Tourism stakeholder proposes ‘colourful stories’ to sell wildlife to tourists

Stakeholders engaged in marketing Sri Lanka tourism should be creating colourful stories of the wildlife experiences in Sri Lanka instead of presenting basic facts in order to better promote tourism, an industry veteran stressed recently.
“There is no promotion or communication, not necessarily by the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau, but by private companies too. We need to create unusual stories,” an ex-President of The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL), Srilal Miththapala said, at an event organized at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce recently.
Miththapala, a well-known wildlife enthusiast, said that when a potential tourist calls a hotel or a travel agency to inquire about the wildlife attractions in Sri Lanka, the employees usually list the animals that could be observed, instead of portraying wildlife in an attractive manner.

“They don’t need to know that the animals are there. Anyone can find that out. They need to hear the stories,” 
he said.
This would require private sector tourism professionals to have high levels of wild life experience and enthusiasm, which Miththapala said that he is trying to cultivate by conducting educational sessions in schools across the island.
While a number of high-powered private sector individuals were in attendance, Miththapala advised them that the message has to go down to their employees who communicate with tourists.
Miththapala presented dozens of stories on his encounters with various animals in Sri Lanka and especially the elephants in Pinnawela and the Elephant Transit Home in Udawalawe, in addition to the humorous, dangerous and often illegal practices he has observed park guides and drivers undertake in order to please their clients.
However, he stressed that the tourism industry has to act as a guardian of the wildlife attractions in Sri Lanka instead of causing their degradation, which the private sector has to be vigilant about.
“It’s the hotels and the tour operators that give 90 percent of the business to these drivers. So you could maybe blacklist these drivers,” he suggested, and noted that Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators has now banned elephant rides, which is a welcome development that hotels should also follow.
Meanwhile, Miththapala added that hotels should encourage their naturalists engage in creating stories for tourists to enjoy. Jetwing Vil Uyana engages in this practice, with posters and logbooks recording encounters visitors have with wildlife in the area.
He said that with a country which has 30 percent of green cover, over 3,000 plants and over 1,000 animal species including the ‘Big Four’ mammals; the blue whale, elephant, leopard and the sloth bear, Sri Lanka should have no shortage of tourism 
promotional material.
In contradiction, Sri Lanka’s tourism promotional efforts have received criticism over the past 
several years.
Miththapala alluded to the possibility that if Sri Lanka is able to attract the types of tourists who would value and pay for sustainable products, the government does not have to pursue its current numbers 
oriented strategy.
“I wonder whether Sri Lanka really needs these types of numbers, whether we can look at a different strategy,” he said.
Sri Lanka welcomes 2.05 million tourists in 2016, raising US$ 3.5 billion in revenue. An official document released recently by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority placed the government’s target for 2020 at 4 million tourists.
In 2015, when 1.8 million tourists visited the island, 19 of the 26 identified national parks had sold 558,521 foreign visitor tickets, raising Rs. 1.01 billion.
Miththapala said that there is greater potential to derive income from national parks, but that the government and the private sector have to work together to divert tourists from the overburdened parks such as Yala into lesser known parks, where creating stories could play a great role in achieving this objective. (CW)