A useful awareness seminar conducted under the auspicious of the Ministry of Economic Development on ‘Community Based Sustainable Tourism’ in Colombo turned out to be a disaster with around two thirds of the audience – the target group drawn from rural Sri Lanka – leaving the auditorium for the simple reason that the event was almost entirely conducted in English, though there one presentation was in Sinhala and few short resumes in Sinhala of the English presentations.
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| Prof Yoshiki Hompo, former Commissioner of Japan Tourism Agency |
Mather Fernando, Secretary, Negombo Tourist Association (NTA) representing the SMEs in the Negombo travel sector, expressed concern at the manner in which the seminar was conducted saying they were at a loss to understand whether the whole exercise was centered around the keynote guest speaker – Prof Yoshiki Hompo, former Commissioner of Japan Tourism Agency - or towards them, to the embarrassment of the guest speaker.
While expressing his displeasure in the seminar being conducted in English and thus resulting in a colossal amount of money spent in vain, he urged the authorities to have such seminars in Sinhala and Tamil so that it would serve the desired purpose.
According to Prof Yoshiko Hompo from Japan, his country is not dependent on international travellers but predominantly concentrates on domestic or community-based tourism which commenced almost a century ago with the advent of the Travel Business Act of 948 and international tourism as such commenced somewhere in 2003.
The interest of the participants who are connected to tourism in one way or other mostly drawn from rural Sri Lanka was on how to promote home-based tourism attracting foreign travelers.
Gunadasa Jayasooriya from Kelaniya who has 30 years experience in ‘Home Tourism’ told the Business Times that throughout he has hosted foreign tourists at his residence which has all the required amenities. What, he pointed out, is necessary now is for the Government to ensure home-based tourist operators are freed of various cumbersome procedures by local authorities.
He said that the transport sector for the modern foreign traveller in Sri Lanka has issues like for example luxury tourist vehicles – unlike in other countries – don’t have modern amenities like toilets, etc. Mr Jayasuriya said that between Colombo and Kandy there is no decent toilet for a foreign traveller to use.
Explaining the development of tourism in Japan, Prof Hompo said that ‘Japan’s domestic tourism is a giant while international tourism is a midget’. He said due to slowing economic growth and an ageing society entering the 21st century, the Japanese domestic market is showing signs of contraction and is reaching a turning point.
He said that growth fields include inbound tourism and MICE and tourism is showing promising as a self-sustaining means of regional development. He said that in 1999 the market size of the accommodation industry as a whole reached 4.9 trillion yen (about $37.6 billion), but it began to decline afterwards.
The remarkable situation in Japan as explained by Prof Hompo is drawing a roadmap for foreign visitors to reach 30 million in four phases with 2010 bringing 10 million visitors to Japan. He said that when they reach phase lll in 2019 the number of expected visitors would be in the range of 25 million- clearly a result oriented roadmap that could be emulated by Sri Lankan authorities.
He urged the government to develop hard infrastructure; support the development of various types of facilities such as subsidies for facilities developed by local authorities and subsidies for development of cultural, transport and other facilities by th private sector.
He also emphasized the need to develop ‘Roadside Stations’ filled with the unique character of the region for rest and relaxation; information sharing and with parking lots, restrooms, facilities providing regional information such as road conditions etc. Roadside Stations could be located on main roads, and expressway service areas, railway stations, ports. They could be public projects established by national and regional bodies. Commercial facilities in them could be provided by either joint public-private ventures or private enterprises. |
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