Tourism is not about numbers, but building a product that makes people come back
View(s):By Raj Moorthy
While Sri Lanka is seeing tourist numbers growing exponentially since the beginning of this year, mass tourism into national parks and forest reserves, harassment of wildlife species and illegal swimming with whales have made a huge impact on how the country is being reviewed on social media by guests globally.
This comments were made when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) organised its 10th serendipity knowledge programme on the title ‘Tourism and Biodiversity Conservation’ at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo.
Wilderness South Africa, Group Impact Manager, Vincent Shacks in his keynote address stated, “As a country you need to build a product that makes people feel to come back. Tourism impact is not just by bringing a high number of guests into a country for revenue purposes but the industry stakeholders should know what they should do and what they shouldn’t be doing.”
Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya speaking at the event. Pic by Indika Handuwala
“Sri Lanka needs to have long-term thinking, wildlife species product that we are dealing with is not manufactured, it is not made in a factory or it is not something that can be managed along financial needs, but something that needs to be managed for in the long term. The country’s tour operators, the private sector must get involved and show initiatives that are in the long term. There is a unique opportunity that Sri Lanka has and can leapfrog Africa, learn the lessons and create a wonderful product here. The country is sitting on an absolute gold mine,” added Mr. Shacks.
Conservationist and Environmentalist, Dr. Sumith Pilapitiya highlighted, “We need ecosystem services for development. Ecosystem services are greater in more biodiverse ecosystems. Biodiversity conservation must be made a development priority, not a conservation priority. For authorities to allocate adequate funding for biodiversity conservation, we have to show that we can earn more revenue to this country from tourism. Sri Lanka is a unique location for wildlife tourism.”
Dr. Pilapitiya stressed that Sri Lanka has encouraged mass tourism into the national parks and forest reserves; the danger is that the reviews are really bad. The parks are overcrowded, drivers are undisciplined, they drive too fast, and they harass wildlife, according to guests. “To attract tourism into the wildlife, we need to have a paradigm shift in the way we do wildlife tourism. We have to encourage more high-end tourists, and have a better quality of service rather than focus on the numbers coming in. While our targets are revenue targets, we should try and attract high quality tourists who value nature.”
Oceanswell, Founder and Executive Director, Asha De Vos highlighted, “No one knows the damage that is done to marine resources in our country. Sri Lanka has totally unmanaged whale watching and illegal swimming with whales which is a harassment of wildlife.” Authorities should first do a baseline assessment of what is out there? What are the challenges the marine life animals face? Do a carrying capacity assessment, she noted.
In his opening remarks ADB Sri Lanka, Resident Mission, Country Director, Takafumi Kadono revealed that ADB is preparing a project that finances the tourism space which will support actions to introduce reforms in the tourism sector to enhance resilience to shocks and strengthen institutions. This will potentially streamline decision-making so that the private sector can thrive. “Our investment component we have under this project will develop tourism amenities and conserve monuments in identifying destinations and we are hoping that we can table this to the tourism board by the end of the year.”
Mr. Kadono stated, “Our focus on supporting the country’s economic recovery started with technical assistance worth US$1.5 million that helped the tourism sector build resilience after the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent economic downturn. The technical assistance supported the diversification of tourism product performance by developing roadmaps and assisting the implementation of the new strategic action plan for recovery of the tourism sector.”
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