Promoting regional cooperation through tourism

Hashan Viraj Wijesinghe

B.A.(Hons) International Studies

University of Kelaniya

Today regional integration has been recognized as one of the major strategies which could be used to tackle down common political, economic, scientific and social issues faced by countries in a particular geographic area. In simple terms, regional integration is the process by which two more nation-states agree to co-operate and work closely together to achieve peace, stability and wealth. Usually, integration involves one or more written agreements that describe the areas of cooperation in detail, as well as some coordinating bodies representing the countries involved. The concept of regional economic integration implies that nations of a geographic region come together in some type of partnership to foster trade and development. Regional economic integration can be manifested as a free trade area, a custom union or in its most extreme form, as a political union. The growth of regional economic cooperation arrangement is one of the major developments in the post Second World War period. The formation of regional integration has been greatly successful in bringing historically hostile countries together. After the Second World War the world experienced a major change in terms of economic cooperation. 

     As far as regional integration in South Asia is concerned, it was in 1980’s that the late president of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman first proposed institutionalization of regional cooperation in South Asia. Several factors such as political, economic, security and potentiality of mutual economic benefits through regionalism seemed to have influenced President Ziaur Rahman’s thinking about establishing regional organization in South Asia. After several rounds of debates and discussions, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) was finally established in 1985 comprising Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and held first summit in December the same year in Dhaka where Charter of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is signed. Afghanistan joined SAARC in 2007 as the eighth member.

     However, when compared with regional set ups like the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) or European Union, regional economic cooperation in South Asia remains at a low level. For example, until 1951, the total intra-regional trade in South Asia as a percentage of region’s total trade was in double digits. However ,by 1957, as South Asia became progressively more closed relative to the world market and also as the political rivalry to the world market and also as the political rivalry between India and Pakistan identified overtime, the Intra-regional trade fell to just 2% of the region’s total trade. The share began to recover during the 1991’s and by 2002 it reached to 4.4 percent (Boysan et al.2006).It reached a peak of 6.21 percent in 2004 and then declined to 4.84 percent in 2008.

     However, this does not imply that South Asian countries have no future within SAARC. There are wealth of opportunities for all South Asian countries, including Sri Lanka to enhance their economic growth and development through regional integration. For example, tourism sector has been identified as one of the major commercial service sectors in South Asia. According to the World Tourism Organization, the average annual growth in tourism sector in South Asia during the period 2005-2012 was 8.2%.

Table 1: International tourism trends in South Asia 1990-2012

	International tourist arrivals (In millions)						Market share (%)	Average annual growth
	1990	1995	2000	2005	2010	2012	2012	2005-2012
South Asia	3.1	4.2	6.1	8.1	12.0	14.1	1.4	8.2

Source: World Tourism Organization, Tourism Highlights (2013;p.4) http://www.eunwto.org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284415427

     As Table 1 indicates, the number of international tourist arrivals to South Asia in 2012 was 14.1 million. Almost all the countries in South Asia have gained so much progress in tourism sector. Different studies have revealed (eg: Raihan 2008) that each South Asian country has a Revealed Comparative Advantage of service sub sectors. According to Raihan (2008), Sri Lanka has comparative advantage over construction and insurance services sub sectors while India and Pakistan have got comparative advantage over transport, Business sub sectors and communication and air transport sub sectors respectively. Along with this comparative advantage and geographical proximity there is a wealth of opportunities for South Asian countries to specialize in the service sub sector in which each country has got the comparative advantage and create a mechanism for attracting more international and domestic tourists and expand the tourism sector in South Asia. During his speech at the 18^th SAARC Summit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also highlighted the importance of Inter- state tourism in South Asia where he stated:

“Our relations become stronger when we connect the lives of the ordinary citizens of our countries. That is why connectivity and services by rail and road are so important. We should also connect ourselves more by air.  We will not only make a difference to the lives of our people, but also promote tourism in the region. We should use the strength of shared heritage and our diversity to encourage tourism within our region, and present South Asia to the world. We could begin with the Buddhist circuit, but we don't have to stop there.”

     Sri Lanka has a great opportunity of promoting its tourism through this kind of an initiative. For example tourist packages can be prepared, connecting Sri Lanka, India and Nepal which has got a number of Buddhist archaeological sites. At the moment, most of the pilgrims from other countries visit either India or Nepal but with the introduction of such tourist packages, the number of tourist visiting Sri Lanka would also increase.