Visiting cultural sites in Sri Lanka costs money
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File picture of tourists at a temple in Dambulla
Travellers are said to be put off by the high prices charged by the various institutions as entrance fees and the latest incident has been reported from the Dambulla Cave Temple which has re-introduced charges for tourists visiting the site.
Tour operators time and again have complained against the increased fees at the entrance to these sites compared to other international attractions like the Vatican, Pyramids of Giza and the Taj Mahal which charge much less to tourists.
The Dambulla Cave Temple has re-introduced levying fees at Rs.1,500 from February 11 abandoning entry charges about five months back, Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO) President Devendre Senaratne told the Business Times on Wednesday.
He noted that this was carried out without any prior notification of re-introducing the fees to entrance.
In addition, the Peradeniya Botanical Garden had also haphazardly increased fees from foreign visitors last year, and though they were informed of giving at least a minimum of nine months prior to implementing the new fees, they had refused to do so.
Even institutions like the Central Cultural Fund (CCF), the Temple of the Tooth and even other wildlife parks were engaged in haphazard increases in rates without consulting responsible organisations like the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) or the private sector tour operators from whom they greatly benefit.
Moreover, tour operators have highlighted that they are on “many occasions” forced to skip these highlights and promote them only as optional visits due to the high rates charged to visit these attractions.
Tour operators had in the past proposed for these institutions from increasing the rates at least for the next five years in a bid to create a demand and increase the visitation.
Moreover, it was reportedly stated that the public toilet facilities at Sigirya were out of order, greatly inconveniencing tourists visiting this site.