The writer 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. Given the new demand of travellers and tourists of the high and mid segments of the market for things different, he feels that there are many new and exciting opportunities Sri Lanka could take on through developing a more discerning type of tourism, where it can also contribute to our efforts at sustainable development, while earning the much needed foreign exchange to reduce our nation's debt burden. He plans to present a series of ideas in subsequent columns as well, of how he sees Sri Lanka's tourism future could be.

Some random thoughts on tourism development

Travel and tourism has grown to be one of the largest global economic activities. It is also among the fastest growing industries and enables countries to strengthen their monetary assets. In addition, it can assist in bringing new income sources to local communities and when handled well, also help in conserving natural and heritage resources. Given favourable operating environments, it can be an industry that gives a relatively fast return on the investments made. Tourism can also be a major catalyst in bringing people together creating greater understanding between them, enabling the sharing of what is good of each other's cultures and ways of living.

On the flip side, it is an industry, if ill managed or over indulged in, can have disastrous consequences on a country's natural, social and cultural environment. In some situations, tourism earnings can leak out of economies and not contribute to uplift the standards of living of people who should essentially be the most important decision making stakeholders in all its activities. While it is an activity that can be designed and managed to bring extensive direct benefits to communities; when ill managed, can lead to marginalizing communities with most benefits from its returns accruing to a few investors.

In Sri Lanka, in the post-war scenario, much attention is focused on tourism to bring in the foreign exchange we need. This indeed will help us, in the least to begin a process of resettling our mounting foreign debt. It can help reduce the burden on our financial planners, in sourcing much needed resources for infrastructure development.

On the other hand, the promotion of sustainable lifestyles we propose to seek, efforts at gaining self-sufficiency in our essential agro-products and developing and promoting our export products strongly, will all help us reduce the need for more and more foreign exchange utilization and create a positive impact on our now precarious balance of payment situation. It can also help most entities in our business community to wean away from being 'commission agents' importing mostly non-essential goods or exporting untrained labour and become more dynamic production or service based businesses.

We must also remember that the most important attraction of visitors to a destination will always be its uniqueness and Sri Lanka being the bio-diversity hotspot it is, combined with the warm smiles and friendliness of our people can rank tops, if we are able to manage and promote these aspects strongly to the right audiences. Given the power of the Internet, today it is possible to reach out to where such demand exists. It indeed is harder work than seeking the tour operator led groups or simply focusing on the mass market demand.

There is talk of making tourism the top most foreign exchange earner for our economy. That indeed is better and more dignified than the current top spot earner of the foreign remittances of mostly our mothers and sisters working abroad as house-maids or unskilled labour. While much is done for the 'welfare' of this segment of our workforce, the enormity of the exploitation that continues to exist in this sphere must not be ignored. We hear of instances of the middle person 'commission agents' making it good while the negatives effects of this 'trading' activity on our social fabric continues to impact on children in particular and families in general.

In a branch of tourism activity, called 'Care Service Tourism', 'Medical Tourism' or 'Wellness Tourism', there is excellent opportunity for Sri Lanka to earn the much needed foreign exchange, in a much more dignified and pragmatic way. With the experience and management capabilities we now have in tourism and healthcare sectors combined with our own Sri Lankan Ayurvedic tradition of mind-body wellness and our naturally inherent caring ways towards the elderly, we can indeed venture into developing care service resorts or community-based care service homes, catering to the well-to-do of the world. In traditional tourist destinations, such as Florida and Hawaii in the US, Cyprus, Panama, Italy and the like and Asian new entrants such as the Philippines and Thailand, this sphere of tourism activity is now being practised and developed. In Sri Lanka too several of our Ayurveda based tourist resorts have taken on 'Wellness Tourism' initiatives and there was talk of 'Medical Tourism' being developed as well.

While, caring for the needs of the world's well-to-do elderly must not be done at the expense of our own aged, I am not seeking a transformation of what is available to be utilised for the sake of earning foreign exchange. At this time when we are looking at new tourist development initiatives on large extents of land at Kalpitiya and the North and the East, looking at what can be done with a long-term vision of what will be good for Sri Lanka is what we ought to focus on.

With a full fledged care service industry in place both at small- scale resort and community-based levels, we can offer opportunities for self-employment and for workers to earn foreign exchange without having to leave our shores leaving their children and families behind, as they do now.

With the right facilities, training, investment and management effort, a 'Care Service' based tourism activity could perhaps be the answer for Sri Lanka to erase off a social ill that has been institutionalized this far, while still earning the much needed foreign exchange for the nation, as well as for those who seek to earn it through honest hard work.