Tourism targets begin with reforming taxi-drivers
by Nilma DOLE
For every 15 tourists that arrive in Sri Lanka, one job opportunity
is created in the Sri Lanka tourism industry, said the Chairman of the
Tourist Board of the Western Province, Claude Thomasz. He said this at
an event to mark the successful conclusion of a program that
rehabilitated and trained 300 taxi drivers in the Western Province.
Sri Lanka has a long way to go in terms of gaining significant edge
in tourism if we want to tap into the massive volume of tourists
flocking to other countries in South East Asia. However, more than just
achieving the target of attracting 2.5 million tourists by the year
2016, it is educating our tourism stakeholders, service personnel and
those completely dependant on tourism profits.
"Once we gave the opportunity for taxi drivers to come and understand
about the various cultures, the behaviour and how to treat tourists,
they showed a remarkable progress which led to better profits in the
form of more hires and ethical standards," said Thomasz.He stated that
not only taxi drivers but they are expanding to give this training
service to boatmen transporting tourists, site and area guides and
vendors. He said, "Our aim is to provide all logistic assistance
together with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority with the aim
of providing a better standard of service."
According to the Sri Lanka Tourism policy as stated by the Ministry
of Economic Development, they are planning to increase tourism related
employment from 125,000 in 2010 to 500,000 by 2016 and expand tourism
based industry and services all over the island. "We are starting at the
taxi drivers because they have the ability to make a tourist feel
welcome or irritated. The Western Province also has the benefit of
welcoming a tourist and also sending them off back home but if we don't
know how to keep them happy after they arrive here, then we should
change our tourism culture among our tourism service personnel," he
said.
Under the program, while 300 taxi drivers have been trained, there
are many others who are keen to train and take back what they learnt and
turn it into practice. Thomasz said, "We are certifying all the taxi
drivers who have qualified under our program with a special licence,
certificate and a wide network base so that they are equipped to deal
with whatever questions and problems a tourist might have. In addition,
we are also planning to teach them languages and take the program one
step further by getting the taxi-drivers not only help themselves but
also their friends and colleagues to take the message across."
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