Sri Lanka their second home
 

PRASAD Abu Bakr reports along with Photographer Sudath Nishantha

TOURISTS visiting our country annually to spend their holiday is nothing unusual. But the travellers we feature below are all who have returned to the island after witnessing last year's Tsunami from the vicinity of the hotels that they chose to stay at this year as well. CEO of Confifi Group Anura Lokuhetty invited the Daily News to ask them why

MANY tourists have returned fearlessly to the same destination that tragedy struck a year ago on Boxing Day. They were all witnesses to how the killer waves devastated many lives, some that sustained their lives by working in the tourist industry at many levels.

It is an incident that many of us want to forget but many others who were directly affected by losing their loved ones have to bear the agony of living through the nightmare not only on the 26th of December every year but for the rest of their lives every single day.

Debby and Mark Littlewood of Warrington, U.K were on their sixth visit here that year and as anyone else, was hit by the calamity quite unexpectedly. "We were surprised as much as the rest of the world because it is out of the usual to experience something of that magnitude" said the couple.

Both has cherished their annual vacations here and this year too it was no different. "When we decided on our Christmas vacation it was Sri Lanka and the many friends that we met over the years what came to our minds immediately".

Chris Armitage who works as a Financial Controller in the corporate sector back in London said that he witnessed the tragedy and the tiring effort by the staff of Riverina Hotel, where he is staying this year too, to clean-up and put back the hotel back in to operation.

"Unfortunately this year most of them are not here", he said explaining that some of them have secured jobs abroad and others have left to work at other properties. He further stated that during his visits here he noticed that Sri Lanka was getting expensive every time he came here.

"This is not good for the image of a country that wants to promote its tourism", said Armitage who has visited this country many times over the years.

Hans-Jurgen Rieth, a German national involved in software development, said that he has visited the country 24 times and not necessarily during Christmas. He said however a lot has been done in comparison to what he witnessed following the Tsunami tragedy. "But still more can be done".

Kurt Zehnder of Switzerland said that this is his 87th visit which is sometimes more than once a year. He was at Club Palm Garden Hotel that year and he explained how devastated he was to witness the plight of many of his friends.

"It affected me as if it was something that happened to my own family". It speaks volumes when one learns that he returned to Sri Lanka in July 2005 to see how things were progressing and the well-being of his close friends that he has known all through the visits he made during the past many years.

Palitha Wijemanne General Manager of Club Palm Garden in Beruwala said the Eduard and Hildergard Prochnau couple from Hannover, has visited Sri Lanka 19 times. They first visited on the suggestion of a friend in 1986 and has been fascinated by the beauty of our country ever since.

They stay around for four months every year and they did the same last year too. The Prochnau's stayed in room No. 136 owing to Hildergard's problem of climbing up and down stairways because she has problems of moving her limbs at a fast pace and on the 26th of December 2004 when the tsunami struck the staff of Club Palm Garden carried the lady to a room at a higher elevation.

"I am alive today because of them" said Hildergard stating that they lost everything that was in their room but their lives. This year 'Mama and Papa' (as the staff addresses them) are staying in room No. 136.

Angelica Blunk a Swiss national, said that she returned every year for the past 18 years because the Beruwala beach is the best place to be during winter. Front Office Manager of Club Palm Garden Kumarasiri Guruge helped in a big way by translating German into English.

There were collective comments by these people who can be considered more than mere travellers. They are in fact a part of us and has suggestions that are best for our tourism on the long run.

Even though a lot of rehabilitation programmes are planned for the south the long plan to make the Koggala air strip into an international airport should be taken into consideration seriously, they said, adding that the traffic on the road hinders their trip from the Katunayake Airport making it a tiring effort which is in addition to the air travel time from Europe.

They said that hotels that were affected by the tsunami have lost most of the staff with experience that served in those hotels for long periods of time.

They found employment elsewhere here in Sri Lanka and abroad because initially the re-building process looked bleak and time consuming. 'So it is important that they give the new staff an intensive session of training". Some of them suggested adding that this applied to all hotels down South.

Clive W. Leach who used to be a regular visitor to Goa in South India decided to visit Sri Lanka in 1987. Ever since then Leach has been a regular and made good bindings in the Sri Lankan communication industry.

In his capacity as the CEO of Yorkshire Television Leach's presence here triggered off interest amongst senior magnates in the industry here such as Kili Rajamahendran Chairman of MBC networks.

At present even though Leach's presence here is mostly for a holiday it is only natural that his visits get always tied up with work here in his capacity as a member of the board and Group Director of the Maharajah Organisation and also as the Deputy Chairman of the media division of MBC.

"My first visit here was a good experience and I stayed at Hotel Dolphin in Kochchikade. Later I moved over to Eden Hotel where I have been a regular visitor ever since. Leach said that he has a lot of faith in Sri Lanka "that is why I bought land in Wadduwa to build a super luxury boutique hotel". He said that the tsunami has not dampened his hopes.

He also said that even though problems have engulfed this island nation for some time now it has survived well but politicians need to take decisions taking into consideration not only the internal conflict but also the external repercussions that can occur in the process, he concluded.

Repeat clients in the travel industry to this country are nothing novel as most of them shift hotels according to their budget each year.

Some of them keep coming back because the hotels offer them special prices to bring them back annually to their hotels. Whichever way they will only return if they are satisfied with what Sri Lanka has to offer because no one will want to spend a vacation full of woes.

But strangely whenever I talk to tourists the most enduring thing that has come out is that at least 80 per cent of the visitors: specially the first timers say that they want and will return.

This cannot be said about some of our neighbouring countries, even though they promote their tourism more systematically and vigorously than we do. Even if foreigners are bought over by the initial promotional clips that most of them go by, a very few in fact want to return to those destinations.

But with Sri Lanka the temptation to return is widespread and that is the magic. The magic that has prevailed.