Browsing by Author "Bandara, J.S."

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Political violence and volatility in international tourist arrivals: the case of Sri Lanka
(Tourism Analysis, 2013) Fernando, Sriyantha.; Bandara, J.S.; Liyanaarachchi, Susantha.; Jayathilaka, Ruwan.; Smith, C.
In recent years, a growing body of literature has emerged exploring the link between dramatic fluctuations in tourist arrivals to particular destinations and events such as political violence and financial shocks. Sri Lanka is one such destination that provides a fascinating case study of this link. That is, international tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have experienced notable fluctuations during the nearly three decades of civil war, particularly between 1983 and 2009. For the first time, an attempt is made in this study to model the conditional mean and conditional variance of the logarithm of monthly tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. The results reveal a significant seasonal effect in tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. First, the study demonstrates the existence of a large volatility in monthly tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka from 1978, stemming from the negative publicity in the print and electronic media and the travel warnings issued by Western countries relating to in-country conflict. Furthermore, the results suggest that major war-related incidents are strong enough to reduce the tourist arrival numbers by 5.2% per month compared to a period when peace is restored in the country.
SLCGE-Tourism: a computable general equilibrium model of the Sri Lankan economy for tourism policy analysis,
(Griffith Business School, Discussion Papers - Economics, 2015) Fernando, Sriyantha.; Bandara, J.S.; Smith, C.; Pham, T.
Following the end of nearly three decades of civil war in May 2009, Sri Lanka has witnessed an unprecedented post-war tourism boom beyond its expectation. Recognising the key role that the tourism industry can play in post-war development the Sri Lankan government launched a Tourism Development Strategy (TDS). There is a dearth of research on integrated economy-wide modelling capable of simulating the effects of tourism related policies and measuring the impact of the current tourism boom on the Sri Lankan economy quantitatively. This paper attempts to fill this gap by developing a tourism focused Computable General Equilibrium Model of the Sri Lankan Economy (SLCGE–Tourism) and creating a suitable database for its operationalisation. The usefulness of this model is demonstrated via a policy simulation aimed at examining the economy-wide effects of tourism growth on the Sri Lankan economy. The results of the simulation support the view that tourism can play a major role in post-war development in Sri Lanka in terms of enhancing economic growth and employment generation.
Tourism in Sri Lanka. In M. C. Hall, & S. J. Page (Eds.),
(The Routledge Handbook of Tourism in Asia, 2016) Fernando, Sriyantha.; Bandara, J.S.; Smith, C.
Although Sri Lanka has a long history as a tourist destination, there have been ups and downs in the tourism industry in Sri Lanka in recent decades, particularly between 2003 and 2009 due to political violence andthe separatist war interspersed with a number of peace episodes. Since the end of separatist war in May 2009 tourism in Sri Lanka has been booming and it has been ranked as one of the top tourist destinations in the world for the past few years. The purpose of this chapter is to present an overview on tourism in Sri Lanka in this handbook. The chapter mainly focuses on Sri Lanka’s attractiveness to tourists, historical evolution of its policies towards modern day tourism, the changing patterns of tourist arrivals during different episodes of war and peace, and the recent tourism boom and the associated national tourism development strategy (TDS).