Centre-province coordinated approach to tourism promotion mooted

Shirajiv Sirimane

DOMESTIC TOURISM: The Ministry of Tourism will give more prominence to Provincial Councils and Mayors of rural to promote domestic tourism and have a better coordination with them.

Minister of Tourism Milinda Moragoda said domestic tourism and international tourism go hand in hand and therefore a coordinated effort is needed to promote the country.

The Minister said they would hold meetings with Provincial Council Ministers every three months to have follow-up action to issues an also award some of the overseas scholarships and training programmes which are received by the Ministry.

It was also announced that the Ministry would pay for all expenses for the participating members for the meetings. “The Ministry will also try to have provincial representation when participating in international trade fairs so that they too would get some exposure,” he said.

The provinces should have their own international promotions and the Ministry will assist them to showcase their provinces at a special exhibition, which is to be held in the future.

He said they have also decided to work closely with the Universities as Ministry and the regional Ministers could use their knowledge to set up web sites and prepare project reports.

Moragoda speaking to the Daily News said the recently concluded ITB exhibition in Berlin gave them a good opportunity to meet leading tour operators. He said the conflict in Sri Lanka is nothing new for them. “ITB gave us a good opportunity to clear some of their doubts,” he said.

Provincial Tourism Ministers and Chief Ministers who attended this event said this was the first time such a meeting was held and this would go a long way to promote domestic tourism and iron out many problems that were stagnating.

They also appealed that the Rest Houses that are mostly managed by the Urban Development Authority and sublet by them are in a very dilapidated state. They requested the Minister to consider giving the management of these Rest Houses to the Provincial Councils or Town Councils. “If this is done we have the revenue to convert them into star class hotels,” the Ministers said.

All the Regional Ministers also appealed to give them sufficient funds to develop tourist attractions in the area.

President Tourist Hotels Association Hiran Cooray said this was the first time that an event of this nature was held and it would help to iron out many issues the hotels are facing in rural areas.