Sustainability to Sri Lanka through Community Based Tourism

Sustainability to Sri Lanka through Community Based Tourism

       

Lonely Planet named Sri Lanka as the top destination for 2019 on July 3^rd this year! So, the growth of travel and tourism industry was more accelerated by such positive comments and statistics provided by SLTDA (Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority) indicate that this industry is booming day by day bringing down a lot of foreign currency inflow to the country which ultimately contributes to the GDP significantly - tourism statics of 2018 forecasts, direct contribution of tourism to GDP is 4.9%. In fact, according to facts and figures in the 2018 Travel and Tourism Statical Report by SLTDA shows how the travel and tourism industry as a whole, created job opportunities of 388, 487 in both direct and indirect ways.

However, it seems that distribution of tourism benefits among local communities have limited only for a certain area of the country, whereas the rest of the country has not been benefited by tourism owing to the fact that tourism is not being promoted for those areas or the lack of awareness of the local community in that particular area about tourism. Meanwhile, the government of Sri Lanka and also the entire world of tourism talk about sustainable development goals via travel and tourism industry; indeed, tourism industry considered as a convenient industry to alleviate poverty in the world. From my point of view, these so-called tourism sustainability models have to be implemented in Sri Lanka, aligning on the framework of community-based tourism which is already a growing trend in South East Asian countries. Moreover, the problems related to under-development in the Sri Lankan context can be easily addressed through proper implementations of community-based tourism practices. When considering the South coast of Sri Lanka, it is very appealing to the tourists because of the spectacular oceanfronts. Consequently, tourism traffic is noticeably high in this area. In addition, when taking a visit to this southern coast, it is quite obvious that a significant number of people in those areas are self-employed with tourism-related businesses wherein some has turned out to be successful entrepreneurs. From tack shop owners in the streets, tuk divers to employees who work at the hotels in these tourists attractive areas find their livelihood mainly thanks to the tourists who visit there. 

Furthermore, toddy tapping, jaggery and cinnamon industries were not promoted in early days of tourism in Sri Lanka but once where those areas were promoted as tourists attracting provisions automatically those industries also were promoted and people who were involved in those industries as their source of livelihood, found an opportunity to find more income once the tourists started visiting their places. At present, tourists have started engaging in toddy tapping activities with the locals to experience the real adventure story of it; besides tourists have also started visiting pottery, jaggery, cinnamon and wood carving industry areas where the locals earn an additional sum for their daily income which consequently uplift their economic status and living standards. More impressively, a lot of travel agents in Sri Lanka has identified the importance of promoting community-based tourism and also they do encourage the host communities to continue with their businesses and industries. For instance, nowadays, travel agents promote cooking demonstrations and meals in village houses which is an unforgettable and entertaining experience for the tourists which is literally community-based tourism.

Nevertheless, firstly, the government itself has to promote the rural areas or the under-developed areas as tourists attractions with the collaboration of private sector institutes; bringing down hotels to such areas, putting up eco-friendly theme parks, then consequently, that particular area gets developed gradually and then, as a result of that automatically, the host communities find the platform to work on their livelihood sources. For example, Kandala used to be one of those rural areas in Sri Lanka but it was apparent this entire area got developed after putting up hotels like Heritance Kandalama, Amaya Lake and etc. Meanwhile, when developing community-based tourism the governmental bodies and the relevant authorities might combat some challenges: enhance the host community’s awareness about tourism and the potential they have to uplift their living standards through tourism; provide sufficient education and training, encourage the entrepreneurs and provide adequate financial support. Besides, relevant authorities should be attentive of selecting areas as tourists attractions which are not being benefited by tourism so for, to be further developed community-based tourism because most of the time a lot of areas consists of both man-made and natural resources that are underutilized; for instance areas like Mannar, Monaragala, Bibila, Laggala,  Diyapaththugama, Maduwa and etc. on the other hand, these places are critically underdeveloped so that community-based tourism can be promoted in such areas.  Later, after appropriate research community- based tourism practices can be implemented to sustain the entire country.

Author: Uthpala Pathirana