Peace spurs industry:

More tourists arrive

Lakshmi DE SILVA

Tourism, Sri Lanka's sixth largest revenue earner last year recorded 490,000 tourist arrivals. Twenty years ago the figure was 480,000 and it was the second largest revenue earner of the country, Sri Lanka Tourist Board Chairman Nalaka Godahewa said.

Addressing the media at the Tourist Board training Center Auditorium on Monday he said it was the local tourists who saved the hotel and tourism sector during the past few decades.

But now with the dawn of peace in the country, which is free of the threat of terrorism, we could bring in more tourists to the country by exposing the beauty to the world. Although tourist arrival figure had increased by 10,000 after 20 years the SLTPB is now planning to increase arrival numbers by using various strategies under the Mahinda Chinthana policy program by at least 30 percent, he explained.

Tourism does not solely belong to the Tourist Board but to all Sri Lankans. We must not only make our visitors happy when they arrive here but enable them to take back happy memories on their return he stated.

He noted that Sri Lanka is a blessed country with sun and sandy beaches fringed with palm trees and lush green rain forests which are rich in bio-diversity and also sites with archaeological value, cultural pagents like the Kandy Esala perahera and religious places like Adams Peak, Kataragama that attracted people of different faiths.

Not only Western tourists but we should also now look out for tourists from Russia, China, Japan, India and other countries who could spend more. However, we have to get prepared for the services they require and train our people to learn languages and trade, Godahewa said.

SLTB could train around 1,500 youths in the tourist sector services annually, but it needs to be expanded to 60,000 and it should be done in collaboration with the private sector. Sri Lankan missions abroad and the Diaspora too could contribute to increase the number of tourists and the media also could play a major role to bring in more tourists to the country he noted.