Travel

Yapahuwa Host City

World Tourism Day on Sept 27

September 27 is the World Tourism Day with Yapahuwa being the Host City in Sri Lanka. "Hundred and fifty member countries of the World Tourism Organisation commemorate the day with various tourism-related events," Secretary, Ministry of Tourism K A D George Michael said

This year's theme for World Tourism Day is "Tourism: Responding to the Challenge of Climate Change". World Tourism Day them this year augurs well with the coordinated efforts to promote Sri Lanka as a "Carbon Off Destination" in the South Asian region.

Tourism in Sri Lanka having taken off the ground as far back as the 1960's with 28,272 recorded arrivals increased that up to 407,200 by 1982 on a steady rising trend. However since then arrivals have witnessed drastic ups and downs. The highest ever arrivals of 566,202 here achieved in the year 2004.

The strategy adopted by Sri Lanka Tourism was primarily to slightly move away from the European traditional markets.

Climate change is said to be the biggest ever challenge the world is facing in the 21st Century.

Tourism is reported to be responsible for 5 per cent of the Greenhouse gas emissions.

The aviation industry is believed to be the biggest threat to the fastest growing source of green house gases.

"We celebrated on September 16 the World Ozone Day. Ozone layer is a protective giant umbrella over the Earth to protect us from the fierce ultra violet races of the su."

More the human activities get sophisticated and complicated more is the damage to the physical environment around us. This is simple to understand in today's context.

The minus side of this backdrop is that the discerning tourists today think twice before they select a long haul destination for their holiday hoping it is a crime to travel causing such a huge damage to the environment.

"We should prove to the world that Sri Lanka is very much conscious of the climatic change and global warming and strategies are being developed to counter carbon emissions by launching mitigating projects and adopting alternative energy initiatives when handling tourism."

A simple project, which is more practical, will be to plant trees for carbon off setting," he said.

Reyal heads IATA Lankan Association

Rizmi Reyal of The Traveller Global (Pvt) Ltd was elected as the President while Bernard Wijethunge of Gabo Travels was elected as the Vice President to the IATA Agents' Association of Sri Lanka at their 20th annual general meeting in Thailand last August.

Over 100 participants from SriLanka attended this event, which was spread between Pattaya and Bangkok. Government, Airline and Leisure industry leaders from both countries were also present.

Riza Ahamat of Hemas Travels (Pte) Ltd joined the Council in his capacity as the Immediate Past President.

Founded in 1988 and affiliated to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, with a membership of 83 Travel Agents accredited by the International Air Transport Association, plays a prominent role in the Outbound Travel Industry of the country.