HIDDEN PARTS OF PACKAGE TOURS
When I asked what the main economic activity of Kandy was, the two youths at Hotel reception were confused. They discussed among themselves in Sinhalese, but could not answer properly.
``Is it agriculture? tourism? industries? Which one is the main source of income here? ‘’ I elaborated.
``It is tourism. Not much agriculture in Kandy city. Next Is handicrafts and they are also exported,’’ one of them said. In outskirts of Kandy city, I had noticed agriculture activity, especially paddy fields. The rural Kandy has abundance of perennial water sources, despite of drought.
During the last three days, I had figured out that Sri Lanka had taken up tourism seriously and promoted every possible site to tourists, especially foreigners. There are different charges for SAARC country citizen and others.
When we talk about package tours, one has to confirm about entry fee to tourist spots. The entry fee is standardized with US or European visitors. The tourists from other countries may feel it bit expensive. Even the food appears to be expensive.
While most of my friends, who visit Sri Lanka would see one or two places and spend their time mostly in Colombo. Such hidden costs would not affect them, as they would be interested in other luxury facilities. However, one going for heritage tourism should be more careful, especially if they keep a budget in their mind.
For example, entry per person for Sigirya rock is around Rs 3000 (Sri Lanka currency), while Dambulla cave temple entry is Rs 1500 per person. Even compared to entry in Indian heritage sites, it appears to be expensive. The vehicles carrying tourists must pay Rs 100 entry fee and another Rs 100 parking fee. There are small temples, where entry fee has been fixed at Rs 300 per person, but vehicle entry and parking would be the same. At Embella temple, we were allowed to enter temple complex collecting entry fee. No one told us that temple was closed and would open only four hours later. We just returned without seeing anything.
I had mixed experience in paying for entry fee with my tourist operator as well as paying them here. For Wilpattu, I had paid complete expenses to my tourist operator, which had come up to Rs 18000 (Indian currency) for four people. However, we had to hire local safari organizers at Harabana and Yala, which worked out less than half of it.
Even the food looks expensive. An ordinary coffee costs anywhere between Rs 100 to Rs 150 for foreigners. A normal dish will not cost less than Rs 900. I realized that the tourism still works like a cooperative sector here. The foreign tourists are taken to particular restaurants and hotels, which are part of the chain. There are other restaurants available in every city, but one has to explore it by themselves, without the help of your guide or driver
However, travelling in Sri Lanka is a pleasure. I, Chinnappa and Prasad honestly felt that Lankans are
We just joked among ourselves: ``If our people in government have to learn road engineering, we should send them here. If we want to ruin Sri Lanka, we should send our people to construct road here.’’
Apart from traffic sense, Sri Lanka appears to have better law and order management. Every tourist spot has one Tourist Police check post. The police are friendly and always eager to guide you. The professionalism exhibited is as good as we find in private hospitality industries in India.
The other thing we noticed was girls and women walk alone even in the night. It was not just in towns and cities, but also in rural areas and dark places. It just showed safety level of women in Sri Lanka.
The best part of Sri Lanka is cleanliness. We did find some rural places, where sporadic plastic littering was there. However, we felt that it was one of the cleanest countries in Asia. It is not that the people will clean up the mess, but they just don’t litter….
``It is tourism. Not much agriculture in Kandy city. Next Is handicrafts and they are also exported,’’ one of them said. In outskirts of Kandy city, I had noticed agriculture activity, especially paddy fields. The rural Kandy has abundance of perennial water sources, despite of drought.
During the last three days, I had figured out that Sri Lanka had taken up tourism seriously and promoted every possible site to tourists, especially foreigners. There are different charges for SAARC country citizen and others.
When we talk about package tours, one has to confirm about entry fee to tourist spots. The entry fee is standardized with US or European visitors. The tourists from other countries may feel it bit expensive. Even the food appears to be expensive.
While most of my friends, who visit Sri Lanka would see one or two places and spend their time mostly in Colombo. Such hidden costs would not affect them, as they would be interested in other luxury facilities. However, one going for heritage tourism should be more careful, especially if they keep a budget in their mind.
For example, entry per person for Sigirya rock is around Rs 3000 (Sri Lanka currency), while Dambulla cave temple entry is Rs 1500 per person. Even compared to entry in Indian heritage sites, it appears to be expensive. The vehicles carrying tourists must pay Rs 100 entry fee and another Rs 100 parking fee. There are small temples, where entry fee has been fixed at Rs 300 per person, but vehicle entry and parking would be the same. At Embella temple, we were allowed to enter temple complex collecting entry fee. No one told us that temple was closed and would open only four hours later. We just returned without seeing anything.
I had mixed experience in paying for entry fee with my tourist operator as well as paying them here. For Wilpattu, I had paid complete expenses to my tourist operator, which had come up to Rs 18000 (Indian currency) for four people. However, we had to hire local safari organizers at Harabana and Yala, which worked out less than half of it.
Even the food looks expensive. An ordinary coffee costs anywhere between Rs 100 to Rs 150 for foreigners. A normal dish will not cost less than Rs 900. I realized that the tourism still works like a cooperative sector here. The foreign tourists are taken to particular restaurants and hotels, which are part of the chain. There are other restaurants available in every city, but one has to explore it by themselves, without the help of your guide or driver
However, travelling in Sri Lanka is a pleasure. I, Chinnappa and Prasad honestly felt that Lankans are
We just joked among ourselves: ``If our people in government have to learn road engineering, we should send them here. If we want to ruin Sri Lanka, we should send our people to construct road here.’’
Apart from traffic sense, Sri Lanka appears to have better law and order management. Every tourist spot has one Tourist Police check post. The police are friendly and always eager to guide you. The professionalism exhibited is as good as we find in private hospitality industries in India.
The other thing we noticed was girls and women walk alone even in the night. It was not just in towns and cities, but also in rural areas and dark places. It just showed safety level of women in Sri Lanka.
The best part of Sri Lanka is cleanliness. We did find some rural places, where sporadic plastic littering was there. However, we felt that it was one of the cleanest countries in Asia. It is not that the people will clean up the mess, but they just don’t litter….
better committed in their road works. The qualities of even narrow rural road were as good as our highways. No potholes, no speed breakers. People abide by traffic rules. Two wheeler riders, both rider and pillion wear helmets. Pedestrians get preference in cities, when they want to cross roads. No one is in hurry and they wait without honking till the pedestrians cross the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment