Economic Impacts Of Internal Conflict In Sri Lanka Tourism Essay

Sri Lanka used to be a popular tourer finish for its beaches, diverse landscapes and historical memorials, so popular that it had the best touristry statistics in South Asia in the early 1980s. But the self-proclaimed “ Paradise Island ” has been scarred by a long and acrimonious civil war caused by cultural tensenesss between the bulk Sinhalese ( 74 % ) and the Tamil minority ( 12.6 % ) in the nor’-east. The green parts in Fig. 1 are where the Tamil population established. The civil war was mostly between the Tamil Rebels and the Sinhala Government

Civil war finally broke out in July 1983 between the authorities and the Tamil Rebels, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealem ( LTTE ) . As shown in Fig. 2, the colored parts are the affected parts of the struggle in Sri Lanka, with the xanthous parts ( Jaffna, Vavuniya, Mannar and Puttalam ) being controlled by the authorities, the bright orange 1s ( Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu ) by LTTE, and the light orange 1s ( Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara ) by both sides.

Ceasefire was signed out in 2002 but force one time once more escalated in 2006 and 2008. In 2009, the authorities re-conquered all rebel-held district and the LTTE was defeated, conveying the war to an terminal. Although this struggle has ended, it had already affected the many facets of the state ‘s development politically, socially and economically. One facet is Sri Lanka ‘s touristry, which is the chief focal point for this study.

Tourism has been mostly affected by the destructive effects of the civil war, which has besides stinted the development of the state which would hold encouraged Tourism.

( I ) Tourism

Tourism is potentially the most of import key success that contributes to Sri Lanka ‘s economic system. Sri Lanka had the best touristry statistics in South East Asia in the early 1980s and was even deemed “ The Pearl of the Indian Ocean ” . Any bead or addition in touristry will straight impact the economic system of Sri Lanka as a whole as Sri Lanka is blessed with many natural tourer attractive forces and therefore, the economic system of Sri Lanka depends mostly on the income generated by aliens who visit the state. Tourism in Sri Lanka is by and large affected by the sum of peace and security nowadays at that clip. However, we are looking specifically into how touristry was affected by the internal struggle of Sri Lanka in this study.

( two ) Tourism Industry

Apart from the physical clashing between the two parties, the cost of war has significantly weighted down the economic system of Sri Lanka. Harmonizing to statistics, the authorities borrowed defence loans worth an sum of $ 181,449 from international fiscal markets in 2007, near to twice the sum every bit compared to the twelvemonth earlier. Due to this, the economic system of Sri Lanka ended up in a province of about bankruptcy, and investing and development of touristry was slowed down during this period of clip.

The struggle caused the touristry in Sir Lanka to drop drastically chiefly due to safety concerns of the tourers who wished to do a trip to Sri Lanka. Although there was non much of a bead in tourer reachings with a steady figure of 403,400 visitants in 1995 at a glimpse as compared to 407,500 in the old twelvemonth, there is a important diminution in the figure of households going at that place for vacations and most people do non pass a long clip at that place. Most of the visitants were bargainers and business communities from India, passing merely a short period of clip in Sri Lanka and therefore lesser money was generated.

Sri Lanka ‘s diminishing tourer industry in the twentieth century has been affected even worse after Oct 1995, where the LTTE changed schemes and targeted the bosom of Sri Lanka, the capital- Colombo, which was the lone major metropolis in all of Sri Lanka at that clip and a popular topographic point for tourers to see. Originally, merely the northern side of Sri Lanka has been off-limits to visitants, but since so, even the capital was under menaces of suicide bombardments, doing the touristry to drop drastically due to safety concerns as the international airdrome was besides in Colombo and therefore, any flights were hence threatened.

( three ) North and East

The East Coast of Sri Lanka was besides affected by the LTTE, who claimed the seashore as far south as Arugam Bay and Pottuvil Point, topographic points that are popular surfing countries. Trincomalee, the lone big metropolis on East Coast and the best seaport in the island, was one time a Eden for locals and tourers likewise, but has been scarred by the war between the two spiritual groups. Visitors have been advised to handle the full country with cautiousness, peculiarly North of Batticoloa and Trincomalee, as the LTTE has been contending between Jaffna and Batticoloa even in 2004 and therefore, can non be declared wholly safe.

In 2000, the LTTE captured the most strategic point, Elephant ‘s base on balls, the lone causeway to the Jaffna Peninsula, which was practically an island on its ain as it is cut off from the mainland and placed North of Sri Lanka, where it is largely Tamil-dominated. This hindered the SLA from assailing, procuring Jaffna and the most of the North as LTTE districts. By this clip, because of these struggles and repeated onslaughts by both sides had devastated the part and the state was fast coming national bankruptcy and, Sri Lanka ‘s entreaty as a tourer finish was destroyed, which compounded further in July 2001, where a dare self-destruction bombing onslaught by several members of LTTE launched a dare foray against the International Airport ( Katunayake Airport ) and destroyed half of the state ‘s fleet of air hoses, which affected the state ‘s economic system and reduced the staying tourer industry greatly.

The North was hit the worst with many ruins evident everyplace and with Elephant Pass still dominated by the guerillas of LTTE, as it is the chief district of Lttes and approximately everyplace beyond Vavuniya remained off bounds to all foreign visitants even at the minute, but even though Jaffna is easy opening to tourers following the LTTE ‘s licking in May 2009, it will still be a instead long clip before the island recovers to its pre-war beauty.

( four ) Conveyance

A9 main road associating Jaffna with the remainder of Sri Lanka has been shut down but has been planned to reopen for civilian traffic some clip in 2010. Colombo ‘s Ratmalana Airport and Sri Lanka Airlines ( inland air taxi service ) will shortly be likely to let foreign visitants to wing to Jaffna, but tourers have been cautioned, as Jaffna is still a potentially volatile country.

Besides, because of the messy and complicated state of affairs of the recent civil war, some air hoses, like the British Air has pulled out of Sri Lanka and there have been no scheduled boats to Sri Lanka since the suspension of ferries from Rameswaram in India to Talaimanner in Sri Lanka in 1983.

It is besides worthy to observe that in most of the other parts of the state, there are diggingss for foreign visitants, but there are wholly none ( at the present ) in the Northern Districts of Sri Lanka. The recalling of air hose services of British Air from Sri Lanka and the absence of adjustment for tourers clearly shows a lessening in the figure of people sing Sri Lanka.

However, in land services such as coachs, railroads and main roads are available and antique conveyances such as 3 seaters, elephants and jinrikishas are still available and add to the antiquity to the island and such are besides portion and package of the tourer attractive force that Sri Lanka is.

Public Survey

We conducted a public study to demo Sri Lanka ‘s repute today after the civil war:

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

Figure 2.1

With mention to Figure 1.1, it can be seen that there is a little per centum of people who have visited Sri Lanka before and that was because one of the people we interviewed was coincidently from Sri Lanka and therefore, the remainder of the people all did non travel to Sri Lanka before.

Reasons for this phenomenon is mostly the deficiency of involvement and clip can be seen below in Figure 1.2. Harmonizing to Figure 1.2, bulk of the people, ( 36.7 % ) who did non see Sri Lanka before stated that it was their deficiency of involvement for the state that resulted in them non sing Sri Lanka. Reasons for their deficiency of involvement ( which was non included in the graph ) is because of the fact that they had ne’er thought about sing Sri Lanka before, and they thought that there were other more interesting states like Singapore and Hong Kong ( i.e. , more developed states ) to travel to.

Through our probe of the tourer bureaus, we found out that out of 7 tourer bureaus in People ‘s Park Centre in Singapore, all 7 of them did non supply Sri Lanka tourer bundles. Therefore, it could be this ground that the interviewees were non interested in traveling to Sri Lanka. The deficiency of publicity of Sri Lanka ‘s touristry may hold caused most people to be nescient of the tourer attractive forces in Sri Lanka. In add-on, the deficiency of involvement of the people besides will non motivate the tourer bureaus to get down opening Sri Lanka Tourss.

Reasons for this phenomenon is largely due to misinformation and misconception of the state of affairs in Sri Lanka. Some newspapers in the UK have likened to paint the image of Sri Lanka as a bleary version of Afghanistan and was depicted as bloody and messy, when the truth was that peace was largely restored. However, many people still have the misconception of Sri Lanka as a really violent and unsafe topographic point to travel to and many more do non yet know that the LTTE has been eliminated in 2009. Besides, it is worthy to observe that no foreign visitants have been harmed in their stay in Sri Lanka and that Sri Lanka ‘s true path record of being a tourer attractive force is still integral, even in the thick of the civil war. Acting Minister of Tourism, Faizer Musthapha has said, “ The struggle state of affairs in the North and the East and other stray incidents should non be exploited to forestall tourers from coming to Sri Lanka, as aliens are non terrorist marks at all ” ( BBC News, 2011 ) . Furthermore, Lanka Newspapers have besides stressed that Sri Lanka is a safe tourer zone.

The least sum of people giving “ Dangerous ( Crime and Conflict ) ” , “ No Travel Package ” and “ Does non go ” as the grounds, are the same at 3.30 % each. The statistics from our study shows that a minority of the people are informed of Sri Lanka ‘s struggle, and are cognizant that most tourer bureaus in Singapore do non supply Sri Lanka circuit bundles.

In add-on, 13.3 % of the people said that Sri Lanka had a deficiency of tourer attractive forces. One of the interviewees ( this was non included in our graph ) even mentioned that Sri Lanka was a “ dirty ” and “ third-world state ” . This shows how small people know of Sri Lanka and besides, how misinformed they were. As opposed to what some people think, Sri Lanka does hold many tourer attractive forces and most are even natural scenic beauties, such as their idyllic beaches like Arugam Bay and Wadduwa Beach, and their waterfalls like the Dunhinda Falls.

Mentioning to another graph, Figure 2.1, merely 13.0 % of the people interviewed know of the tourer attractive forces in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, out of this 13.0 % , 10.0 % of the people consisted of Caucasians. As for the remainder of the bulk 87.0 % of the people who do non cognize of Sri Lanka ‘s touristry Industry, all of the 87.0 % who do non cognize of Sri Lanka ‘s tourer attractive forces are all locals ( Chinese, Malays and Indians ) . Therefore, it can be seen that locals are small informed of the scenic topographic points in Sri Lanka, and that Sri Lanka ‘s touristry industry has non been able to be efficaciously promoted to the locals in Singapore. Again, this links us back to the fact that merely 3.0 % of the interviewees have been to Sri Lanka. It is due to their ignorance on Sri Lanka ‘s tourer attractive forces and the state of affairs in Sri Lanka that has caused Sri Lanka to hold low tourer rates from Singapore. Whereas, as compared to the locals, about all of the Caucasians know that Sri Lanka is a topographic point with tourer attractive forces. This leads to the fact that Caucasians are more informed about Sri Lanka and besides because more European News are concerned about Sri Lanka intelligence, while Singapore ironically, focuses more on world-wide intelligence.

Figure 3.1

Figure 3.2

With mention to Figure 3.1, there are more people who said that they will see Sri Lanka in the hereafter. At 58.1 % , it is greater than 41.9 % of the people who said that they will non see Sri Lanka in the hereafter. With the above statistics, it can be said that people are possibly willing to travel to Sri Lanka in the hereafter and that there are opportunities for Sri Lanka ‘s touristry industry to increase provided Sri Lanka maintains the peace it is basking now, following the licking of the LTTE and increases its touristry attempts.

Harmonizing to Figure 3.2, some 50.0 % of the Chinese are willing to travel to Sri Lanka in the hereafter, 87.5 % of the Caucasians are willing to travel to Sri Lanka in the hereafter and merely 40.0 % of Malays and Indians are willing to travel to Sri Lanka in the hereafter. Through the comparing above, more Whites are willing to travel to Sri Lanka.

With mention to a short interview we did with a Sri Lankan household ( who prefer to stay anon. ) , they said that Sri Lanka ‘s tourers chiefly come from Western states, Germany and France. Additionally, the Sri Lankans besides said that Chinese, Malays or Indians seldom visit Sri Lanka.

This most likely is because of misinformation and ignorance in our society where more accent is put on relaying the intelligence farther from us. Besides, it shows that Sri Lanka has been able to make out to the Caucasian community more easy. Our research besides shows us that BBC News has mentioned UK has been a big beginning market for Sri Lanka ‘s touristry industry, which tabulates with our study as more Whites are more familiar with Sri Lanka state of affairs and many Asiatics do non even cognize of a civil war traveling on in Sri Lanka. Furthermore, even the German Tourism Commissioner has worked with the Minister of Tourism for Sri Lanka and had praised the island for a good occupation of maintaining foreign visitants safe and even wanted to cognize how Germany could assist back up Sri Lanka ‘s Tourism Industry.

New York Times, BBC and Singapore Airlines have approved of beef uping tourer dealingss with Sri Lanka and praised Sri Lanka for its scenic nature and for the islands ‘ diverse offers for tourers. The New York Times ( a much read newspaper ) has even placed Sri Lanka as the No.1 topographic point to travel to in their list of the “ 31 Places to Travel to in 2010 ” .

Figure 4.1

Harmonizing to Figure 4.1, most of the interviewees ( 39.0 % ) said that they had no concerns over traveling to Sri Lanka in the hereafter. They said that hygiene and safety concerns were bound to look in every state and non merely Sri Lanka entirely.

At 28 % , people are concerned about both safety and hygiene through their stay in Sri Lanka.

The least per centum of concerns among interviewees would be at 11.0 % , “ Hygiene ” as a concern among the people. These people thought that Sri Lanka was still a third-world state and labelled their drinks to be dirty and their sanitation to be hapless. This is non true for Sri Lanka has had small instances of nutrient toxic condition among tourers and although public sanitation like public lavatories are non excessively good, hotels and lodging installations were still more than satisfactory.

The safety of the travelers was besides a concern among interviewees. Majority of these people come from the Caucasians ( who knew about the civil war ) . They stated that they were afraid of the struggle and the terrorists ( Tamil Tigers ) . In fact, when we interviewed a Sri Lankan, he said that there was comparatively peace in Sri Lanka than a a deacade back and the activity of the Tamil Tigers have died down already so Sri Lanka is a safe topographic point to travel to. Herewith, it can be said that a batch of people are non cognizant of the current conditions of Sri Lanka and most people still feel that Sri Lanka is a state with a batch of political struggles and pandemonium. This leads us back to pg. 10, where we have mentioned that people are non well- informed of Sri Lanka ‘s current state of affairs, which caused a batch of misconstruing about the island.

BBC News had besides talked about the importance of the presence of a province of peace in a possible tourer topographic point because, although no foreign visitants have been harmed while traveling to Sri Lanka during the war, but when there is peace and stableness, more visitants would be attracted in traveling as “ component of fright ” would be lessened and people will be able to bask their holiday without concerns, as foreign visitants largely go to Sri Lanka for short-run vacations. 73.2 % of tourers went to Sri Lanka in 2008 for pleasance and this increased to 80 % in 2009, partially due to the terminal of the civil war. This shows that Sri Lanka is so a hot spot for Tourists and although, it might non be fit for long-run stay, there are many attractive forces that it has to offer.

However, it can be seen that Sri Lanka ‘s touristry publicity attempts needs to be improved on to promote more people to travel to Sri Lanka.

Infrastructure

Besides the lessening in touristry in Sri Lanka, another important job is that many substructures were destroyed by the civil war, as old ages of contending have caused the harm and neglecting of of import parts of Sri Lanka ‘s model and tourer attractive forces, such as the Jaffna Fort, which was a glorious Dutch Fort 25 old ages ago and one of the chief attractive forces in the North, but had been greatly ruined by the on-going war.

Infrastructures and installations in Sri Lanka were to a great extent damaged by the force, like the electricity power sector and urban conveyance. The electricity demand of the state was non met and there was even a terrible power deficit in 2001 and 2002. Besides, the railroad development was neglected due to miss of investing, therefore ensuing in the malfunction of the service. In some affected countries, even basic necessities like H2O supply and sanitation were deprived. All these devastation and wants have caused Sri Lanka to lose its rubric of “ Paradise Island ” , therefore losing its touristry attractive force.

Furthermore, the Rebels had launched many onslaughts in the public antecedently. One major incident was the LTTE ‘s onslaught on Sri Lanka ‘s international airdrome on the 24 July 2001. They broke through the air force defense mechanisms and infiltrated the Katanuyake air base and the Bandaranaike International Airport. Using extremely destructive arms, these terrorists damaged eight military aircraft, five Sri Lanka Airline rider planes and other installations in the airdrome. Consequently, the airdrome was shut down for over 14 hours and flights coming in were diverted. This onslaught was a direct assault to Sri Lanka ‘s touristry industry. First, tourers were unable to wing into Sri Lanka due to the pandemonium in the airdrome, therefore ensuing in a big diminution in touristry for a period of clip after the onslaught. Besides, after tourers heard about the danger posed by a trip to Sri Lanka, the good repute that it one time had as a touristry finish would be erased as they saw the incapableness of the authorities armed force in the protection of the air base and airdrome. Tourists therefore doubted the security in Sri Lanka and were afraid of the mayhem. This led to go programs to Sri Lanka being cancelled and enforcement of a travel warning to Sri Lanka by the United States, demoing the bead in its popularity as a touristry finish.

Other than destructing the substructures in Sri Lanka, the war has affected their development indirectly excessively. With big financess being needed on defense mechanism intents in the war, plus the bead in touristry grosss, there was non adequate investing for the Reconstruction of the destroyed substructures and the development of attractive installations to hike touristry. This, in bend, affected the economic system severely. Therefore, Sri Lanka was in a barbarous rhythm of fiscal adversity caused by the struggle.

Occupations

The last economic impact is on occupations related to the touristry industry.

Tourism-related occupations can be categorized into a few groups ; Jobs available in Hotels and Restaurants, Travel Agents and Tour Operators, Airline Companies, Tourist Shops ( like keepsake stores ) , National Tourist Organizations and State Sectors such as embassies and embassadors. Not to advert the smaller concerns run by the people in Sri Lanka like eating houses and dress shops, which will besides profit with an addition of tourers.

The authorities sees touristry as a one of the best ways to hike their economic system, but Sri Lanka has gained a bad repute as being insecure due to the civil war. It is hence of import that the authorities takes prompt and efficient action to advance Sri Lanka as a favourable finish so as to increase touristry.

In the 1990s, the Sri Lanka authorities took many enterprises to hike the touristry sector, including the execution of the Tourism Master Plan, in which attractive inducements were provided for foreign investors in touristry sector development.

In a few old ages, tourism-related occupations one time once more began to increase, picking itself up from the bead due to the civil war. Statisticss have shown that the entire figure people both straight and indirectly employed as a consequence of touristry in 2006 add up to 133,558, which was an addition of 6.8 per cent from 125,004 as recorded in 2005.

Recent studies have shown that by the terminal of 2009, touristry in Sri Lanka had generated 100,000 direct occupations and indirect employment through providing industries. This has caused little concerns in communities to emerge and get down up income-generating undertakings due to the addition in tourers from 600 000 in 2008 to 700 000 in 2009 and this figure is still expected to increase if the peace continues.

The state of affairs is expected to better further with the reopening of two celebrated wildlife Parkss in the Southeast, Kumana National Park and Lahugala National Park, by Sri Lanka wildlife governments in 2010, another step taken by the authorities to advance touristry to the state. They have been closed since 2005 due to the presence of the Tamil Tiger terrorists. These two Parkss are a chief eco-tourism and wildlife attractive force and after 5 old ages of Restoration, tourers and local visitants can anticipate to see more wildlife as compared to earlier.

In January 2011, “ Sri Lanka Tourism ( SLT ) celebrated the reaching of the state ‘s 600 000th foreign tourer. The SLT expects 700 000 tourers in 2011 and reachings are projected to hit 2.5 million a twelvemonth by 2016. ” ( Pathirana, 2011 ) Clearly, the authorities ‘s attempt to advance Sri Lanka as a popular tourer finish is harvesting its wagess.

Merely as how this shows that the addition in occupation handiness boosts Sri Lanka ‘s economic position, the diminution in occupations due to the crisp diminution in tourer reachings during the struggle made its economic position highly vulnerable and unstable. As mentioned earlier on, touristry generates one of the biggest incomes for Sri Lanka ‘s economic system, as tourer reachings plunge in Numberss due to the internal struggle, there had been a autumn in touristry net incomes and therefore, resulted in a loss of tourism-related occupations. With a loss of foreign investing and a lessening in income generated by touristry, Sir Lanka did non hold the necessary financess required in order to re-build damaged substructure and to re-develop the tourism-related occupations as the state was so in a province of uninterrupted fiscal adversity.

On a better note, other than the northern and northeasterly countries of Sri Lanka, a big portion remains unscarred. There are many tourers flocking to Sri Lanka at present but Sri Lanka ‘s image as a tourer Eden has been scarred by the recent civil war. The authorities is making its best to wipe out Sri Lanka ‘s bad image, and one of the most recent actions taken is the Visit Sri Lanka 2011 run, where different sectors across touristry industry that needs to be developed are identified. These potencies will be improved, therefore pulling more tourers to the state.

The Deputy Minister of Sri Lanka identifies the German market to be cardinal for Sri Lanka Tourism as it records the highest reachings from the Europe sector, followed by UK so India, harmonizing to 2010 statistics. Sri Lanka ‘s Minister of Tourism met with Ernst Hinsken, Germany ‘s Commissioner for Tourism and member of the German Bundestag to discourse on how the German authorities could help Sri Lanka in recognizing the full potency of the turning German outbound market. During this visit to Sri Lanka, it has been successfully made known that Sri Lanka is a safe topographic point to see in an attempt to convert tourers to come. Hinsken said, “ the German Government could non disregard the facts that no foreign visitant has of all time been harmed in Sri Lanka ” ( Business Today, 2008 ) .

The beautiful beaches and the H2O athleticss available, the most popular being surfboarding, attract tourers. To capitalise on this, the eastern side of Sri Lanka comprising of the best beaches in Sri Lanka has been promoted as a suited tourer finish, touting good conditions to boot. Furthermore, the Sri Lanka Land Reclamation and Development Corporation ( SLLRDC ) has implemented a program which helps investors build hotels and resorts in the northern and eastern parts by agencies like supplying necessary land. The SLLRDC besides reported stating that the lands being provided will consist of a particular revenue enhancement base in order for the Sri Lanka touristry industry to be boosted. The Sri Lankan authorities has besides promoted countries located in the eastern side of Sri Lanka, which include Tricomalee, Batticaloa and Arugambay for investors.

In Colombo, Sri Lanka ‘s biggest metropolis and its capital, although LTTE had attacked Colombo in 1996, but it has made an exponential recovery to one time once more and be a tourer attractive force. The authorities is seting up a seven leading hotel concatenation with the investing of Hong Kong-based Shangri-La group and there are many hotels are spread throughout the Centre of town with all parts have been monitored to a great extent by the military ( SLA ) so that there is virtually no danger to tourers other than junior-grade offenses, and tourers can by and large bask their stay at that place in peace.

There have besides been many lodging and logging installations developed in other countries, such as the West Coast, South Coast, Hill Country ( Kandy ) , the East Coast and the Cultural Triangle. Tourism rates have been increasing and good over half of a million people visit the island yearly, lending to Sri Lanka ‘s economic system. Even the Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) Tourist Board and private operators have agreed that what will be the most aid to the people now that the war is over, is the fleet return of tourers to the country, which is what much of the local economic system depends on.

Decision

In decision, the civil war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sinhala Government has by and large affected merely the North and North-East side of the tear-shaped island, while the remainder of the island has non been badly scarred, with still many attractive forces still integral. Although there was an onslaught on Colombo, but that harm had been rapidly resolved in a short sum of clip and now, Colombo has many guards from the SLA ( Sri Lanka Army ) policing the country and maintaining a rigorous oculus on the country. Tourists are virtually safe from any onslaughts ( if any ) . Of class, the internal struggles has left its impact on Sri Lanka ‘s repute as a safe and popular “ Sun, sand and sea ” vacation finish.

However, with effectual authorities steps implemented and more consciousness created by advancing the true, current state of affairs and the peace that is present one time once more in the island, Sri Lanka could be back on path making a sustainable touristry industry and one time once more be the “ Pearl of the Indian Ocean ” .