Sri Lanka wildlife tourism: A different narrative needed

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Sri Lanka has much to offer in this space, but we are still “treading the same old cow path” promoting the same offering.

Current day tourists are looking for a more immersive experience and understanding of wildlife. Therefore, there must be a change to the approach and message. A different narrative is needed urgently to reach out to this important segment.

Wildlife tourism

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), world wildlife tourism accounts for 7% of the world tourism industry and is growing at an annual growth of about 3%. Wildlife tourism currently employs 22 million people worldwide directly or indirectly and contributes more than $120 billion to global GDP. Hence it is obvious that it forms a main component of world tourism in the future.  This could be larger in the immediate future, since post pandemic travelers are seeking out more outdoor and nature-related immersive experiences during their travels. 

In Sri Lanka, this is also a rapidly growing segment, where close to 50% of all tourists visiting the country made at least one visit to a wildlife park in 2018 (by far the best year for tourism in Sri Lanka). This was a marked increase from some 20% in 2015.

In addition, park entrance fees, enhanced revenues from tourists staying in hotels in the vicinity, and peripheral earnings by safari jeep drivers bring in a very large revenue for the state, private sector, and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In 2018, the earnings from just 3 of the most popular wildlife parks was a staggering Rs 11 B (USD 72 M) at 2018 exchange rates.

So there is no question that wildlife tourism has to be an integral segment of Sri Lanka’s tourism offering.

Marketing Sri Lanka Wildlife to the world

In spite of the importance of this segment for tourism as shown in the forgoing, tourism marketers still continue their old ways of marketing wildlife tourism. Operators are still treading the familiar cow path, offering tourists standardized safari excursions perhaps just for them to be able to see a few charismatic species in the wild. When a potential tourist calls a hotel or a travel agency to inquire about the wildlife attractions in Sri Lanka, most often the sales staff just gives an itinerary and mentions the animals that could be observed there.

In today’s context, what is needed is colorful stories about wildlife in Sri Lanka with a humane experiential touch. Stories must be woven around the many the charismatic wildlife animals and the intimate wildlife experiences in Sri Lanka.

In short, a totally different narrative is required to enhance the wildlife tourism offering. 

Over the years, I have been presenting many stories about wild animal individuals and incidents and few are given below.

Charismatic Individuals

Rambo the Elephant at Uda Walawe Wildlife Park

This mature male elephant has been patrolling the Uda Walawe reservoir bund for more than a decade, inside the protective electric fence barrier, attracting passers-by. He has become quite a celebrity and is perhaps one of the most photographed wild elephants in this part of the world.

I have interacted with this animal during my work at Uda Walawe Park and written extensively about his antics.

A google search for “Rambo elephant” returned about 2,750,000 results (0.41 seconds). Of course just “Rambo” alone will not work because Sylvester Stallone will dominate the space!

Natta the leopard ‘king’ of Wilpattu

Natta is a good healthy mature but  omewhat elusive specimen of a male leopard who is the resident “king” at Wilpattu National Park. He is the most sought after for photo opportunities, which he gladly obliges to if he is in the mood. He derives his name “Natta” which means a “tail” in Singhalese since his tail is slightly broken at the tip, possibly due to a fight with another leopard during his younger days in establishing his dominance. A google search for “Natta leopard” resulted in 707,000 results (0.36 seconds).

Sumedha the “king” of Uda Walawe

A mature tusked elephant who frequents the park periodically during the months of June to October usually, Sumedha is undisputedly at the top of the hierarchy in the park after the demise of the former dominant male “Walawe Raja.” Other males in the park are wary of him and  give him a wide berth. He has a very distinguishing and prominent tennis ball-sized hole in his right ear and a broken tail. A google search for “Sumedha elephant” gave 376,000 results (0.56 seconds).

I have extracted their “antics” and built characters around them. And I do not apologize for “humanizing” them. That’s what makes it all the more interesting to people.

While stories can be built around animal characters, unusual wildlife encounters can also be publicized in an attractive manner.

You need to “spin the story” and give it that little “salt and pepper” to make it more interesting. Again here are some of my examples.

Sri Lanka wildlife tourism: A different narrative needed

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