Rs.4 mln website for licensing, attracting informal tourism industry
The Government has invested Rs.4 million on an online website to ensure that tourism industry establishments could renew and register their licences online and through that capture the growing informal sector.
Tourism Minister John Amaratunga addressing journalists and industry stakeholders on Thursday at the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management auditorium said that they have established this online licensing website to overcome the frequent visits that stakeholders have to make to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) office to renew registrations.
SLTDA has about 4300 establishments registered and is now targeting the growing informal sector found at the more popular tourist attractions in four cities numbering 100 (which are registered).
SLTDA Director General Malraj Kiriella said they were aiming to improve the quality of their application processing service through this new website the Online Tourism Businesses Licensing Service.
SLTDA ICT Director Udana Wickramasinghe said that this new system would cut down the time spent on renewing the applications.
Currently only 14 categories of the industry have been opened up for registrations but this would be increased to 24 in the future, he said.
The new system assists users to submit their applications for renewal; upload supporting documents; check status of the application; send inquiries to the subject officer; make online and offline payments; receive alerts via email and SMS; and once registered the information would be pushed into the SLTDA website.
Payment options are available via debit and credit cards and bank transfers and deposits. The Akaza cloud platform of the Sri Lanka Telecom is being used for this purpose and the website is also working together with SL Cert and ICTA for payment systems and cyber security management.
Other features that would be added in future would be to enable businesses to upload tourism research information and submit mandatory reporting; engage in a live chat service; and update various information.
Currently the system is on test mode and this would continue for just over a month’s period, Mr. Wickramasinghe said.
Other services offered are in getting connected with traveller feedback kiosk system at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) and a travel inquiry management system that would channel inquiries to registered members.
In addition the Tourism Development Levy payment and clearance system is also being enabled through this system which has been worked out with the Finance Division currently on a trial run.
Authorities would be carrying out a television and print media campaign to create awareness about the new service in addition to writing to the relevant stakeholder associations and respective
individuals.