The potential for eco- or community-based tourism to provide communities with a valuable source of additional income as well as an incentive to preserve the natural environment and traditional ways of life is well documented.

Sewalanka Foundation has a long-standing interest in eco tourism and together with Sri Lanka Ecotourism Foundation has recently begun a program training community-based organisations (CBOs) to enable them to provide home stay accommodation to tourists. Sewalanka has also been assisting CBOs to develop specialised package tours, which allow local people to conduct their own local, community-based tours as an alternative to those provided by larger hotels and guesthouses.

In Arugam Bay in eastern Sri Lanka, working in collaboration with the Italian International Institute of Economic Cooperation (ICEI), Sewalanka recently helped 13 young men establish a small scale tour company. Having identified potential destinations and suitable package itineraries the men were instructed on the fundamentals of running a successful tourism business and were trained as professional tour guides.

Sewalanka’s Tourism Program Coordinator Mr Indika Jagatha Harshana said that on completing the program two of the stakeholders were given the opportunity to travel to India as eco tourists to see operational community tourism projects and experience ecotourism for themselves. They were accompanied by Sewalanka representatives and were given the opportunity to interact with stakeholders in Indian community-based tourism projects. “Given Sri Lanka’s vast but still largely unrealised tourism potential we feel that by providing training and establishing a viable structure for eco tourism promotion and development we can lay the foundation for a thriving ecotourism industry,” Mr Harshana said.

To further develop our capacity to provide expertise and training in the field of ecotourism Mr Harshana recently attended the Lao Eco tourism forum in Vientiane, Laos. The forum provided an opportunity to exchange ideas with those involved in ecotourism projects throughout South and South East Asia. During the forum, Sewalanka together with the Ecotourism Foundation arranged for regular exchange visits to take place with some of those involved in ecotourism projects in Sri Lanka and Laos, visiting each other to share their experiences and ideas on a regular basis.

“It is hoped that greater cooperation between eco tourism projects in South and South East Asia will serve as a basis to develop a comprehensive regional ecotourism network,” Mr Harshana concluded.