Successful tourist destinations need to protect local interests

Life beyond tourism. The phrase is not only catchy, but creates a platform for discussing serious matters in the heritage world.

The  portal, though developed by a non-governmental organisation, has been embraced by many players in the heritage industry in efforts to deal with emerging issues.

Institutions such as the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) have not only embraced the concept, but have also found ways to utilise it for heritage management.

The concept encourages regions or nations that interact heavily with tourism to have a stronger "cultural personality" than that of the developments brought about by the nation's interaction with the tourism industry.

Life beyond tourism has many facets. One is that the tourist becomes a channel through which cultural knowledge, both tangible and interminable, are moved around the world.

Here we're not looking at the tourist purely for the value of his or her dollar, but also their "weightless value", or the value of the tourist beyond their commercial inputs.

This interaction, although often quite short, can have many positive or negative impacts long after the dollar has been spent.

In other words, just as the tourism industry is quick to point out the 'development value' of investors, it should always be weighed against cultural value.

PROUD CREATORS AND CUSTODIANS

In other words, are drug traffickers, paedophiles and traffickers of ideas that are way beyond what our cultures place value on worthy of us, even if their pockets are weighed down by silver and gold?

The concept also wishes to address the cultural disruptions caused by tourism. For example, the city of Florence in Italy, a historic town that is similar to yet so different from our own Lamu Old Town, was concerned that once a place becomes a tourist area, locals could no longer afford even a cup of tea in that neighbourhood.

Yet they are the proud creators and custodians of the tourist products that bring people from all over the world to their backyard.

The city of Florence is walking its talk. I was surprised to happen upon a McDonald's and a Burger King in the town. In many other cities, the fast-food chains' signboards and bold colours call you from a mile off, but not so in Florence. Their signage is as big or as small as that of "Mama Ceasars" kiosk.

The other facet that is loud, yet subtle, is that government is very much at the heart of so-called "illicit traffic" of weightless value and it is criminal not to realise this in order to protect Wanjiku.

ACCEPT AND CELEBRATE PEOPLE

Just because McDonald's can pay the megabucks in advertising (and I have no objections to such chains — to each man or woman their poison) does not mean the city government should award them an entire street.

Rather, the space available should be shared equally between the heavyweights and the small and medium enterprises.

"Beyond tourism" also encourages sharing and experiencing the identities of communities through tourism. I guess this is the much-touted "home-stay" concept in Vision 2030's tourism pillar.

This goes beyond logistics and deals with the idea of accepting and celebrating people as they are.

The best example would be what the Kenyan musician Allan Aron did. He was not about to change to be accepted in the music industry, but he changed the industry to accept him.

In other words, let tourism grow on our own and not the tourists' cultural terms.

Twitter: @muthonithangwa