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Tourism industry
niche suppliers neglected?: The niche suppliers of
the Sri Lankan tourism industry, small businessmen who
offer elephant rides and jungle safaris to the tourists,
mask sellers, pillow lace (beeralu) makers and such, are
a sadly neglected lot. They ply their respective trades
unregulated by any authority, without adherence to any
standards. An elephant ride and safari operator from
Habarana, G.J.Prasanna, popularly known as
Ali Mahinda, operating two elephants, told Daily News
Business, “I have obtained these two elephants from
their owners on lease, and I have to pay Rs 230,000 per
elephant per month to the owner. I have to supply food
for the elephants, and that costs about Rs 7,000 per
day. I have to pay the mahouts and their helpers (golayas)
about another Rs 5,000 per day. “There are some
unscrupulous elephant operators who do not feed their
elephants properly. An elephant needs a large amount of
food daily. If they are underfed, their health
conditions will go down, and they will not be able to
perform their work. The operator has to feed and pay the
mahouts and their helpers at the end of the day. If they
are not kept happy, they tend to do their work sloppily,
or do not turn up for work at all. According to Prasanna,
the hotels and the tour guides take the lion’s share of
what the tourists pay to enjoy elephant rides and safari
tours. “If we do not pay them what they demand, they can
blacklist us and we will not get any tours at all,” he
said. This lamentable state of affairs should be
addressed by the government directly. If the tourists
who visit Sri Lanka get an unfavourable impression of
the country, the results will be extremely disastrous.
Here some tourists taking rides and G.J.Prasanna
(inset). JJ Pictures by Saliya Rupasinghe |
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