Mr. Chairman, the Deputy Secretary-General of WTO, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It is with considerable pleasure that I welcome you to the Republic of Maldives. We are most pleased to have you with us and entertain every hope that your time here will be both enjoyable and of benefit, not only to yourselves but to the industry you represent.
Speaking just three years ago on the island of Bandos to those of your colleagues who attended the 10th meeting of the WTO Commission for South Asia, I made reference to some of the challenges facing an industry which now assumes a very important and influential role in the economic and social life of many countries. Since that occasion much progress has been achieved, due principally to the high degree of professional commitment of those engaged in tourism.
It is true, however, that the greater majority of the challenges which I mentioned in November of 1980 remain and continue to confront us. Perhaps the most serious of such challenges is the continuing international economic climate, which has in so many instances been responsible for a reduction in the number of people able to travel beyond the shores and frontiers of their native lands. Indeed, few countries have been immune from the adverse effects of world recession, a fact which has prompted many to realize the precarious nature of the tourist industry; that it is a profession and an industry most vulnerable to the financial condition of others, a reality which, again, demonstrates the fragility of an industry which in many countries makes a major contribution to foreign exchange earnings.
While there are few countries that are immune in a world, and at a time when the concept of interdependence is becoming universally understood and appreciated, from the effects of social and political developments in other lands, it is particularly frustrating that even when stability is maintained at home and the attractions any given nation has to offer are of a particular quality and uniqueness, events far removed can inhibit the success of such national assets being marketed as a tourist destination. This is even more unfortunate in countries which rely, perhaps to an uncomfortable degree, on tourism for their national revenue.
Such realities emphasize the vital need for close and practical co-operation to exist between a government and those engaged in the promotion and marketing of a country as a tourist destination. Indeed, it is quite essential that there is a willingness to understand the problems and imperatives of each other; for it is only when such co-operation exists that the mutual objectives of a successful industry will be achieved. If the success of the industry is to be assured, there is an equally vital need for it to develop and progress in a manner that is both compatible and in sympathy with the culture, ethics and principles of the people who are to be hosts to visitors from other lands with sharply different backgrounds and cultures.
It is an aspect of the industry in which you are actively engaged that prompts constant and energetic debate; that there exists a wide appreciation of the pivotal need to preserve the very attraction and uniqueness of the country concerned. It is a matter as fundamentally important as maintaining the environment, that natural quality of life which so many travel thousands of miles to experience and enjoy. For if the tourist’s opportunity to experience a ‘communion with nature’ is impaired, then so is the viability of the tourist industry in that country. And as it is with the environment, so it is with any given culture. In the spirit and the mutual purpose of obtaining that degree of co-operation and trust to which I have referred, I do commend to you the endeavour so many of you are making that of taking into active and consistent account the sensitivities of the indigenous people in the many countries which you so expertly promote in the international marketplace of tourism.
I have noted with particular appreciation that this aspect of your profession is one that you are to discuss during the course of this seminar. Your stated objective to “examine the roles of states, national tourism administration and tour operators in the development and promotion of markets” is one I applaud. For if the mutually advantageous objective of an expansion in the industry is to be achieved, then it is of essential importance that on such a journey, governments and tourist operators share not only the same route but a close identity of purpose and expectation as well.
Speaking to your colleagues in 1980, I used the phrase “unity within diversity”. I am well aware that it is the diversity of people that is so often an attraction to those from differing backgrounds, that it is not only the pursuit of sunlit beaches but also to acquire a knowledge and an understanding of other cultures that set many on the tourist path. It was in such a context that I spoke of “unity within diversity” because to witness, albeit as a transient visitor, is more often than not, to understand; and through such understanding can humanity achieve a greater unity. In such a sense tourism can play a fundamental role in the promotion of human relations far beyond the important but often mundane objective of earning the elusive foreign exchange.
Tourism can indeed be a passport to peace, but this depends so very much on the industry not being seen by the people of the host country, whoever and wherever they may be, as the harbingers of an aggressive intrusion into their culture and way of life. While I am aware that such concern is held by many, particularly in small states where a distortion of traditional values can so often take place through the necessary demands of the tourist industry, please forgive me if I speak from a Maldivian perspective. We are a people who take a quiet pride in our history and our culture; our history is one which influences our contemporary expectations, a matter which few can fail to understand when I remark that we are a nation and a people who, apart from a brief period of fifteen years in the 16th century, have maintained our sovereign independence and with it our way of life. And that way of life, Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Delegates, is one founded and nurtured by the principles and spiritual values of the Islamic faith. Islam has served as a bastion and indeed as a spiritual armour against foreign encroachment; in a confused and troubled world, when in so many instances things fall apart, our unity and therefore our stability in the Maldives remains allied to our national faith. I am sure, and to crave your indulgence, that this is a national reality which all can appreciate, that we are, as a government and as a people, most anxious that that which has served us so well in the past is not impaired by an industry which we welcome into the national scheme of things and indeed give it support as an important means of achieving economic development.
I have spoken today about a vital need of the government and the tourist industry working together in close alliance. I have referred also to the equally essential need for a peoples’ culture and principles to be respected. Both aspects serve a mutual advantage, for without co-operation and trust based on a true understanding of the issues and problems involved, both the industry and the government will ultimately suffer. I have every confidence that these matters will command your attention and that what I have had to say will be recognized as a constructive observation on the self-evident truth of mutuality.
Mr. Chairman, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen:
It seems particularly appropriate that in an island state a phrase is recalled which, in a troubled world, is as relevant and true as it ever was, “No man is an island entire of himself”. The industry that has brought you in assembly here today needs the product to market, and the product to be marketed need the professional skills you so ably exercise in the service of national development. In short, we need one another. It is a simple and an evident truth and one from which we can all take inspiration and encouragement for the future. Let us go forward together to that future in mutual trust and mutual confidence.