Cutting the branch you are sitting on
A cut tree, a dead elephant, is a lost tourism dollar in the future.
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1 min read
- 4 decades of inaction since the introduction of an open economy, Sri Lanka has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
- Globally and regionally, the country is unplanned and unprepared to drive forex earnings; exports, FDIs, and foreign-earned wage remittances record very slow growth rates below CAGR 5%.
- With CAGR 13.69%, tourism sector shows resilience despite no concentrated effort or national strategy; emerges as priority sector in medium-term to be No. 1 forex earner.
- Nature and wildlife tourism has most potential to drive Sri Lanka as a hot destination for high value travelers as global mobility returns in 2021.
- A single elephant, alive, contributes $ 0.16 m a year or $ 11 m over its lifetime to tourism sector; 350 elephant deaths in 2019 amount to economic value of $ 3.9 b had they lived their lives fully.
- Forest cover reduced by 130,349 hectares from 2010-2019 reflecting a sharp increase of 8.6% of net forest change.
