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| Sunday, 13 January 2002 |
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Minimum pricing policy in the offing by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE With a view to attracting MICE Tourism (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) in view of the dwindling numbers of tourist arrivals during the past few years, a collective agreement was signed last Monday with the Sri Lanka Association of Professional Conference and Exhibition Organisers and the Colombo City Tourist Hotel Association to fix a minimum rate pricing policy for hosting conferences and exhibitions in Sri Lanka. The signatories to the collective agreement was Colombo City Tourist Hotel Association President Eraj Abeywardena, Sri Lanka Association of Professional Conference and Exhibition Organisers President, Dharni Soyza and Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board/Sri Lanka Convention Bureau Renton de Alwis. The Tourism Minister Gamini Lokuge and the Tourism Ministry's Secretary Dr. P. Ramanujam was present at the signing ceremony at the Hotel Lanka Oberoi last week. According to the agrement a minimum of US $ 75 has been fixed as hotel room rates for such conferences, exhibitions and other professional events. Tourism Minister Gamini Lokuge who officiated at the function said that it was important to safe guard the hotels in Sri Lanka to continue with the tourism industry. Referring to 1988-1989, JVP terror period the minister said that most hotels were occupied by the armed forces and as a result tourist stopped coming to Sri Lanka. He said the terrorist attack on the BIA and the Katunayake Air Force base last year had affected both tourism and the export industry and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre (WTC) had crippled the airline industry world over. Tourism Ministry Secretary Dr. P. Ramanujam said that there were several trade inquiries from Indian businessmen to host business conventions in Sri Lanka. He told city hoteliers that his ministry nor the Sri Lanka Tourist Board were not trying to force anything on them but to stick together to the agreement to promote Sri Lanka's MICE tourism. (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions). Dr. Ramanujam also held the carrot and stick policy by saying that if city hoteliers do not fall in line with the agreement the ministry would be forced to enforce regulations within their framework as a last resort. Meanwhile, a city hotelier expressed his reservations about a price fixing policy at a time when the occupancy rate in many city hotels were around 40 percent which was far below the average. The market forces would automatically determine the pricing factor when the occupancy rate goes beyond 60 percent, he said. He said although many previous travel advisories have been withdrawn by western diplomatic missions, Sri Lanka is yet to be classified as a complete safe destination as neighbouring India and Maldives Island. Meanwhile, it was learnt that when Minister S. Thondaman was the Tourism Minister he enacted legislation with regard to having fixed room rates in city hotels but subsequently when minister Dharmasiri Senanayake succeeded him he abandoned the idea as it was not practical, sources said. |
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