Responsible travel: A challenge for this expat couple in Sri Lanka

Can you briefly introduce yourselves and tell us about your background?

We are Clémence and Fabien, an expat couple in their thirties. Before moving to Sri Lanka, we used to live in Haute-Savoie near the Swiss border.

I'm from Paris and Fabien is from Geneve. Before relocating to Sri Lanka, I used to run a gym in Geneva with my mom. Besides being the co-manager, I was also a sports coach. Fabien also had his own business which consisted of building “tiny houses”. You know those little ecological wooden houses.

We have started a brand new life in Sri Lanka. We actually have a guest house that's called From Paris to Kandy. We have also set up our own responsible and ethical travel agency called Green Walk Tours, and we have created a travel blog about Sri Lanka.

The goal is to introduce travellers to the island of Ceylon as we love it and as we know it.

What made you want to leave Switzerland?

A few months before our first trip to Sri Lanka, I injured my leg. The healing process was long and complicated, and I couldn't keep up with my profession.

Regarding Fabien, although the “tiny houses” trend was on the rise, he was facing several issues. There wasn't any law in Switzerland as to "tiny houses" and the owners were having issues with installing their "tiny house" on their own property. Things were not better in France, where the law was terribly complicated and production was too expensive.

At the same time, we had just returned from a heavenly trip to Sri Lanka. We were professionally unstable, we did not yet have children, and we felt it was time to do something else. So why not live our dream of being expats?

How long have you lived in Sri Lanka? What brought you there?

We have been here for almost two and a half years. As I mentioned previously, we had been seduced by this beautiful island on a trip a few months earlier.

Did you find it hard to adapt to Sri Lanka? What were the main challenges, and how did you overcome them?

Honestly, not that much. We had prepared our move quite well, and we were already acquainted with the city where we had chosen to live.

We didn't find it hard to adapt to the locals as we have worked with them and made sure to respect their customs and traditions. But things have been more complicated with the other expats in the region. We quickly realised that being in the same field, especially in tourism, can sometimes cause tension and jealousy. This had never crossed our minds before.

Regarding the challenges, and this is still relevant today, the administration is the most difficult part here. Here things are incredibly complicated and take a lot of time. No two people have the same information. What is funnier is that you can get different information from different departments of the same building, so it can take weeks for a simple document to be issued.

Did you face any difficulties in opening your guest house?

Honestly, this is the second guest house we've opened in Sri Lanka. We have just moved. Since the global health crisis led to a significant drop in property prices, we were lucky to find a bigger house for the same rent. We didn't have a lot of difficulties because, for us, the project was pretty straightforward. We knew what we wanted and especially what we didn't want.

The most complicated part, just like with our first guest house, was the house search.

There's a huge difference between European and Sri Lankan standards. Besides, it's very humid here, so you have to be careful. Registration with the Tourism Board was a little more complicated, but we managed with that as well. You just need to follow the procedures and be patient, very patient.

You also launched a travel agency, and then the pandemic came. What was the impact on your business?

We're not going to lie - the impact has been terrible, especially since our first year abroad had already been challenging.

We opened the agency in April 2019. Unfortunately, at the same time, there were terrible attacks on the island. Of course, an attack means a total absence of tourists. And then, barely a year later, it was the beginning of the health crisis.

Unfortunately, in Europe, we are somehow "used" to terrorist attacks, but we know that people will get back to their normal lives although it takes time. We just had to be patient, and that's what we did. From July 2019, the tourists were coming back slowly.

But everything changed with the pandemic. Sri Lanka quickly closed its borders and only reopened them ten months later.

Recently, it has become more difficult for people who have not been vaccinated to travel to Sri Lanka. So as you might have guessed, our business has been at a standstill for a year now.

What comforts us is that we are still receiving travel arrangements requests, even though we are at the peak of the crisis. This means that people are still willing to travel.

We receive targeted requests from travellers who know exactly what they want. Most of them are up for responsible travel.

So responsible travel and zero waste are your main objectives. How are you planning to achieve this in Sri Lanka?

Indeed yes, these are the essence of our collective of travel designers, Green Walk Tours. Our main mission is to educate travellers on the importance of zero waste and responsible travel.

Travelling to Sri Lanka is an excellent way of putting all this into practice.

We believe that it is important for everyone to understand that they have an important role to play at their level. We are not in extremes, and we adapt according to the travellers' needs.

There are people who are already very involved and therefore have quite specific requests like staying in a cabin in the middle of the jungle without any convenience. But we also have a lot of requests from travellers who are realising the importance of changing their habits and who need a helping hand with that.

Responsible travel means, for example, limiting intermediaries, which allows the local community to directly benefit from tourism. We promote small accommodations such as guest houses, but that's not all. For us, responsible travel also means thinking outside the box, meeting locals, sharing, discussing with them and discovering their way of life. For example, we particularly like sending our travellers to explore the Jaffna Peninsula. This region has just emerged from a long civil war and has a lot to offer in terms of culture and beautiful landscapes.

Responsible travel also means ethical travel. For example, we boycott so-called animal orphanages such as turtle farms and elephant “refuges” which are only tourist traps and where animal welfare is very far from being a priority.

The national parks, known for safaris, are some of our priorities. But we're not talking about observing leopards in national parks. We prefer going off the beaten track as the less frequented parks have so much to offer.

Regarding our zero waste objective, we only work with small establishments which, unlike large hotels, only buy what they need. So there's very little food wastage, for example.

These small establishments are often equipped with solar panels and try to limit single-use plastics as much as possible.

The well-being of our driver guides is also essential. We chose to make sure that they are being paid properly and that they stay in good conditions when touring with our travellers.

Decent working conditions are a way to ensure that our employees will help our travellers enjoy the most ethical stay.

Of course, these are just small examples of the many things we do. We don't pretend to be flawless in our approach, but we keep on working to change things and improve ourselves.

How receptive is Sri Lanka to your ideas? What are your views on pollution in the country?

It's totally dramatic. There's a waste collection system in the capital, but this is far from being the case in the rest of the country. In Kandy, the city where we live, for example, waste is only collected once a week in certain residential areas.

In the rest of the city, people usually either burn or bury their waste. You can hardly find any waste bins on the streets.

Still, there are quite a lot of initiatives, and that's encouraging, even though it's hard to communicate new ideas to the locals.

For example, there is a collection point nearby for all electrical waste and small household appliances. I think that it is the only one in town. It's a very good initiative since the collected products are sent to Colombo for recycling. Unfortunately, not many people are aware of this collection point.

I think that Sri Lanka's two biggest waste issues are the lack of a proper waste disposal system and the fact that no one has ever sensitised or educated people about these issues and their terrible consequences. But things are gradually changing. The new generation is more aware of what is happening, nd, here again, many initiatives are regularly emerging.

Regardless of their dimension, they all contribute, each at their own level, in changing things and raising awareness among the population. For example, there's a start-up that recycles some plastic waste to make eyeglass frames or flip-flops.

In Sri Lanka, it is now quite possible to limit single-use plastic consumption as much as possible and favour environmental-friendly products that respect the environment, such as natural detergent. But all this has a cost, and most Sri Lankans cannot afford these.

What about the COVID-19 in Sri Lanka? How are local authorities dealing with the situation?

Until a few weeks ago, things were pretty much under control. But things have changed with the festivities following the Sinhala New Year in mid-April.

Last year, gatherings were banned since we had a total lockdown. Sri Lankans had not been able to celebrate the New Year together.

This year, everyone was looking to make up for it. Unfortunately, this resulted in new clusters. Some neighbourhoods and cities have been locked down once again. To contain this new wave in the best possible way, the government has banned all gatherings and weddings until further notice. Since the past few days, bars, theatres and cinemas have also been closed.

Considering that we had been living almost normally since June 2020, this comes as a significant change.

When the crisis began in March 2020, all public places, including national parks, gardens, museums, restaurants, bars, etc., were closed. The international airport only reopened in January 2021. Within a few days, everything had come to a standstill, and a very strict national curfew was announced. It was lifted after several weeks.

After that, all shops and stores had installed sinks with soap in front of their entrances. The mask has become the new essential fashion accessory, and a temperature check is mandatory before entering a place.

Aside from these measures, and before the festivities last April, we could travel the island, meet and hang out with our friends, etc. This is very far from what people have been experiencing in Europe for the past months.

What would you advise anyone who would like to move to Sri Lanka during or after the crisis?

Whether it's during or after the crisis, my first advice would be to prepare well. There's a huge difference between taking a trip and relocating to a country.

If the health crisis has taught us anything, it is that we should not put all our eggs in one basket -- which means that we should diversify our activities.

For example, since we only make a living from tourism, we have not received any revenue for a whole year.

Future expatriates should also keep in mind that we are not at home here, so the mentalities and the way of doing things are very different. Finally, it's important to be very patient. Here, everything takes time.

Sri Lanka is a wonderful country with its pros and cons. Despite the pandemic, the lack of income, and all the troubles we've encountered so far, moving to Sri Lanka has been the most beautiful adventure of our life.