Foreign exchange earnings

Earnings of foreign exchanger are vital for any country. For developed and developing countries tourism has become a major source of foreign exchange earnings.

Tourism has also become a generator of personal and corporate incomes. This Industry is a creator of employment opportunities for the youth in direct and indirect ways, and also a contributor to government revenues.

The volume of tourist activity on a global basis is unevenly distributed, with the majority of tourism arrivals occurring between developed countries because those countries have the rich people.

This trend illustrates the fact that tourism is enjoyed essentially by the residents of developed countries who have the necessary disposable incomes, available to spend on leisure time.

Airlines

More flights linking Indian cities with Colombo are prompting companies from Sri Lanka to build hotels in India, which can be sold as vacation destinations to European travelers.

Sri Lanka is a tourist destination which is convenient for travelers to fly as airlines are operating from major cities of the world twenty four hours of the day.

Even after the tsunami, the Sri Lanka expects 600,000 tourists to visit the island nation, known for its scenic beaches, ancient Buddhist sites and lush green hill resorts.

International tourism

The growth of tourism on an international scale has brought with it problems. However, tourism particularly related to its impact on societies and the natural environment.

The uncritical acceptance of the benefits of tourism prevalent began to give way to a more balanced approach to the role of tourism development, particularly related to its non-economic impacts.

Tourism policy makers and tourism planners began to include socio-economic and environmental factors in their area of work concerns about overdevelopment of coastal regions, poor resort planning, and links between tourism and prostitution in some Asian cities were all issues that were seen as negative features.

Tourism is connected with prostitution and child prostitution and it has created cultural and social problems which are disadvantageous of tourisms industry. Economic advantages were no longer the only criteria to support the development of tourism increasingly, development is linked to the concept of sustainability.

Rapid expansion of ecotourism

Rapid expansion and growth of ecotourism is a remarkable event. It is encouraging to note that ecotourism grew from a niche product, representing an extreme, idealized form of nature tourism, into a buzzword used to promote the country and a whole variety of tourism products.

Sri Lanka is an ideal tourist destination to grow in the area of ecotourism.The popularization of the ecotourism concept resulted in a rapid expansion of ecotourism operators, specialist eco-travel tour organizers and agents, eco-lodges, and in a significant advance in governments have to introduce ecotourism policies.

Growth of ecotourism

The growth of ecotourism resulted from two major factors.

Firstly, tourists have become more interested in experiencing in natural environment and have grown dissatisfied with traditional, crowded tourist centres and resorts.

Secondly, ecotourism has been assisted by improved infrastructure, an increased number of tour operators, widespread publicity, and recognition by many governments.

Ecotourism and economic opportunities

Tourism is an important sector to develop to derive the economic benefits fro the people of the country. There is a growing acceptance of links that exist between protection of ecosystems and economic opportunities emerging through tourism. These opportunites must be developed to find employment opportunities for the youth as well as to make valuable contribution to the national economy.

Increased interest in natural areas provided the authorities with a powerful incentive to protect the environment, as well as with the income from tourism to pay for conservation of environment. A part of the the revenue coming from the tourists must be utilized to protect the environment.

Many environmentalists and managers of tourism industy and nature reserves turned to ecotourism as a source of revenue for protected areas. This was part of a general realization of the need to improve the sustainability of all tourism.

Ecotourism as a product

Ecotourism now has become a product which has great demand from tourists all over the world. As a result, industry and governments, on the other hand, concentrate more on ecotourism as a product which has a potential market, whereby the image of a unique or pristine natural environment appeals to a growing sector of the international tourism market.

Tourists specially from european countries prefer to see the environment rather than commercial cities. The serene atmosphere cannot be found in the cities from which the most tourists are coming from.

In the present scenario, from a marketing perspective, ecotourism is sold as a specialty product, appealing largely to an up market, highly educated, and affluent traveler. Ecotourism, thus interpreted, may be ecologically based but is not always ecologically sound.