THE SUSTAINABLE SRI LANKA INITIATIVE
SRI LANKAN THROUGH AND THROUGH, HUSBAND AND WIFE TEAM RAJINDRA AND CHAMINTHA JAYASINGHE OWN AND OPERATE AYU IN THE WILD, A BESPOKE TOUR COMPANY THAT TAKES YOU OFF THE BEATEN TRACK TO DISCOVER THE AUTHENTIC SIDE TO SRI LANKA, THROUGH LOCAL EYES.
Sri Lankan through and through, husband and wife team Rajindra and Chamintha Jayasinghe own and operate Ayu in the Wild, a bespoke tour company that takes you off the beaten track to discover the authentic side to Sri Lanka, through local eyes. Ayu in the Wild have been a huge supporter of The Conscious Travel Foundation, generously donating a prize for our charity auction to benefit their Classrooms in the Wild initiative. They have recently established The Sustainable Travel Sri Lanka Initiative and Chimintha shares her story with founder, George Coke...
Can you tell us a little more about The Sustainable Travel Sri Lanka Initiative?
Ayu in the Wild pioneered the initiative based on an idea mooted by Suzanne Bayly-Coupe in 2018, after she experienced our brand of low footfall, high impact slow travel holidays with her family. We etched the online presence in 2019 and finally found the time to scale it up during lockdown. The Sustainable Travel Sri Lanka Initiative evolved out of our commitment to low footfall travel and aims to collaborate with forward thinkers who have set up sustainable projects that are directly or indirectly linked with travel and tourism. These projects need to make a lasting impact on the island, the people and the wild. e.g., preserving our heritage, arts and culture; biodiversity conservation; wildlife protection; education or livelihood support for vulnerable communities.
We also aim to raise funds through philanthropic journeys for identified sustainable projects. Another huge goal is to leverage digital technology to promote the sustainability efforts of a Collective. Membership in the Collective is by invitation only, and each property needs to meet the criteria of a Sustainability Trilogy of giving back to the island, the people and the wild. We promote their efforts on social media to create more sustainability led conversation among travellers and agents. More properties will be invited over the next year. Finally, we want to create partnership opportunities with global sustainability experts to encourage greater learning within the Sri Lanka tourism industry.
What inspired you to set it up?
In short - our belief that, low footfall, conscious travel is the future for Sri Lanka.
We strongly believe that tourism in Sri Lanka was heading in the wrong direction by targeting high volume driven destination promotion strategies for years. Pursuing higher visitor arrivals - to a biodiversity hotspot that is culturally rich, just 65,610 km² in size, and has a population of over 21 million people competing for natural resources and space with wildlife - was a recipe for disaster.
In addition, conservation regulation did not keep pace with growth in arrivals and the global reputation of cultural sites and national parks continued to suffer. It is vital to position the island away from unfettered mass tourism. The pandemic has presented the perfect opportunity for the industry to reset and we wanted to disrupt the business-as-usual thinking within the industry. On our part - despite the downturn in tourism long before the pandemic, Ayu in the Wild remains committed to providing only a limited number of personally curated holidays each year.
The Collective emerged as part of the initiative because we felt that the tourism industry in Sri Lanka can create a more lasting impact on the island, the people and the wild - than it has before.
Why is the idea of conscious or sustainable travel so important to you?
Conscious travel means being able to give back to an island that has given everything to us. Our private education has been entirely based in Sri Lanka. This has opened incredible opportunities for us. We can run this business because of that education.
Conscious travel also means being able to make a positive change. Being born and bred in Sri Lanka and travelled extensively around the island, we have witnessed first-hand, the disparity of income between rural and urban Sri Lankans; how poor access to education and lack of a steady livelihood can mire Sri Lankans in poverty for successive generations; how our natural habitats have been destroyed due to poor policies and a lack of will; how the human-wildlife conflict has escalated over the years; and how the growth in tourism has diluted our culture.
Living in Sri Lanka has also made us resilient to challenges. We’ve seen first-hand, communities shattered, and communities build back better – after conflict, a Tsunami, the Easter attacks etc. Witnessing first-hand how a nation keeps bouncing back, makes you want to give back more. Conscious travel is our voice to inspire change. It’s not about being ‘elitist’ but about being conscious about how travel impacts the island, the people and the wild.
Can you give us a snapshot of the positive impact of tourism on Sri Lanka?
Tourism in Sri Lanka creates circular economies through supply chains and creating local employment that helps to bridge the disparity of income between rural and urban Sri Lanka. It also helps to break through misnomers. It creates a deeper understanding of life in a multi-ethnic and multi religious society – and the challenges that go with it. Issues not found in global news.
Ayu in the Wild encourages travellers to understand the diversity and common ground between diverse cultures in the north and the south by getting travellers to meet Sri Lankans away from the usual tourist trail. We curate community interactions. This gives a deeper understanding of people and places through private and exclusive experiences not offered by hotels. However, tourism can make a much greater impact if tourism revenue is invested more into conservation, on skills development on education and rural community development. When conscious travellers ask the right questions from their service providers, e.g. about what they do for conservation, about working with communities, how they treat their staff - this will spur a more tangible impact on the lives of people and places.
Do you ever see or hear of your visitors being positively affected by their own impact?
Every review on our Facebook Page and Google My Business page talks of the impact of meeting locals and how it helped to really grasp the country.
“Each day I have learned a bit more about Sri Lanka and every single guide has given me something; in some cases I have really felt the privilege to talk and meet very special and inspiring persons on my path. If you really want to have a real grasp of the country this is the right agency able to plan and tailor the right trip experience for you.”
Are there any messages you want to get out there? Or any ways people can help?
We want to curate philanthropic journeys to fund some of the sustainable projects identified by us to help the island, the people and the wild. They are at various stages of discussion and development but including scaling up Classrooms in the Wild by adopting the Say Hello App and collaborating with a team from the Engineering Faculty of Sri Jayewardenepura University about their technology innovation to prevent elephants colliding with trains. Progress has been delayed due to the downturn in business since April 2019 and made worse by the pandemic. The help we most need is to promote philanthropic travel in 2021 - hopefully if travel resumes.
Chamintha and Rajindra of Ayu in the Wild
