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| Wednesday, 24 September 2003 |
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$60 million soft loan from Japan next year to develop tourism industry By Shirajiv Sirimane A sum of US $ 60 million will be spent for infrastructure development for the tourist industry next year. The government is hoping to obtain a soft loan from the Japanese government for this regard. According to the Minister of Tourism Gamini Lokuge a team from Japan is expected next month to evaluate this proposal. "We are hoping to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) next February," he said. The Minister said that this investment would be utilised for the infrastructure development of the industry. The country would be divided into five zones in line with the BOI regional Economic zones. "We are planning to set up regional offices in the five BOI zones to implement the infrastructure program." The Minister said that in addition to this investment the Tourist Board would also utilise funds generated from 1% which was introduced this month and the new embarkation tax. "Our Ministry will get Rs. 500 from each air ticket passenger for the development of the tourism industry." The Minster said that with the peace process tourist arrivals have increased and US $ 220 million was recorded last year. "We are investing US $ 300 million this year." He said that the Ministry is targeting 500,000 arrivals by the end of this year. "This is a 25% increase as against last year." He said that they hope to increase this figure to $ 1 million by the end of the decade. The Minister said that the best market for Sri Lanka had been from India and attributed this to the peace process, visa on arrival policy and promotions made by SriLankan Airlines. "The second and the third best markets had been from UK and Germany which saw an increase of over 25% over last year." He said that the present 13,500 rooms that are available will not be adequate to house the increase tourist arrivals. "We are expecting a further US$ 2 million dollar investments from both international hotels chains and the private sector to increase the room capacity." The Minister said that they are also hoping to increase the per capita capacity of tourist by introducing new tourist attractions. "An average tourist spends around US $ 60 dollars per day and we are aiming to increase this amount to around $ 100." He said that there is a major plan for the development of the tourism industry for the North East. "We are in the process of preparing a Cabinet paper which will halt all unauthorised and unplanned structures being built in and around the beaches for tourist promotions in the North East." SriLankan Airlines Head of Commercials J. T. Jayaseelan said that the national carrier spends Rs 500 million annually to promote Sri Lanka as a destination. He also said that they did a series of promotions revolving on India and this has prompted India to be Sri Lanka's number one tourist arrival destination. He said that they are now promoting Sri Lanka under the tag, "Sri Lanka, an entire continent in one country." |
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