AmCham organizes panel discussion

'Sri Lanka's tourism goals':

The American Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (AmCham) organized a panel discussion on the country's tourism goals titled "2.5 million tourist arrivals by the

Year 2016. The challenge to demand drive arrivals" recently, at the Hilton Colombo. Experts in the fields of tourism and economics, Renton De Alwis, Prema Cooray, Srilal Miththapala and Dr. Ranjith Bandara were the panellists. The discussions were moderated by Chartered Accountant and International Management Consultant Ranel Wijesinha.

During the discussions, the panellists, moderator and members of the audience, which comprised senior industry professionals, touched on various aspects of the tourism industry, including future growth areas (sun and sand, culture and history, environment and biodiversity), current shortcomings (room numbers in certain areas, lack of infrastructure), (Government policy (high tariffs on vehicle imports, airline issues, cost of borrowing money) and private sector issues such as lack of training and development and the empowerment of local people.

"We cannot pin point it on a certain sector" said Wijesinha, "Rather both the public and private sectors need to work together as we move forward." In his remarks, AmCham Executive Director Chullante Jayasuriya spoke of the strength of Sri Lankan and U.S. Commercial interests and highlighted AmCham's efforts to attract more American tourists and investors to the country. "At the end of the day, there are things the private sector does better than the Government and there are things the private sectors cannot do without active Government support. Finding that balance is where public policy can be most successful and I'm glad AmCham is driving this policy debate at this critical time," said Jayasuriya.