Eco-tourism

What is Eco-tourism ?

                       Responsible travel to natural and cultural areas that conserves the environment and sustains the well-being of local people.
For the past years, a majority of Sri Lanka’s tourism development plans have been targeted primarily at luxury tourism and beach holiday attractions. Some areas in the coastal regions have already exceeded their social and physical carrying capacity. Increasingly, ecotourism and other special interest tourism in Sri Lanka are considered as niche travel products yet to reach their growth potential.

                           In addition to ecotourism, the Sri Lankan tourism industry is keen to promote other special interest tourism, such as Ayurveda health packages (i.e. courses of traditional herbal massage therapy designed to rejuvenate and detoxify bodies), exotic weddings, and adventure activities (e.g. trekking,para-gliding, bird watching and archaeological tours).

traditional herbal massage therapy

Heritance Kandalama

exotic weddings

A number of small tourism operators have been established to promote nature tourism “off-the-beaten-track” in Sri Lanka.  including nature walks, excursions to tea estates and culture/religious sites, train rides through the mountains, and culinary lessons using indigenous food and gastronomy (i.e. vegetables, spices and tea). Since its establishment has attracted an increasing number of foreign independent tourists who prefer to learn about the customs, food habits, culture, environment and history of the countries they visit

Principle elements of eco-tourism

APPROPRIATE RESOURCE–

NATURE, CULTURE, “BUILT”

BENEFIT COMMUNITY

Tangible, as PARTNERS and not simply as PARTICIPANTS

CONSERVATION CONTRIBUTION

Direct, long term

EDUCATIONAL / EXPERIENTAIL

Highest level of interpretive material and not simple explanations, Library based

ECOLOGICAL COMPATIBLE FACILITY

Structure based minimum impact material, recycled, reused, away from PRISTINE habitats

HIGHEST CONSUMER SATISFACTION

Product quality, truthfulness

TRUTHFUL and ETHICAL MARKETING

Sincere, honest and non destructive

SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

society and country always upmost