Private sector promotes 99% of tourism
While Sri Lanka is gearing to bounce back from the hard hit tourism industry with fresh promotional campaigns, it is the private sector that is on full throttle to uplift the dying industry, Tissa Jayaweera, a senior advisor to the Chamber of Tourism told the Business Times in an interview.
He said, “It is the private sector that does 99 per cent of tourism promotional campaigns while the government officials are good at visiting foreign countries and making presentations on a screen.” Gone are the days where people saw presentations on a screen, it is the experience and word of mouth that Sri Lanka needs to offer a foreign traveller to visit the country while influencing others also to visit and it’s proven through various channels, he added.
Mr. Jayaweera who has been in the tourism industry for quite some time urged the importance of night tourism. In foreign countries tourists go out and spend quality time during the night and bars are open till late in the night. “In Sri Lanka much revenue is lost by closing liquor shops by 10 pm,” he stressed while elaborating that Spain and Vietnam have huge number in tourists due to night time tourism boom.
While attending the World Tourism Day event organised by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority on Tuesday, Mr. Jayaweera slammed the government for mentioning about a 10-hour power cut Sri Lanka will face in the near future. He said, “Without evaluating the situation properly the government officials must not make statements that make things even more difficult at this juncture for the tourism industry especially. Anyone who was waiting to come to Sri Lanka in December will not consider Sri Lanka a destination after this news.” Officials must act with caution on what they say before making it public, he noted.
Meanwhile UNICEF Sri Lanka Resident Coordinator and Country representative, Christian Skoog, highlighting the theme for this year ‘Rethinking Tourism’ stated, “Livelihoods of a majority of Sri Lankans depend on tourism which is the third largest source of revenue generation to the country.”
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