Travel and Tourism Business in My City - Steemit Engagement Season 4 | Kataragama

Greetings! It's a pleasure to participate in the Steemit Engagement Season 4 in the steemit travel community. 'Travel and Tourism Business in my city.' Differ from sharing about tourist destinations, we have given the chance to explore the economic value around them.

Introduction

Sri Lanka, a beautiful island, in the South Asian region is well-known for her scenic beauty. What do you want to experience? Beaches, wildlife, mountain ranges, rivers and waterways, historical places, tea plantations, low land or upcountry, a variety of climate conditions across the island, etc. That's why tourism is the third-largest foreign reserve source. So, a massive percentage of the community depends on the economic activities around tourism.

I live just a few kilometers away from Kataragama. It's a sacred town that is important for Sinhalese, Tamils, and indigenous people which represents a multicultural society. Earlier I shared many details aboutKataragama pilgrimage town if you are interested.

What3Words : ///chattered.convenient.football

Centering this, there are a number of tourist destinations that attract thousands and thousands of tourists from around the world. Kiriwehera and shrines, Sellakataragama, Yala national park, Kirinda beach, Sithulpawuwa, etc. So, automatically, business opportunities have been created here.

I will share flower and fruit business and traditional gift items business.

Flower and Fruit Business

Brief Description & products offered - You will wonder how flowers and fruits provide a business opportunity. But yeah, more than hundreds of flower and fruit shops can be seen there. As I described earlier Buddhist religious places and Hindu shrines can be worshipped here. So, according to the Buddhist culture, we devoted flowers, incense sticks, and lamps to Lord Buddha. So, all these things are sold in the neighborhood.

There are lotus, water lilies, pinwheel flowers, and jasmine flowers. The men usually pick them up early in the morning from lakes and women and children sell them. You can buy one set around LKR.100(around 0.3 dollars, 1.3 steem)

There are even songs written in Sri Lanka about the flower-selling ladies in Kiriwehera. That much this business has mixed with Sri Lankan culture.

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And depicting Hindu culture, there are shrines dedicated to different gods. So, devotees come here and seek the blessings from the gods to fulfill their dreams, and vanish the troubles and illnesses. It's not only Hindus and Buddhists, foreigners also engage in these activities.

So, here the tradition is to carry fruit baskets and offered them to gods, which has created a business. Watermelon, banana, mango, king coconut, wood apple, pineapple, apple, orange, and sugar cane are the common fruits to be used. So, not only for the shop owners but also for the farmers who can supply their cultivations!

experience using the products of the business -

blue water lily to be devoted to Kiriwehera

Well basically everyone coming here use these things, including me. It's just like a tradition, whether you believe or not. I normally buy blue water lily to devote. And most of the times, we carry fruits from home. But you can buy some rare fruits as well.

Traditional gift items and ornaments

Brief Description & products offered - When it's a tourist spot it's a common thing to place shops with beautiful ornaments, gifts, and toys. Here also it's the same. You can see how the lanes are surrounded by shops.

The shops along the lanes

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Usually, shop owners decorate and place them attractively. Especially it's hard to resist for the kids. Most of these are imported ones. But homemade pieces can also be seen here. Some of the common things are souvenirs, gift items, key tags, toys, sweets, clay items, rare medicinal items, jewelry items, clothes, etc. Most of them are at reasonable prices.

experience using the products of the business - We frequently go here since my childhood, especially during the perahara session. My mom always says that I'm obsessed with the toys here. My favorite thing is guns.😁😁 Love that past. Now I normally buy gifts and souvenir-type things.

Business facilities and support

As far as concerned, these people are very pleasant. They know their business and how to market it. Because there is a huge competition among the sellers as same type of items can be seen everywhere. So, they deal nicely with the customers. As these are open shops, we can go through the products thoroughly and buy them.

Are you interested in promoting the Steemit Travel community to travel entrepreneurs?

Of course, I am. Steemit travel community has now become a great platform to share our travel experiences as well as to promote tourism also. So, more the travel-crazy people, more the knowledge can be shared. This community is a knowledge hub. A collection of users from various countries and cultures. And with the huge number of quality articles, I feel like I am enjoying the place in real-time while reading some of them. So, I would like to promote and see the growth of the travel community!

And not only the steem travel community but I would like if the travelers use steem and other cryptocurrencies in their economic activities. That's how we can grow the ecosystem. But unfortunately, there are no regulations here in my country yet. But hopefully in the future!

arguments, criticisms, and suggestions

• Well, my biggest concern here is there is no boundary for the businesses in Kataragama. I mean, normally we go to religious places to calm our minds. But here, sometimes there are shops inside these religious places. We can hear only their marketing voices and chants. I suggest if the government consult them / people themselves can conduct their businesses outside the premises.

• Another thing is children engaging in business. It's a common issue here. Normally not individually, but with their parents. Maybe poverty can be an issue. But, it has caused a serious problem to their education, which leads them to follow the same job later. I would like some tough regulation for that.

• I feel if there is more variety of items, especially handmade traditional things there will be a great demand!

Overall, here the neighborhood is doing a great job and throughout the year, tourists and foreigners come to visit here. People have a high belief that these gods can solve their problems!!

So, that's it my friends! Hope you guys enjoy it! I would like to invite my friends @randulakoralage, @prasadi, @sandu, and @sandupi to the contest!

Until the next time!

Thank you.
Best Regards!