Tourism value chain will empower rural women to uplift their livelihood
A 5-year Tourism Value Chain is to be set up in Sri Lanka with Canadian funding to uplift the local economy focusing on Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) schemes that impact the livelihood of rural women folk scattered around the country.
This was stated by Samadani Kiriwandeniya, Director of SANSA International, at the Stakeholder Forum on Development of Tourism Value Chain of Sri Lanka, held at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo this week.
Ms. Kiriwandeniya said that any financial matters that focus on developing the local economy linked with projects have to adhere to environmental and social issues prevalent in the country. “Sanasa has worked with the local communities as far as in the 1970’s based on the cooperative movement principles introduced by the British in the last century. Although we were not recognized as a body during the 1960- 1970 period we have a history of working with people for more than 40 years.”
Project Director, Entrepreneur Financial Centre of Sri Lanka (EFECS), Rene Frechet said the 5-year action plan of the Tourism Value Chain will be launched soon in four selected provinces. Apart from rice, and pepper cultivation, banana cultivation is to be introduced by the project.
“Tourists who come to the country now look for global environmental aspects such as agriculture and tourism mixed together. The tourism value chain will link with other service providers, such as attractions, accessibility, accommodation, amenities, activities and awareness.”
Meanwhile two other value chains rice and pepper have already been created in the country. The EFECS has pledged its support to help Sanasa International to set up the third tourism valve chain in Sri Lanka. The Sanasa movement went into partnership with a similar movement in Canada named, Development International Desjadins (DID), a French- Canadian Co-Operative Finance network, one of the largest Co-Operative Finance network in North America. EFECS is a joint development project funded by the Canadian government and implemented in Sri Lanka by Sanasa International (Pvt) Ltd with the management support of the DID. Tourism is one of the value chains identified by them to develop local businesses that will enable local communities to gain better economic benefits from tourism. The EFECS has conducted an in-depth study in selected four provinces in Sri Lanka; Northern, Southern, North-West and Sabaragamuwa to understand challenges and opportunities of the tourism value chain.
Value Chain Officer (Tourism) EFECS Project Harshi Abeynayake said that it was important to identify seasonality of each province when luring tourists into the country. Seasonality patterns differ from province to province such as whale watching in Kalpitiya and visiting religious places such as Madhu and Nallur during the seasons. “Thirty five per cent of people in the Southern province and 18 per cent in the North Western province depend on foreign visitors,” she said.