More thoughts on tourism development

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.

Look to ecosystems

Some thinking writers have suggested that we learn from the very basic but complex workings of natural ecosystems to form our ways and offers, when we celebrate the unity within our own diversity. Some have shown us that Sri Lanka indeed is one wholesome theme park that does not need to have any built structures establishing artificial theme parks or resorts. Our many offerings in a compact space; the Sinharaja, Knuckles Range, Horton Plains, the many pageants and celebrations such as we see every Poya day, church and kovil feasts, Kandy Perahara, the various village market places (Pola), the harvesting ceremonies, Sinhala and Tamil Avrudhu, the Pasku passion plays all form the scope of our theme park like diversity. What we do not do adequately is to appreciate and understand the significance and value of these, for us to be able to present them to the world of travel with courage and confidence. We need to develop simple infrastructure facilities to make these experiences enjoyable such as the comfort centres and toilets, roadways, other facilities and take-on serious promotion of these thematic events and activities.

We also need to do away with the sad practices we have got used to, in touting, harassment, charging exorbitant entry fees to places of worship and the high levels of commissions added beyond the value of the goods and services offered.

Don't count heads

Perhaps Sri Lanka's tourism policymakers should not be bothered too much of what volume of visitors we should have be it 2.5 million by 2016 or 2012. Nor should they rush to harness the potential of the North and the East to meet the fast-paced demand that will come, by taking on unsustainable models of tourism development.

A solid shared vision

What we need to do now, I believe is to get the vision for our tourism future solid and right and begin to work towards achieving it, without diversion and with strong focus. It must be a shared vision made with the participation and buy-in of all our people, done through dialogue and discussion. Thereafter, we need to focus our energies to learn of and work on our potential customers in both conventional and new market places.

We must understand and know what they think and expect of us before we can determine what and how we are to talk to them, to present the brand of tourism resources we have carved for ourselves, making it sustainable and beneficial for all Sri Lankans.