newSRILANKA Team External Links 9 September 2009 261 views No Comment  Print This Post  Email This Post

The writer himself a former tourism administrator, feels that Sri Lanka needs to seek bold and out of the box ways when it takes on this post-conflict phase of tourism development. In a world where tourism demand at the high and mid-end has changed dramatically from a ’see, do, stay’ type tourism to total immerse and experience seeking travel, talking of volume based-targets and purely beach-stay based conventional tourism development, he feels will not serve the future of Sri Lanka’s tourism well. An island nation blessed with biological and cultural diversity, she needs to make a concerted effort to conserve that diversity through the practice of sustainable lifestyles, becoming an example that can be emulated perhaps by the rest of the world. Seeking to work towards being carbon clean as a country will in itself enable Sri Lanka to make it the core thrust of her tourism presentation to the world. In a world, where its people are becoming more and more conscious of global warming and its dire consequences, such a thrust will make Sri Lanka stand big and tall in the crowd. Such success in itself would then lead to determining how indeed being small and compact can be beautiful, miraculous and desirable.

Defining potential

There is no doubt that Sri Lanka has the potential to do extremely well in increasing the tourist numbers and foreign exchange earnings in the aftermath of the ending of the war.

Since most imagine that tourism in Sri Lanka should also be like what they have seen on a visit to another country, they presume that we should emulate what we see without thought to scale, context and appropriateness. Some even go to the extent of suggesting that we create theme parks the likes of Santhosa in Singapore or the glitzy resorts of Dubai.

Others suggest that we must be an ecotourism destination where eco-lodges are built in the wilderness at the most beautiful scenic spots, operated by investors and not necessarily by stakeholder communities. Yet other suggestions include setting up sound and light shows the likes of the Pyramids, Acropolis, Red Fort and Taj Mahal at Sigiriya and other heritage sites of ours.

Our charm

The ideas are many and varied and mostly everyone who has travelled abroad has an opinion on travel and tourism development in Sri Lanka. What most do not see is that Sri Lanka, having relatively stood still in time, in terms of big time development within the past three decades, has retained what most other similar destinations have lost as a result of rapid paced growth.

We have retained our charm in terms of our biological diversity in most areas. We are blessed with a 50 percent green cover and a near 29 percent forest cover. The pristine nature of our coastal areas in the East and North are still in tact and present opportunities for offering high quality experiences to both local and foreign travellers. There is a revival of our cultural consciousness and we are looking back to celebrate the ethnic and religious diversity that is Sri Lanka to seek unity within it.

Read more at Dailynews

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