Getting the Price Right: Rationalizing Park Entry Fees and the Case of Yala National Park

By Senith Abeyanayake

MARCH 12, 2025 | Nature, Climate and the Economy

Sri Lanka will be hosting unprecedented numbers of tourists in the shortterm. National parks are a key tourist attraction, hosting rapidly increasing visitors since 2009. National Park Entry fees are a key public sector revenue source for conservation. A new report by CSF, titled ‘Getting the Price Right: Rationalizing Park Entry Fees and the Case of Yala National Park’, makes the case for why we should take a closer look at how national park entry fees must be determined and revised.

Optimizing national park entry fees is crucial to balancing tourism growth, revenue generation, and conservation objectives. Through a review of the theory and practice of national park entry fee pricing, along with a historical analysis of Sri Lankan national park entry fee revisions, the report presents four policy considerations:

1. Revisions to national park entry fees and related charged must be rationalised and more frequent, and must at least be indexed to inflation.

2. If entry fees and related charges are to be used as tourist demand management tools, careful attention must be provided to the local and foreign tourists’ willingness to pay. Evidence suggests that price revisions thus far have not impacted visitor numbers in general, and Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR) denominated prices may not be high enough to be a credible demand management tool.

3. Moving towards a park-specific entry fee structure will allow for charging fees better suited for specific park needs. Even if not for all parks immediately, establishing park-specific fee structures for Yala National Park would be necessary in the immediate term, given growing concerns around tourist demand management and overcrowding .

4. Authorities must recognise that setting and revising entry fees is not narrowly a price-setting exercise but must necessarily consider non-price factors as well, like marketing, education, collaboration, and benefit-sharing. These are important to ensure an effective and sustainable entry fee structure.

Click here to download and read the full report ‘Getting the Price Right: Rationalizing Park Entry Fees and the Case of Yala National Park’.

CSF

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