Visit Sri Lanka: A Sustainable Destination

Jenny Higgins, our Sustainability Ambassador, recently took a trip to Sri Lanka with Travelsphere to explore how Sri Lanka is taking steps to become more of a sustainable holiday destination. 

Whilst longhaul flights may seem like they could be the worst thing for the environment, experts in sustainable travel are calling out for people to fly out to destinations that make the most of their flights.

Bid farewell to quick city breaks and weekends away and say hello to the prospect of embarking on long-haul adventures that promise to leave you awe-inspired and completely refreshed. I recently had the privilege of experiencing this firsthand as part of a sustainable travel expedition with Just You Tours, a sister company to Travelsphere Tours.
Travelsphere are working tirelessly to allow us to preserve the planet that we all love to see. They have done this by partnering with people who share the same passions, and this was evident throughout my time in Sri Lanka.

Our Tour Guides: Walkers Tours

Our tour was provided by a wonderful company called Walkers tours, who are ensure that guests get to see their beautiful country in all it's glory without causing harm to it or anything that lives there. The first thing that made this obvious was the gifted reusable water bottles that we were given on the first day of our trip. It’s a common fact that due to the water sanitation problems in Southeast Asia, it would make us quite unwell to drink local water, and thus brought up the worry of consistent use of single use plastics. However, on each air conditioned bus, we had access to one large filtered water tank, which we could use to fill up our reusable bottles, allowing us to stay hydrated in the warm climate without using too many single use plastics.

Another thing that Walkers tours are doing to help protect the planet is taking steps to discover responsible travel in terms of animal welfare. It is common knowledge that sometimes animals aren't always kept in great conditions, we’ve all heard the stories of elephants on chains, and “orphanges” that force these animals to several baths a day and being held captive for the purpose of entertaining tourism. Walkers Tours only allows clients to see animals in a sustainable way, by using safaris that view the animals from a respectful distance. I was lucky enough to see over 130 elephants during my safari, and seeing these majestic animals in their natural habitat brought a tear to my eye. Seeing them look genuinely happy and witnessing baby elephants playing in the water was a magical experience. 

Unique Experiences: Planetterra

During our trip, we had the opportunity to visit one of Travelspheres partners, Planettarra, who focus on non-profit organistations all around the world. When in Kandy, I visited Sthree Craft Shop and Café provides a platform for women to gain financial stability. Thanks to Sthree, over 120 people have begun to earn a financial income, in addition to being able to raise funds for the Women’s Development Centre’s shelter for abused women. On my visit the Sthree, I ate an incredible local lunch and also had the opportunity to buy some crafts, I choose this beautiful hand painted art piece, which is one of a kind and painted on recycled paper - what a perfect way to remember my trip to Sri Lanka, whilst supporting communities who really do need the support of tourists.

Cinnamon Hotels & Community projets:

During our tour of Sri Lanka, we mainly stayed in Cinnamon Hotels, which were not only beautiful but doing so many incredible things to help protect our  planet. In 2 of our hotels, Cinnamon Citadel Kandy and Habarana Village by Cinnamon, they have installed bio-gas digesters which turns food waste into bio-gas. This is used to power the staff kitchens. Equally, all of the resorts engage in reduce, re-use, recycle in as many aspects as they can find, including re-using water, which is a very important resource, especially in the dry areas of Sri Lanka.

Cinnamon Hotels also work on many bio-diversity projects, one of which we had an exclusive opportunity to visit. Whilst this opportunity is not openly advertised to tourists, we were lucky enough to visit the local village of Badi Wewa. Badi Wewa is home to the “Live and Let Live” community driven project to help create meaningful coexistence in mitigating the growing Human-Elephant conflict in Sri Lanka. This pilot project aims to save lives on both sides of the fences, both humans and elephants. The project has seen solar-powered electric genesis that have been put in place to protect the 108 village families and their farming land from Elephants. 

Final Thoughts

However, it’s not just the tourism that has become sustainable. All over Sri Lanka, people have become more and more passionate about sustainability. We witnessed many 100% solar powered tea factories and lots of people encouraging the conservation of water. 

As incredible as it is for us to be able to visit Sri Lanka, they heavily rely on our tourism. Tourism is a huge part of Sri Lanka’s income, and many communities rely on the support that large hotels provide to them, from employment to their charity projects. Since the pandemic, tourism numbers have dropped & the people of Sri Lanka are eagerly awaiting the return of tourists.

If you’d like to not only see this incredible destination, but to support the local communities of Sri Lanka, get in touch with our travel experts, and they would be delighted to help you.