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| Sunday, 09 March 2003 |
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Making tourism largest forex earner The Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB), together with all stakeholders, is planning to enhance and introduce more facilities for tourists to Sri Lanka, to make tourism the largest foreign exchange earner for the country. Minister of Tourism Gamini Lokuge said the hospitality industry has received a tremendous boost from the ongoing peace process between the Government and the LTTE and that Sri Lanka is now rated as one of the safest destinations in the world. Taking advantage of this factor, the SLTB has commenced to add and enhance facilities such as beach-related activities, in a bid to attract more tourists to the country. He said the Government will give tax concessions to hoteliers to purchase equipment to upgrade their hotel properties. "These concessions will be available to all hoteliers once in five years. We will evaluate them once the first five years are complete, before they qualify for the concessions again. This will ensure that the concessions are utilised to the maximum by all owners," he stressed. In keeping with the 2002 budget proposals, the SLTB has identified several zones to develop tourism on a cluster basis rather than on a scattered manner, provide basic infrastructure, allow specific recreational and business activities to flourish and monitor the performance. Under this scheme, 5000 acres have been identified in Bentota and 2000 acres have been set aside for development with the help of the Balapitiya Pradeshiya Sabha. The Galle Fort is also being developed with aid from the Netherlands. "Arrivals since July 2002 seem to be very impressive and we are confident that this upward trend would continue and the industry would consolidate its position towards Winter 2003," said the Minister. "Although tourist arrivals from Germany, Rome and the Nordic countries have dropped, SLTB has been successful in tapping new markets, we have attracted more tourists from neighbouring countries such as India, Malaysia and Japan." He said signing an agreement with China on preferred destination status, issuing visas on arrival for tourists from the SAARC region, increasing the number of flights to India, taking part in tourism fairs and exhibitions, promoting eco-tourism and promoting Sri Lanka as a destination for Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions tourism will attract more tourists to the country. The SLTB is also planning to increase the number of domestic tourists which has huge potential. "At present we are improving facilities at the rest houses owned by the Ceylon Hotels Corporation (CHC) while comfort centres and picnic areas will be set up in proximity or at major tourist attraction routes. We want to establish 25-30 such centres and are in the process of identifying them," he said. Lokuge assured that the CHC will not be privatised, but a package will be offered so that a golden handshake can be given to the excess staff. At present the weekly income of the hotels owned by CHC is around six million rupees, but a large part of this income is spent on the upkeep of the head office. Once the staff is reduced to a manageable size, the income can be diverted to develop the rest houses which will further increase the revenue of the hotels, he said. The draft Tourism Law will be presented in Parliament this month. Under the new law, the SLTB will retain product development and regulatory activities while tourism promotion will be undertaken by the Tourism Marketing Authority. The Tourist Board is planning to get the services of the private sector to formulate plans and the way forward in marketing the country. |
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