Inbound operators focus on the East

The President of the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO), Chandra Wickramasinghe was pleased to have the AGM of the association in Trincomalee in keeping with the government's Nagenahira Navodaya, as there being a major future development in tourism for the East coast.

With the reopening of the East Coast as a prime tourist destination in the world, Sri Lanka will certainly come back to be a country never out of season. This will not only negate the off season mentality but also will make the East coast the newest found destination in the world tourism for those who have begun to discover the world during the island's conflict-prone time period.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa was very keen to reap the immense benefits of the achieved peace by developing the North and the East under his special reawakening programs the Uthuru Wasanthaya and the Nagenahira Navodaya. Under the latter, Passekudah Resorts in the East coast will be developed as an exclusive beach resort by setting out the infrastructure development to have a minimum of 700 tourist hotel rooms in the area. The Tourism Industry was the most victimized industry of the conflict and the cost to the industry during the past 25 years is well over 12 Billion US Dollars.

Today, the eradication of terrorism and the country returning to normalcy has created a window of opportunity and very conducive business environment for the tourism industry.

The President declared the year 2011 as a Visit Sri Lanka Year and Sri Lanka Tourism has launched a work plan towards increasing the annual inbound tourist traffic to Sri Lanka with several events and activities.

Sri Lanka Tourism will also work towards achieving 2.5 Million tourists by the year 2016 in keeping with the President's target.

To achieve this golden mileage, we will need to have a careful and effective planning in the infrastructural development so as to withstand the qualitative and quantitative demand of the modern day World Tourism added Wickramasinghe.

The main infrastructure requirement in Sri Lanka in the present situation is to have a minimum of 25,000 rooms of 3 to 5 star category, giving prominence to the nerve locations of the leisure industry. This will bring about a huge economic boom to the country with a huge and multifaceted effect on the economy. The AGM was held at Club Oceanic Hotel, Trincomalee.