Conservation Tourism Webinar Series: Protecting the Future of Tourism in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance ‘Conservation Tourism’ webinar series launching Friday 27 August 2021 at 10.30am (SL time) will discuss why conservation of Sri Lanka’s nature and wildlife matters to the future sustainability of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.
To protect the future of tourism in Sri Lanka, we must protect Sri Lanka’s nature and wildlife.
Sri Lanka’s tourism industry is heavily reliant on the country’s many natural blessings including our lush tropical jungles, lakes and rivers as well as our incredibly rich biodiversity. Small islands are usually not home to large mammals, however Sri Lanka is an exception. Our “Big Five” (Elephant, Leopard, Bear, Sperm Whale and Blue Whale) has earned Sri Lanka the title of ‘Best for Big Game Safaris’ outside of Africa.
Nature-based tourist attractions bring in substantial revenue for local and national economies and contribute heavily to national employment. As an example, ‘The Gathering’ of Minneriya named “One of the Wildlife Wonders of the World” by Lonely Planet, was estimated to be worth well over ~ LKR 4 billion (~USD 22 million) in 2018, in tourism benefits to the country. The entry fees alone from Sri Lanka’s wildlife parks, zoological and botanical gardens and conservation forests amounted to 27.5% of the total revenue earned from tourism in 2018.
Despite the significant contribution to Sri Lanka’s economy, our natural world faces many challenges and receives next to no attention from the tourism industry for its conservation. In this 2-part series, the Tourism Alliance will explore wildlife and nature conservation as it applies to the future sustainability of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.
Hear from a panel of local and international experts
The 1st webinar in the Conservation Tourism webinar series which will launch via Zoom on Friday 27 August at 10.30 am (SL time), will feature a panel of local and international experts: Dr Sumith Pilapitiya – Former Director General of Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), Srilal Miththapala – Past President of The Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) and Toby Sinclair – Director of &Beyond Asia. The session will be introduced by Co Chair of the Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance, Malik J Fernando, and moderated by Niranga Gunaratna, Director of Communications at Shangri-La Colombo & Shangri-La Hambantota.
Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance
Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance is a free, membership-based organisation, formed after the 2019 Easter attacks. Our vision is to build a resilient and sustainable Tourism Industry that embraces international sustainable tourism best practices, and where tourism benefits are driven to communities and people across Sri Lanka at every level.
Soon after the Covid-19 crisis broke, the Alliance launched its hugely successful Resilience Webinar Series featuring global and local experts sharing knowledge and expertise relevant to the whole industry including hoteliers, DMC’s, freelancers and other tourism-related service providers on a range of pertinent topics. The sessions had over 40,000 views.
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