Want to promote tourism? Let’s start with basics such as decent behaviour and clean toilets
The Minister of Tourism is to embark on a “new” strategic plan, (part of which is an expensive advertising campaign on CNN), which is to be steamrolled ahead despite advice from the Ministry itself. The Minister seems out of touch with reality.
The statistics alone show that we are an unpopular tourist destination- (and for good reason, as set out below). Statistics alone show that other countries in the region are, and always have been, way ahead of us- for example, in 2016,(sourceWikipedia World tourism rankings), Thailand had annual tourist arrivals of over 32 million, Singapore (12.9 million) , Malaysia 26 million , Indonesia over 12 million, and even Burma- wracked with genocidal attacks, still had over four million visitors in 2016.( Burma is a country with poor infrastructure, and the Burmese government began encouraging tourism only as late as 1992). We are proud of having two million visitors, a large part from India, being business travellers.
But a much larger problem are the serious reasons as to why the country is unpopular for tourists - from the moment a tourist disembarks at Katunayake, he/ she is pestered by touts and conmen, often with the tacit support of the Police- the recent incident of the British Nurse Naomi Coleman wrongly arrested and later compensated, is a case in point.
In the Sunday Times of February 18, letters page 2, no less than three writers, (two tourists and a local), point out the habitually filthy state of any public toilet in Sri Lanka, using as examples the Galle Literary Festival, the air conditioned First Class (AFC) Railway, or Sigiriya. One of these letters refers to the perverts driving tuk tuks, in Colombo and Kandy, who are a menace to female tourists. Sri Lanka is an unsafe and unsavoury destination for any woman travelling alone, and we all know this for a fact.
On the very next day, (The IslandFebruary 9, letters page 9), had a letter from a Sri Lankan expatriate, regarding the stink on the Podi Menike train first class AC compartment, where the stench of urine pervaded the compartment, no action taken about the complaints, and no toilet paper in the latrines.(Expect toilet paper in a Sri Lankan public latrine? Well, good luck!)
I have myself experienced the crude behaviour of families travelling in the long distance trains to the hills. “Buth parcels” are eaten, hands are unwashed and the garbage casually tossed out of the moving train. Children run wild, standing on seats and yelling noisily. Parents are oblivious. There is also a coordinated racket as regards sale of tickets on this so called Air con First class carriage- tickets are NEVER available at the CGR station in Fort.
The Tourism Minister is in another world.What is needed is not a grandiose and expensive “Strategic plan”, involving the hiring of expensive PR agents from abroad and TV blitzes on foreign channels. The requirements are far more basic, and involve teaching children and their parents, the basics of polite behaviour and personal hygiene. We could start with clean toilets in every rural school!
Jayman Via email