What innovations would enable tourism in Sri Lanka to re-build?

Abstract

Purpose

The goal of this paper is to narrate about tourism in Sri Lanka in the context of the current pandemic and other challenges and identify innovative solutions to rebuild tourism.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study was undertaken by employing mainly secondary data sources.

Findings

Since the 26-year long civil war in Sri Lanka ended in 2009, tourism grew to unprecedented levels over the next ten years. Sri Lanka had formulated strategies to attract six million tourists and US$ 10 billion earnings by 2025. Tourism had been the third highest foreign exchange earner of the country representing over 5% of GDP, around 500,000 employees. The 2019 Easter Sunday terrorist attacks that killed 269 people severely affected tourism. Within a year of the attacks, the global COVID-19 pandemic further impacted tourism further. The current war in Europe added to the problems of Sri Lanka, which in 2022 plunged to its worse economic and political crisis. The protesters against the political corruption and fiscal mismanagement demanded the resignation of the President, Prime Minister and the Cabinet. In spite of these major challenges, this paper attempts to bring some optimism about the future potential of tourism in Sri Lanka.

Originality/value

This paper suggests 12 key measures and 9 suggestions for innovation to rebuild tourism in Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2030.

Citation

Jayawardena, C. (2022), "What innovations would enable tourism in Sri Lanka to re-build?", Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, Vol. 14 No. 6, pp. 586-595. https://doi.org/10.1108/WHATT-06-2022-0070