During pre-2009 crisis times, Western tourists kept Sri Lanka’s flag flying
View(s):Tourism in Sri Lanka has gone to a different level in recent times with dependence no longer on the West while the Indians and Chinese are arriving in large numbers, a top Sri Lankan hotelier said.
Hiran Cooray, Chairman of Jetwing Group also noted that visitors from Arab nations or from the Middle East are ‘coming in very large numbers as well as Australia, New Zealand and so on. It’s a very nice picture, a nice story to tell now’.
Mr. Cooray, also President of the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL), was making a presentation amongst a privileged group of professionals taking part in a discussion “Cultivating Sustainable and Peaceful Communities and Nations” organised by the International Institute for Peace through Tourism (IIPT) held in November in London as part of the World Travel Mart’s side events. The discussion was moderated by International Coalition of Tourism Partners President Geoffrey Lipman and included UN World Trade Organisation Secretary General Taleb Rifai, former Pacific Asia Travel Association CEO Martin Craigs, Ambassador Yamina Karitanyi (from Rwanda) and Wahida Jaiet (from Tunisia National Tourism Office).
Mr. Cooray, whose beginnings in tourism were built on the awareness, values and discipline by his father, the late Herbert Cooray (a 1960s tourism pioneer), went down memory lane relating the country’s tourism story and how it was badly affected by the raging conflict in 1982 to 2009.
Here are excerpts of his presentation:”I lived through 25 years of my good life going through (a) conflict that my country didn’t need. We are all people from Indian origin, the country has two ethnic communities, one called Sinhalese, the other called Tamil.
The Sinhalese believe that we have come from North-Western India some 2000 years ago, the Tamils are obviously from Tamil Nadu, Southern India and we are one people as Talib correctly said, whether its Africa, Asia or wherever its one global family. But sadly, sadly the government and another organisation fought for over 25 years and it ended with the Tigers or the terrorists being killed which was very brutal towards the end of the conflict. Still I think my government is paying a price for it, being hounded, especially in the west for human rights and all of that. But I think, the way I see it Sri Lanka should have been embraced as at least it had the courage to fight a war against a terrorist organisation that brought in the suicide bombers.
It was chaos and anarchy for over 25 years. Now since 2009 after the end of the conflict the country has begun to emerge, it is a positive story to relate now. Infrastructure keeps developing not only on the tourism front but, I mean, I as a Sri Lankan want infrastructure to be developed for the people of our country, 20 million people that lived there and out of which at least 2-3 million live on the North and East of our country.
Tourism is beginning to blossom out in the North and the East, which was completely cut off. How did we survive? Our company is 40 years in tourism, 25 years we survived through God’s mercy. It was the fact that people continue to come despite travel advisories, despite warnings. It was the Germans and the British tourists who came at that time and the Scandinavians that kept the destination alive in the world tourism map; we hardly had a single day you know without a single tourist in our country. I consider that a blessing in that we had so many people coming despite the trouble. While there is development of tourism in the north where we are building the first proper hotel in Jaffna (the northern capital) to be opened in mid-2015, the East coast has seen more development. There are three great areas – Trincomalee, Passikudah and Arugam Bay – which are fabulous spots for tourism and they are slowly but surely emerging.
(In recent times) The government and the other organisations are doing their best to get people together as one community (irrespective of their race or religion).
Once a British historian asked me how long I thought the resolution or these communities coming together will take. I actually said, ‘probably 25 years.
He said, ‘you’re an optimist’. He said, ‘You’ll be lucky in 75 years if people you know call themselves as one family.’ So that’s a challenge.
I hope in the next five years I can come back and say that, ‘our Sri Lanka, is Ah! Finally one; it’s lovely to befriend one another as brothers and sisters.’ In Sri Lanka there are different organisations still trying to pull the two sides apart, so our challenge is to bring them together. I think tourism can hopefully play a part in this future and make it a different and positive story.