Govt. wants 3-mth plan for tourism

The new government is working on a short term plan of action for the tourism industry and, in this context, called for proposals from the industry.

Official sources stated that newly appointed Tourism Ministry Secretary S.M. Mohammed during a meeting with officials from the respective departments requested them to draft a 3-month plan of action for the tourism industry. It had been pointed out that the government requires them to work on a short term plan to be implemented within a period of three months and it is likely that another long term plan would be worked out later.

However, authorities are faced with a daunting task as they are compelled to bring out a plan of action that is not in line with the manner in which work is carried out for tourism promotion and development.

In this respect it is likely that authorities would have to shelve the global promotion campaign whereas the joint tour operators’ campaign would kick off. The global promotion campaign is likely to get further delayed and which has been discussed about for a number of years.

The new secretary has requested authorities to draft a new Cabinet paper on the joint tour operators’ campaign to be submitted to Cabinet last week. This campaign had been on the cards for quite some time but was yet to get underway as it did not gain Cabinet approval. State Tourism Minister Arundhika Fernando during a meeting with officials had stated that there were plans by SriLankan Airlines to resume flights to the Europe sector to ensure an increase in tourist arrivals from these traditional markets.