Tourism Carrying Capacity a must
The World Tourism Day 2023 celebrated by Browns Hotels and Resort attracted top professionals from the business sector for a conference stages at the iconic property in Benthota, Thaala Resort.
Dr Rohantha Athukorala the Country Head for Clootrack Software Labs for Sri Lanka, Maldives and Pakistan- the foremost Artificial Intelligence( AI) company for brand mapping in South Asia said it’s time that the country do a ‘ Carrying Capability Study’ for Tourism before setting targets like the five million visitors by 2030.
Dr Rohantha Athukorala at the World Tourism Day celebration 2023
The logic for the argument was because, covid and the economic crisis created a serious issue to the Small and Medium Sector enterprises which accounts for over two thirds of the country’s economy. This has led to a serious issue to the supply chain challenges in the country such as eggs, chicken, fruits and vegetable etc. currently we don’t have enough produce to feed the domestic population of 22 million people in Sri Lanka that has led to a price spiral that has driven almost 7 million people to poverty he said. We must now focus on stabilising the local situation so that with that comes political stability and this will help us overcome the current economic crisis said Dr Athukorala a former
Chairman of Sri Lanka Export Development Board and Sri Lanka Tourism.
He went on to urge the Tourism Industry get involved in the development of the SME sector by developing the households suppprt the supply chain of a hotel in a five kilometer radius so that strategically the Tourism Industry develops the carrying capacity of a property Economically, Socially and ecologically.
Carrying capacity can be defined as the average population size in a particular habitat at which there is responsibility to the environmental, adequate food, shelter, water. We did a carrying capacity Study for Sigiriya Rock last year when was funded by UNDP and it was the first such study done from an environmental, social and ecological perspective said Dr Athukorala who led the team of professionals. There were many practical benifits from the study to the policy makers which must be extended not only to places like YALA but the total of Sri Lanka he commennted.