Taiwan and Sri Lanka:

Contrasts in entertainment

CHRISNI MENDIS

A water park in Sri Lanka

An amusement park in Taiwan

Opening his crusted eyes to his dark bedroom filled with the stench of corn chips and stale pizza from the previous night, the typical Sri Lankan teenager is stuck with his day wondering, “Where should I go today?”

He ticks the imaginary check list of places he could go to enjoy himself and simply finds himself turning on his play station, and spends hours of ‘tiresome and endless finger clicking.’ It is a challenge that people in Colombo face everyday. “Where can I go to enjoy myself?”

The Taiwanese boy can be said to be more ‘active’. Simply grabbing an S-51 metro, or a 400km/h train which could, literally take him anywhere in the island. “Maybe I’ll go to the South to get a hair cut and then to my friend’s house.”

Sri Lankan life is monotonous slow and quite arduous, if one had to describe it. A country with a lack of entertainment facilities. If it be, the local coffee bean, to the Excel World to ODEL, locations for spending spare time in Sri Lanka are countable.

It is predicted that there will be an increase in tourism since the war is finally over, however some tourists do not come to Sri Lanka just for the beaches, the mountains and the nature of the country.

To fully accommodate the needs of a tourist, the country must be more advanced in their entertainment systems so that Colombo can be a city centre where tourists can enjoy their time.

Shopping Malls

A comparison between the two countries is quite difficult since they are both on different industrial levels, on top of which, Sri Lanka is just recovering from a three decade long conflict. However, we must acknowledge the improvements we have to make.

Probably the only shopping malls in Colombo, which capture the environment and structure of an international mall, is ODEL and Krescat. Air conditioning is key to a mall, which most so-called malls in Sri Lanaka do not possess.

Comfort is something someone wants to have when looking for a size zero dress or a pair of stilletto heels. A food court is also a requirement. It is pretty clear, that some of the food courts in such malls, clearly do not accommodate the number of people using it.

Furthermore, hygiene is also an important aspect to your experience at the mall. Having dust bunnies fly across the corridor you are window-shopping in is not really a positive factor to your shopping experience. What the malls mentioned above offer is quite acceptable in comparison to a Taiwanese mall, except for the fact that a Taiwanese mall has a staggering seven-floor revenue rather than a double-floored space.

On top of which variety is needed. A typical Taiwanese store would include a high-end supermarket on the ground floor accompanied by a wide-spread food court, a couple of floors especially reserved for clothing, another couple of floors for the accessories for clothing, another floor for technology and maybe another for furniture and household goods and the additional floor for the theatre. Variety and organization of such items, is something the Sri Lankan malls do not have.

Movie theatres

Movie theatres are somewhat, scarce in Sri Lanka. Not forgetting to mention that the state of the movie theatres are not on par. Let us take, for example, Xi Yo San, a movie theatre in Taiwan. It shows a variety of movies, romance, thriller; every month there are at least seven movies and each movie with their own theatre space for viewage. Colombo barely has that many cinemas in the city.

Problem 1: the variety and number of movies monthly. Secondly, the seats are uncomfortable. Interestingly enough, Sri Lankan theatres provide booths for their viewers with a sofa to sit on, something that the Taiwan theatres do not have. However, the booths themselves are unclean, small and stuffy which is not nearly satisfactory for proper viewage.

Popcorn, soda, chips, hot dogs. When one watches a movie, this is what they want, food. They want the environment, the throbbing sound system, the comfortable seats and of course the food.

In Taiwanese movie theatres, there are special food promotions at the ticket counter. There are special packages for couples, family packs containing two or more sodas a large bucket of pop corn’. This makes the theatre more affordable and also increases the sales of the food since it is more affordable for the public.

Sports and recreation

The Taiwan government actually provides free spaces for sports and recreational activities. Somewhat like what the independence square and the grounds near the parliament, except with better facilities. This is where the public can interact with each other and get some exercise.

The grounds in Sri Lanka suffice, however, they need to be more open, and they are in need of proper maintenance for each of the grounds and not forgetting, there should be more of them and the Sri Lankan public should respect the space given to them and take care of it.

Amusement parks

Amusement parks, another major Taiwanese attraction that draw thousands of people to enjoy themselves each year. Roller coasters, slip and slides, water parks. There is a reason why Disneyland is one of the most profitable companies out there!

In Taiwan there is an amusement park for each town, and there are standard requirements for each amusement park: a roller coaster, a slide and a canteen. This standardization makes sure that the country is evenly industrialized. Especially for the summer, the ticket prices go down, so that more people, including tourists, would come to the country.

In conclusion, the people should support the government and the Ministry of Tourism to enhance such aspects of the country, such that the tourists as well as the Sri Lankan community can benefit from such facilities.

We must also know how to promote the businesses that we already have to truly make business and thus, expand and enhance what we already have.