THINC concludes on high note

by Vishmi Wijeratne

The government policy on tourism is to make tourists spend US $ 200 per day, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism, P.M. Withana told the Tourism Hotel Investment and Investment Conference 2016 (THINC) at the Galle Face Hotel last week.

This will be possible with the zonal tourist development program. The country as a whole has many attributes that could be developed to attract tourism, he said.

According to the presentations at the conference, Sri Lanka's tourism sector has seen an upward momentum only since 2010 and would continue to do so in the years to come.

"In terms of the number of arrivals, the country has seen a growth of 1.5%," he said.

It was the view of the Minister of Tourism and the Chairman of Sri Lanka Tourism that the country needed more skilled labour to work in the hotels that are to be built.

Minister of Tourism Development, John Amaratunge said that they are investing on institutes to train educated youth.Training institutes will be opened close to hotels and as a first step would be setting up institutes in Negombo and Arugam Bay this year.

Minister Amaratunge said that the target for 2020 would be 4.2 million tourist arrivals which is double the target set for this year. By 2020 Sri Lanka would see the addition of 200 new hotels which would add around 11,000 rooms to the hotel sector. He also stated that with the doubling of tourist arrivals the tourism sector by 2020 will employ 640,000 people.

Sri Lanka was considered a favourable destination for investment by the speakers as Sri Lanka being a travel destination for over 1.8 million travellers of which over 23% continue to stay for an average of one to two weeksTHINC brought to light what Sri Lanka has to offer as a tourist destination having being claimed under the top ten places to visit in 2016.

About 170 people from 14 countries took part in the conference.