Alternative Tourism as an Alternate to Mass Tourism during the
Post-COVID-19 Recovery Phase: the Case of Sri Lanka
WHMS Samarathunga1,2* and Dimuth
Gamage2
1Faculty of Management Studies, Rajarata University of
Sri Lanka, Mihintale, 50300, Sri Lanka
2Tourism School, Sichuan University, Wangjiang Road,
Chengdu, 610064, China
*Corresponding author:
manoj.thm@mgt.rjt.ac.lk
, manoj.susl@gmail.com
Abstract
With the current travel restrictions due to the impacts of COVID19
tourist destinations have entered into an unprecedented period of zero
tourist arrivals and zero income period. At this onset, mass tourism
with the mass movement of people could impose great health risks and
therefore the travelers will be vulnerable to health hazards. Therefore,
we postulate emergence of alternative tourism replacing mass tourism
that has a high upward potential during the post-COVID19 tourism revival
phase. In this line of argument we identify niche tourism concepts like
health, wellness, Ayurveda and spiritual tourism, rural tourism,
agro-tourism and eco-tourism as emerging tourism products. The study
also identifies potential tourism markets that will resume tourism after
the COVID19 outbreak.
Keywords: Tourism after COVID19; Alternative tourism;
Niche Tourism; Mass Tourism; Tourism and health
Introduction
As of now, the whole world is at a state of shock with COVID-19 pandemic
affecting both human lives and the economy. According to the statistics
released on 16th May 2020, the global COVID19 infected
cases are well over 4.5 million with 308,660 deaths (Worldometer, 2020).
That has resulted countries across the world to take strict measures for
reducing human interactions by shutting down factories, closing down the
airports, and imposing numerous restrictions on people’s mobility.
Tourism can be identified as one of the mostly affected global sectors
in the world since all those health measures have adversely impacted on
international travel (Samarathunga, 2020).
United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimated a 20% to
30% tourist arrival drop globally in 2020 compared to 2019. This could
be read as a damage of $400 billion of international tourism receipt,
which can go up to $ 1.5 trillion. These statistics are equal to the
industry growth of five to seven years in a raw. World health
Organization (WHO) warned not to open up global travel too quickly,
alarming that it would require a “Careful Risk Management”. This
emphasize that even though the global travel opened up, there will
always be a risk. At this backdrop we can postulate the temporal decline
of ‘mass tourism’ and emergence of ‘alternative tourism’ during the
revival of tourism. Thus, the aim of our article is to identify
alternative tourism potentials in Sri Lanka during the post-COVID19
revival phase.
Decline of ‘Mass Tourism’ and
emergence of ‘Alternative Tourism’
Mass tourism can be identified as the most famous form of tourism in the
world that involves movement of large number of tourists (usually tens
of thousands) to the same destination at the same time of year (Cooper,
Fletcher, Gilbert, Fyall, & Wanhill, 2005). Mass tourism is very
popular due to low cost and standard services, especially on ‘All
Inclusive’ packages. The services provided under the AI packages include
air transportation, ground transportation, accommodation, food and
beverage, unlimited local liquor, morning and evening tea/refreshments
and sometimes excursion (Samarathunga & Gnanapala, 2016). Due to a
constant overwhelming demand, the tour operators, Destination Management
Companies (DMC’s), hotels, airlines, cruise lines and other service
providers make large scale economies and provide tourism products and
services at a cheaper price. However, the present social distance
measures and travel restrictions has driven mass tourism to a screeching
halt with the fear of tourists visiting crowded places.
This alarming situation has grabbed the attention of the National
Tourism Organization, investors, employees and other stakeholders. We
believe that during the post-COVID19 revival phase, ‘alternative
tourism’ can play a pivotal role to utilize our tourism resources and to
protect the tourism stakeholders in the short run.
Alternative tourism is not an old concept. The concept has been there in
the tourism world for about two decades now. The tourists who are tired
of laying down on a beach and read a book with sun tan lotion are
increasingly move to alternative tourism which is experienced based. The
alternative tourism takes the tourists away from their comfort zones and
gives them an exotic experience which is close to the nature, culture,
history or even the religion of the country that they visited. Different
facets of alternative tourism are: ‘Health and Wellness Tourism’, ‘Rural
Tourism’, ‘Agro-tourism’, ‘Eco-tourism’, ‘Back-packing Tourism’,
‘Community-based Tourism’, Pro-poor Tourism’, ‘Volunteer Tourism’,
‘Spiritual Tourism’ etc. For the tourism investors and entrepreneurs
this is a good market to earn big by serving to fewer and elite groups.
Sri Lanka tourism and alternative
tourism potentials
Sri Lanka’s diverse landscapes, rich natural and cultural heritage, and
traditional knowledge can lay a breeding ground for the promotion of
alternative tourism within the country. Out of many, we propose
following niche tourism concepts to introduce by means of alternative
tourism to promote Sri Lanka as a primeval destination to visit:
Health, Wellness, Ayurveda and
Spiritual
Tourism
As we all know, movements of three quarters of the world population is
now limited to their own walls or fence. All these people will look at
different ways of rejuvenating to get away from the stress and haunting
experience of their lives. Many European countries have already
established 24 hours help lines to attend to the grievances of such
people. As a result, we can forecast an increased demand for health and
wellness tourism, and spiritual tourism among the Western tourists in
the months to come. Rest and recuperation, spiritual healing and
understanding, physical and mental wellbeing, Ayurveda and Yoga,
meditation, and understanding the reality of life will be key search
terms among in the tourism search engines during the revival of tourism.
Sri Lanka has a comparative advantage to grab this market associated
with deep rooted Buddhism and Hinduism philosophies and Ayurveda in Sri
Lanka.
The Western institutions including hospitals, police, military, and
other first respondents will select Eastern destinations like Sri Lanka
to send their first line operational staff for distress and
rejuvenation. A research based promotions will be able to get the
attention of the potential clients towards Sri Lanka.
The remains of the ancient hospital in Mihintale (9thcentury AD) and Alahana Parivena (11th century
AD) can certainly add some value to the strategic marketing campaigns
since the West is very much interested in Eastern traditional knowledge.
Rural Tourism and Agro
Tourism
Rural tourism and the Agro tourism can be identified as one of most
famous niche tourism trends in the world. Lots of urban dwellers around
the world are searching for rural and agricultural experiences during
their vacations as a method of enhancing their knowledge and adding some
life skills. The COVID-19 made the people to think back about their
lives and skills of survival during their time at condominiums. As a
result, the parents will think of equipping their children with basic
life skills that include agriculture and farming to survive during
unprecedented challenges of life. As a result we postulate agro-tourism
will have an increased demand in the future where people can learn
simple ways of life, planting, gardening and understanding the
environment around them. Therefore we need to clearly identify what
farms, what paddy fields and what Chenas are suitable to promote
agro-tourism and make necessary developments to attract and retain the
tourists.
Tea
Tourism
Sri Lanka as one of the best tea producers in the world already has a
reputation for its incomparable ‘Ceylon Tea’. Since some of our
traditional international tea importers including Russia, Iran, and
Turkey are badly affected by the virus, the demand for tea will be
fluctuated in the short-run. However, to keep the tea estates running
and to employ thousands of workers we can think of introducing
experienced based tea tourism to the world.
Tea tourism is a very popular market in China where the domestic Chinese
tourists visit tea estates to learn the entire process of tea production
including tea planting, estate maintenance, tea plucking, tea
processing, tea packing and most importantly tea tasting. Therefore, tea
tourism events and activities are frequently being organized throughout
China. However, if we are to promote tea tourism, tourists should be
given unique and innovative experience in the tea estates that solely
reflect the tea culture. The simple daily activities happening in tea
estates can turn into tourism activities easily with proper planning and
product development. The cost involved in this entire process is
minimum.
The Chinese people give a high value to the entire tea making process
including tea planting, plucking, brewing and tasting. They have
narrated songs, play dramas about it and even some cities have been
thematically planned with ‘Tea theme’. These innovative strategies have
added value to the Chinese tea in China and are sold at higher rates in
both local and international tea auctions.
Eco-tourism
Sri Lanka being a bio-diversity hot-spot in the world has a huge upside
potential to promote eco-tourism. The 16 national parks, numerous
rivers, tanks, and waterfalls, different weather zones and geographical
zones, marine environment, endemic flora and fauna are not effectively
touched by Sri Lanka tourism. Thousands of jeeps entering in to national
parks per day, hundreds of boats launched at water bodies, hundreds of
irresponsible nature lovers not only deplete the environment quality,
but also make irreversible damages to the environment. On the other
hand, a very low number of eco-tourists are visiting Sri Lanka get a
real eco-tourism experience since most of tour eco-tourism products are
largely concentrated to commercialized camping, jeep safaris chasing the
animals and boat rides scaring the fish and other aquatic animals.
Proper tourism product developments need to be done with the mediation
of the eco-tourism experts either regionally or nationally. Trekking and
tracking, bird-watching, whale and dolphin watching, turtle watching in
particular can be promoted as eco-tourism products in Sri Lanka while
delivering benefits to the rural communities. However, without merely
restricting the tourists’ visits to ‘gazing’ an active participation
with ‘performing’ is recommended to promote these events among the
tourists. Having said that, we should adhere to eco-tourism principles
introduced by The International Ecotourism Society when developing
eco-tourism products.
One of the key advantages in alternative tourism development is that we
convert local resources in to tourism resources at a minimum cost.
Mentioned above are just few example and we have many more potential
concepts throughout Sri Lanka and throughout our calendar.
Which markets should we look
at?
During the last few years, Sri Lankan tourism was heavily depending on
mass tourists’ arrivals from India, China, Britain, Germany, Australia,
France, Russia, United States, Maldives and Canada. Out of those
countries only China has recorded an early recovery from the impact of
COVID-19. Table 1 demonstrates Sri Lankan source markets and the impact
of COVID-19 on them.