“Pinnawala Express” twice weekly luxury bus service launched to popular Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage
In an effort to further promote the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage, already a must-stop for many tourists visiting Sri Lanka, the Tourism Ministry has launched a new, twice-weekly luxury bus service between Colombo and Pinnawala with effect from last week.
Photographic exhibition
Dubbed the “Pinnawala Express”, the new service was launched by the Minister of Tourism Development and Christian Religious Affairs, John Amaratunga at the gate of the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM), Kollupitiya on Saturday (September 27) to coincide with the World Tourism Day that fell on the same day.
The luxury bus will take tourists back and forth to the Pinnawala elephant orphanage from Colombo on every Saturday and Sunday mornings. Meanwhile a photographic exhibition under the theme “Cultural Heritage Tourism” was opened by the minister and his Deputy Minister Arundika Fernando at the Monara Restaurant of the SLITHM. Also, copies of two books titled “Explore Gampaha” and “Explore Ampara” were presented to the VVIPs and a panel of speakers (at the event to mark this special day) by the Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Paddy Withana.
Speaking at the event, Minister Amaratunga said the Government wants to make Sri Lanka the hub of tourism in South Asia.
A plan is underway to attract tourists from non- traditional destinations such as China, Russia and a few more countries. Measures have already been taken to provide security to tourists as there were some unfortunate incidents which had taken place recently.
He said that a new era has dawned in the country with a new political administration and it was appropriate to celebrate the world Tourism Day under the theme “One Billion tourists, one Billion opportunities”. He said, “in my view the travel and tourism industry is one of the most dynamic industries in today’s global economy that generated almost 9 per cent of GDP and provides 235 million job opportunities”.
He said Chinese tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka have increased to 138 per cent (in recent times) and the aim of the government is to increase it by 200 per cent in 2015.The number of weekly flights between Sri Lanka and China has increased to 16.The minister said the SLTDA in collaboration with a local university will arrange courses for students who follow lectures at SLITHM.
Executive Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, Dr. Saman Kelegama who made the keynote address said that tourism was a rapidly growing sector due to decrease of air fares and increase of living standards of people and globalisation that has brought connectivity between people. Global tourism in 2012 has crossed the one billion mark which had contributed to 10 per cent of the global GDP.
He said the informal sector of hotels in the country was large with room capacity of between 12,000-14,000 but facilities provided at these hotels were below that of the formal sector. Tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka were less compared to other countries in the region and a strategy has to be worked out to attract high spending Chinese tourists to the country.
“There are many high spending young Chinese honeymoon couples flying to the Maldives through Colombo. However when the flight arrives in Colombo (in transit) only 6-7 passengers get off here. We have to offer a differentiated product to attract high spending tourists,” he said.
SLTDA Chairman Paddy Withana said opportunities are great for tourism and “we” are looking at its future development as to how to go forward and bring its benefits to the country. “We are talking about bringing in 2-3 million tourists a year to the country. All our stakeholders should take the challenge to bring in tourists to the country. One of the crucial areas facing the industry was the availability of skilled labour,” he said.
Another issue he raised was the need to bring in regulations to prevent incidents such as the one that happened in Mirissa where a British tourist was harmed. “We have had discussions with senior police officers to prevent incidents of that nature happening again,” he said.