Tourism has become a
major foreign exchange earner today. There are many tourist attractions in our country.
The salubrious climate in the hill country, the beaches, the waterfalls, our
ruined cities, wild life sanctuaries and our cultural pageants are some of
them.
As Sri Lanka is a
developing country, we should have more and more ways of earning money. Tourism
helps to earn a lot of money to invest in government projects and to make this
a developed country. The government should identify all elements that are
relevant to the long term sustainable development of tourism. The developments
of the sector need to be supported by large inflows of foreign resource both
financial and personal.
Tourism creates a
large number of employment opportunities. Thousands of our youth work in
tourist hotels. Tourists like very much to visit rural areas in Sri Lanka.
Therefore our rural masses can sell their products such as handicrafts to
tourists and earn some money.
Tourism paves us the
way to display our heritage and our natural resources to the world. As Sri Lankans we are proud of our country and
we must take this opportunity to gain the world reputation as a tourist
paradise.
Now let us look at the
bad effects of tourism. It is said that tourism has affected the values of our
peoples, particulary our youth. It is
true that some tourists sengage in anti-social acts. Some of the tourists are
drug addicts or perverts. They corrupt our youth. Also they spread incurable
disease such as AIDS. But we should keep in mind that all the tourists are not
blacksheep. Many tourists come to rest and enjoy the beauty of Sri Lanka while
some others come to enrich their knowledge about our culture. They do not harm
anything or anyone. Some people, especially our youth tend to follow the life –
styles of the tourists.
Some tourist do not
respect our sacred places. They behave in an indecent way in such palces. It
has become a great threat to our traditions and culture.
Tourism is a good money
spinner. The Ministry of Tourism should find solutions to overcome the
drawbacks to tourism and develop it.
There is a dearth of
experienced tour guides in our country. This has become a great disadvantage to
the tourists. Therefore the responsible authorities should take steps to train
a set of tour guides who have a thorough knowledge of our culture and history.
If we fulfill the
existing shortcomings in the tourism, we will be able to attract more and more
tourists to our country and earn more and more money.