First things first in getting it right for tourism

The new Economic Development Minister has visited two of much sought after tourist attractions in Sri Lanka - Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage and Peradeniya Botanical Gardens.

Pinnawela once used to be a quaint purpose built facility, with the primary purpose of offering a caring foster home for orphaned elephants of whom, most were babies. Today, it is a bustling tourist attraction where "showing the elephants off" has overridden the feel, hard-work and commitment of those caring for the elephants.

While the incomes earned from tourism can be used to support even better care for the animals, haphazard development and the "dog eat dog" type of competition around by restaurateurs, shop-keepers and other "fast buck earners" has created an environment, which takes a good portion of the humane element of the facility away.

Peradeniya Gardens is no different. It is the value of caring for our sub-tropical botanical plant treasures that form the attraction. The wider the variety and facilities for learning, greater will be the value of the attraction. Action proposed to propagate more and more indigenous herbal and other plant varieties both for local consumption and export is an initiative that would be appreciated by most Sri Lankans. Foreign visitors can be a potent source for promotion of knowledge among the world community of these lesser known Sri Lankan offers.

Need attention

I wish to focus the Minister's attention to the new road construction at Wilpattu, over utilization of vehicles at Yala National Park, insensitive land use and visitation at Horton Plains and the deforestation that still takes place in several of our protected forests and their buffer zones. Another area where attention needs be paid is the elephant-man conflict in most of our colonized areas. This issue need be looked at both from the farmer/elephant welfare point of view and as a negative that can impact on the good image of a natural asset rich Sri Lanka.

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa at the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. Picture by Chaminda Hiththetiya

Let me share with you, an incident that a tour guide friend told me a few years ago.

He was on the Sigiriya Rock with a French tourist who had an upset stomach that day. An inquiry was made about the availability of a toilet and our guide friend answered in the affirmative.

What he did not tell the visitor was that they were about a half kilometer away. The tourist upon descending to the Lion's Paw exit and finding the toilets to be further away had the bad experience of having to let go. The guide took him to a nearby water hole, cleaned him up and came over to the village and got new clothes to bring him back to the hotel.

It tells us that we must provide basic facilities at the right places with the right quality to be able to provide a memorable visitor experience; be it for local or foreign tourists.

The Tourism Ministry together with some local authorities took on a program to develop what were called 'comfort centres' at tourist sites. It is perhaps a more dignified name for toilets. But what has been done this far, is far too short of what is needed.

Exotic offers

As a destination that has so much in such a small space, Sri Lanka can be compared to one big natural theme park. Our many cultural and religious festivals/events, village 'polas' or trading fairs, traditional craft-villages, heritage sites, gardens and parks, virtually un-spoilt serene beaches and fishing communities and rural lifestyles all offer unique and exotic sensual experiences to visitors to this land.

What we need, is to first get the basics right at these sites. These include ensuring comfortable movement by road/water and air as may be required, safety of visitors at all locations, provision of facilities such as toilets and comfort centres, access to good interpretation and information facilities, quality guiding service, descriptive location signage in language versions, an environment free of hassle from touts offering socially unacceptable services and a posse of well-trained service personnel at all levels of operation.

Visitor accommodation need be developed with much care and thinking. Rushing in to build may mean that we may overbuild and/or create white elephants. Sri Lanka must first determine what experience she should create for which type of visitor and where it needs to be positioned and pitched, before rushing into building big time. All options for involving the community at large in developing a sustainable tourism need be explored and the time it takes for such planning may be used, to get the basics right at currently existent facilities.