WATER SPORTS & RECREATION AS TOURIST ATTRACTION
Presently in Sri Lanka the tourism industry is largely focused on culture, ancient cities, hill country, sun, and sea. Although Sri Lanka is an island the yachting industry is virtually nonexistent and only little attention has been given to the promotion of water based leisure activities. These activities will attract tourism resulting in a growth of employment, revenue, and income in these areas. Presently only the following activities are found in Sri Lanka:
- Simple wave surfing along some parts of the coast.
- Rafting and canoeing on inland streams as the Kelani river inKitulgala.
- Dinghies on inland waters like Bolgoda lake.
Sea fit sailing boats and sailing yachts are hardly found in Sri Lanka yet they are widely established in many parts of the world. For example, Belgium, measuring only about 60km of coastline, has about 20,000 leisure boats moored and operated on it. This shows the potential to develop the leisure boating industry in Sri Lanka. Despite this obvious potential, the development of the industry cannot be achieved overnight due to the dearth of the necessary skills and basic infrastructure facilities at present.
BAF is acting as a catalyst and incubator to first introduce sea friendly industries such as sailing, boating and yachting to Sri Lanka. In this regard, BAF is and has conducted specially designed training courses aimed at the development of the water based leisure sector. By introducing this concept to the villagers BAF hopes to generate employment for the local youth by providing the seeds for the growth of water based leisure and water sports in Sri Lanka.
Towards the end, BAF will help the youth organize themselves into small scale corporative societies or partnerships to provide the 3 activities, namely leisure sailing, leisure boat building, repairs and sail manufacturing on a commercial basis, thus forming a value chain in leisure boating. Such leisure sailing companies could be set up to cover the area from Tangalle to Kalutara.
MIRISSA WATER SPORTS
The first spin-off of water sports and recreation is based in Mirissa harbor on the scenic Weligama bay under the name of Mirissa Water Sports (MWS), which began activities on December 17, 2005. MWS offers sport fishing, sailing, coastal cruises, snorkeling, canoeing, and river trips for visitors of Southern Sri Lanka where employment opportunities for young people are extremely limited.
The Mirissa Water Sports was formed through a partnership of 6 young Sri Lankans, which will expanded to 12 after the completion of a specific 4 month training program which includes: (apart from the general training program):
