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Holiday spoiler in ‘paradise’: Colour of your skin or unruly behaviour?
Lounging at a beachside restaurant with his wife and three-year-old son, Dushmantha Gunasingha watched as foreigner after foreigner was served their orders while his family was left unattended.
It was a beautiful day in December 2021. The stretch of Unawatuna beach they were on offered a clear view of the sea. Tourists on recliners soaked up the sun. Mr Gunasingha, the Chief Technology Officer at an IT firm, was at the seaside for over two hours and had observed foreign guests speedily receiving their beverages. A chocolate milkshake he wanted took 30 minutes to arrive. He had ordered it because he had used the restaurant’s sun lounger for about two hours.
Incidents of discrimination against local tourists have recently been recorded around Mirissa, Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa, Negombo, Ella and Arugam Bay. Pic by Thusitha Kumara de Silva
The trouble started when his family was about to leave. The owner of the restaurant, which he declined to name, confronted him saying that benches were only for those who ordered food. A stream of insults followed, said 38-year-old Mr Gunasingha.
“We don’t take any locals,” the owner reportedly said. “They are all the same. They use our property and simply leave after they have enjoyed themselves.”
There are multiple complaints on social media of “racism” against locals by tourist hotels and restaurants, predominantly in the South. These coincided with the recent arrival in large numbers of foreign holidaymakers as COVID-19 restrictions eased. In Mirissa, one establishment was said to have charged Sri Lankans entry fees while foreigners were allowed in for free. Customer reviews showed that Indian and Pakistani tourists also had to pay up.
One Twitter user had experienced discrimination in the early 1990s during a family trip to Anuradhapura. She faced it again in 2015 at Sigiriya and 2017 in Galle. She described how they had been turned away from guest houses in Anuradhapura as it was “foreigners only” and how hotel staff had not served them in Sigiriya.
At one establishment in the Galle Fort, cleaning staff had asked if she and her sister intended to use the restaurant. When they replied that they did, a person had allegedly followed her sister to the bathroom to “check what they were getting up to”. Foreign users of the washroom weren’t treated this way.
Similar incidents were recently recorded around Mirissa, Unawatuna, Hikkaduwa, Negombo, Ella and Arugam Bay. “We didn’t know to whom we should complain,” said one person, when asked why they didn’t report it.
The Tourist Police records complaints only from foreigners as the unit was set up to help them circumvent the confusion of local police stations and procedure. “If local tourists face discrimination, it needs to be reported to the local police,” said Police media spokesman Nihal Thalduwa.
But the knife cuts both ways. One Mirissa restaurant owner who is alleged to have discriminated against locals told the Sunday Times that fees were charged only to cover the cost of the events being hosted. He said he was grateful to local tourists who helped businesses stay afloat during the pandemic. But there were multiple instances of indecent behaviour by them, resulting in foreign guests feeling uncomfortable, he said. “Some of them grope women while drug addicts also loiter around these areas.”
When contacted by the Sunday Times, several tourism sector entrepreneurs shared similar sentiments, but insisted that local and foreign tourists were treated alike. One pet peeve was that local guests threw their rubbish onto the beach.
Twitter users gave first-hand accounts of locals misbehaving and harassing foreign tourists. Evarts, who wanted to be identified by one name, pointed out that locals go on trips in groups. When they are drunk, they often fight and damage hotel property. “Their logic is that they are paying guests so they can do whatever they want,” he said. But Evarts has himself faced discrimination at tourist establishments across the country.
Another Twitter user said he was once at a North-Central Province high-end boutique hotel designed and known for privacy and tranquillity. It had been full of local guests availing themselves of credit card offers when international travel restrictions kept out foreigners. Vehicles were haphazardly parked, thereby limiting the parking space, he told the Sunday Times via text message. There were raucous, unsupervised kids and loud adults. People would show up for meals just as the kitchens were closing. There was non-adherence to pool attire, disrespect for establishment rules and guest privacy, and rude behaviour towards staff.
Discrimination is a violation of the Constitution, said senior lawyer Uditha Egalahewa, PC. “All citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law,” states Article 12. Subsection 3 of Article 12 says: “No person shall on the grounds of race, religion, language, caste, sex or any one of such grounds, be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to access to shops, public restaurants, hotels, places of public entertainment and places of public worship of his own religion.”
“Fundamental rights jurisdiction in the Supreme Court is limited to State violation,” he pointed out. But Article 12 (3) is enforceable in a District Court in relation to incidents such as these.
“Establishments are entitled to say no to guests due to etiquette and culture,” he elaborated. “However, guests are allowed to enter hotels with restrictions limited only to certain restaurants/areas within the hotel.”
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), reacting to public protests, issued a statement on January 18 warning that businesses found to have discriminatory practices after an investigation will have their licences cancelled. The SLTDA also urged local holidaymakers to ensure property was taken care of and rules were adhered to. Guest establishments were invited to lodge complaints regarding the misconduct of domestic travellers and destruction of property.
Discrimination violates the Fundamental Rights of local citizens, said Dhammika Wijesinghe, SLTDA Director-General (DG). It was local patronage that assisted the industry after the Easter attacks and during the pandemic. “It is really unfair that they are treated in a discriminatory manner,” she said.
The SLTDA’s complaint management system can be used to file reports. They can also be lodged via email to the Chairperson or DG.
Incidents of discrimination mostly take place in informal establishments, maintained Sanath Ukwatte, Immediate Past President of The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL). Plans are underway to convert them into formal establishments. Authorities must take a closer look into these places, most of whom accepted only cash payments and not credit cards.
“In formal establishments, the staff are trained to handle difficult situations,” he claimed. “This should be done in informal establishments too,” he said. It is important to welcome local tourists as they make up over 20% of the market.
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