Features

Tuk-tuk tourism truths: Cutting through the lies with honest replies

Published

12 months ago

2025/11/2

If tourist safety were the true priority, the campaign against self-drive tuk-tuks would be in favour of the real dangers. Data shows that for visitors to Sri Lanka, walking or riding a motorcycle carries a significantly higher risk than driving a low-speed, enclosed three-wheeler. Therefore, opposing a regulated self-drive model for tourists who are rigorously licensed and hold a valid International Driving Permit (IDP) is irrational. This stance ignores comparative safety data to block a form of tourism that offers profound economic benefits, all while permitting statistically more dangerous activities. There is no justification for obstructing well-trained, IDP-holding tourists when the alternatives we allow are far more hazardous.

Yet this very scene of organic tourism is what a powerful lobby in Sri Lanka seems determined to prevent, based on a narrative not of fact, but of fiction.

The myth, pushed relentlessly by segments of the informal tourism transport sector, is as pervasive as it is unfounded: that allowing tourists to drive tuk-tuks is an inherent safety risk. This claim, echoed in the ears of policymakers, has risked a modern, inclusive, and globally aligned tourism model. The truth, however, tells a different story – one where safety is a shared responsibility requiring holistic solutions, not a ‘weaponised excuse’ to eliminate competition and stifle innovation.

The safety smokescreen: A closer look at the data

Research by Prof. Niranga Amarasingha (2021) : specializing in Transportation Engineering reveals that motorcycles are involved in over half of all road fatalities in Sri Lanka. If safety were truly the concern, motorcycles – not tuk-tuks, which are limited to 40km/h – would be the focus of these attacks. So why, then, is there no lobby to restrict motorcycles?

According to data from the Ministry of Transport, Highways and Urban Development, road fatalities in 2022 comprised 33.2% motorcycles, 31.1% pedestrians, 8.5% bicyclists, 7.3% motor cars and dual-purpose vehicles, 7.3% rear riders, 4.7% lorries, 4.2% three-wheelers, 3.5% buses, and 0.2% other. With around 1.18 million registered three-wheelers compared to 900,000 cars, Sri Lanka has more three-wheelers on the road yet they account for a smaller share of fatalities.

A frequent criticism is that Sri Lanka’s roads are too hazardous for foreign drivers. But the data tell a different story. As Ms. Amarasingha notes, Sri Lanka’s fatality rate in 2013 was about 11 per 100,000, well below the 20.1 per 100,000 average for middle-income countries. In reality, Sri Lanka’s roads are no more dangerous, and in many cases safer than those in Thailand, Indonesian, Vietnam, Malaysia, or South Africa, all of which thrive on self-drive tourism

Are tourists unsafe drivers?

Let’s address the central allegation head-on: are foreign drivers with International Driving Permits (IDPs) a menace on Sri Lankan roads?

The argument collapses under the weight of its own logic. Tourists arriving in Sri Lanka with a valid driving license have already undergone rigorous licensing procedures in their home countries. Nations like the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia have some of the most demanding driving tests in the world, often requiring over 200 hours of supervised practice hours, hazard perception tests, and stringent theory exams. To suggest that a driver licensed in such a system is inherently unqualified is to disregard international standards that Sri Lanka itself benefits from when its citizens drive abroad.

A senior road safety expert, who wished to remain anonymous due to the political sensitivity of the topic put it plainly: “Our road safety problems aren’t caused by tourists; they’re built into the system — weak infrastructure, chaotic traffic flow, and inconsistent rule enforcement. Isolating a few tourist-driven tuk-tuks, a fraction of a fraction of total users and presenting them as the primary safety concern is absurd. It’s not a safety strategy; it’s a smokescreen. A solution searching for a problem.

There is no evidence to indicate that tourists in self-drive tuk-tuks are involved in a disproportionate number of accidents. The ‘dangerous tourist driver’ is a spectre, a convenient phantom invoked to protect a vested interest.

The real agenda: Protectionism masquerading as prudence

Beneath the veneer of safety concerns lies a stark truth: fear of competition. The self-drive model empowers the tourist to choose. It breaks their dependence on pre-arranged, often overpriced, hired vehicles that operate on commissions, funnelling tourists through the same gem shops, spice gardens, tea outlets, and hotel chains. Instead of concentrating profits in a few well-trodden hotspots, self-drive tourism disperses income to rural villages and small businesses along the road less travelled.

This democratisation of travel directly challenges the monopoly held by some informal operators. This is not about safety; it’s about revenue. It’s a classic case of an incumbent industry seeking regulatory protection to shut out a new, consumer-friendly model. More than just a new model, it shuts out a completely new demographic of tourists who wish to enter the country. While the predominant tourist markets that Sri Lanka has attracted over the last two decades have been Russian, Indian and Chinese. The new self-drive market is dominated by tourists from Europe, America and Australia – generating a whole new revenue stream, marketing and advertising for the country. Self-drive tuktuk tourism even features on the Australian edition of the Amazing Race: Celebrity Edition (still being aired).

By lobbying against clear regulations for self-drive tuk-tuks, they are not protecting Sri Lanka’s roads; they are protecting their own profit margins at the cost of Sri Lanka’s overall tourism economy and access to the growing adventure travel market.

The impact of this protectionism is twofold. First, it stifles the growth of a high-value tourism segment that, as SLTDA highlighted, encourages longer stays and disperses spending deep into rural economies. Second, it blocks a revolutionary stream of passive income for thousands of Sri Lankans from women like Marie in Bandarawela to pensioners and micro-entrepreneurs who have found financial stability by renting their humble tuk-tuk asset to this new market.

The question for policymakers is this: should national tourism policy be shaped by the innovative potential of a new model that grows the global Sri Lankan tourism market, benefiting a diverse, often rural cross-section of citizens, or by the protectionist demands of a few?

The high cost of regulatory ambiguity

Sri Lanka’s laws already recognise the International Driving Permit (IDP) as a valid licence for tourists renting and driving tuk-tuks. The problem isn’t the law, it’s the lack of consistent enforcement and communication. Tourists arrive well-informed, having seen the country promoted as an adventure destination and knowing that Sri Lanka is a signatory to the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic. Yet on arrival, they face contradictory advice at airport counters, confusion among rental companies, and the risk of being stopped by police officers unaware of the law. The result is a damaging disconnect between what the law guarantees and what travellers experience on the ground.

Industry sources indicate that up to 10 such ‘harassment’ incidents are reported across the country each day. In the age of social media, each incident is a potential crisis and damaging to the overall tourism revenue of the country. A tourist blogger with thousands of followers, detained by the roadside over a document that is valid under international law, does not post a story about Sri Lanka’s beautiful beaches. They post a video about bureaucratic inefficiency and a nation that is unwelcoming. This ‘unofficial’ barrier actively undermines the millions spent by Sri Lanka Tourism on global promotional campaigns, creating a damaging dissonance between the brand promise and the on-ground reality.

Conversely, as we have seen with the global exposure from figures like Jonty Rhodes, when the experience is seamless, it generates a torrent of free, authentic, and overwhelmingly positive marketing. So, the choice is between fostering ambassadors or creating critics.

A path forward: Clarity, courage, and modernization

Sri Lanka doesn’t face real barriers to self drive tuk-tuk tourism — only imagined ones. The obstacles are not in safety nor in legalities. They are narratives shaped by fear and protectionism. The truth is simple: self-drive tuk-tuk tourism is legal, safe, empowering, and transformative. It brings income to rural families, connection to travellers, and authenticity to the nation’s tourism story. What’s holding us back isn’t danger — it’s fear. It’s time to cut through the myths, trust the data, and let Sri Lanka move forward freely, fearlessly, and on its own terms. Sri Lanka, with its compact diversity and iconic tuk-tuk, is perfectly poised to be a global leader in experiential travel.

By Calistas Wijesooriya

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Features

New US sanctions on ICC, a fillip to worldwide political repression

Published

13 hours ago

2026/10/15

Thilina Walpola

The International Criminal Court in session. UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s warning to the International Criminal Court (ICC) was stark: ‘Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC.’ It followed US central administration accusations that the court was unfairly targeting Americans on the basis of trumped-up war crimes charges.

However, a new plethora of sanctions has been clamped on the ICC by the US, which in turn has spurred accusations by sections of the world that the latter has unleashed an ‘assault’ on the international legal order.

What some of the sanctions would mean for the ICC was outlined by Rubio: ‘We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling their ability to operate against us.’

The ICC has shown consistency of purpose over the years. Despite some operational constraints it has indicted a large number of political strongmen from around the world, accused of war crimes and other governance excesses that come under its purview. Two such recent figures are: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Rather than enjoy a mere nominal presence in the world community, the ICC has proved its effectiveness by detaining and bringing to justice scores of VIP politicians and others of their ilk who have been found guilty of human rights abuses and kindred excesses that come within the terms of reference of the ICC.

Accordingly, the international justice system would be stymied considerably as a result of the ICC being dis-empowered, particularly financially. Needless to say, potential and real perpetrators of the species of crime coming under the jurisdiction of the ICC would stand to gain most from such anarchic tendencies. That is, political repression globally would be enabled to enjoy a new lease of life.

A detailing of the types of crime coming under the purview of the ICC provides an idea of what it would cost the international community if the ICC’s operations are gravely hampered. They are mainly: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression.

That is, the part of the world to be worst affected would be the global South, since the latter is awash with the mentioned crimes. Needless to say, a chronically-disaffected South will sooner rather than later undermine the well being of the world dangerously. The world is already being put through these paces.

At the time of writing, ‘illegal migrants’ from the South, for example, are aggravating many a Western economy’s woes, besides creating for them acute law and order issues. The fact that these migrants’ presence goes on to become a virtual test of the migrant receiving states’ ability to forge domestic social inclusion in the face of jingoistic protests by mainly white supremacist groups is evidence of the latter. As is known, the US, to take just one example, has been up against this crisis for quite a while.

Accordingly, it will be in the best interests of the West if ‘illegal’ migrant arrivals on their shores are stemmed. If the socio-political and economic problems assailing the South are effectively managed through North-South collaborative, ‘trouble-shooting’ efforts the causes leading to ‘illegal’ migration and connected issues could be resolved at source as it were. For, it is the aggravation of the South’s material questions that lays the basis for the emergence of repressive and anti-democratic regimes in the hemisphere.

Until such time that the aforementioned issues in North-South relations are visited afresh and addressed urgently, a vibrantly functioning ICC would be needed. For, the latter would prove a deterrent to Southern political and military strongmen, highly prone to power abuse and like excesses, from coming into being in the wake of the South’s chronic material woes and the wars and conflicts that result from them.

It stands to reason then that the US would be acting in its own interests by enabling the ICC to perpetuate its mandate without hindrance. For a crop of issues that impinges negatively on internal law and order would be defused.

Meanwhile, there needs to be a meeting of minds among the rest of the West to put back in place a North-South dialogue process aimed at reducing some of the economic pressures that are weighing on the South.

Since economics usually drives politics it will be in the interests of the world community to scrutinizingly re-visit North-South issues of the past and put in place economic relief packages for Southern publics that would enable them to tide over their material hardships rather than permit the latter to aggravate into social disaffection and eventually armed militancy. It is the latter juncture that paves the way for the emergence of authoritarian rulers in the South who then go on to be a blight on their publics.

Accordingly, the Southern-based global development thinking of the past that envisaged a more equitable world economic order needs to be seen as an urgent need. That is, NAM’s international development paradigms need to be resuscitated to the extent possible.

It is unlikely that rightist governments of the West, such as the current Republican administration in the US, would find these projects feasible, but democratic states of Europe, led by perhaps the UK, are likely to think otherwise. For it would not be beneficial for the democratic world to be having on their hands repressive governments in the South who would be gravitating towards the major military and economic actors of the South, such as Iran and North Korea, who tend to be in constant power struggles with the West.

However, until such time that the mentioned, pro-people initiatives are given serious thought the ICC would need to be enabled by the international community to be in place comfortably and carry on with its mandate of bringing repressive rulers to book. Besides the ICC should pave the way for the peoples of the developing world to enjoy some substantial respite from the political repression and even terror which tend to be their lot.

Meanwhile, the wars of West Asia are relentlessly aggravating the economic hardships of people everywhere, driving the point home to enlightened sections that there is no alternative to peacemaking. A challenge is to convert the US under President Trump to this line of thinking.

Features

Clear, soft and shine-free skin

Published

13 hours ago

2026/10/15

Thilina Walpola

This week, I give you five simple, time-tested homemade remedies that help reduce the appearance of blemishes, control excess shine and leave your skin feeling softer and smoother.

The Honey and Lemon Brightening Dab:

For stubborn blemish marks, this is a classic. Mix one teaspoon of pure bee honey with three to four drops of fresh lemon juice. Apply gently, only on the affected spots, and leave for 10 minutes before rinsing with lukewarm water. While honey soothes and softens, lemon helps to brighten naturally. Use twice a week in the evening.

Besan and Rose Water Oil-Control Pack:

An ideal remedy to combat shine, especially on the T-zone. Take two teaspoons of besan (gram flour) and mix with sufficient rose water to form a smooth paste. Add a pinch of turmeric for its antiseptic goodness. Apply evenly, keep for 15 minutes and wash off. It absorbs excess oil without over-drying, leaving a beautiful matte finish.

Aloe Vera and Cucumber Ice Soother:

Blend fresh aloe vera gel with the juice of a grated cucumber and freeze the mixture in an ice tray. Each morning, wrap one cube in a soft muslin cloth and gently rub over a cleansed face for 30 seconds. It calms, tightens pores and imparts a baby-soft smoothness.

Oatmeal and Curd Gentle Polish:

Roughness and old blemish marks need gentle exfoliation. Combine one tablespoon of finely powdered oatmeal with one tablespoon of fresh curd (yoghurt). Massage very gently, in circular motions, for one minute, leave for five minutes and rinse. It removes dead cells and unveils softer, clearer skin.

Multani Mitti and Green Tea Magic Mask:

Brew some green tea and allow it to cool completely. Mix one and a half teaspoons of Multani Mitti (Fuller’s Earth) with the tea water to make a fine paste. Apply for 10 to 12 minutes – do not let it dry and crack completely – and wash off. It draws out impurities, fades blemishes and bestows a fresh, shine-free glow.

A Gentle Reminder:

As with any natural remedy, always do a patch test on your inner arm first. For those with oily or combination skin, avoid heavy coconut oil application and harsh scrubbing, as they tend to aggravate shine and blemishes.

Features

Compete, shine and be discovered at WCOPA 2027

Published

13 hours ago

2026/10/15

Thilina Walpola

Dream of performing on a world stage? Well, here is your unique, golden opportunity!

The World Championships of Performing Arts (WCOPA) — the one and only official “Talent Olympics” — is the world’s premier global platform for aspiring singers, dancers, actors, models, instrumentalists, etc., to compete, shine and be discovered!

And, yes, this world stage is open to YOU, Sri Lankans living in Sri Lanka and overseas!

Held annually in glittering Las Vegas, WCOPA brings together over 70 countries, all competing for Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals, just like the traditional Olympics.

Lakisha Bernard: Will represent Team Sri Lanka at WCOPA 2027

Outstanding performers vie for the coveted titles of Junior and Senior Grand Champion Performer of the World, with winners and standout participants awarded over $500,000 in scholarships, cash awards and prizes to catapult their education and careers!

Sri Lanka is already making waves! At WCOPA 2026, Natharie Wickramasinghe, representing Team Sri Lanka, made the nation proud by winning a Bronze Medal in the Ethnic/Folklore Dance category!

Lakisha: Accomplished freelance Model and Fashion Design graduate

Recruitment for this prestigious competition is handled through a system of scouts and licensed National Directors — and this is where our very own Chris Rajendra, now based in Las Vegas, and National Director for Team Sri Lanka, comes into the scene.

If you are a singer, dancer, actor, model, instrumentalist — if you have talent burning inside you — contact Chris Rajendra today for registration and, who knows, you may find yourself in Las Vegas, and proudly draped in the Sri Lankan flag, at WCOPA 2027!

The contact address is: Chris Rajendra, wcopa.nationaldirector.sl@gmail.com

or chris.rajendra@gmail.com

Meanwhile, a star is born for 2027, in the form of Lakisha Bernard who is all set to represent Team Sri Lanka at WCOPA 2027.

Originally hailing from the sun-drenched coastal city of Colombo and now carving out her creative career in Canada, 22-year-old Lakisha is stepping into the international spotlight.

This accomplished freelance Model and Fashion Design graduate has officially been appointed as the Team Sri Lanka Promoter for Canada as she prepares to represent Team Sri Lanka at WCOPA in Las Vegas.

Lakisha brings a unique blend of high-fashion sensibility, captivating camera presence and expert garment design to the Team.

Having built her career, from local college shoots to high-glamour concepts, Lakisha’s inspiring journey embodies the true spirit of cultural bridge-building and creative resilience, bringing immense pride and recognition to Sri Lanka on the global stage.

WCOPA 2027 will be held at the legendary Westgate Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, from 12th to 20th July – the very same iconic arena where the late, great Elvis Presley himself performed!

Your moment is now. Your stage is Las Vegas, so hurry and contact Chris Rajendra.