TOURISM – ITS GOOD AND BAD EFFECTS

 

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.