Coastal Land Uses for Tourism in Sri Lanka: Conflicts and Planning Efforts

Abstract

Tourism in Sri Lanka involves mainly activities in the beach area. From the inception of formal tourism, tourist product development, conservation, preservation and protection have been given a high priority through land zoning and tourism legislation. National Holiday Resorts were established mainly in coastal areas following the recommendations of the first master plan and continued the same in similar subsequent planning attempts. This paper evaluates those planning efforts and observes existing land conflicts. The planning efforts were not worked as expected and conflicts have arisen due to the lack of funding, implementation, co-operation, monitoring and evaluation. The article hypothesises that land use planning for tourism requires total co-operation of the state sector, private sector organisations and the local community.