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Sri Lanka a most popular tourist destination<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For centuries, Sri Lanka has been a popular place of attraction for\nforeign travellers, for various reasons. It is a world renowned destination for\nhistorical and archaeological significance, Buddhism linked with culture and\nhistorical sites of significance, natural beauty with forests plants and wild\nlife of most rare species of world heritage sites and monuments, beautiful\nwaterfalls and the network of rivers and historical water tanks spring from the\nbeautiful hill country namely little England akin to climate and beautiful\nsceneries in England, varied climatic\ncondition within hours in the developed network of roads reminding of the roads\nin Wales an Ireland are only a few attractions in addition to smiles of the\never friendly villager with a broad smile always. It has the all qualification\nto be the best and the last destination on tourism for a tourist searching for\nmany requirements such as greenery, beauty, best sandy glittering clean beaches\nwith shallow sea\/ river ( \u2018Polhena\u2019, \u2018Galle\u2019,\n\u2018Arugam bay\u2019 and many more) Dry zone with hot windy weather with beaches and\nwild life with number of wildlife sanctuaries, Up country named small England\nand reminds of Wales and Scotland where the network of rivers spring with the\nnumber of beautiful nonstop water falls around the hill country. Places archaeological\nsignificance are in abundance with proof of reminders in various eras and\ndynasties of Kings from King Asoka onwards coming down to the last king who was\nforced to surrender in 1796. Sea is rough round the island with shallow and at\ntimes bit rough for surfing and ferocious streams for raft playing. Tea Estates\nwhich are commercial plants are beautiful with nice sceneries ideal tourist\ndestination to see and enjoy as holiday homes which are not exploited by the tourism\nsector. Hot water wells and North and East are attractive to the tourist and\ntourism also not properly exploited. Sri Lanka could and should make tourism\nthe main income earner as she has every ingredients to be the best destination\nusing the natural resources beauty and all other conditions favourable to be a\nparadise for tourists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many visited and spoke of Sri Lanka for generations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Chinese traveller \u2018Fa-Hian\u2019 \u2013 Buddhist monk visited Sri Lanka as early\nas 410s AD and in the 12th<\/sup> contrary with a group of other minks and\nstayed in Sri Lanka on a study mission where he made many noted on Sri Lanka\nand Buddhism. Italian explorer Marko Polo claimed Sri Lanka to be the best\ndestination for tourists and tourism. In 2015 Sri Lankan capital Colombo was\nthe world\u2019s fasted growing tourist city in the world. Many have written on Sri\nLanka which is known to the world as a best destination and continue to be and\nit is our duty to maintain and enhance learning from mistakes and the world\ntends of tourism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Well documented<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sri Lanka and tourism is well known and well documented, lonely planet\nselecting as the best destination on the globe for tourism, despite adverse comments\nand clarifications required to eradicate misinformation Sri Lanka on steps\ntaken to wipe off the most fearful and\ndangerous terrorist outfit for ever, thereafter introducing law and order,\npeace, creating a haven for tourists and tourism with comparatively reasonable\nconsumer items and excellent network of hotels and restaurants and guest houses\nto cater all strata of tourists. Success of tourism depends on the attitude of\nthe people and the nation as a whole on the rest of the world now linked so\nclose on modern technology. It is our duty to make use of the modern trends for\nthe documentation process of tourism promotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are still lagging behind<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When compared to our other competing destinations with less glamour\nbeauty and resources, we are still lagging behind due to various reasons we are\nable to take corrective measures and improve on. For example the UAE with less\nnatural beauty resources and ingredients for tourism, she is a leading world\ntourist destination and a Hub in the Middle East attracting a large influx of\ntourists. Fortunately they have oil explored in 1960 which they vey wisely\ninvested using the geographical situation creating a Naval, Air and Business\nHub linked to tourism providing facilities but with meagre natural beauty and\nresources as ours. Same is mentioned in many other destinations flourishing in successful\ntourism. It is time for us to learn from mistakes, others, and our own\nexperiences to aim to be the best global destination with a new vision, plan\nand vigour fighting the challenges of corona and world downward trends on draw\nbacks on economy and other issues against forward trends. We have to learn a\nlot on small Singapore doing so well in trade and tourism using all resources\nin the tiny land using all modern ethnics and technics. Any visitor is\nfurnished with all necessary information including the way of life consumer\nitems places of interest and protective measures, which carries a long way to\nmake them in of the best tourist attractions linked to trace and business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Must draw up a new plan of action<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We must draw up a new plan and a strategy considering, the challenges,\ndrawbacks and the future needs exploiting our resources and competence as a\ngroup to promote tourism to lift it to the 21st<\/sup> century as it is\ngoing to be our future and future hopes to promote tourism we have been gifted\nwith our own free resources when other destinations are compelled to create\nartificial environments and needs for tourists and tourism. It is not only the\nhotels and other facilities that are needed to attract tourists to a country.\nWe as hosts will have to look into and after all the needs of the visitors to\ntheir liking from the time the visitor plans to find a destination. It is\nessential on our part to publicise our destination to the best based on the\nmodern digital age. Our publicity is on some standard and the internet and the\nmedia is fairly well equipped requiring final touches and fine tuning to face\nthe digital age. Let us draw up a modern publicity platform with innovative\nnovelties giving all the details in modern and attractive novel way. We must\ndevelop a tourism regime like the employment programme in Philippine where 30%\npopulation is overseas in employment where the country has planned the population\nfor future employment worldwide. In the same way we have to train and develop\nour talents on tourism and transform the system to adopt to new trends of\ntourism without disturbing our culture, way of life and outlook which is a\ntourist attraction. Singapore is taking attempts to create artificial\nwaterfalls and greenery due to the geographical situation when Sri Lanka is so\nfortunate to possess the best natural and gifted environments. Our young is\nwell mannered friendly and educated lacking knowledge of English the Philippine\nyoung has bypassed us leading the employment and tourism sector worldwide. It\nis time for us to learn from other and our mistakes and weaknesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Situation in the country is not so satisfactory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Situation of the country should be to the liking and satisfaction of the\nvisitor who has chosen the destination for some reason of is choice. It could\nbe media, publicity, culture, religion, scenery and beauty of the country and\nmany more one or more reasons. We must have proper and trained tour assistances\nwho will identify the needs and cater the needs to the satisfaction till the\nend of the tour and thereafter to narrate the good news to the word over. Tour\nguide is to be trained, pleasant, knowledgeable honest and registered guided\nand supervised by the tourist authorities and the tourist police which is set\nup for safetyman confidence. Tourist schools to be streamlined monitored and\nhave full supervision from the government and the tourist ministry based on the\ncriteria adopted by other competing nations. The state must give special\nemphasis and attention on the law and order situation in the country to give\nprotection and confidence to the visiting friends we are bound protect and look\nafter. Media must be careful on reporting the matters regarding tourists and\ntourism always considering the good name and good will of the country and the\nreputation of Sri Lanka and world over. Law and order must be streamlined and\ngiven priority to give a sense of protection to everybody including the visitors,\ndepending the security forces and the citizens for their protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resources of countries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many countries have own resources of income for them based on natural\nresources, ability of the citizen, or sources of income with always tourism is\ngiven prominence as a main or a subsidiary income of the nation. For example\nour friendly nation Israel is an agricultural country as a leader on\nagriculture and an innovative nation with leaders on modern technology,\nfighting with neighbours right round yet promoting and giving tourism top\npriority as an income generating process. Tourist arrive as it is a historical\ncountry with historical background, the country has exploited careful to\npromote the nation as a tourist destination. This is only an example many other\ncountries worldwide promoting their countries tourism as a main or a subsidiary\nincome. Israel is concerned and careful of their safety and safety of the\nvisitors in addition to providing the services as hosts of the tourists. We are\nin a learning process rom others whilst improving ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Needs of\/for tourists<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us consider the needs and requirements of a tourist visited to our\ncountry, having spent a substantial sum. It could be to see the beauty such as\nwater falls as described in broachers, to visit the sites of historical\nsignificance having heard from books or libraries, enjoy the beautiful beaches\nseen in books and images connected to swimming, surfing, fishing, or whale\nwatching, learn on Buddhism and seeing the historical temples such as the\ntemple of tooth, or any other one or more reasons known to himself and the\ngroup. Majority of tourists plan out the visit either by himself or a tour\nagent finding the most wanted and loved attractions of their choice and liking.\nFinding a reliable tour agent, places of stay, travel advice on sites,\nsecurity, and the budgeting are main feathers of planning making arrangements\non the explorations. There are so many areas and aspects to be looked into such\nas medical conditions of the hosts and their needs, making preliminary\narrangements of sightseeing on meeting people making prior appointments, are\nlist of issues to be looked into. We need genuine tourists who are not parasites\nsuch as some who visit to exploit the goodwill of the people and sometime\nengaged in illegal trades. The state must be careful in monitoring tourist\ninflux and it is a good idea to maintain proper and detailed records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Safe and friendly environment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Hosts expects a safe and friendly environment from the arrival and the\nofficers including immigration, airlines, and support staff should be with a\nsmiling face and ever prepared to assist in all the areas of need. Broachers\nshould be in English and preferable in many other languages in detail educating\nthe hosts on the visiting country, culture, way of life, and places of interest\nin detail. In Singapore the brother consists of basic laws including consumer\nlaw and procedure, all details on health and precautionary measures, I n detail\nin simple language and the guidance and procedure is so simple with friendly\nnature of the staff in the visiting country. In Sri Lanka the visiting friends\nare troubled by taxi drivers, touts and many others pleading and pressurising\nthem with requests, demands in the guise of assistance discouraging the\nvisiting tourists at the entry with fear physics and sense of danger and\nuncomfortable feeling which has to be avoided in the name of tourism and\ngoodwill of the country. There are horrifying stores of taxi drivers harassing\nforeign and Sri Lankan passengers on return, with no proper remedy despite many\nunpleasant and dangerous incidents published on the media often gives drastic\neffects to the industry and the image of the country appear to \nbe simple but complicate in terms of reputation and goodwill of the\ncountry. These are not unknown to the administration which has been given a\nblind eye for reasons one cannot understand other than sheer ignorance\ninefficiency and bad management. The environment has to be please clean\nattractive and orderly. Is it so in the Airport? In the eye of a frequent\ntraveller entering the airport with lot of hopes and pleasant feelings.\nAdvertisements and notices must be meaningful understanding and attractive.\nSome time ago there a massive notice giving the exhibiting fine for an offence\nshown to the visitors among whose there may or may not be a rare traveller when\nthe message could have been transmitted in a more gentle way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Duty of the host country<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is the duty of the host country to look into all aspects of the\nvisitor in detail whoever is the invitee and the guardian or the guide as the\nhost country is expected to supervise the professional work expected to be\nperformed by the private or the state sector, as the blame always on the host\ncountry for mismanagement. There should be a separate tourist police and\nofficers for the safety of the visitors, who are in the hands and custody of\nthe local staff never mind who they are with. In many other tourist countries\nthe tourist police seems to be active and do not seem function in Sri Lanka at\nall. These are not matters something new to the industry, but the blame is on\nleaders of industry who are responsible, and if they cannot perform they must\nhonourable leave leaving a more efficient person to manage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consumer Items<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Standards of Consumer items food and restaurants and hotels the visitors\nused must be of the highest quality or if this cannot be maintained we must\ngive up tourist trade as failures. Tourist heads must agree with the Consumer\nAuthority, Standards Bureau, Local Authorities, Public health Inspectors, and\nall chains of hotels and restaurants \ncountrywide to give healthy food\nat a price may be difference of prices to visitors with a more strong buying\npower prepared to pay more. Implementation of these regulations will help even\nthe local citizens awaiting the law and order to be implemented. Campaign\nagainst junk food, cola and unhygienic drinks, and generally junk food\navailable mostly in leading sophisticated food chains must be monitored\nprotecting visitors and locals equally in terms of long term prevention and\nprotection health of all is a paramount necessity especially when we are in the\nmost dangerous era on Covid-19 Pandemic leading the nation and the world\nnowhere with o hopes or an end in the near future and living on hopes, but the\nfact remains that we have to live with it for an unknown unlimited period and\nwe must get ready to love with it with necessary adaptations and adjustments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Environment disasters <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It is sad we are destructive and destroy our environment on sand mining,\ndeforestation, in many other ways in small an large scale sometimes with\npatronage from the errant government servants in the parole of the\nperpetrators\u2019 on destroying our environment. For us to be on top in tourism we\nmust give priority to environment but informational it is not given priority\nlike in other countries which is sad to note. How could we prosper when our\nforest is destroyed and sand mining is taking place at a terrible rate\ndestroying our river banks and damaging the forests on high lands which is the\nsource of water?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Live with Covid 19 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We have to live with covid 19 for an unknown period and it is time to\nget used to and learn with it giving priority to tourism as well as our income\nis say by day declining. The situation in the world including the world powers\nand our immediate neighbour India and\nthe counties are day by day declining with increase of deaths and number of\npatients to the highest levels\nuncontrolled by all measure as sadly shown on the TV images in India with the\nwarning to Sri Lanka to be careful reaching us across boarders and via other\nmedia such as cargo, import export and the movement of human with no order and\nrestrictions as seen on the images and warnings by the security forces ever\nstruggling with the unruly bombs disobeying the basic instructions so easy to\nfollow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Religion, Culture, crafts and such traditional trades and arts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sri Lanka is full of cultural, religious places and full of traditional learnings\nwill be an attractive and a productive areas in promotion of tourism and\npromotion of traditional skills especially in rural areas. \u2018\u2019Tovil\u2019\u2019 (devil\ndancing) and traditional plays are well known to the world and there is a\ndemand and need to learn the process by cultural groups worldwide linked to\ntourism. Religious tourism will have a main roll on sightseeing of religious\nplaces of worship and learning the religion Buddhism being the most fast\nspreading religion in Europe and many parts of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Law and Procedure on Tourism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tourist board act no 10 of 1966, and tourist development act no 14 of\n1968 are followed by the act no 38 of 2005 in force is to be amended in due\ncourse with current proposals. Do we need change of law and whether change of\nlaw will improve tourism are matters to be considered by the Minister in charge\nand the governance considering tourism is going to be the main source of income\nand the image building we are desperately in need of. Following entities are\nset up under the current legislature for the management of the tourist\nindustry. SLTDA Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority SLITHM Sri Lanka Institute\nof tourism and hotel management, SLTPB SLCB Sri Lanka tourism Promotion Bureau\nSLCB Sri Lanka Convention Bureau <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each Bodies would have a- A chairman b-director general c-Manager\nDirector\/Chief Executive Board Members and Private Sector and government\nrepresentatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tourism Development Fund will consist of 1\/3 of airport embark<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Let levies collected from the industry with voluntary payments too and\nthe income be dispersed among four institutions. Fourteen years of existence of\nthe act has not shown improvements and there are opinions of duplication of\nmatters among the institutions, and there are fears that the act is not\nproperly implemented with the feeling that the private secrtor participation is\nminimal. There are improvements which are minimal such as increase of 24,451\nrooms of 5.6 billion investments with 6% GDP of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Embassies international community and tourism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sri Lankan Embassies are the forerunners of the nation and it is the\nduty of the Ambassadors and staff to take charge of tourism along with the\ndevelopments based on economic diplomacy which other countries have given\npriority to. Every embassy must have a tourist desk and all other sectors\nshould come under the preview of the Ambassador as the representative of the\nPresident and the nation. Needless to say it is the duty of the Ambassador\u2019s\nforum to help the process and the nation in all sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Way forward<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Where have we gone wrong\/ and what should be\nour way out to emerge victorious on tourism with which we can go forward to the\nhighest echelons in the world economy. Let us be frank and realistic in life.\nWe have gone wrong badly in strategy, management, and absence of proper way\nforward full of corruption and inefficiency considering inefficiency is\ncorruption in that of the tourist leadership feels they have failed it is the\nduty of the head or heads to vacate forthwith to avoid being called corrupt and\nincompetence. In the competing world with many competitors in the world\nreminding us of the adage that we are not the only beautiful girl on the beach.\nThailand, Vietnam, UAE, Israel, are some who have bypassed us with less or no\nresources and beauty that we possess. These statements may not be palatable but\nthe truth is to be said for the betterment of all and the nation. Israel has no\nresources except the human resources. We have resources not second to any other\nnation in the globe which we have not exploited. UAE is sandy baron land using\ndesert for sand safari. Vietnam and Israel make use the tragedies\u2019 they have undergone to attract tourists.\nNepal uses Himalaya, Bhutan religion and simplicity, India vast places of\ninterest, Maldives shallow sea, Israel places of historical and religious\nsignificance, UK the developments and historical aspects including the Royals,\nFrance \u2018\u2019Ifal Tower\u2019\u2019 and places of historical significance, and Sri Lanka \u2013\nWhat haven\u2019t we got to show the world of tourism?. It is sheer incompetence,\nlack of innovativeness, lack of strategies, planning and exploration. The words\nmay not be palatable but may be productive and useful in the long run for the\nbetterment of the nation. If wrong please correct and suggest a proper way out.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sarath Wijesinghe President\u2019s Counsel and former Ambassador to UAE and Israel President Ambassador\u2019s Forum Jeff Goonawardena \u2013 former Counsel General \u00a0-Managing director Tilanka Group of Hotels (International)-Joint Secretary Ambassador\u2019s Forum. Sri Lanka a most popular tourist destination For centuries, Sri Lanka has been a popular place of attraction for foreign travellers, for various reasons. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sarath-wijesinghe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}