Tourism in Sri Lanka

Tourism in Sri Lanka 1. Sri Lanka is an island country and god has given to Sri Lanka blessings of nature blue seas, green hills, sandy beaches, abundant wildlife, cascading waterfalls, a riot of flowers and fruits, coconut groves, tea estates, spice gardens. Here ones day can be gloriously lazy by a palm cool lagoon or full of joy, swimming, snorkeling, and fishing or sailing like a brilliant jewel in the sparkling waters of the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka is located in a strategically considered naval spot on the world map. This significant situation creates a path for a major sea route. In addition it creates a strategic naval link between West Asia, Africa and East Asia. Sri Lanka entered the international tourism arena in the 1960s. Since then, government involvement has been the key factor in tourism development in Sri Lanka. The Ceylon Tourist Board (CTB) was established in 1966 in order to provide direction and leadership to this promising sector of the developing economy. The country is famous for h ealthy and cultural heritage. Hospitality, tropical forests, natural and fascinating beaches, archeological sites and the tropical climate are the more attractive features. These factors make Sri Lanka a wonderful tourist destination. Over the years tourism in Sri Lanka has developed significantly. Today tourism has become the sixth Foreign Exchange Earner (FEE) in Sri Lankan economy. 2. Tourism can make a great impact on development of the Sri Lankan economy. Tourism is a fast growing industry which has been identified presently. Employment opportunities and regional development are playing significant role with regard to the tourism industry development. It can be considered as the most important industry in the country as a whole. The governments vision is to make the tourism sector as Sri Lankas most innovative and profitable income generating source. 3. During past three decades Sri Lankas tourism industry had few draw backs. This was mainly due to the security situation which prevailed in the country. Further the tourism industry was also affected due to the Tsunami catastrophe which occurred in 2004. Approximately 2/3rd of the coastal area including tourist infrastructure facilities was destroyed. The immediate post war period gave rise to a dramatic increase of tourist arrival from end May 2009. 4. In order to support the efforts and to develop the tourism sector in Sri Lanka there should be hotels with exclusive facilities which are in par with the international standards to accommodate a large number of visitors. In the year 2010 approximately one million tourists visited Sri Lanka. Unlike in the past, the inflow of tourists is increasing day by day as a result of the end of the 30 year civil war which destroys the whole country. Following graph indicates how tourism increased from 1966 to 2011 in Sri Lanka. The government is expected to receive 2.5 million tourists in 2016. To cater for this increase tourist hotels in Sri Lanka must be developed. Similarly other facilities should also be increased to meet the desired economic goals. AIM 5. The aim of this paper is to analyze the development of Sri Lanka tourism -challenges and opportunities GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE OF SRI LANKA 6. Sir Lanka has a various terrain but it mainly consists of flat lands but south-central portion of the countrys step sided river, canyons interior features and mountain. The flatter regions are the areas where most of Sri Lankas agriculture takes place, aside from coconut farms along the coast. Sri Lankas climate is tropical and the southwestern part of the island is the wettest. . The northeastern part of Sri Lanka is drier and most of its rain falls from December to February. Most of the rain in the southwest falls from April to June and October to November Sri Lankas average yearly temperature is around 86 °F to 91 °F. An important geographic note about Sri Lanka is its position in the Indian Ocean, which made it vulnerable to one of the worlds largest natural disasters. On December, 26, 2004, it was struck by large tsunami that hit 12 Asian countries. Around 38,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed during this incident and much of Sri Lankas coast was destroyed. 7. Sri Lanka is situated in strategic location near major Indian Ocean sea lanes. It has a total area of 65,610 km ², with 64,740 km ² of land and 870 km ² of water. Its coastline is 1,340 km long. Sri Lankas climate includes tropical monsoons: the southwest monsoon (June to October) and the northeast monsoon (December to March), its terrain is mostly low, flat to undulating plain, with mountains in the south-central interior. The highest point is Pidurutalagala at 2,524.13 m. Resource include limestone, mineral sands, gems, graphite, phosphates, clay, and hydropower. 8. Adams Bridge, a land connection to the Indian mainland, is now mostly underwater with only a chain of limestone shoals remaining above sea level. According to temple records, this natural causeway was previously complete, but was breached by a violent storm (probably a cyclone) in 1480. SRI LANKAS COMMITMENT TO TOURISM 9. Tourism is a vital area in the policy structure has been identified as capable of efficiently driving the countrys socio economic development. The programmes vision for the tourism sector is to make Sri Lanka foremost freedom destination in the South Asian Region. The programme believes the human resources and natural and cultural endowments values and nation will be essential in transforming Sri Lanka into a centre of excellence and offer tourists the highest values of real experiences in its unique setting. 10 The One Stop Unit Unit for National Investment in Tourism is a Centralized promotion and facilitation center Established Thurs assist potential tourism investors interested in investing in Sri Lanka Tourism Industry. Specialist staff from various government agencies helps investors Identify possible projects, Obtain information possible, Regarding Investments, submit applications, and Provide support in obtaining investment promotion privileges, trade licenses and other approvals Requested for project clearance. OSU Prevents the need for investors Thurs spend time in search of answers and ensures all queries are handled by its specialist staff. 11. Serious civil disturbances starting in July 1983 and the subsequent violence badly affected tourism. Total arrivals were 230,106 in 1986, down 43 percent from 1982. To ease the dilemma of the industry, the government provided various concessions to hotels, such as the rescheduling of loans and the reduction of the turnover tax from 10 percent to 5 percent. The Ceylon Tourist Board also undertook a crash promotion program in an attempt to restore the islands image in world tourist markets. Tourist arrivals in the first six months of 1987, however, showed a decline of 23 percent compared with the same period the previous year. In early 1988, the outlook was for further contraction. 12. In 1988 it remained unclear whether the policies of economic liberalization Sri Lanka has pursued since 1977 would succeed in their principal goals of employment, wealth creation, and economic diversification. Although increased rice production, the growth of textile manufacturing, and an improved infrastructure were successes that could be attributed to the post-1977 policies, these gains came at the cost of a mounting foreign and domestic debt and declining living standards for the poor. POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT TOWARDS TOURISM 13. The One Stop Unit Unit for National Investment in Tourism is a Centralized promotion and facilitation center Established Thurs assist potential tourism investors interested in investing in Sri Lanka Tourism Industry. Specialist staff from various government agencies helps investors Identify possible projects, Obtain information possible, Regarding Investments, submit applications, and Provide support in obtaining investment promotion privileges, trade licenses and other approvals Requested for project clearance. OSU Prevents the need for investors Thurs spend time in search of answers and ensures all queries are handled by its specialist staff. 14. Serious civil disturbances starting in July 1983 and the subsequent violence badly affected tourism. Total arrivals were 230,106 in 1986, down 43 percent from 1982. To ease the dilemma of the industry, the government provided various concessions to hotels, such as the rescheduling of loans and the reduction of the turnover tax from 10 percent to 5 percent. The Ceylon Tourist Board also undertook a crash promotion program in an attempt to restore the islands image in world tourist markets. Tourist arrivals in the first six months of 1987, however, showed a decline of 23 percent compared with the same period the previous year. In early 1988, the outlook was for further contraction. 15. In 1988 it remained unclear whether the policies of economic liberalization Sri Lanka has pursued since 1977 would succeed in their principal goals of employment, wealth creation, and economic diversification. Although increased rice production, the growth of textile manufacturing, and an improved infrastructure were successes that could be attributed to the post-1977 policies, these gains came at the cost of a mounting foreign and domestic debt and declining living standards for the poor. PROMOTION OF TOURISM INVESTMENT 16. The Board of Investment has introduced incentives in the form of tax exemptions, duty-free imports and the relaxation of controls on foreign exchange holdings. The incentives provided by the government have mainly attracted investment in the hotel sector. The present hotel capacity is 13,670 rooms. That figure is projected to increase to 21,000 rooms by 2004, which will accommodate the target of 1 million tourists. Five regional domestic airports to be restructured at a total cost of approx. Rs. 2bn: Rathmalana, Koggala ,Ampara , Trincomalee Jaffna (Rathmalana will be developed as a City Airport) Previous year. This denotes that tourism industry is one of the core sources of foreign exchange earner in economy of Sri Lanka. Due to the development of tourism improved accessibility via new highways and conversion of military to domestic airports may make high-end hotels in the Deep South and the East of Sri Lanka viable alternatives to the Galle area. OPPORTUNITIES FOR TOURISM INDUSTRY 17. Tourism directly affected to economy of a country. The momentum of growth in tourism, as result of the post conflict peaceful environment, the tourist arrivals grew to 654,476 in 2010 surpassing the previous record of 566,202 in 2004. Tourist nights one of an important indicator in measuring the volume of tourist traffic, has recorded 6, 544, 760 in 2010. It shows 60.6 per cent increase compared to 2009. Total receipts in 2010 amounted to US $ 575.9 million as against US $ 349.3 million recorded for the year 2009. It indicates a vast increase of 64.9 per cent than THREATS FOR TOURISM INDUSTRY 18. Development of tourist hotels in Sri Lanka will extremely support the rapid economic development. Developments of tourist hotels, increase room capacities, increase occupancy rates and develop the condition of rooms and upgrade the service provided in the hotels are the key factors to be mainly focused on if to develop tourism. It indeed contributes to the development of tourism and in turn development of economy of the country. Tourist hotel industry should be developed in most of the famous city for tourism with sufficient amount of tourist hotels 19. As political risk introduces additional elements of uncertainty into the rules governing tourism investment projects, the risk of capital loss is raised for longer- term projects. Political risk also negatively influences the timing and pricing of the tourism production process. Negative images, lack of foreign exchange for tourism development, lack of skilled manpower, weak institutional frameworks for tourism planning, political instability caused by communal violence, civil war conflicts are inhibitors to tourism development. However, little is known about how international tourism firms perceive political risks and other general barriers and threats to tourism promotion in Sri Lanka. 20. Common political factors which affect the tourism industry are revolution, civil war, factional conflict, ethnic violence, religious turmoil, widespread riots, terrorism, nationwide strikes, protests, cross- national guerrilla warfare, world public opinion, repatriation restrictions, bureaucratic politics, leadership struggle, high inflation, border conflicts, high external debt service ratio and creeping nationalization. Last thirty years Sri Lanka also faced the civil war and it affected the tourism industry of Sri Lanka. Organizing elections frequently also create threat to the tourism industry because during the election period in some places to control the situation cur hews are implemented. 21. This will create negative image in the mind of tourists. Some of the foreign countries have reject Sri Lankas products in their country due to the violation of human rights during the war time. For example government invested and spent on IIFA programme but it was not a successful event for Sri Lanka because the big stars have boycotted the event. They didnt visit Sri Lanka because of the protests held in their country by asking them not to visit the place. Currently Sri Lanka is having negative relationship with some foreign countries therefore the export and import of Sri Lankan products will be decreased and it affects the tourism industry as well. FUTURE TRENDS, CHALLENGES 22. Source markets in Asia and Middle East to drive demand: Sri Lankas proximity to source markets such as India and its connectivity to the Middle East and China will help in sustaining tourism growth. The rise in per capita income and therefore consumer spending in these source markets will aid the growth in tourism. 23. Infrastructure growth to fuel tourism growth: To ensure rapid growth of tourism in the future, tourism projects will need to be balance with infrastructure development. We expect that with improvements in road infrastructure and development of the new airport in Hambantota, various new destinations will emerge in the country, especially to the north and the east, as these areas have abundant natural beauty to attract tourists but currently suffer from poor connectivity. We expect more airlines to operate in the country as the second airport develops. 24. Greater competition will facilitate growth: We also expect greater competition with the introduction of new hotels in popular destinations such as Colombo, Kandy, Bentota, and Sigiriya, and Galle. We expect the existing hotels to undertake phased renovations to effectively compete with the upcoming hotels. Also, with the increase in income from hotels over the past few years, we expect an increase in the number of hospitality related transactions and mergers and acquisitions. 25. Challenge of attrition to other destinations: Currently, the hotel industry witnesss significant employee attrition to countries in the Middle East and to the Maldives and India. However, with a more stable political environment and improvement in quality of living in Sri Lanka, we expect the attrition to gradually 26. Shortage of skilled labor: As new players enter the market, the projected growth in tourism will be accompanied by shortage of skilled labour. We anticipate the need for relive hospitality education institutions as the contribution of the tourism sector to the overall economy increases. SUMMARY 27. Sri Lanka is located in a strategically considered naval spot on the world map. Sri Lanka entered the international tourism arena in the 1960s. Since then, government involvement has been the key factor in tourism development in Sri Lanka. Over the years tourism in Sri Lanka has developed significantly. Today tourism has become the sixth Foreign Exchange Earner (FEE) in Sri Lankan economy.Tourism can make a great impact on development of the Sri Lankan economy. Employment opportunities and regional development are playing significant role with regard to the tourism industry development. The governments vision is to make the tourism sector as Sri Lankas most innovative and profitable income generating source. 28. During past three decades Sri Lankas tourism industry had few draw backs. In the year 2010 approximately one million tourists visited Sri Lanka. Following graph indicates how tourism increased from 1966 to 2011 in Sri Lanka. To cater for this increase tourist hotels in Sri Lanka must be developed. Sri Lankas climate is tropical and the southwestern part of the island is the wettest. . Around 38,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed during this incident and much of Sri Lankas coast was destroyed. 29. Total arrivals were 230,106 in 1986, down 43 percent from 1982. The Ceylon Tourist Board also undertook a crash promotion program in an attempt to restore the islands image in world tourist markets. This denotes that tourism industry is one of the core sources of foreign exchange earner in economy of Sri Lanka. Tourism directly affected to economy of a country. Development of tourist hotels in Sri Lanka will extremely support the rapid economic development. Developments of tourist hotels, increase room capacities, increase occupancy rates and develop the condition of rooms and upgrade the service provided in the hotels are the key factors to be mainly focused on if to develop tourism. Tourist hotel industry should be developed in most of the famous city for tourism with sufficient amount of tourist hotels 30. Negative images, lack of foreign exchange for tourism development, lack of skilled manpower, weak institutional frameworks for tourism planning, political instability caused by communal violence, civil war conflicts are inhibitors to tourism development. However, little is known about how international tourism firms perceive political risks and other general barriers and threats to tourism promotion in Sri Lanka. 31. Last thirty years Sri Lanka also faced the civil war and it affected the tourism industry of country. Some of the foreign countries have reject Sri Lankas products in their country due to the violation of human rights during the war time. Currently Sri Lanka is having negative relationship with some foreign countries therefore the export and import of Sri Lankan products will be decreased and it affects the tourism industry as well. 32. Sri Lankas proximity to source markets such as India and its connectivity to the Middle East and China will help in sustaining tourism growth. To ensure rapid growth of tourism in the future, tourism projects will need to be balance with infrastructure development. We expect the existing hotels to undertake phased renovations to effectively compete with the upcoming hotels. We also expect the hotel companies, especially the domestic companies located in the country to undertake long and medium term hospitality training programs and regularly undertake competition benchmarking for compensation to retain the talent. RECCOMONDATIONS 33. These are the recommendations which we can produce in related to tourism. Develop a marketing strategy: Emphasizing the creation and sustaining of a positive image of Sri Lanka as a substantive and well-established tourist destination offering facilities experiences that are distinct Sri Lankan products. Establish a domestic tourism strategy: To expand the existing product base and encourage a greater level of holiday movements in addition to pilgrim movements. Develop goods and services: To meet the increasing needs of the tourism industry, and thus optimize the economic benefit of tourism development to Sri Lanka. Modify the organization of tourism activities: In order to bring about related improvements in the private sector, increase coordination between tourism and interrelated sectors, and introduce streamlining to facilitate the development of the tourism sector. Emphasize the environmental, social and cultural aspects: Tourism Development Planning is the only way to solve many issues related to tourism in development. Therefore the tourism planning process should be designed to produce goals and objectives for the destination area related to tourism development. The tourism development plan provides overall guidelines for development and identifies development opportunities. Many development countries are involved in tourism planning. Financial Assistance: Financial assistance for hotel owners and any other profession in tourist sector would help to create more employment opportunities. Domestic Airport: Airport also more than 100 km away from the tourist destination it is needed have domestic airports. Surfing Training: This will create more employment opportunities and generate good income. Among the tourists there are some people they love for surfing and keen to learn. Conduct Language Teaching: Language barrier should be overcome by conducting specially job oriented language training. Employ Combat Divers: Surfing is risky and adventure sport it dont take much time for some to happen therefore as precautionary measure it is needed some combat divers close to the surfing area it would enhance the confidence of people who do surfing. Proper Taxi Service: Taxi service should be reformed introducing good vehicles fixed with meter system and giving training for drivers. Improve Infrastructure Facilities: Infrastructure facilities such as Power, Highways, Railways, Airports, Ports, Water Supply, Telecommunications, Accommodations, and Recreational, Shopping and Banking to be improved. Awareness Programs: Tourists should be informed on specific social, cultural and religious environment programmed. GAD ALWIS SLE Maj STUDENT OFFICER -DSCSC

Describe Scene Essay

Cameran Highlands is accessible by road. Cameran Highlands is about a 3 hours drive either from KL or Penang Its strategic location makes it a favourite weekened escape for cityfolk/ city-dwellers from all over the coutry. It is a popular haunt for both local and foreign tourists to let their hair down. For those who are faint-heated the ride along the steep, narrow roads can be quite an unnerving experience as there are numerous hairpin bends along the route from Simpang Pulai. After about a three-hour ride in Dad’s Pajero, we finally reached Kampung Raja. We could feel the goose-pimples on our arms. We had to put on our jackets to keep ourselves warm. Standing about 1400 metres above sea level, this hill resort is certainly an ideal retreat for city dwellers like us who long to get away from scorching tropical heat. Besides, its high altitude together with its invigorating coolness will leave a person refreshed and is the ideal place for the rat-race and the hustle and bustl e of city life. Read Also:Â  Descriptive Essay Rubric On our journey to Tanah Rata, we stopped at a scenic lake. Although the chilly weather and freezing water will make us to think twice about whether or not to don our swimming wear, we can enjoy the solitude of nature with only the swish swashing of the gurgling water to disturd us. Thus, in spite of the cold weather, my little sister, my brother and I could not resist the urge to jump into the water and splash around. Hardly a minute in the ice cold water and we were out again, teeth chattering. At Tanah rata, we checked into a motel. As soon as we had dumped our luggage in our rooms, we went out again. The street in which our motel was situated had a fine vista of a sprawling town against a backdrop of lush greenery. At that moment , We felt ravenously hungry, Hence, we settled for a sumptuous meal of nasi kandar. Undeniably, the number of eateries that have sprung up is indeed alarming. Satiated, we turned in for the night. We put on the appropriate gear and headed for Gunung Beremban for an hour of jungle-trekking. Hikers will certainly enjoy traversing the jungle paths, for they are well-maintained and easy to follow. If you find the jungle trails a little monotonous, the blossoms of brightly coloured wild flowers along the way will provide an interesting diversion. My mother, who is extremely afraid of heights, was soon down on all fours, not daring to look down and yelling at the top of her voice. It was such a rib-tickling sight. Our next destination was a tea plantation.

According to Great Expectations Essay

As a mother figure, we would expect her to be a stereotypical Victorian Woman. Not only would she have to do all the domestic work, but also care and nurture her children, or in this case Pip. However, this is not quite the case with Mrs Joe. In many cases, when a mother brings up her child â€Å"by hand,† she would care and nurture for her child with a lot of love. Mrs Joe however, has adopted a different style of bringing up Pip, â€Å"by hand†. She hits and slaps Pip, to bring him into line, and there is no evidence in the story that shows Mrs Joe loves Pip like she is expected to. This distant relationship is shown in the above quote. As Mrs Joe has an apron full of needles and pins, Pip cannot get close to her physically, and so this image of a young child clinging to its mother’s apron, is lost. This shows that as a woman in the Victorian times, this expectation of caring and nurturing your child with love is highly expected, but Dickens’ has created a character that has completely overturned any expectation. As mentioned before, the image of a Victorian Woman is very stereotypical, but in Dickens’ book, this is reversed because in ch 22 we see Mrs Pocket doing the total opposite. Although we do not see her or anyone do the housework, we can assume that because of the wealth her and her husband have that hired help is doing the domestic work. In the family, there are a number of young children who need to be nurtured by their mother, but always seem to be handed to the nannies, while she does something or the other, like reading a book about class. A subject that seems very important to her, maybe because of her up bringing in the higher-class society. â€Å"Mrs Pocket was sitting on a garden chair under a tree, reading, with her legs upon another garden chair; and Mrs Pocket’s two nursemaids, were looking about them while the children played† pg 186. The dependence on money is probably the main factor of how high a persons position is in society. This shows that Victorian Woman of high class know what little domestic work they have to do, and this is all due to their great wealth that they have. The dependence on money, and position in society is linked, represented by other various Victorian Women in the book. Mrs Joe seemed to be very excited about the fact that Pip had been invited over to a rich lady’s house (Miss Havisham), and immediately questioned him about how it went, after his first meeting with her. She thought that because of Pip meeting with her, maybe she could have some kind of â€Å"connection† with her, and the higher class. Ch 8 â€Å"With that she pounced upon me, like an eagle on a lamb, and my face was squeezed into wooden bowls in sinks, and my head was put under water butts, and I was soaped and kneaded, and towelled†¦ † pg 52. This shows that she wanted to make a good impression, to make herself look good through Pip, by how neat and well he looked, because of her efforts. A woman of a low class feels the need to know a person of much higher status than them, because they know about the great amount of luxury, the higher class live in, and the amount of wealth they have which could lead them (the lower class) to have a brighter future. Finally, we learn about Molly, Clara, and Miss Skiffins. Molly, as we soon find out is Estella’s mother, a former convict and now Jaggers’ housekeeper. This makes Estella’s position in society lower because of her family. Not much is known about her. Clara, Herbert’s wife is someone we can assume as being like Biddy, but not at all influential upon Pip, like Biddy. Finally Miss Skiffins, Wemmick’s wife is also one of the characters we know very little about, but looks after Wemmick’s father, the stereotypical image of a housewife is shown in â€Å"Great Expectations† very well. Usually a female, a housekeeper, is one who obeys her master, and does not intrude in what is going on in her master’s affairs. This is shown in Molly and Jaggers relationship, although she has to do this as Jaggers is doing this as a favour. So as shown, there are many sides to a Victorian woman in this novel, and a few of the main characters that are influential on Pip, are very cold hearted, (Estella, Miss Havisham and Mrs Joe). I believe that Miss Havisham is so pitiless and spiteful that she adopted a young girl to seek out revenge on all men, just because of what happened to her. I also think that this book explores the many sides of a Victorian Woman very well, because the stereotypical image of Victorian Women being those who stay at home and do all the domestic work is overturned. 1)*According to Great Expectations what is a â€Å"Gentlemen†? In Great Expectations the word â€Å"Gentlemen† is shown in many different ways by different characters. You can tell this by the things they say, what they do and what others say about them. The main people who show this are Pip, Joe and Magwitch. Pip Pumblechook – Throughout the rest of the novel, he will shamelessly take credit for Pip’s rise in social status, even though he has nothing to do with it, since Magwitch, not Miss Havisham, is Pip’s secret benefactor. Drummle In his mind, Pip has connected the ideas of moral, social, and educational advancement so that each depends on the others. The coarse and cruel Drummle, a member of the upper class, provides Pip with proof that social advancement has no inherent connection to intelligence or moral worth. Drummle’s negative example helps Pip to see the inner worth of characters such as Magwitch and Joe, and eventually to discard his immature fantasies about wealth and class in favor of a new understanding that is both more compassionate and more realistic.

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