Special Interest Tourism, a magic wand for a divided country?

Conference Contribution ResearchOnline@JCU
Kamble, Zilmiyah;Bouchon, Frederic
Abstract

The thirty years old civil war in Sri Lanka ended on May 2009, following the death of the leader of the militant group, Liberation of Tamil Tigers Ealem (LTTE), who demanded for autonomy by since 1977 (Coleman, 2012). Post war Sri Lankan tourism aims to develop Special Interest Tourism (SIT) and redistribute its economic benefits equally to society. Post war countries need SIT in their development strategies, to persuade tourists (Keyser, 2002; Hawkins, Shafer & Rovelstad, 1980). However, SIT as a vector of reconstruction, regional and economic cohesion remains to be verified. This paper aims to analyse sustainable SIT as a tool for reconstruction in the context of a post war country i.e. Sri Lanka. Firstly the paper provides an understanding of post war conditions, peace and progress in Sri Lanka; Secondly, it discusses various attributes, issues that are involved in SIT, and considers how SIT can be seen as a tool for reconstruction; Thirdly, it adapts the Kastarlak and Barber (2012) framework and assess its prospects as a tool for reconstruction especially in terms of equal distribution of benefits and eventually alleviating poverty. It concludes the findings show that this framework is suitable for an in depth study of the Sri Lankan post war tourism development.

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APacCHRIE 2013: 11th Asia Pacific Conference CHRIE conference

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978-99965-1-047-2

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20

Location

Macau, China

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University of Macau

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Macau, China

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