There's no answer when I telephone the Blue Swan Inn in Unawatuna. Just a long silence and then a dead tone. It was a year ago that I stayed at the guesthouse close to the shore of this sleepy resort on Sri Lanka's south coast. England were playing Sri Lanka in a Test match in nearby Galle, and the backpacker population of the village had been swollen with the arrival of the Barmy Army who watched cricket on TV in the bars and exchanged banter with the waiters. Sri Lanka won.
The welcome here was the warmest I have found anywhere. The kind of welcome you only get from people who know their livelihood depends on your happiness. After years of conflict between the government and Tamil Tigers, the island was finally getting back on its feet. Foreign Office travel warnings had been lifted and tour operator Kuoni reported that Sri Lanka was now its third most popular destination, after Thailand and the Maldives.
Today there are cars in the trees of Unawatuna and bodies in the streets. The bungalows, restaurants and bars which lined the beach have been washed away. To worry about our holidays in the face of so much devastation and suffering seems in poor taste. But we have to ask ourselves whether we have a responsibility to support these stricken countries by continuing to travel there or whether we are better off making a donation to a charity and keeping a respectful distance while they rebuild their lives.
Nobody wants to see pictures of western tourists sunbathing on beaches where corpses are still being washed up, and aid workers have expressed concern that tourists may hamper relief efforts and place additional strain on stretched resources such as drinking water and electricity. Clearly, this is not the time to be heading to the worst-hit areas.
However, when the dead have been buried and the aid convoys have departed, the future of countries such Sri Lanka and the Maldives will depend on tourists returning. There is no better way to ensure that your money gets to the people who need it most than to go there and spend it yourself.
