Climate events are changing tourism forever what Sri Lanka can learn from Australia’s response, says Arjuna Samarakoon
Climate events are no longer temporary disruptions to tourism economies. These are structural forces that are reshaping the way countries attract investment, protect employment and sustain foreign exchange earnings.
According to investor and fund manager Arjuna Samarakoon (or commonly known as Arj Samarakoon), the long-term sustainability of tourism now depends less on promotion and more on how countries prepare for climate shocks.
Tourism-dependent economies such as Sri Lanka face increasing risk of flooding, heat stress, coastal erosion and exposure to extreme weather events. These climate shocks affect not only visitor arrivals but also investor confidence, insurance availability and capital allocation. Research by the World Bank and UNWTO has consistently shown that climate variability has become an important economic variable for tourism-focused growth models.
Australia offers an instructive comparison. Despite frequently facing hurricanes, bushfires, floods and heatwaves, Australia has maintained long-term confidence in its tourism economy. This durability is not accidental. It is the product of institutional preparedness, clear disaster response frameworks and coordinated communication during crises (OECD, 2021).
Australia treats climate variability as a certainty rather than an exception. Disaster response mechanisms, early warning systems, infrastructure standards and recovery financing are incorporated into planning frameworks long before crises emerge. Tourism operators, insurers and investors understand how the system will respond when climate shocks occur. This predictability reduces uncertainty, which is critical for long-term tourism investments (Productivity Commission, 2014).
In many small tourism economies, the challenge is not the scale of climate events but the uncertainty that follows them. If recovery timelines are unclear or public messaging appears fragmented, even limited physical damage can lead to disproportionate economic consequences. The IPCC noted that weak institutional response often increases economic losses from climate events beyond the initial shock.
As Sri Lanka seeks to strengthen its tourism recovery, ecotourism is often presented as a solution. The country’s biodiversity, nature and community-based tourism potential make it a good position for this transition. However, if resilience is treated as branding rather than a policy, ecotourism alone cannot protect the sector from climate shocks.
Ecotourism projects are vulnerable when access is disrupted by flooding, utilities fail, or insurance coverage becomes uncertain. Without organizational resilience, sustainability narratives quickly collapse under operational pressure. This risk has been highlighted in wider discussions. What Sri Lanka can learn from Australia and the Philippines on economic reform and resilienceWhere climate preparedness is increasingly viewed by investors as an indicator of the quality of governance rather than an environmental add-on.
This is where the Australian experience becomes particularly important. Climate resilience is considered as economic infrastructure. Disaster response systems are designed to maintain continuity, not just provide relief. During crises, communication is coordinated to maintain trust in the destination rather than increasing uncertainty.
Arj Samarakoon has repeatedly emphasized in regional investment discussions that capital flows into tourism are shaped by governance capacity as well as environmental attractiveness. In climate-exposed economies, the ability to respond quickly and predictably to climate shocks is becoming a determining factor in tourism investment decisions.
The consequences for Sri Lanka are clear. Resilience to climate change should be integrated into tourism policy rather than isolated among environmental agencies. Disaster preparedness should clearly prioritize tourism continuity, employment protection and currency stability. Public and private sector coordination should be formalized before the next climate event, not during it.
Equally important is narrative control. Australia’s ability to manage perception during climate events helps prevent reputational damage due to further physical degradation. Sri Lanka has often struggled to control external narratives during floods and climate-related emergencies, magnifying the economic impact well beyond the immediate event.
Climate events will continue to shape the future of tourism. As Arjuna Samarakoon points out, destinations that succeed will be those that plan for disruption rather than reacting to it. If ecotourism is to be a resilient growth engine, it needs to be supported by management systems that recognize climate shocks as an economic reality.
