Tourism is not about numbers, but building a product that makes people come back
While Sri Lanka is seeing tourist numbers growing exponentially since the beginning of this year, mass tourism into national parks and forest reserves, harassment of wildlife species and illegal swimming with whales have made a huge impact on how the country is being reviewed on social media by guests globally.
This comments were made when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) organised its 10th serendipity knowledge programme on the title ‘Tourism and Biodiversity Conservation’ at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo.
Wilderness South Africa, Group Impact Manager, Vincent Shacks in his keynote address stated, “As a country you need to build a product that makes people feel to come back. Tourism impact is not just by bringing a high number of guests into a country for revenue purposes but the industry stakeholders should know what they should do and what they shouldn’t be doing.”
