Abstract:
Over the past decade, tourism has become the largest industry
worldwide in terms of employment and share of global gross domestic
product. In Sri Lanka, Tourism sector attracted a record one million
tourists to the country for the first time in history in 2012. However,
multiplicity of tourism sector agencies (Local Authorities, Provincial
Councils and Line Ministry) has lead to fragmented and segmented
system of plans, where each agency prepares a plan independently.
Most decisions on development, even on local level activities, are
made by bureaucrats. The main objective of this study was to examine
the possibilities of community‘s involvement to develop the tourism
sector with the application of Information and Communication
Technology (ICT). This paper investigates the practical usage of ICT
for the benefit of sustainable tourism development. For this purpose, it
mainly concentrates on web based systems and Geoinformatics. This
research mainly focuses on Jaffna district which has a good blend of
aspects in tourism. Thousands of international and local tourists are
visiting Jaffna area every year. This study highlights the present status
of tourism sector in this area and also point out few drawbacks. It also
recommends some future initiatives for betterment of this sector. In
this methodology, the traditional vertical planning process is
transformed into a horizontal planning process, where local
government and other planning entities work together and explore the
possibilities of tourism sector planning with indigenous knowledge.
Sustainable tourism development has a lot to benefit from applying
ICT. In Jaffna, application of ICT and Geoinformatics in tourism
sector is still immature. Collecting accurate and updated data (spatial
and aspatial) necessitates proper coordination among all stakeholders.
Disseminating useful information regarding places of interest, cultural
events, religious festivals, etc. to worldwide audience through websites and social media is an important step to be done professionally.
Tourism management which includes suitable site selection,
destination management, natural resource management, infrastructure
facilities, market analysis, manage tourists flow, tracking tourist
vehicles and future planning activities have a lot to benefit from using
Geoinformatics. This is also considered as a tool for measuring,
monitoring and forecasting tourism impacts as well as decision
making. This can also be used to identify environmentally sensitive
areas which should not be disturbed by tourism.
