About the workshop
On the 19th of March me and some fellow class mates visited the Tourism Media Workshop at the University of Colombo. This workshop was set up by the University of Colombo in order to create more insight and publicity for different matters when it comes to the tourism industry and tourism development in Sri Lanka. This was done by means of presentations and discussions of various tourism professionals of Sri Lanka, representing different companies like the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) or the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA). The different topics that were handled were:
Competitiveness of Sri Lanka
Community Based Sustainable Tourism
The role of Tourist Police
Trends and patterns
The role of mass media
These presentations gave our group some valuable insight regarding our research in Sri Lanka. For instance, in the first presentation it became clear that the awareness of Sri Lanka as a tourist destination is still very low. We learned that only 2% of respondents had interest in visiting Sri Lanka, while after being informed about what the country has to offer it increased to 20%! This made it very clear that Sri Lanka has a lot of tourism potential. However, one of the main issues at the moment isnāt the availability of tourism products, but the awareness of these various products this country has to offer.
Little moment of fame
After the presentations we were asked to give a quick interview, in order to tell about what we as Master students from different countries could offer Sri Lanka when it comes to tourism development. This was very interesting as I never had been interviewed before and it showed the great interest of the University of Colombo to our opinion and contribution! At the end of the day we even got a certificate as thanks for our participation.
Although the workshop was finished, me and my class mates stayed a little longer at the University, as we were invited to a class room where local tourism students had a lecture. Here we got the opportunity to ask our fellow tourism students questions about their country. It was very interesting to hear their insights! It turned out that many students already had a part time job in the tourism industry, in order to gain practical experience. One of the students, working at Long Beach Resort in Koggala, even invited us for a meeting. When we met him again in Koggala during that meeting, he gave us some relevant and helpful information for our report.
All in all it was a very productive and interesting day and we got a lot of contact persons that could help us with our research.
