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Destination Tsunami: Stories and Struggles from India’s southern coast

A unique photography exhibition exploring tourism’s impacts on tsunami-affected communities, five years on

It is over five years since the December 2004 tsunami devastated the southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This exhibition tells the stories and conveys the hardships endured by coastal communities as they attempt to withstand the multiple pressures of rapid tourism development.

This includes the threat of displacement from their land, loss of livelihoods, environmental degradation and alienation from traditional ways of life. Despite massive aid-flows to the region, many families are still waiting for their tsunami-damaged homes to be rebuilt. Others endure cramped and undignified living conditions, while the funds that were meant to assist them are channeled instead into beachfront beautification schemes for tourists.

The exhibition also pays tribute to the many brave individuals and groups which are resisting the powerful developers and government policies that promote tourism at their expense. It creates a unique space for the voices of Indian fishing and farming communities, activists, displaced families, the old and the young, the dispossessed and the defiant, to be heard by holidaymakers and tourism policy-makers in the UK.

Destination Tsunami poses challenging questions about who is paying the real cost of tourism development:

• Can the drive to develop coastlines for tourism in the name of economic growth justify the dislocation of poor people from their land and traditional livelihoods?

• How can tourism be developed in a way that provides sustainable benefits to local communities and the environment?

• Why are so many people still struggling to rebuild their lives despite huge tsunami aid flows to the region?

Tourism Concern is actively supporting efforts in India to protect land and livelihoods from unsustainable tourism development. It has partnered with local groups in a project to raise awareness around tourism issues and empower coastal people to secure protection for their land and livelihoods.

Destination Tsunami on tour...

7 – 31 Aug: Venue Cymru, The Promenade, Llandudno, Wales, LL30 1BB - www.venuecymru.co.uk

27 Sep – 10 Oct: South Essex College, Luker Road, Southend-on-Sea, SS1 1ND - www.southessex.ac.uk

15 Oct – 10 Nov: Edinburgh University Chaplaincy Centre, 1 Bristo Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9AL - www.chaplaincy.ed.ac.uk

18 Nov – 15 Dec (exact dates tbc): Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST. Featured as part of the Dealing With Disasters International Conference - www.northumbria.ac.uk / www.dealing-with-disasters.org.uk

5 Jan – 28 Feb: Pierian Centre, 27 Portland's Square, St Paul's, Bristol, BS2 8SA - www.pierian-centre.com

Mar/Apr (tbc): Laban, Creekside, London, SE8 3DZ

28 Apr – 15 May: Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square Bath, BA1 2HN - www.brlsi.org

Is there a local venue near you (gallery, library, university, church) where our exhibition could be shown? Contact us with your ideas! Email campaigns@tourismconcern.org.uk.

All images copyright Sohrab Hura 2009.

More about Tourism Concern’s project and campaign to empower coastal communities

This exhibition has been generously supported by The Big Lottery Fund, The Guardian, the UK's Department for International Development and Kingfisher Airlines.