Sri Lanka's Arugam Bay surfing paradise

June 25, 2010 Arugam Bay, SRI LANKA (LBO) - Top professional surfers from around the world were at Sri Lanka's Arugam Bay, a small village in the eastern coast of the island which was limited to an adventurous few until now.

"It is a fun wave," says Nat Young from USA, who shone at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) SriLankan Airlines Pro championship this week."The waves are so close to the shore."
World Class
Arugam Bay has a right breaking wave, which runs almost parallel to the shore.
"A fun wave means a surfer can try out almost any manoeuvre," says Dane Anderson, ASP Australasia's tour manager.
"Everybody is very happy with the waves. These are world class.
"Yesterday we stopped the tournament early and someone said 'Why are we stopping, the waves are good?’
"But the organisers said waves can get much better, and they did. Then everyone knew what we were talking about."
Australia's Julian Wilson won the tournament beating Young in the finals. Wilson says he will be back to defend his title next year.

Wade Sharp, who was one of the judges at the championship, says the waves at Arugam Bay can be bested by only a very few places in the world.
"These waves are probably better than in the USA," says Sharp who is from South Africa.

"But probably not as good as in Indonesia."He says right breaking waves breaking so close to the shore allow surfers to run along to the shore and try more waves instead of swimming laboriously against the wave to get to the starting point.

"The waves are very consistent here," adds Wade. "So you can be sure to get the waves when you come."
Permanent Fixture
SriLankan Airlines, the island's national carrier, who was the main sponsor of the championship, wants to make the Arugam Bay event a permanent fixture on the ASP circuit.
"We first negotiated with them in 2004, but the war broke out and we shifted to the Maldives, because of the security situation," says SriLankan Airlines chief Manoj Gunewardena.
"But now people can come here freely.
"Our intention is to make this a high profile global event and over the next three years also encourage other corporate sponsors to come in."
Lanka Sportreizen, a Sri Lankan inbound tour operator specializing in water and adventure sports who provided logistics support for the championship, believes the event has helped raise the profile of surfing in the island.
"We would like to see more tourists coming here and both tourists and locals learning to surf," says Lanka Sportreizen chief Tilak Weerasinghe, himself a windsurfer who went on to form his own sport travel firm and training school.
ASP's Jordan says the surfing body brought down instructors who not only taught the local surfers better technique, but also taught them how to teach others. About two dozen local surfers either took part or worked with ASP for the event.
"They are in the process of forming their own association," says Jordan. "If you want to encourage surfing in this country, you need to build up skills and also know how to teach young people."
Tourist Industry
Sri Lanka's tourism promotion office says facilities, which were somewhat rustic, will be improved next year.
"We need to overcome infrastructure challenges," say Dileep Mudadeniya who heads Sri Lanka's tourism promotion bureau.
"Next year we will have a better access road and other facilities."
Until now it was the local community which built the infrastructure to support the mainly Western amateur surfers who knew about Arugam Bay.
Surfers from around the world made the somewhat arduous, eight to ten hour journey from Sri Lanka's capital Colombo braving travel advisories through the long years of its 30-year war.
A large number of guest houses and even surfboard repair shops have sprung up during the period. Mudadeniya estimates that about 250 to 300 rooms are in the area.
One such hotel is Galaxy Lounge, a close-to-nature set of cabanas with a rustic charm nad a family atmosphere run by Sriyanjali Gunasena, a British-born Anglo-Sri Lankan who is married to an Australian.
She says tourism traffic had probably doubled to the village over the last year. Arugam Bay's 'season' is from April to October when the winds are just right, which is 'off season' in the rest of the island.
"Until last year only Westerners came here," she muses.
"But now many people from Colombo and also families with children come from abroad. That shows how the world view of this place has changed."
Surfing Paradise
Lanka Sportreizen's Weerasinghe says Arugam Bay is not the only place where there are good waves to surf.
"There are several places nearby, though probably not as good as Arugam Bay," he says.
"But elsewhere in the island there are good waves in Mirissa (south coast), in Hikkaduwa (south west) and Kaluthara (west coast).
Near Arugam Bay in eastern Sri Lanka, at places including Pottuvil Point and Crocodile Point surfers says it is possible to ride the waves.
"A few people tried out the waves over there yesterday," says Jordan, pointing to white breakers at the far end of Arugam Bay.
"They said the waves were good.”

Jordan says he saw likely-looking waves while scanning the shore off the Yala National Park to the south of Arugam Bay through Google Earth.
"I will need to see it close up to say definitely but it looks good. Even in Colombo's Galle Face there are good breakers," he says.
"Why hasn't someone tried them out?"
Surfers say one of Sri Lanka's attractions at the moment is that the waves are not crowded.
"Waves like these will attract more than 300 surfers if it was in the USA," says Sharp.
"When the popularity of this place grows, other places will have to be found."

FAM tour for German travel agents

Participants of the FAM tour

An FAM tour comprising fourteen German travel agents took place May 30 to June 5, to give them a view of the products they are selling at the counter and to increase sales to Sri Lanka. The places covered were the Cultural Triangle, Trincomalee, Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, Bentota and Negombo. The SL Tourist Promotion Bureau conducted workshops on sales arguments and product variety.

Tobias Bandara of the SLTPB said: "The increase of 74.6 percent of german arrivals from January to May 2010 compared with the same period in 2009 shows Sri Lanka's potential as a top destination.

By training counter sales staff on location with FAM trips, we ensure that their positive personal experience will lead to more interested holidaymakers to Sri Lanka".

SriLankan brings surfing to Arugam Bay

SriLankan Airlines is bringing one of the worlds most glamorous and highly rated surfing events to Sri Lanka, part of the airlines multi-faceted strategy to position the island as one of the worlds most sought after travel destinations.

The SriLankan Airlines Pro 2010 tournament will draw some of the top stars in the surfing world to Arugam Bay from June 18 to 24, among the 128 competitors from the United States, Australia, Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany and other countries.

SriLankan Airlines Pro 2010 is expected to showcase the picturesque southeast resort of Arugam Bay as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, positioning it as a destination for all types of beach lovers and not just for surfers.

It will also generate massive publicity around the world for Sri Lanka, already experiencing a continuous boom in tourism over the last 12 months.

Profiling 'Up Market' tourism clientele

Vipula Wanigasekera

Promoting Sri Lanka as a destination and venue among up-scale tourists and visitors has always been in tourism plans, programs and agendas.

Sri Lanka has a few themed products positioned for high spenders

The subject comes up in most tourism deliberations which emerges as a priority that both authorities and Industry have to pursue vigorously.

This was briefly put across by experts as 'value against numbers' with the notion that Sri Lanka should make more efforts to go after high end market segments and niches in order to enhance the tourism receipts that will flow down to peripherals and stakeholders particularly the informal sectors.

At a time tourism industry has shown a tremendous growth and arrivals have been increasing after peace dawned on the country, it is desirable to focus the marketing spot light on high end visitors to gain optimum revenue although package tourism helped us all these years and kept the institutions above the water.

Meanwhile a few smart moves in the past by several industry members made it possible for Sri Lanka to have a few themed products that were positioned for high spenders.

Some luxury boutique hotels were charging as high as US$ 400 a night even before the conflict ended and it is time we took a serious note on their approach towards their success.

It is hoped therefore, until such time the star class hotels are built in tourism development areas, the Boutique, Bungalow, Villa concepts will generate this extra revenue with effective communication by the respective industry members with a lot of promotional efforts. Who are these up market clients and segments as against mass tourism and package holidaymakers?.

Obviously the MICE visitor is a high spender and this is simply the reason for Singapore and Malaysia to promote MICE before they launched their countries as brands for leisure.

Apart from meetings, Conferences and Exhibitions, the incentive traveller needs more attention by the industry as most incentive groups, knowingly or otherwise, are also treated as packaged holidays down the line.

Those who are given a tour abroad as a reward, bonus or special training fall into this category and they have high expectations.

This area calls for attention in shifting the promotional efforts to Incentive travel sector.

Medical tourism is a rapidly-growing practise

Similarly, segmenting the products and promoting them will result in creating interest among various interest groups who will pay the extra dollar.

Agritourism has different definitions and refers to farm stays but extended to wide variety of activities involving the visitor within the areas from picking fruits and vegetables, riding bullock carts and tasting fresh curd.

Agritourism if developed, is one alternative for improving the level of income and economic viability of small farms and rural communities.

Culinary tourism or food tourism is defined as experiencing the food of the country, region or area, and is now carried out by many destinations as a vital component of tourism experience.

The basic factor of dining out habit of tourists is the opportunity taken to develop this segment which Sri Lankan could exploit.

In cultural tourism, Sri Lanka is in a leading position but unfortunately the visits are confined to a round tour and there is little knowledge to ascertain who is interested and in what?

The inclination to learn more about kingdoms over colonial times or vice versa, if known, can enable the industry to tailor the itineraries for which the visitor will not hesitate to pay the price.

Cultural tourism entails beyond visits to locations of historic sites to learning of lifestyles and traditions of people in various regions.

Ecotourism or ecological tourism appeals to socially conscious individuals although some argue that the extra dollar is still not paid by the traveller. It could be debated in a way that pay day of Eco tourism is on its way.

In other words it is futuristic and benefits are associated with offering tourists insight into the impact of human beings on the environment, and to foster appreciation of our natural habitats.

Geotourism aims to preserve the geographical character of places, the concept of which was introduced publicly in 2002.

Geotourism provides a local incentive to protect what tourists are coming to see, and incorporates all characteristics that contribute to sense of place, such as historic structures, living and traditional culture and landscapes.

A few countries such as Thailand thrives on medical tourism which is a term coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practise of travelling across international borders to obtain health care.

Sri Lanka also gets quite a number of visitors for medical treatment and to expand this area, the hospital and insurance companies must get together to encourage linkages with counter parts to send their patients across to Sri Lanka.

There are issues to be resolved in accreditation and other measures of quality and treatment.

In religious tourism, Ramayana tours are picking up but the country is yet to succeed in realization of her true potential in promoting Buddhism and Buddhist culture considering that Sri Lanka is primarily a Buddhist country.

One aspect that writer has repeatedly pointed out is the need to present the core teachings of Buddhism to visitors from which they could benefit spiritually.

Wildlife tourism is still a part of package tourism and this requires to be extended to specially targeted wildlife enthusiasts.

A few industry experts offer many facilities from camping sites and even erecting luxury tents with super service for high end clients from where they could experience Sri Lanka's wildlife including the whale and dolphin watching.

Countries like Africa, Indonesia, India and South America exploit this opportunity which have experienced a dramatic and rapid growth in recent years which is also closely aligned to eco and sustainable tourism.

Emotional appeals in communication methods and modes, offering an 'experience' as against a holidays and delivering what is promised are the pillars behind the success of shifting from number to value tourism.

With the infrastructure developing and other issues such as beggars, stray dogs, garbage being solved one by one, the overall approach is now expected to move towards high end tourism which the Sri Lankan industry is quite capable of achieving after being resilient to vicissitudes for three decades.