Responsible Tourism

by Nilma Dole

Last year in September, I was in Beruwela to witness the Responsible Tourism Partnership's (RTP) 'Beach Community Tourism' pilot project. Having launched their pilot project at the Riverina Hotel, I was surprised to be greeted by wonderful people in colourful t-shirts labelled with their respective names.

It was then that I remembered that they were the boisterous 'Beach Boys' I used to see clinging onto the fences of the hotel. They used to try to grab the attention of the tourists and shout, 'Joduwak'!

Today, they are amiable and knowledgeable tour operators who take tourists and locals alike on a magical spin. Having seen the good work of the RTP and their sociologist employee Sujith Yamasinghe these Beach Boys have been groomed and trained making it impressive to see them, carve a niche for themselves.

They take turns to show tourists around and speak English and many other European languages. Seeing the smile on their faces made me realise that Responsible Tourism as with the work of the RTP really go a long way. "Even though people come and tell us, we should try to stop it, nobody took the initiative until recently".

The Travel Foundation UK have been constantly supporting and backing the RTP in implementing goals to further strengthen and harness more tourism revenue. The CEO for the foundation, Ms. Sue Hurdle emphasized that these little things go a long way in making or breaking tourism in Sri Lanka.

Achieving their objectives include prioritising issues affecting tourism, engaging in eco-friendly projects, supporting tools and activities to sustain tourism and disseminating information to uplift Sri Lanka's tourism industry.

Today, the RTP recognises the need to bring in tourism with reducing 'Travel Guilt' among tourists by initiating their Galle Project, 'Trees for Life'.

This nursery in the Hiyara Rainforest Reservoir, is 20 minutes from the Galle city and till now has been a well-kept 'green' secret. Conserving coastal areas as well as planting trees to solve the Climate Change problem has been the goal of the RTP.

In addition to this, awareness about the environment and the importance of planting a tree is done for children and the community there. It has been an income generating resource where employment is provided for people to conserve and maintain the conservation site.

The RTP's forum on Climate Change on the 11th of January made the severe impact of Global Warming a fundamental issue for Sri Lanka's tourism industry. All tourism leaders, facilitators, environment-conscious individuals, tour operators and basically everyone who makes tourism their culture came together on one platform to discuss and offer solutions for Sri Lanka's tourism future.

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