Sri Lanka Travel and Tourism

Foreign exchange earnings

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Tourism and environment

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With the development of tourism industry our cultural values and heritage msut be protected. Priority must be given to the protection of these sites of historical value than financial benefits.

The safeguard of the environment is an essential part of tourism development. Ecotourism is not significantly different from straight tourism unless it is carefully designed and managed.

In fact, isolated, wilderness ecotourism destinations are more helpless to negative impacts of tourism, as the natural environment and local communities tend to be relatively untouched with little experience of visitors.

Damage through disturbance from even the most environmentally friendly tourists can occur in addition to the impact that developing the necessary infrastructure inevitably has on visited communities.

Potential for tourism in Sri Lanka

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Tourism industry in Sri Lanka has great potentials. Sustainable forms of ecotourism depends greatly on planning and coordination between public and private sectors which connected to the industry.

There are so many factors to be taken into consideration. Such as local community consultation and environmental impact assessments, enforcing or legalizing codes of conduct for developers and codes of conduct for tourists. Continual monitoring of these factors and adjustment of policies are all necessary in order to maintain biodiversity, cultural integrity, and long-term economic benefits from the tourism industry in Sri Lanka.

Preserving and increasing the natural and cultural qualities of Sri Lanka is absolutely necessary and critical in ecotourism as these attractions are often rare if not unique as well as extremely weak.

Development of tourism industry

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During the last twenty years international tourists arrivals and tourism receipts in Sri Lanka had been weakening as compared to world tourism statistics and also compare with other tourist destinations in Asia such as India, Maldives and Thailand.

The continuing civil conflict had much to do with this trend but of same importance were arrangement issues pertaining to the type of product, services and facilities offered to tourists visiting the country.

Sri Lanka needs training facilities for the employers of tourism industry and investment is also necessary to develop the industry to face the competition from the other neighbouring countires like India and Maldives.

Holiday packages

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During the past main products were a package beach holidays attracting low cost low value tourists and market segments.

Current industry strategy has been changed and is now focusing on value addition by catering to rich markets and offering specialized products such as ecotourism, meetings, incentive travel, conventions , exhibitions adventure, Ayurveda and Spa tourism etc.

Substantial investment has also been made in recent years to resort hotels and hotel industry catering to tourists from european countries.

Benifits from Tourism

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Tourism has a particular potential in developing countries, which have a distinct advantage in possessing a wide range and high quality of attractive natural resources.

The benefits to a local economy are likely to be greater than those arising from conventional tourism and, as the emphasis is on nature, ecotourism provides an economic incentive for conservation.

Established ecotourism destination areas are thus located predominantly in developing countries but recent growth in ecotourism has included new areas such as Australia, and remote landscapes of the polar regions.

Well-developed destinations, such as Scotland, have also diversified into ecotourism with growth, for example, in whale and dolphin watching activities. Early ecotourism destinations such as Kenya, the Galápagos Islands, and Thailand have already suffered extensive impacts as a result of inadequate development controls and increased numbers of tourists.

World Tourism

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Tourism is the fastest growing industry in the world. The year 2006 showed an annual growth of 4.5% bringing the total number of international travelers upto million, while worldwide tourism revenue reached an all time high of USD 735 billion.

Recovery of tourism

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In the period of recovery following World War II, a combination of circumstances provided an impetus to international travel.

Among the important contributing factors were the growing number of people in employment, the increase in real disposable incomes and available leisure time, and changing social attitudes towards leisure and work.

These factors combined to stimulate the latent demand for foreign travel and holidays. The emergence of specialist tour operators who organized inclusive holidays by purchasing transport, accommodation, and related services and selling these at a single price, brought foreign holidays within the price-range of a new and growing group of consumers.

The “package” or “inclusive” tour democratized travel in Europe; foreign holidays were no longer the preserve of the affluent and socially elite classes.

History of Tourism

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Tourism can be recognized as long as people have traveled the narrative of Marco Polo in the 13th century; the grand tour of the British aristocracy to Europe in the 18th century; and the journeys of David Livingstone through Africa in the 19th century are all examples of early tourism.

Thomas Cook is popularly regarded as the founder of inclusive tours with his use of a chartered train in 1841 to transport tourists.

Before the 1950s, tourism in Europe was mainly a domestic activity with some international travel between countries, mainly within continental Europe.

Ecotourism

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This is the time for people who love nature to get together and come forward to press the governments to enact strict laws to preserve and safeguard natural resources and cultural sites around the world. Developing ecotourism against the conventional tourism industry is the solution.

In today’s competitive society people are stressed with the pattern of living as majority of the people concern only on the profits or financial gains. Ecotourism is an area where human mind can be healed to coexist with the nature and to live in harmony with the mother nature’s natural gifts.

There is a growing trend people of the world today shows much concern about the ecotourism. Specially environmentalists are much concerned on ecology, wild resources and local culture. Ecotourism focuses its attention on recycling of products to preserve natural assets. Clear example is wastage of papers is connected to destruction of trees which are much beneficial to the mankind as well as to the animals and plants.

When tourism industry is being developed, much attention to be focused on ecotourism. There is a clear difference between conventional tourism industry and ecotourism. It is a new dimension for the people who are living on this earth planet. It is reported that due to conventional tourism industry natural water resources are polluted.

Natural resources belong to the mankind and it is the duty of all people to preserve them for the future generations. With the development of ecotourism harmony and peace should go hand in hand in which people love to see the nature and natural resources. There are lot of criticism is in going on to say that conventional tourism industry is causing much harm to cultural values and destruction to the natural resources.

Conventional tourism industry is based on financial gains while ecotourism is based on preserving natural resources. It is utmost important to recognize the sites which have natural values and to be preserved for the future generations. Benefits of the development strategies of ecotourism should go directly to the people who are living in an around theses areas. There is potential in the ecotourism to generate more direct and indirect employment opportunities for the rural people.

We cannot consider ecotourism as an industry based on financial gains. Ecotourism will pave the way for peaceful harmonious living. Conventional tourism industry is making use of these natural resources for commercial purposes and forgets the essential aspect of safeguarding these sites for the future generation. It is a great relief for everybody to see that growth of ecotourism. Animal lovers should come forward against animals are being kept in cages for people to see without allowing them to live freely in the jungles and forests. Another option must be found for tourists to see the wild animals and for the people who love bird watching to see them in their natural surroundings.