Abstract:
Tourism is the main foreign exchange earning industry in Sri Lanka in present. Beach tourism
is one of the main environmental tourism product, since tourism started as an industry
in Sri Lanka. Still beach tourism is the main tourism product in Sri Lankan tourism
industry. The main objective of this research was to identify the positive environmental
impacts of beach tourism. Unawatuna selected as a study area for the research, because
this area was famous among Europeans in colonial period and it is named as one of the
best beaches in the world through international surveys. Unawatuna is highly engaged
with tourism in past as well as present. Therefore many environmental impacts can be
seen in this area. Field observations and interviews used as data collecting methods and
analyzed those qualitative data. Environmental preservation projects such as turtle conservation,
coastal area conservation, water state management projects etc, improving the
quality of the beach, increase awareness and conservation of historical and archaeological
valuable site of coastal area are the positive environmental impacts can be seen in
Unawatuna. Good combination of private and public sector, creating awareness of tourists
and community people, using sustainable tourism development such as methods can
be used as recommendations for improve positive environmental impacts of study area.
