Sri Lanka Tourism to Face Complete System Overhaul

Sri Lanka’s key tourism state agencies are set to go through significant changes, adopt a new tagline, and a review of the existing promotional campaign following the establishment of the new National People’s Power (NPP) government as per their proposed tourism policy document.

Structural and institutional changes are expected to take place under the new proposed policy, a Member of the National Tourism Committee of the NPP told The Sunday Times Business on Thursday.

The policy document states that the NPP government views that the national tourism strategy should be driven by one organisation with a higher level of autonomy and capable of providing leadership to the industry without traditional bureaucratic restrictions and inefficiencies prevailing in the present system.

In this respect the National Tourism Commission (NTC) will be the apex body for national tourism; Tourism Policy Formulation Council (TPFC) will be the responsible body for necessary policy guidance and policy development; the Sri Lanka Tourism Authority (SLTA) will be the body responsible for policy implementation in terms of tourism development and tourism promotion; and the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hospitality Management (SLITHM) will be the nationally responsible body for human capital development in tourism and hospitality.

In addition, tourism sector workers will benefit from the tourism development fund and social protection and contributory pension/insurance scheme to be initiated and developed under the proposed organisational structure. This will be managed under the NTC that will provide a long-awaited solution for the income fluctuation of tourism sector employees especially in the MSME sector during natural or man-made disasters.

Non-pensioners in the private and semi government sector will also benefit from the contributory pension fund. A fixed percentage of the Tourism Development Fund will be allocated for this purpose, with efforts made to attract additional external funding sources.

The TPFC will be established through an amendment to the current Tourism Act with industry and non-industry experts to provide the necessary policy formulation and guidance to the NTC and its implementing institutions. The NTC will act as a “think tank” for the tourism industry in Sri Lanka.

The SLTA will be established following amendments to the existing Tourism Act No. 38 of 2005 and will comprise two main divisions namely the Tourism Development Division and the Tourism Marketing Division. In addition the Tourism Law Enforcement Unit will also be established under the SLTA.

The policy document has also proposed a National Tourism Master Plan for a 10 year period and establishment of regional offices.

All aspects of illegal engagements by tourists and service providers will be identified and necessary actions will be taken immediately to prevent them.

In addition, in a bid to avoid confusion, the NPP government has proposed to design a new branding campaign with the maximum participation of the relevant stakeholders to ensure that this will not be changed in the future.

It has been proposed to establish a sustainable global marketing campaign that will focus on tourists’ perceptions based on tourist-friendly and a green destination. Further a holistic marketing campaign will be developed together with the foreign ministry, the national airline and other tourism NTOs.

A special marketing campaign will be designed for FITs and transit passengers as well; in addition special marketing campaigns focusing on the emerging and new markets. The government will also facilitate all digital form marketing campaigns of the private sector and MSME sector.

Active involvement of the foreign missions will be key with promotional offices also to be established in key markets, the policy document stated.

National carrier SriLankan Airlines will be used to ensure connectivity to key tourism destinations without compromising its financial stability. Any form of restructuring of the national carrier will be conducted within a framework that safeguards national tourism priorities, the policy of the NPP stated.

“Sleepless” tourism cities like Colombo and Negombo will be established with the aim of attracting a new segment of travellers – the transit tourists.

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Reproduced from an article in The Sunday Times, Colombo