Tourists should not be scared to visit SL but must come prepared

Sri Lanka was named number one in the best places for solo female travel in 2024 by Time Out Group, a leading global media and hospitality business and this has inevitably kicked up a social media storm with many women having serious reservations about the safety of women in the country while others have applauded the high ranking placed in the country.

Time Out, a reputed company which began in London, UK in 1968 helps people discover the exciting new urban cultures and new cities and hence it’s welcome that Sri Lanka is featured in in it but there are obvious questions how Time Out reached the conclusion that Sri Lanka is safest among nine countries for women to visit alone in a list which also includes places such as New Zealand, Greece, Portugal and Japan.

Sri Lankan women will tell from firsthand experience that when they travel solo, they face many forms of harassment including catcalling, eve-teasing, sexual harassment on public transport, and other forms of harassment that make them feel uncomfortable at best and threatened at worst. Foreign travellers to Sri Lanka too experience such harassment and have reported such instances. Hence it is fair to question how much a list was compiled without a warning for solo women travellers so that they could take the necessary precautions when travelling alone.

The danger of such a listing is that this could lull a potential solo woman traveller to Sri Lanka into complacency and they could have a bad experience here which would in turn do more harm than good to the country’s growing tourism market.

That said, it is important that more and more foreigners are encouraged to visit Sri Lanka given the massive potential of this country. This untapped potential is slowly being discovered by foreign tourists who are coming in record numbers in the past few months, and this augurs well for the country. Over half a million tourists visited Sri Lanka in the first three months of the year and as the tourism sector picks up from the downturn due to the COVID pandemic as well as the economic crisis, the sector is likely to grow steadily. The onus is on the host country to ensure that foreign visitors have a pleasant experience and hence the need for better facilities and safety and security for them.

As the media has highlighted often, tourism authorities need to do more to ensure that tourists have a more rewarding visit to the country than they do now with safety and security paramount and this includes not only for women, but all tourists. Road accidents have claimed the lives of several foreigners this year and prior warning on the unsafe conditions of roads is essential so they take precautions. The Tourism Police is active in certain areas but with many new areas in the country opening up and attracting tourists, facilities to deal with emergencies should be more readily available.

To a large extent, the facilities at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) have improved so visitors have a better first impression of the country but there are some changes that can be made to make their exit from the airport smoother. Foreign passport holders are required to fill in a disembarkation form at the airport which takes up time. This can be dispensed with and replaced with an online form which can be uploaded to a portal of the immigration section of the airport. Most countries have done away with form filling at airports as they are tedious and time consuming.

All Sri Lankans who wish for the wellbeing of the country are excited and humbled by the large number of foreign nationals who have chosen to visit the country and experience the wonders that it has on offer. Revenue from tourism has helped boost the country’s ailing economy and has helped thousands of others whose livelihoods are linked to tourism.

While doing all that is needed to boost the tourism sector further, it is also necessary to give a realistic view of what to expect when a foreigner visits the country, and this means being honest about the shortcoming and pitfalls they may experience while travelling here. Don’t be scared to visit Sri Lanka but come prepared for possible unpleasant experiences as well.