{"id":80922,"date":"2023-01-18T00:54:03","date_gmt":"2023-01-18T04:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80922"},"modified":"2023-01-21T16:57:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-21T20:57:47","slug":"tourist-arrivals-in-sri-lanka-increasing-but-tourism-is-yet-to-pick-up-in-southern-hotspoy-galle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=80922","title":{"rendered":"Tourist Arrivals in Sri Lanka Increasing but Tourism is yet to Pick up in Southern Hotspot Galle"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the close of 2022, crisis-hit Sri Lanka had recorded nearly 7.2 lakh tourist arrivals \u2014 more than three times the number seen in 2021, even if nowhere close to the country\u2019s pre-pandemic mark of nearly 20 lakh visitors.<\/p>\n

While authorities and the tourism industry pitched the modest, yet promising, figure as a sure sign of economic recovery, many in Galle, a tourism hotspot along the island\u2019s southern coast, say their trade and lives have not looked more uncertain.<\/p>\n

On a recent weekday, the usually thriving fort \u2014 also a functional heritage site with district courts, government museums and offices \u2014 was hardly teeming with visitors. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was Taraka Jayasinghe Gunasekara\u2019s first substantial hire in many days, from the neighbouring Matara district to Galle. As his clients toured the ramparts around town, built by the Portuguese five centuries ago and later fortified by the Dutch, the 35-year-old is waiting in his autorickshaw, staring at his phone.
\n\u201cI am trying to see if I can join some language classes, like Korean, or maybe some skills training course. Otherwise, I can\u2019t find a job abroad,\u201d he says. The three-wheeler driver\u2019s matter-of-fact admission echoes the thinking of many young Sri Lankans, especially those in the employable age bracket. The crushing economic meltdown last year prompted over 3 lakh Sri Lankans to leave, a record high in official outmigration figures on the island. <\/p>\n

Hundreds of others opted for perilous boat rides to faraway shores. If they left despite the well-known precarity around economic migration, it is not for the want of trying.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gunasekara himself moonlights as an electrician. \u201cWe are a family of four, with two small children. We have not had milk tea in ages, and very rarely get to eat a piece of fish with our meal, when a friend shares his catch. If things don\u2019t change, what future do we have in this country?\u201d he asks. <\/p>\n

For many, things have not changed much in the past few months. Long queues for essentials have disappeared, supplies have been restored, and street protests have ended, but many Sri Lankans like him are struggling to cope with the dramatic rise in living costs.
\n\u201cThey say our crisis has ended, but for whom? An egg costs 70 rupees (about \u20b916) today. I went for a medical test, they charged me 3,800 rupees. Our politicians just don\u2019t care,\u201d says a 74-year-old employee at a gem store. \u201cDon\u2019t mention my name, they\u2019ll put me behind bars. See what happened to Wasantha Mudalige,\u201d he adds at once, referring to a prominent student leader currently detained under Sri Lanka\u2019s much-feared terrorism law for over 150 days. The senior citizen\u2019s quick price chart of essentials is now a common talking point in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Asked if the gem trade is seeing improvement, he notes: \u201cNot really\u201d. Official tourist arrivals reflect a sharp rise since 2021, but the impact is yet to be felt, according to locals, especially small traders, reliant on the tourism industry. <\/p>\n

The war effect<\/p>\n

A.G. Jayantha is seated by the Galle Fort selling wooden statues of mostly fishermen and elephants. \u201cBefore the pandemic, I\u2019ve even made upto 50,000 [Sri Lankan] rupees (roughly \u20b9 11,000) on good days. But now, making even a few thousands is hard. We don\u2019t get as many tourists, and not all tourists come to spend money.\u201d Russian tourists, he says, are posing a peculiar challenge. \u201cSome of them have stayed here for five or six months, perhaps fearing conscription back home. They seem to have some problem using their credit cards here, so they operate with very little cash and buy only essential items like bread and vegetables,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Restaurant owners operating inside Galle Fort voice similar concerns about the unexpected ways in which a distant war is affecting their own, civil-warred scarred island. \u201cWe are surely seeing more tourists now compared to the pandemic years, but we are not seeing more business. Russian tourists are coming in, but many of them don\u2019t dine at restaurants. They walk around or go to the small kades (shops),\u201d said an employee at a caf\u00e9. <\/p>\n

As many as 91,272 Russian tourists entered Sri Lanka this year, official data shows, moving Russia up to the second spot among Sri Lanka\u2019s main tourism markets, after India, which has remained the island\u2019s largest source market. China was also a key market until the pandemic, and Sri Lankan tour operators are hoping that China resuming outbound tourism brings good news for tourism in the island. Last year\u2019s financial meltdown is the latest blow to the industry, following the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019, and the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The resilient sector earned over a billion dollars in 2022, and authorities are about to launch a global promotion soon to boost tourism revenue that is crucial for the country\u2019s economic revival.<\/p>\n

Wrapping up her ten-day visit to Sri Lanka, Swiss tourist Alexandra Von Gunten says she is keen to come back. \u201cIt\u2019s our honeymoon. A friend of ours told us this is one of the best places to visit. We decided to travel here after watching some stunning videos on the Internet,\u201d she says, seated at an ice cream joint inside Galle Fort. <\/p>\n

The young couple travelled to the hill country, key historic spots, and a national park, before heading to the southern beaches. \u201cWe really enjoyed exploring all these places, but my personal favourite was the national park.\u201d Although aware of Sri Lanka\u2019s crisis, she \u201cdidn\u2019t feel it anywhere,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Meera Srinivasan At the close of 2022, crisis-hit Sri Lanka had recorded nearly 7.2 lakh tourist arrivals \u2014 more than three times the number seen in 2021, even if nowhere close to the country\u2019s pre-pandemic mark of nearly 20 lakh visitors. While authorities and the tourism industry pitched the modest, yet promising, figure as …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Tourist Arrivals in Sri Lanka Increasing but Tourism is yet to Pick up in Southern Hotspot Galle’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80922"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80951,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80922\/revisions\/80951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}