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Sri Lanka tourism not yet out of woods
Tuesday, 6 February 2007 - 4:39 AM SL Time
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Tourism, the fourth largest foreign income earner in Sri Lanka with an ambitious plan to attract two million visitors by 2016, is currently facing severe challenges which prevent it from developing the industry.
While travel advisories continue to be hostile to Sri Lanka thereby reducing the number of tourists to our shores and the tourist industry not getting the benefit of a new electrical tariff given to other industries, travel and tourism companies are urging the new Tourism Minister Millinda Moragoda for favourable reforms.
Serendib Leisure Management Ltd. Chief Exrecutive Officer and Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka Vice President Sirilal Miththapala yesterday told The Island Financial Review that adverse travel advisories must be met with counter propaganda, which could profitably use the accumulated cess.
`Strong travel advisories continue to be enforced which have led most hotels to have a paucity of bookings. This, too, will be a severe blow in the off-season during the first quarter of the year. These travel advisories need counter propaganda where the cess can be utilized very easily. However, though it was approved by the Speaker in Parliament last year, former Minister of Tourism Anura Bandaranaike was reluctant to place his signature on it, which hampered the entire process. What we seek from the new Minister is to discuss the issues with all stakeholders with regard to cess and to make it happen,` he said.
The new electricity tariff coming into force has offered some relief to industries, excluding the hotel industry, which therefore cannot be categorised as an industry.
`Firstly there is no rationale to eliminate hotels from the industrial category when successive governments consider hotels as a `thrust industry` and the fact that hotels are the fourth largest foreign exchange earner in the country. In fact, hotels would perhaps be the one of the most value adding industries, where almost 100 per cent local raw material is transformed into services and products, and the resulting revenue is predominantly in foreign exchange,` he said.
`Secondly, it is quite illogical to offer the industries, in general, several concessions, while at the same time excluding these concessions from the hotel industry, which is suffering the most under the present circumstances,` he added.
According to industry sources, the US $10 entry visa fee is also considered as a disadvantage at a turbulent time where the Sri Lanka tourism needs a boost. It was also learned that plans have been finalized in consultancy with the Ministry, Tourist Board and the SriLankan Airline on consumer campaigns in prospective markets this year.
`The US $10 visa entry fee can be imposed at a latter stage once the industry is up and running. If you impose it now the current trends will also go down. The proposed campaign in United Kingdom in partnership with other tour operators, who have been handling a large volume of business with Sri Lanka on a 50 per cent cost sharing basis, is considered to be a good remedy at this stage,` he explained.
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