Hikkaduwa readies for tourism boom

By Shirajiv Sirimane

after a tour of Hikkaduwa

With the ending of the 30-year-old conflict tourism is tipped to be the number one foreign exchange earner.

Only a few people may recall that tourism was born in Hikkaduwa in the late 1950s in an organised manner and even to date the city plays an important role in the tourism arena.

It was during the 1950’s tourists first started coming to Sri Lanka overland from Europe via Afghanistan, Pakistan to India. Thereafter they would come down to Dhanushkody and take the ferry to Talaimannar. From this point tourist would take the train to Hikkaduwa.

Unfortunately it was the backpackers or known as Hippies that first visited Sri Lanka and they had home stays or used to stay in tent accommodation.

One can say that Sir Arthur C. Clarke who was making movies and diving also contributed towards making Hikkaduwa a place known for tourists. In addition there was also a notorious attraction, which was Narigama, the unofficial nude colony.

President of Hikkaduwa Tourist Hotels Association, Siri Gunawardane recalled that horse races in Galle too attracted tourists and visitors and due to lack of accommodation they used to stay in Hikkaduwa.

MP Galle District, UPFA, Mohan de Silva with Somadasa meeting President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently and updating him on the situation.

He said that due to this demand a resthouse was constructed in 1950 with seven rooms in Hikkaduwa which was later taken over by Keells Group of Hotels to build the Coral Garden Hotel.

Room rate Rs. 10

Gunawardane who is also the Managing Director of Coral Sands Hotel the oldest operating star class hotel recalled that foreseeing the potential he too bought a land adjoining the beach. “I constructed a toilet a big hall and kitchen and rented it out to backpackers and for caravans”.

“We used to charge Rs. 10 to provide a mat (padura) for the tourist and due to increased demand built a five room hotel with GI sheets and planks,” he said.

He, however, said that backpackers were using drugs and walking all over semi nude. “We had to put up boards in our hotel requesting them to be in proper attire,” he recalled.

In 1965, J.R. Jayewardene was appointed Minister of State and Ananda Tissa de Alwis as his Parliamentary Secretary and things got organised.

It was the blue corals that attracted tourists to Hikkaduwa and due to this all the new hotels that were built used `Corals’ as their name.

He then with a partner upgraded his hotel to a three star property offering over 50 rooms and two swimming pools. One of the biggest problems faced by entrepreneurs launching tourist hotels at that time was the fishermen using the beach.

“This was a very unpleasant sight with fish scattered all over and beach being very dirty and with a bad odour,” he said.

After making a series of representations the government decided to construct a fisheries harbour and this was a major victory for tourism in Hikkaduwa. “However, this was constructed in a hurry and proper environment studies were not conducted,” said environmentalist, R.S. Somadasa de Silva.

Somadasa with Gunawardane, a pioneer in Hikkaduwa tourism.

He said that due to the construction of the harbour wave patterns were changed forcing sand get to deposited over the corals virtually berrying them. “

The tsunami which struck in 2004 did not damage the corals and people are still saying that it was the corals that saved part of Hikkaduwa,” he said.

He said that with foreign aid he started a coral replanting campaign which proved to be successful.

Somadasa who was instrumental in creating the first locally owned diving centre in partnership with Super Coral Management said that a hot wave (El Nino) created due to global warming, struck Hikkaduwa last year and dealt a severe blow to the corals.

“This was like a death nail to the Corals and almost all what we replanted has perished,” he said.

He said that in addition the irresponsible manner in which Glass bottom boats operate in the area also create problems for the corals. “There is overloading in boats and too many boats take off at the same time congesting the coral roof area,” he said.

Safety at risk

Somadasa also said that the safety of both local and foreign passengers too is at great risk as there is overloading and no safety jackets are being provided. No insurance too is in place,” he said.

The Life Guard service is sometimes irregular and there is no authority to monitor activities as the Wild Life Department is dormant during weekends when the Hikkaduwa beach is thriving with activity.

He said that markings were laid for snorkelling areas and where to place anchors. “However, these are not respected and even most of the glass bottomed boats do not have licences and there are many other issues that have to be addressed.

Meanwhile, newly appointed MP Galle District, UPFA, Mohan de Silva said that they are now formulating a proposal to save corals which is the bread and butter to the residents of the area.

“Firstly, we propose to create a breakwater so that sand dunes would not cover the corals in Hikkaduwa,” he said.

This proposed breakwater can also be used as a pier to launch glass bottom boats thus minimising the damage to corals. He said that he would also explore the possibility of providing life jackets and also introducing a general insurance scheme for tourists. “We will speak to the government as well as the private sector in this regard,” he said.

Training of beach boys and three-wheel drivers are also in the pipeline. “We have called for a meeting with Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapaksa to present him some of the issues in the area and seek mediation to resolve them,” he said.

He said that alternative road is also proposed for Hikkaduwa.

Torsten Kamake, a tourist from Germany said that he faced very unfortunate situations where a diving centre cheated him on a licence. “They charged me over USD 350 and promised to offer me a diving licence. But nine months have passed and ‘Little Diving Master’ has cheated me,” he said.

Jane Paterson, a British tourist said that something should be done about the speeding traffic in Hikkaduwa which is very dangerous and the authorities should construct a pavement,” she said.

Super Corals, the oldest star hotel and some of the replanted corals in Hikkaduwa (right)

When contacted an official from the Hikkaduwa police said that they were addressing this issue. “We are proposing to have a double line preventing overtaking in a four kilometre area,” he said. Plans are also under way to have more speed checks in the area.

Despite the threat to coral, investments in tourism in the area is increasing rapidly. John Keells Group has closed down their property for refurbishment while several new hotel projects will be launched. Unlike the 1960s today Light House Hotel offers five star comforts while several resort type hotels are being built. Hikkaduwa today has 10 star class hotels and offers 750 tourist board registered rooms. The informal sector has another 1,000 rooms and over 2,000 people are directly employed in the sector. Over 10,000 earn their living from tourism.

The construction of the Galle harbour as a tourist Port will add value to Galle and Hikkaduwa while the annual ‘Hikka Festival’ too would bring in revenue to the hotels. Another benefit the Government gave the tourism industry is the Colombo Galle Highway enabling a tourist to get to Hikkaduwa in less than one and a half hours. Many hope that the new Minister, Rajapaksa would step in and save the corals so that Hikkaduwa can once again talk of real ‘blue corals’ and tourists would have an attraction to go there.