Tourism industry will be regulated giving more emphasis to pvt. sector: Paddy

By Zahara Zuhair
Giving a positive outlook for the future of Sri Lanka’s tourism, SLTDA Chairman Paddy Withana recently said that they were looking forward to bring in more regulations to standardise many aspects of the industry while stressing the importance of private sector’s involvement for the development of the industry.

“The gazette on classifying hotels was needed to bring the standards of the hotels in the industry because we need to market the product according to high standards. We are looking at more gazettes on regulations coming to other areas as well, like small luxury hotels, tourist guides services, spas and wellness centres, water-based adventures, Ayurvedic tourism, shops, etc,” he said.

“What we expect from tourism is to get the benefit for the community, and if you don’t do this and take this message and develop all the areas, it will be confined only for few people, that is why we ask private sector to be involved,” he said.

He made these remark at the 24th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Institute of Hospitality (IOH) Sri Lanka held in Colombo last Friday.
He said the target of achieving 2.2 million tourists for 2016 and the revenue mark of US $ 3.6 billion was achievable. 
He shared recent developments of the industry such as the opening an airport in Batticloa  and the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) conference held in Passikudah  with the idea of branding the area.
Talking about the future of world tourism he said that there will be 1.8 billion people travelling by 2030 according to UNWTO statistics. 

‘So we must be ready, this country is blessed with a natural beauty. We have everything, a compact island that we can get in to any party with so many asks,” he said.
He said that while looking at the higher-end it is important to look at other segments as well as mix segment is very important for the tourism.
He added that opportunities and facilities are great in this country as it offers more things like whale watching, dolphin watching, beaches etc.

“If you go to world-famous Arugambay that is one of top ten areas in surfing,” he said adding that they are looking forward to have an  international surfing competition in Sri Lanka by next year hoping  to make Sri Lanka a surfing destination.
“People need something peaceful, something different, to see peace. Sri Lanka is one of safest country at the moment. If you look at the food it is the best food, one of the top meals you can have with,” he said.
“We are looking at doing tourism conventional marketing such as trade fairs, road shows, then we have a programme called visiting journalists, obviously that is our strongest area. Then another one recently bloggers’ programme which was very effective,” he said.

“So we are looking at various technologies in tourism. We have to do digital marketing. We are looking at a global campaign, advertising campaign, global digital online marketing campaign. We are appointing two creative PR agencies for China and India, and outdoor advertising campaigns in Germany, United Kingdom, France, Japan etc, in 2016,” he further added.
He said that they are looking at two major projects in down south for future tourism and would be proceeding to other areas slowly.
Pic by Indraratne Balasuriya