The Hindu Business Line : Lanka uses Ramayana trail to lure tourists

Hyderabad, Sept. 19 Making Sri Lanka more attractive for the Indian travellers, the island nation has decided to tread the Sita-Rama trail, tracing back the footprints of Sita, Rama and Ravana. Sri Lanka (referred to as Lanka in the epic Ramayana written by poet-sage Valmiki) has a prominent role in the story as it was home of Ravana, the Shaivite king, who kidnapped Sita while she was in exile along with her husband Rama and brother-in-law Lakshmana.

The Sri Lankan Tourism, now, has decided to popularise the traces of Ramayana in Lanka in order to attract Indian travellers. “We have identified 51 such sites so far. We have evolved packages that will take the travellers through the probable sites where Sita might have been taken along,” Ms Amal Goonetilleke, Chairperson of Pacific Asia Travel Association (Sri Lanka Chapter), said.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday along with top executives of Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB), she said about 350 Indians had already visited some of the sites. The itinerary would include a site called Ravana Elle, considered to be the headquarters of the Lankan emperor situated near a hill and a waterfall. A place where Sita was kept (Ashokavana in the Ramayana) and Sitawaka also figured in the itinerary.

The Lankan tourism officials hoped that this would pep up the tourist inflows from India.

The SLCB was also betting big on the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events) attractions the country offered. “As it is, 20 per cent (22,000) of all arrivals from India are MICE travellers. In all, we attract 15 per cent of the 5.5 lakh foreign arrivals as MICE visitors,” Mr Prema Cooray, Chairman of SLCB, said.

Mr Renton de Alwis, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, said his country was planning to cash in on the vast tracts of the green cover. “We have 47 per cent of green cover and 29 per cent forest cover. By 2018, we would like to be a carbon neutral destination,” he added. Replying to a question on the criticism that tourism was contributing to global warming, he said the affect of tourism on global warming is less than 5 per cent, while that of dairy industry is 22 per cent,” he said.

“The idea behind promoting Lanka as the greenest destination is also to remove the burden of ‘travel guilt’. The question that lingers in their minds is that they are contributing to global warming,” he said.

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