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| Sunday, 13 March 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Travel & tourism Batticaloa's untapped tourist potential by Elmo Leonard When Prince Charles visited Batticaloa end-February this most important town in the east of the island for miles unending was teeming with tourists not due to the popularity of the heir to the British throne but rather to the attraction Batticaloa affords the visitor. Batticaloa's hotel rooms are highly inadequate to meet the demand of tourists, local and foreign. The big names in the hospitality industry are waiting for the finalisation of peace between the government and the Tamil Tigers to commence building large hotels. The visitor often has to motor 100 kilometres to Polonnaruwa for hotel rest. But the bold and the discerning dare to venture into Batticaloa, the gateway to Kattankudi, Kalmunai and Pottuvil in the Ampara district and northwards to the fishing hub Valachchenai, and beyond. Destruction tourism is also drawing large crowds, from home and abroad. If you intend staying overnight, make sure of your reservation. For the local tourist Batticaloa is the other side of the coin. The scenery is typically dry zone. Hardly anyone understands English, much less, Sinhala, so if you can take with you a Tamil-speaking friend, it would be an advantage. The culture is so different, the Tamils and Muslims who live in pockets all along the east find the bicycle the principal mode of transport. Ninety-five percent of children of both sexes pedal bicycles to school while others walk. Girls keep up this practice until they marry and then they are shy to be seen peddling a bicycle, they say. Ankle-long clothes with long sleeves is the norm for girls and women. Subaraj Inn at Lloyd Avenue, in the heart of Batticaloa is open 24 hours. There are five similar restaurants and another in the town. Subraj Inn, approved by the Ceylon Tourist Board has ten air-conditioned rooms going for Rs 1,500 each, a family room and a few non-air conditioned rooms for Rs 500 each. Subraj Inn gets most of its bookings direct, from overseas, via telephone and unexpectedly, manager S. Thanabalasingham said. It is word-of-mouth-orders coming from all over Europe and the rest of the developed world. Subraj Inn's service is prompt. The cuisine is wide and varied-the liquor the visitor could call for local or foreign counts a much wider variety. Among Batticaloa's other plus points are the cool nights brought about by the sea breeze which affords the visitor sound sleep. The singing fish of Batticaloa is real and its music has been recorded on moonlit nights and studied by scientists, according to senior citizen Sonny Ockersz, a lifetime resident of Batticaloa. The temple at Passikudah, the Dutch Fort, the army camps seen from the road at peacetime, the shallow sea bay, the crab and prawn farming at the lagoon, the rural dairy farming, their mode of agriculture and more than any other, the Tamil culture so foreign to non-Tamils fascinated me. Hotel industry returns to normalcy : Retired German pilot's 82nd visit to Lanka by Anura Maitipe
The Sri Lankan hotel industry is returning to normalcy. Many foreign tourists are now flocking to Negombo, Bentota, Wadduwa, Hikkaduwa and Galle. A German visitor who met us at Hotel Seashells, Negombo Guenthe Budack (77), a retired pilot said that "from the late 1970s he had visited Sri Lanka 81 times and this was his 82nd visit to Sri Lanka. While I was in Germany I read in the newspapers that Sri Lanka had been affected by the tsunami. No sooner I read the news I decided to visit Sri Lanka and see what had happened. "When I made my bookings the foreign tour operators in Europe discouraged me and urged me not to go to Sri Lanka. Therefore I made a direct booking of air tickets and hotel reservations. I came to Sri Lanka along with 50 German tourists on December 30," he said. During my visit to the South I found that only a few hotels had been badly damaged. However hotels in other areas such as Negombo, Chilaw, Trincomalee and in the interior of the country had not been affected at all. Tour operators in Europe had created a wrong image about Sri Lanka among European visitors and they made use of this opportunity to induce more visitors to visit the Caribbean countries where they could make more money. "The scenic beauty, golden beaches, bright sunshine and natural habitat in Sri Lanka could never be seen in any other part of the world. I would organise more groups of German tourists to Sri Lanka on my return to Germany, he said. A Britisher Monica Petersen said this was her fourth visit to Sri Lanka. We organised a group tour to Sri Lanka annually. Our group consisted of 100 visitors. We were very happy to be back in Sri Lanka. It appears that the tourism industry in Sri Lanka had re-emerged in next to no time of the tsunami disaster. "We will stay in Sri Lanka for three months. We have already visited the Southern province and stayed at Lighthouse Hotel in Galle and Bluewater at Wadduwa. Now we are staying at Seashells in Negombo and we hope to visit the hill country, Sigiriya and Anuradhapura before our departure". The Vice President of The Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka Hiran Cooray said that room occupancy rate which had plunged to zero level following the tsunami disaster has now grown by 50 percent and there was a steady growth in the past month. The General Manager Hotel Seashells Gamunu Karunaratne said that it was the foreign tour operating companies that had created a wrong impression among the foreign visitors as the entire coastal area of Sri Lanka had been affected by tsunami disaster. More foreigners and locals throng Yala National Park by Chanuka Mannapperuma
The Yala National Park, a popular haunt for foreigners and locals has attracted a significant number of tourists from many countries during the past two months. There has been a sharp increase in the number of foreign tourists especially from Germany, Japan and France," an official of the Yala National Park said. According to statistics of the Yala Park, 3,427 local travellers, 155 children, 301 foreigners and nine children visited the Yala National Park in January 2005. In February, 5,573 local travellers, 371 children, 830 foreigners and 16 children visited the Park. The two-month figures show that the number of visitors has doubled in February." The official said they lost four employees as well as seven safari jeeps due to the tsunami. With the increasing number of travellers we now have 100 safari jeeps." Director, Jetwing Hotels Group Lalin de Mel said reconstruction work has begun on the Yala Safari Lodge at a cost of Rs. 250 million. He said the Group plans to reopen the Lodge within 16 months and added that they plan to rebuild the Lodge at the same location adding different features and styles." The Lodge which will be built on concrete pillars of eight feet will consist of 50 rooms. |
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