Premier to decide on future tourism policy direction

Amaratunga forwards recommendations to PM

By Chandeepa Wettasinghe
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will be deciding on the future policy direction of the Sri Lanka’s tourism sector today.
Tourism and Christian Affairs Minister John Amaratunga yesterday forwarded a letter to the Prime Minister’s office with a host of recommendations to take the industry forward, Mirror Business learns.        
       
The debate is whether to conduct ad hoc development as in the past or focus on sustainability, and its related issues of focusing on increased arrival numbers or high-spending luxury tourists or ‘flashpackers’ who travel responsibly and spend excessively on experiences instead of institutional luxury.
Tourism is the country’s third largest foreign exchange earner after remittance inflows and apparel. Tourism earnings for the first six months of 2015 increased 14.17 percent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs.1.32 billion, while tourism arrival figures increased 14.12 percent YoY to 830,051 in the same period.
The recommendations for the new heads at the national tourism organisations—namely the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Sri Lanka Tourism Promotions Bureau (SLTPB), Sri Lanka Conventions Bureau (SLCB) and the Sri Lanka Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Management—are included in the letter.
The four chairmen resigned last week to fulfil the Sri Lankan practice of new ministers and governments appointing new bureaucrats for state bodies. Such a practice costs policy stability. However, industry stakeholders have questioned the organisations’ recent performances.
Former SLTDA Chairman Paddy Withana was appointed as the acting Chairman of the SLTDA and SLTPB. Sources said that the recommendations have called for Withana being reappointed as the SLTDA Chairman while industry veteran Prema Cooray has been recommended for the SLCB Chair and a relative of Amaratunga has also been recommended for a top-tier post. Intense political jockeying is taking place for the coveted posts, Mirror Business learns. Whether the Prime Minister approves or rejects the recommendations would be known within the week.



Tender procedure scrapped 
Amaratunga has scrapped the tender procedure for the Rs.200 million ad campaign of Sri Lanka tourism, sources said.
Seven leading ad agencies were shortlisted for the tender in the previous months, and they were to pitch their campaign strategies to the authorities yesterday.
When he took over duties last month, Amaratunga said that he was not satisfied with the tender process. A recommendation for a new tender procedure has been included in the letter to the Prime Minister, sources said.
While a source close to the tender procedure said that the process so far had taken place properly despite certain quarters saying it was hurried. Other sources said one individual was subtly attempting to influence the process to gain a windfall on completion of the process.
The ad campaign was the first tender procedure concerned with traditional media advertising, while three other tenders addressing public relations, digital marketing and media buying were to be called following the successful placement of the first. 
Sri Lanka currently lacks a tourism brand identity, going through repeated identity changes in the past decades, confusing tourists.
In the recent years the local industry had, after extensive research, forwarded the ‘Small Miracle’ brand, which focused on the heritage, diversity and compactness of the island, which international experts have consistently said would be Sri Lanka’s main selling points.