Sri Lankan shipwrecks, new tourist attraction
The Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) will propose to the government to encourage shipwreck exploration as a new tourism offering.
“We are proposing to the government to have through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) unit to study this sport for the exploration for tourists,” SLTPB Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara told the Business Times on Thursday.
He explained that this would be an additional tourism offering and one of the new products the bureau would be recommending to the government for future promotion.
Mr. Nanayakkara said that various government agencies would decide on the details on how this aspect of tourism could be regulated and how it could be opened up.
The private sector that is increasingly involved in the exploration of shipwrecks and has taken on the responsibility of providing travellers tours of the sights are currently following international rules and regulations under the internationally accepted diving authority Professional Association of Diving Instrutors (PADI) that provides licenses to operate in this field.
Lanka Sports Reizen (LSR) Chairman Thilak Weerasinghe said that they have seen a considerable growth in the shipwreck diving segment of the adventure travel business with about a 6 per cent growth in 2017 against 2016.
LSR alone has observed a 40 per cent growth in the diving business and believe that at least one shipwreck is visited by divers visiting the country.
Promotion of this segment of tourism industry that was not recognised in the past has been focused on by the bureau as is evident in the numbers that have expressed interest in this sector, Mr. Weerasinghe said.
Mr. Weerasinghe is on the Tourism Task Force appointed by the Prime Minister’s office looking at adventure tourism and the necessary clearances required from the Sri Lanka Navy and in this regard the industry is receiving support from the ministry as well.
He pointed out that they are working with the SLTDA on developing the adventure sports and were also working out training programmes to ensure skilled manpower is at hand to serve in these new fields.