Arugambay Tourism Website
Project Overview
Visit Arugam Bay was designed and developed in 2005 by Isura Wickramarachchi as a comprehensive dynamic tourism portal dedicated to promoting Arugam Bay, one of Sri Lanka's most famous coastal destinations. The website was created to introduce both local and international travellers to the area's beaches, world-renowned surfing locations, lagoons, wildlife, accommodation, restaurants, and eco-tourism experiences.
During the early growth of Sri Lanka's tourism industry following the 2004 tsunami, the website served as an important online destination for rebuilding international awareness of Arugam Bay and encouraging visitors to rediscover the region. Arugam Bay has long been recognised as one of Sri Lanka's premier surfing destinations while also offering lagoons, birdwatching, national parks, and nature-based tourism.
Unlike a simple promotional website, Visit Arugam Bay was developed as a dynamic ASP website, allowing administrators to regularly update tourism information, featured hotels, attractions, activities, photographs, and visitor information through a content management system.
Design & Structure
The website featured one of the most creative tourism interfaces of its time, combining modern web design with imagery inspired by the ocean and Sri Lanka's east coast.
Rather than using a traditional rectangular layout, the homepage incorporated flowing wave-shaped graphic elements throughout the design. These curved forms created the impression of ocean waves, immediately establishing the coastal identity of Arugam Bay.
A panoramic header featuring surfing imagery and ocean scenery reinforced the destination's international reputation as a surfing paradise, while the colour palette of deep blue, turquoise, white, and natural green reflected the sea, lagoons, and surrounding landscape.
The left navigation was designed as a stylish vertical menu, allowing visitors to quickly browse accommodation, restaurants, surfing, activities, and travel information. The central content area highlighted featured destinations and accommodation using dynamically updated content blocks, while promotional panels encouraged visitors to explore nearby attractions.
Unique Design Features
- Completely custom-designed interface without commercial templates.
- Beautiful wave-inspired page architecture, creating a strong coastal identity.
- Panoramic surfing-themed header with original artwork.
- Elegant curved graphical elements that were uncommon in tourism websites of the mid-2000s.
- Dynamic "Place of the Month" and "Hotel of the Month" promotional sections.
- Custom tourism icons and navigation system.
- Multi-level information architecture allowing visitors to explore attractions by category.
- Rich photographic presentation highlighting beaches, lagoons, hotels, and wildlife.
- Consistent branding maintained throughout every page.
- Soft blue and white gradients creating a fresh and relaxing atmosphere.
The overall interface successfully captured the feeling of visiting the ocean, making the website itself part of the tourism experience rather than simply presenting information.
Technical Highlights
- Dynamic Microsoft ASP website.
- Database-driven tourism content management.
- Administrator-managed hotel listings and featured attractions.
- Dynamic tourism articles and destination pages.
- Integrated image galleries.
- Reservation and enquiry information.
- Dedicated sections for accommodation, restaurants, surfing, wildlife, and eco-tourism.
- Optimized for the major web browsers available in 2005.
- Fast-loading architecture suitable for international visitors using lower-bandwidth internet connections.
Significance
Visit Arugam Bay was among the early destination-specific tourism portals developed for Sri Lanka's eastern coastline. Rather than functioning as a simple brochure website, it provided travellers with a comprehensive travel guide covering accommodation, attractions, outdoor activities, restaurants, and visitor services in one centralized platform.
The project reflects Isura Wickramarachchi's philosophy of creating unique, destination-inspired websites where the visual design itself communicates the character of the location. The flowing wave-shaped interface, original graphics, and carefully structured tourism content created a memorable online identity that distinguished the website from conventional tourism portals of its time.
More than two decades later, the archived website remains an excellent example of early dynamic tourism web development, demonstrating how thoughtful visual storytelling, custom interface design, and content management could effectively promote one of Sri Lanka's most iconic coastal destinations to a global audience.
Arugam Bay is quite unlike any other corner of Sri Lanka . A strange and endearing, bedraggled and proud community that seems implanted from a foreign star – Arugam Bay is truly a unique oasis.
Nothing more than a stretch of beach paralleled closely by a rocky road, lined on both sides by multi-colored levels of family-run hotels, cabanas and restaurants. Within little more than half a mile, 4-star establishments rub shoulders with low-key stilt cabins and palm-roofed cabanas. This is pretty much how everyone has always remembered Arugam Bay : A motley crew of internationals that fell in love and never left – or make a habit of returning annually – and Sri Lankans of all ethnic backgrounds and means. Long-time landowners and perennial fishermen alike, Arugam Bay has always beat to a different drum.
Old-timer surfers can often be found sipping arrack in the shade, reminiscing the old days when they used to surf with bullets ‘whizzing over their heads'. Though it's not hard to sense an exaggerated story, Arugam Bay was caught in the middle of a long civil war…
It's remote by Sri Lankan standards, an 8 to 10 hours, 320 km drive from Colombo . Located on the east coast a little above Yala National Park , the nearest town is Pottuvil, a bustling and rugged community of about 12,000 people. The area is rich in pounding surf, lagoons, archaeological sites and diverse wildlife. With freshwater, ocean, forest and culture so close to one another in this quiet and remote area, be prepared for relaxation, elephant and crocodile spotting, birds, monkeys and a chilled experience.
Six months on from the tsunami, Arugam Bay is open for business. A variety of small hotels and restaurants are available, the surfing is great and abundant wildlife awaits you.
Arugam Bay is in the dry zone. November to January is coolest; April to August, when the surf is best, is hot and can reach above 36 C in the shade.
South of Arugam is an 18 km road that winds slowly to Panama , a village with glorious and deserted beaches close to Yala national park. Cycling, walking, tuk-tuk and ox-cart are options for exploring the area, to visit extensive rice paddy interlaced with wildlife-rich expanses of scrub and forest, ancient temples and more.
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