Colombo:The pristine beaches in Sri Lanka's north, where a 25-year ethnic conflict came to an end two months ago following the crushing defeat of the Tamil Tigers, are getting ready to open up to tourism "in a big way", says an official.
"Now that the LTTE is gone, we are preparing to develop Sri Lanka's north in a big way," said Director General of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, S Kalaiselvam.
Though there were only guest houses in the region providing 50 rooms, this was set to expand in a big way in the next two years.
"In two years time, we hope to have nearly 1,000 rooms there. There is tremendous amount of interest in the private sector to develop hotels in the north as we hope to receive a large number of tourists. We are confident that the territory that lay untapped for 25 years would now be fully developed for tourism," Kalaiselvam said.
The region - where tourism was practically non-existent - is about 1/9th of Sri Lanka's land mass. "It is a huge area having beautiful beaches and tourists would like it."
The Sri Lankan government is giving priority to repairing the A-9 highway that connects capital Colombo to the northern region.
"Besides that, we are also going to increase the number of flights to Jaffna from three to six per week. We are also going to introduce a ferry service from Colombo to the north so that the tourists can enjoy the sea route. It would be a beautiful experience as tourists would spend an entire day on the ferry."
Another Official, requesting anonymity, said, "Our worry now is that by next year when tourists begun arriving in Colombo in large numbers, we may not have enough rooms to meet the demand. We are working in tandem with the private sector so that right from budget tourists to the high networth individuals, everyone gets accommodation during their Sri Lanka visit."
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