Text and photos : Oliver Walton
Sewalanka Foundation is a national development organisation, working with vulnerable communites across the country. Its work with community tourism has grown out of its work with communities living in areas affected by tourism. Sewalanka’s community tourism programe focusses on three tourism hotspots – Sinharaja, Sri Lanka’s largest rainforest, Arugam Bay, a beach resort in the East popular with surfers and Unawatuna, an established beach resort in the South. Sewalanka has developed several environmental projects with community groups in these areas, conducted training in home-stay tourism for people living near tourist sites and facilitated workshops promoting the idea of community-based tourism in the three communities. In Arugam Bay, Sewalanka has established two eco-tours run by local fishermen. Sewalanka plans to develop commuity-tourism programmes in the three communities which will be managed by community-based organisations and involve training of local guides who will be able to teach visitors about local cultural and income-generating activities and facilitate exchange of local knowledge. Sewalanka’s overall aim is to help allow some the economic benefits of tourism to be transferred to local communities as well as alleviating some of the damaging social and cultural impacts of mass-tourism. Sewalanka is also working to promote the concept of community-based tourism by mobilising other interested groups in Sri Lanka and lobbying the government.
Contact
Mr Harsha Kumara Navaratne
Sewalanka Foundation
PO Box 3
Boralesgamuwa, Sri Lanka
Tel. : +94 (0) 11 2545 362-5
Fax : +94 (0) 11 2545 166
Email : sewahq@sri.lanka.net
Internet : www.sewalanka.org
Language : English and Sinhalese
More information about Sewalanka’s ecotours in Arugam Bay can be found in the Sri Lanka Lonley Planet Guide or by :
Email : sewahq@sri.lanka.net
Internet : www.arugam.lk
http://www.sewalanka.org/tourism.htm
Community-based eco-tourism
Unawatuna combating rubbish
Sinharaja Bed n’Breakfast accommodation
Unawatuna Community Tourism Project