Tourism saves the day for Sri Lanka amidst political, diplomatic setbacks
View(s):By Sunimalee Dias
In the wake of the recent political and diplomatic happenings in the country, a senior minister said that tourism was the best publicity for Sri Lanka in such a climate.
Pic by Mangala Weerasekera shows the Minister being presented a copy of the book by the author.
“In all this political and diplomatic stuff, the best publicity for Sri Lanka is tourism,” Senior Minister and International Development Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama said at the launch of the book “A Lifetime in Tourism” authored by the former Sri Lanka Tourist Board (SLTB) Chairman H.M.S. Samaranayake held at the Sri Lanka School of Hotel Management in Colombo.
He noted that with 35 per cent of travellers returning to visit Sri Lanka it proved to be a good return for the country and its publicity.
Moreover, he pointed out that with travellers to the African continent reducing and with problems in most of Sri Lanka’s rival destinations there seemed to be a better chance for the country to attract more numbers.
“We should not get back to making tourism unsafe in Sri Lanka,” he reminded adding that the country today had a great success story in tourism.
At one time India and Sri Lanka were both seeing the same number of tourists to either destinations but today the former had surged ahead due to its size and foresight, he said.
With numbers increasing Sri Lanka is compelled to improve its room capacity to 50,000 by 2016 from the present 15,000, he pointed out. “Sri Lanka is one of the cheapest money-for- service destinations in the world,” he observed. In fact, he noted with the hotel school’s establishment it proved to hold well with locals as more get trained and were recognized the world over for their hospitality wherever they were employed.
Recalling the past, he said at the time “everyone was a specialist in that subject,” and he noted “no politician dared to cross over those officials since they were so sure of their facts and figures.” The vital role of the private sector was played up by the then Tourism Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake, he said.
Former SLTB Chairman Samaranayake speaking about his book recalled when the Tourism Act of 2005 was brought up there were differences of opinion and the minister at the time was against it initially.
He had taken nearly three-and-a-half years to write the book on his life experiences in tourism while holidaying with family in Houston in the US and Adelaide, Australia.
The book delves into the days tourism took off from the period when J.R. Jayawardena was Minister of State; new legislation brought in place for the development of tourism; establishing a permanent address; and the Master Plan for the Hotel Management School.
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