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Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Tourism Build Awareness & Respect

It is typically the most socially and economically marginalized people who are not only excluded from tourism’s benefits, but find themselves pushed into deeper poverty as a result of its arrival. This includes coastal communities in Tamil Nadu, south India, who – lacking official land title deeds - were prevented from returning to live beside the sea following the 2004 Asian tsunami, thereby forcing them into destitution. Fishing communities in Sri Lanka continue to face similar challenges, as their government sells off vast tracts of land for tourism ‘mega-resorts’.