Exploring the Deep South- businesses intertwined with tourism

Delving into the Deep South plan and its hopes to revitalise the tourist industry

Hambantota - 250 km from Colombo is a long way. Yet, watching the Hummanya blowhole spray out a 20 foot jet of white water from its cavernous depths, while sitting in a swaying boat on the waters off the shore of Kudawella however, the distance seems worth it.

The blow hole is one of the 12 destinations that the Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce is promoting as part of itsr “Deep South” venture. The programme is a destination promotion programme plan being carried out by the HDCC with the support of major partner INGO Mercy Corps as well as Manchester Solutions, a British-based not-for-profit group.

The aim of the Deep South plan is to revitalise the tourist industry in the areas of the district which have suffered badly from a constant bout of negative publicity on LTTE attacks in Buttala, Yala National Park and Thanamalvila.

“Twelve things you shouldn’t miss in Hambantota” targets a set of destinations which include those which have world recognition as well as some which only local tourists are privy to. Village businesses in the areas thrive on the destinations and have been doing badly as a result of the current atmosphere.

The HDCC recently took a group of journalists to the area to get a hands-on idea of the situation.

Hummanaya Blowhole

The blowhole has always been one of the attractions in Tangalle, but one that has not been exploited fully. The Kudawella Fisheries Association, a group of individual fishermen who operate in the area, have recently taken up the task of giving boat rides to the blowhole from the Kudawella shore.

For locals the fee is as low Rs.75 while for foreigners, Rs.2000 plus. “Rs. 75 is something that even the common man can afford,” says D. Muthumala, head of the association. According to him the tours started about three months ago with the help of Mercy Corps, the INGO that the HDCC is tied with for the Deep South project. The Hummanaya is said to be at its best during the peak time of June to August when the seas are rough. There are reports of the jet of water being as high as 70 feet on occasions.

The Hummanaya is a new source of income for the Kudawella population. Muthumala who lives in the area says that the main livelihood is fishing. “The young people here are all educated, they all have A/Levels,” he says looking out over the sea, “but all of them for lack of employment, become fishermen.” Mercy Corps is also converting a building that was built formerly by USAID close to the Hummanaya as a visitor’s centre that will host information about the marine life in the area and will feature a miniature blowhole.

Rekewa—Community-based tourism

Rekewa is one of the lesser known turtle hatcheries in the country. Five species of marine turtles visit the shores to lay and nest their eggs and the Rekewa village has managed to turn what was once a mass poaching of eggs into a profitable turtle watching programme.

Now, these poachers as well as the locals of the village have been made tour guides and professional turtle-watchers. The process does take expertise. The massive turtles are slow in their journey on to the shore and easily frightened away. However once they start to lay the eggs, the trance-like state they fall into allows visitors to observe them freely.

The Turtle Conservation Project (TCP) was started in 1993 and started its programme in Rekewa with the collaboration of the Department of Wildlife Conservation. The peak nesting season is from February to July. Visitors to the beach are treated to a presentation on the nature of the marine turtles, their nesting habits and their poaching.

Brass workers of Angulmaduwa

The main problem faced by Rohana Kumarasiri and his team is that today people have hardly any brass-works in their houses. Kumarasiri produces brass products in a privately-owned enterprise, some four km from Beliatta.

He has four other workers currently working with him, but keeps a team of 15 recruits in case the workload gets difficult. “We mix in traditional designs with new ideas,” he says, standing beside the furnace which melts the scrap brass in to a mouldable texture. The temperature of the furnace is 1300 c.

Mercy Corps has been helping Kumarasiri’s operation by aiding with the all-important resource base. “The whole country focuses on the problem of lack of resources,” he says, “It takes us about four lakhs to get the resources we need at Rs.375 per kilo”. The workers need to have an adequate level of resources to keep up with orders that come in during the course of the month, in order to avoid making a loss because of fluctuating prices.

The declining market for brass products in households is the major problem. The largest demand for their work comes from neighbouring Buddhist temples. However, the business survives because southerners still have some demand for household brass works, although Kumarasiri says that watching the industry over the past few years, the future shows household demand for brass falling to a zero.

The reason behind this is mainly the high prices but also the fact that with changing lifestyles, traditions like gifting newly-married couples with a five-piece brass set or having a ‘illaththattuwa’ (betel-leaf holder) in your house have faded away. According to Hemali Chandra, Kumarasiri’s wife, high electricity rates have been plaguing the business. She also says that awareness of the brass workers is sparse among the foreign tourists but local tourists who visit nearby Mulkirigala invariably visit the workshop.

Mulkirigala Rock temple

Mulkirigala rock temple is said to have been the place where King Devanampiyatissa planted a second-generation shoot of the ‘Bo’ tree brought to Sri Lanka by Sangamitta Bhikkuni. It is also said that the ‘pokuna’ (pond) that can be found on the first tier of the five tiered stone temple holds waters that bring barren women fertility. The temple has a set of ancient frescoes and stone writings as well a staggering view from the rock slab on the top-most tier.

Walawe River Jungle Safari

The safari boat tours along the Walawe river are a recent venture by an enterprising group of individuals from the area who have banded together to make the Walawe River Eco Tourism Association. Its Chairman E.Sirisoma says that about 15 men are in the association and all of them are fully qualified to give a safe, informative and interesting boat tour.

The boat travels for about 3.8 km along the river that runs between dense mangrove vegetation peppered with peacock, monkeys, bats and eagles. The opposite Ussangoda shore is in itself as attraction. The ilmenite and granite that is in the soil have coloured the sands black and red.

Sirisoma says that tourists can arrange to have night boat rides as well as night-camping on the Ussangoda shores. Supporting infrastructure such as make-shift lavatory facilities are in the pipeline.

Yala

Easily Hambantota’s chief attraction, many sources in Yala say that the direct result of the terrorist’s attacks in the park has been a drastic drop in local tourist arrivals even more than the foreigners. Trackers say that on average, before the attacks started, the Park would have at least 50 people visiting during peak season resulting in around one lakh of collections. Now, even though the officials stress that the attacks have been happening outside Block A, where tours are usually given, business has plummeted.

The impact of this drop has been felt not only by the park officials but by the businesses that thrive on Yala visitors. “We used to have occupancy rates of about 60% before the attacks but now our rates have fallen to 13%”, says Ravi Perera, General Manager of Hotel Elephant Reach which is a few kilometres from the park. 90% of the clientele of the Tourist Board-approved hotel are Yala visitors.

In the same way, the independent Safari Jeep Association, a 170-member group of safari jeep owners and drivers say that foreign travel advisories specifically mentioning Yala have been harming their business immensely. The Association offers tours to Yala as well as other spots in the area. With the breakdown of the Yala trend, jeeps lie idle for weeks on end even during peak season.

Ninety percent of the hotels on the shoreline suffer from low occupancy rates. The pristine Tangalle shore is free of humans as far as the eye can see. Local tourists alone will be insufficient to re-develop the tourist trade. The hotels which are used to the large influx of foreign currency will find it difficult to cope.

While it’s difficult to hope for the threat to be completely eliminated and tourism returned to its former state, the people of the South-on the premise that the LTTE would never target a foreign tourist-hope for the best.