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| Sunday, 6 February 2005 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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WTO Secy. Gen. on reviving SME tourism sector by Chanuka Mannapperuma Secretary General of the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) Francesco Frangialli said that Sri Lanka should focus on small and medium scale tourism related industries in a bid to revive the country's tourism sector ravaged by tsunami. "More attention should be paid to provide technical assistance to develop these sectors and this would help improve the tourism sector," Frangialli told a press briefing on Thursday. "We should not only focus on the large scale tourism industry but should also focus on developing small tourism towns in close proximity to major tourists zones", he added. While upgrading the tourism industry the focus should not be only on developed countries."Sri Lanka has a vast potential and it is recovering fast and we are willing to provide technical assistance to Sri Lanka," he said. He stressed that emphasis should be made on creating small scale jobs related to tourism such as small shop owners,taxi drivers, tour guides and small time restaurant owners."If we develop these areas we can have a better tourism industry ". Secretary, Ministry of Tourism Dr. P. Ramanujam said a US $ 75 million soft loan scheme would be launched by the Ministry of Tourism to provide loans to tsunami affected small and medium scale enterprises coming under the purview of the tourism sector. Ramanujam also said that the damage caused to the local tourism industry was around US $ 200 million. "However, the damage seems to be lower since most of the insurance companies have agreed to pay the claims of the affected hotels and some hotels have already started their business" he said. |
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