The tourism challenge

These were some of the questions addressed during a round table discussion convened by Auroville Today and La Revue d’Auroville in the aftermath of the recent 50th anniversary celebrations.

Sam is a member of the Auroville Security Service; Marc and Matilde manage Auroville coffee shops; Cristina, Dhanya and Susan are involved in guest services; Nicole manages the Visitors Center; Gilles coordinates the Auroville Archives; Akash Kapur has expressed himself about the dangers of tourism; and Christine is an editor of La Revue d’Auroville.

Tourism in Auroville has increased tremendously over the past ten years. How has it impacted you personally?

Sam: Tourism has a huge influence on the work we do in Security. For example, some of the day tourists who come to see the ‘golden globe’ walk on the road between the Visitors Center and the Matrimandir, which is dangerous for them and for drivers. And on Sunday afternoon when the Matrimandir is closed, we often have a crowd at the Saraswati gate who are trying to get a glimpse of the structure, and this can also become dangerous for road users.

In the minds of some guests and tourists, Auroville is like a second Goa: they see it as a place to chill out and party. There are fewer parties now, but they still want to come inside Auroville to enjoy themselves and they resent it when we block them. We also have non-Auroville restaurants as well as a private hotel in the middle of Auroville and we cannot stop tourists going there. All this creates big problems for us in security.

Cristina: I find that having guests around brings a breath of fresh air because sometimes we are caught in our daily routine and small conflicts to the point that we tend to forget why we are here. The guests make me aware of how important and inspiring Auroville is for many people around the world. I also like to have exchanges with people who are living in other realities.

Marc: As we have three coffee shops, we are constantly dealing with tourists and it is very positive. If you know how to handle tourists, it can be a great experience for all concerned.

Dhanya: I think when we talk about ‘tourists’ we need to make a distinction between day trippers, weekenders from Chennai or Bangalore, and longer-term guests who stay in Auroville or in the nearby villages. These are different categories which present different challenges.

Susan: I think there is a big difference between weekenders who are staying in Auroville and those who are staying outside Auroville. If people are staying in an Auroville guest house, the likelihood that they are going to meet Aurovilians or other long-term people who will be able to educate them about Auroville is much higher.

Nicole: But even though there is a code of conduct in Auroville guest houses that alcohol is not allowed, some guests will purchase it outside and bring it into their room. I’ve had friends of mine staying in an Auroville guest house who said it was very unpleasant because of people drinking there. This was not the atmosphere they were expecting.

Sam: In the end, there is no way to police that.

Dhanya: But are we behaving in such a way as to provide an example and to attract the right people? It’s obvious that guests will tap into some of the present undercurrents of Auroville and say, for example, why can’t we drink in an Auroville guest house because some Aurovilians are also drinking in their houses.

Akash: For me, it’s a question of sheer numbers. When somebody is coming at you like a missile on the wrong side of the road, you’re not bothered about whether they are there for the day or for the week. Clearly, however, the traffic on our roads is very inflated by the day-trippers, so if there were fewer of them and it was more controlled, it would be better for everybody.

Nicole: We have this feeling of invasion, of being swamped by tourists, because when we go to the Solar Kitchen we have three times the normal queue. And when we drive on the roads we have many people on mopeds who don’t know how to drive in India, while cars are trying to sneak into Auroville through the back roads to discover the place on their own terms. These are the things we have to address.

Matilde: It’s this feeling that you don’t want to go to certain places because of all the tourists. How can we manage it so that the Aurovilians do not feel they have to hide away in the busy months and only come out again in the low season? Auroville should not become like Barcelona, my home town, which is full of tourists now.

Gilles: Mass tourism all over the world tends to destroy what the people come to enjoy. It can happen here, too.

Matilde: The internet makes it worse. For example, Google Maps shows Auroville cycle paths as roads so tourists easily get lost and wander into Auroville communities looking for directions.

Nicole: Google Maps put Sadhana Forest on top of the frisbee sports ground near Gaia, which is many kilometres away, so we have people walking into Gaia looking for Sadhana Forest. It’s not surprising that nobody wants to have their location marked on the map of the new ‘Discover Auroville’ app. because this just attracts tourists.

Sam: But we need to keep a certain perspective on this. I was expecting the fiftieth anniversary in February to be overwhelming because of the numbers of tourists coming, but I don’t feel that happened. Actually, according to Visitors Center data, we did not have many more tourists during these months than last year. So perhaps tourism in and around Auroville is not going to increase as much as we expect.

How many tourists are visiting Auroville annually?

Dhanya: At present, around 800,000 people come to the Visitors Center each year, around 2200 every day. This may not include everybody who stays in a guest house but it gives an idea of what we are dealing with on a daily basis.

Christine: But it’s not just the numbers. I feel that increasingly there is a commercialisation of everything: it’s like corruption or contagion. People who do not understand this place find it so nice that they want to buy into it. I’ve had people come to my house who want to buy it because it was designed by Roger Anger!

How did we become such a magnet for tourists?

Susan: We made this beautiful, shiny, golden thing that attracts thousands and thousands of people every day, besides all the other things that attract tourists.

Nicole: Clearly, one of the main attractions is the restaurants, the food. It used to be Auroville products but this is declining now for some units because many people find them too expensive. The fact is that we have more and more Aurovilian and non-Aurovilian outlets in this area which act as a strong magnet to the crowd who spend some months in Goa and some months here. Here you have what people expect to find in a tourist place: certain kinds of food, certain kinds of clothing shops, certain facilities.

Gilles: The shops, the attractions, are not just outside Auroville. There are many things inside Auroville that are open to tourists, like shops, workshops, movies and music performances.

Christine: The greenery is also a factor, because the Indian cities have become nightmares. When people come here, they see trees and space and they feel they can breathe again.

To what extent is the growth of tourism in Auroville influenced by changes in the larger India?

Nicole: A lot. The growth in tourism is also happening because India has changed tremendously over the past 25 years.

There has been a very rapid growth of a middle class with disposable income and a four-wheel-drive who have to take the family out somewhere on the weekends. We see this in the different types of people who are coming to the Visitors Center nowadays.

Pondicherry has been making a lot of publicity for the growth of its tourism sector. But once you’ve done the beachfront and the old city tour, that’s about it in Pondicherry, so then the tourists come to Auroville because here there is something to see.

Dhanya: If Pondicherry had not been there, the situation would be very different. My assumption is that the increase in our tourism is largely due to the Pondicherry Department of Tourism who want a big part of the Pondicherry economy to be supported by tourism. At the moment, 1.6 million tourists come to Pondicherry annually, and this increases by 10% in a year. In 3-4 years around 2 million people will be coming, of whom about 150,000 will be foreigners. Half of them will find their way to Auroville. So can we face the reality that this is much bigger than us and meet it with a mature response? And if we don’t want tourism, what other enterprises do we want to develop?

Clearly, we are influenced by something happening in the larger India. But to what extent are we ourselves encouraging people to come as tourists?

Gilles: Mother said we have to inform people about Auroville but we should not advertise it. Mother explained the difference by saying we should only speak to those who are able to receive the message, and we should keep the message at its highest level. If we lower it to make it more understandable to people, we are advertising. However, Auroville is being advertised at the moment by some Aurovilians.

Sam: I think that as a community we are confused about whether we want tourists or not. Some units and eateries definitely want tourists to come to their places inside Auroville and we have events that are open to outsiders. However, we also don’t want them, which is why Security tries to prevent people coming into Auroville to roam around. It’s a contradiction.

Gilles: For me, the main problem is the total lack of clarity inside Auroville concerning what Auroville is about – I believe that more than 50% of Aurovilians do not understand this – and this reflects in our confused attitude to tourists. This is the deeper problem.

One of the key problems is that Roger conceived the Galaxy Plan at a time when Mother was saying that money would still circulate in Auroville. This is why, in 1967, Roger was talking about the Crown Road being full of restaurants, galleries and shops. However, in 1969 she made a fundamental change by saying that there would be no exchange of money in Auroville. This requires major changes in the Master Plan concerning where tourists can come to spend money and do business but we do not understand this, and our town planning groups have not been able to solve it.

But some Aurovilians argue that we should encourage tourists as they are benefitting the Auroville economy.

Nicole: This idea that tourism should be encouraged as a way of making money for Auroville should be debunked because actually it is bringing us a lot of problems. Look at some of the present developments in the guest sector. Are they really benefitting Auroville? For example, there is a big increase in the number of home stays in the community. At present, according to City Services there are 61 home stays but only 38 are contributing something to Auroville. Aurovilians create these facilities so they can manage financially, but what problems does this create for the rest of our society? We need to look closely at this.

What are the possible solutions?

Matilde: Many people who come to the coffee shop ask me, Why are you here? What attracts you? This we can address. They may come here on a day trip but after three months they may come again and the conversation continues. So I think places like these can be good information and guest service points.

Dhanya: I think we need to apply filters for the different populations – day visitors, guests etc. – that are coming to Auroville. I think the first practical step is to maintain the strong filters that prevent outside traffic coming further into Auroville because this gives us the breathing space to come up with more creative ideas.

Sam: I don’t like the idea of Auroville of being a closed space but if we don’t filter the traffic coming inside Auroville, we have incidents where Aurovilians are harassed or worse. In the last two years, the number of such incidents has reduced considerably because the guards are much stricter than before. So I think there is a phase we have to go through where Auroville is protected from outside traffic, and for this we have to control all the entrances.

Gilles: In my view, Auroville has to be organised like a traditional Tamil house where the postman and casual visitors cannot go further than the outer door, but the closer you are to the family, the more you can come inside.

Dhanya: I also think there should be a dialogue with the Pondicherry Government and the Department of Tourism. Their orientation is very different from ours, but we need to emphasise that the only tourism we want in Auroville is that which relates to wholeness, wellness and ecological tourism. These would be filters.

Matilde: For me, a typical tourist is somebody who travels but who wants to remain in their comfort zone. However, sustainable tourism is about experiencing the local culture, talking with the local people, and rather than taking advantage of a place, giving something back and sustaining the local lifestyle. This is the kind of tourism we should be encouraging in Auroville.

Gilles: I think, ideally, the only people who should be welcome to visit and stay in Auroville should be people who are willing to experience Auroville.

But how easily can they experience Auroville at present?

Nicole: That’s a good question. Visitors can take a walk through the International Zone and see some of the public buildings, but some of those places no longer welcome visitors and all of them have to reflect upon how they handle visitors. None of the potteries and only a few of the units will accept visitors being sent to them and the schools do not want to receive them. There are a few places where you can send people, such as Botanical Gardens, and some places organise visits once a week.

Most of the people who visit Auroville come to the Visitors Center. The vast majority of them only want to see the Matrimandir and we handle them in such a way that the rest of Auroville is insulated from these tourists. The Center also acts as a very strong filter because anybody who comes with a car needs to leave it at the parking area. So I think that the filters we have in place today are good filters.

Can the Visitors Center cope with an increase in tourists?

Nicole: I believe we can absorb two to three times the number we receive at present and still channel them to Matrimandir in a way that the rest of Auroville is not affected.

But then you have the three guys on a motorcycle who like to roam around Auroville on a Sunday, or the people who would like to have a nice lunch somewhere in Auroville because they have heard about the good food. As long as there is a possibility for them to pay in cash, as long as there is a possibility of money exchange inside Auroville, you will get these aspects of tourism as well.

Mother gave us some very practical answers. She said that Auroville is a city without exchange of money, and suggested that people interested in visiting Auroville would be issued with coupons.

But this would require an organisation and a clear idea about what visitors could have access to.

Dhanya: We could easily develop an app that allows Aurovilians to charge visitors without any direct exchange of money. But this would not solve the problem as it would still allow visitors to go anywhere in Auroville.

Nicole: If the feeling of being swamped and of Auroville becoming unrecognisable is due to too many people coming inside Auroville, looking for a restaurant or a yoga class etc., then we have to take a decision as a community about what we actually want. Do we want these magnets to be inside Auroville or outside?

Gilles: If we can deflect tourists by saying there are plenty of things for you outside, but inside Auroville there is nothing for you, they will probably not come here. We are not going to stop tourism in the larger area. Even if we succeed in closing Auroville completely, the area around Kuilapalayam and the beach will continue to develop as tourists sites and, in a way, this is protecting us.

It seems we are suggesting closing off most of Auroville to tourists…

Gilles: There is more than one way. In Auroville we are expected to be working towards two transformations: the individual transformation and the transformation of society. A transformed society would not have problems with tourism because it would automatically attract only the right people. But we are not making much progress in this because it requires us to do the yoga.

What are the next steps?

Akash: We have created groups in the past to address real problems, and this is a real, even an existential, problem. Do we need a group that looks at tourism in a cohesive, systematic way because, clearly, we can’t be relaxed about this anymore?

Christine: At present, we have no strategy at all concerning tourism in Auroville.

Susan: I think a lot can be done with simple strategies, like restricting visiting times, but we also need data to tell us about the economic impact of tourism on Auroville, and if we can we live without it. All these questions require more than a couple of roundtable discussions. I think that if a group is created, it has to include people from many different areas because there are so many dimensions to the tourism issue.

How optimistic are we that we can solve this issue?

Nicole: It’s for the community to decide. If we can all agree on a strategy, we can do it. We have done it for Matrimandir, where everybody takes it as a given that there are specific timings with limited numbers and visitors have to book in advance. So if we say the main problem is there are too many day visitors then, for example, we can decide we will restrict the number of passes for the Matrimandir viewing point on any given day. There are such mechanisms that can be put in place.

Susan: If we are here for the Charter then I believe we have to be optimists! But we need to take effective action soon. And if we Aurovilians ourselves are not living up to the Dream, how can we expect to attract only the ‘right’ kind of tourists who are really coming for Auroville, and filter out the rest? I think this question will come back to haunt us again and again.

Increase in tourism

People getting a pass for the Matrimandir viewing point

2015: 5,68,762/- + 5%= 5,97,200/-

2016: 6,49,962/- + 5%= 6,82,460/-

2017: 7,24,654/- + 5%= 7,60,887/-   

Note: Most visitors get this pass but not all, because, for example, some people arrive on Sunday afternoon when the Viewing Point is closed or arrive too late in the day to get a pass. The + 5% accounts for the number of passes given for the Viewing Point that are not logged.