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Tourist Board publication bloomers embarrass Lanka
From Neville de Silva in London
A series of bloomers and blunders in a Tourist Board publication distributed at the recently concluded prestigious World Travel Market in London left participating Sri Lankan hoteliers and travel operators embarrassed and officials red faced.

The publication titled “Sri Lanka- A land like no other” produced by a company called World Travel Guides with the co-operation of the Sri Lanka Tourist Board office in London, was ceremoniously given to visitors invited to attend the presentation of awards to British travel operators.

Among those attending the ceremony conducted by the director of the Tourist Board in London, Jean-Marc Flambert, were Tourism Ministry Secretary P. Ramanujam, High Commissioner Kshenuka Senewiratne, Tourist Board Chairman Udaya Nanyakkara and SriLankan Airlines Country Manager Johann Wijesinghe. The factual, syntactical, grammar and spelling mistakes replete in the publication were detected only much later, leaving officials and Sri Lanka participants from several major companies and hotels who travelled to London at great expense, dumbfounded.Ministry Secretary Ramanujam is said to have told the Tourist Board office in London to stop circulating copies of the publication to halt further embarrassment, informed sources told The Sunday Times.

Meanwhile last week the Tourist Board office here held a promotion called “Sri Lanka- the way forward”, at the High Commission to which representatives of Colombo-based media here were not invited but some tame tabloids with just a sprinkling of readers in the community attended by invitation, apparently because they refrain from asking awkward questions. Sri Lankan travel operators and hoteliers have been bristling with anger over the booklet that is believed to have cost a substantial sum.

“Well what do you think of this,” said another looking over his shoulder and pointing to an entry on the next page under Unawatuna seaside resort.The entry read: “Don’t miss the sunset on top of the rocks just pass the temple.”
Saying that Sri Lanka is one of the best destinations for weddings, the Tourist Board invites couples to ask their tour operator to create new and exotic locations for their marriages.

One suggestion to a would-be couple is “On a hot air balloon, whilst sailing down a river” which would require an extraordinary physical feat. “Imagine the registrar of marriages hanging on for dear life while repeating the marriage vows,” laughed a former airline official.In its introduction to Kandy, the publication states it was the “Last seat of the King of Sri Lanka till Sri Lanka fell to the British in 1815.”

“This is factually inaccurate. It is not the last seat but the seat of the last King of Kandy not Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka did not fall to the British in 1815. The maritime provinces were already occupied by the British. It is Kandy that fell completing the British rule over the island,” said a history-minded travel agent.

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