and builders gain. The common people groan and “belch with hunger” under inflation and price rise.

 By means of a sharply dissecting micro-analysis, the demise of a stunningly beautiful place is recorded, all the facets of which, of course, cannot be covered or gone into critically in this brief review. It helps put to lie governmental propaganda claiming all-round prosperity through tourism development. However, what one finds missing is a sound criticism of various “alternative” tourism modes currently being pushed, like ecotourism which is the fastest growing sector in the tourism industry. More detailed descriptions of various anti-tourism struggles in different parts of the country would also have been of value. 

The North-East, the Andamans and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and many more as yet fairly unspoilt and “undeveloped” areas all over the country are being targeted for a tourism offensive. It is in the self-interest of the inhabitants of these areas, who are largely fisherfolk, tribal and indigenous peoples, to heed such negative experiences and realise that the tourism model of development is floated by and represents state and corporate interests. By commercialising travel into the capsule form of package tours the industry restricts and controls cross-border movements of people along channels which mainly benefit international tourism conglomerates, the Indian Central government and big businesses.     

Instead of clamouring for a tourism model of development, as is often the case, the people of these areas would benefit far more from chalking out and experimenting with less harmful and more self-reliant modes of development. And perhaps travel in a form which is genuinely beneficial to host and guest, which broadens horizons, is a learning process and advances understanding about other cultures and ways of life, will come into its own again, untrammelled and untainted by commercial, racist, voyeuristic, exploitative values, and help forge links of solidarity among different peoples. Perhaps then only guests can again be worshipped like the gods, instead of being driven out like the very devils.

 [Published in Madhyamam in Malayalam translation, June 25, 1999, and in an abbreviated version in Deccan Herald, 21 March, 1999]