gulfnews.com,  Tue Jan 20 22:45:54 EST 2009

    Colombo: The world financial crisis will cut 2009 tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka to their lowest level in seven years, potentially stripping gains expected as a 25-year war nears an end, tourism officials said.

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- The Academic

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Despite the conflict and occasional bombings in the capital Colombo, many visitors still flock to Sri Lanka's white-sand beaches, visit its ancient cities, or make pilgrimages to sites sacred primarily to Buddhists and Hindus.

Global Financial crisis will hit across the board. Especialy in recreation industry.  Air travel too will be affected.  What Sri Lanka has to do is target South Asian tourists and even promoting local tourism on a cut rate price.

There is still an untouched sector in Eco tourism and health (Aurvedic) conscious tourism.

It is a fact that Sri Lanka tourism survived even with LTTE terrorism. Hopefully it will survive this time too.

I feel rather than cut price the opposite might lead to better results with fewer tourists. Granted that those who stand to profit will be the higher end but if we target the super rich as a policy for tourism i feel we can avoid a lot of the problems that we face by having the lower classes here.

Romeo wrote:

I feel rather than cut price the opposite might lead to better results with fewer tourists. Granted that those who stand to profit will be the higher end but if we target the super rich as a policy for tourism i feel we can avoid a lot of the problems that we face by having the lower classes here.

I agree that we should target high end tourists.  They have been naturalized not to disturb our culture/nature.
They will enjoy what we offer to the fullest than just the sandy beaches.

Lack of tourism will hurt the jobs though.


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"What is left when honor is lost?"