The Government has sought fresh input from industry stakeholders to identify new tourism zones throughout the island to protect and to enhance socio-economic development.
In the past, Nilaweli, Maadu River, Arugambay, Trincomalee, Kalkudah, Pinnawala, Dedduwa, Bentota, Kuchchaweli, Kalpitiya, Unawatuna, Negombo, Beruwala, Mount Lavinia and Yala were identified as tourism zones. These areas are all popular tourist spots.
However, over the past years, their development, maintenance and relevance have been neglected. In this regard, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has embarked on an initiative to review some of these zones and sought industry insight on currently declared zones, suggestions for additional tourism zones if any, and proposals to improve the management of zones.
Accordingly, the key purpose of identifying and declaring a tourism zone is to protect and safeguard the natural beauty, uniqueness and tourism value of such areas to facilitate planned tourism development through local and international investors.
The matter had been taken up during a Parliament Consultative Committee meeting, where MP Dr. Seetha Arambepola and MP Chandima Weerakkody had highlighted that some of the tourism zones were not protected or developed to attract tourists.
These declared zones are meant to act as catalysts to stimulate the growth of tourism destinations that are sympathetic to the environment and to provide new experiences.
The SLTDA has thereby requested the industry stakeholders to submit proposals for consideration on or before 31 January 2021.
Sri Lanka ended 2019 with 1.91 million tourists, down by 18% from a year earlier. For this year Sri Lanka Tourism expected four million arrivals and accelerated revenue from $ 3.5 billion last year to $ 5 billion in 2020 to spearhead an overall economic revival for Sri Lanka. However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, no tourist arrivals were recorded for the seventh consecutive month in October 2020.
Total tourist arrivals remained at 507,311 during the 10 months ending October 2020, compared to 1,495,055 arrivals recorded during the corresponding period in 2019, latest data from the Central Bank showed.
Accordingly, cumulative earnings from tourism, which are estimated based on tourist arrivals, remained at $ 956 million during the year up to October 2020, thus recording a drop of 66.1% from the corresponding period of 2019.
By Charumini de Silva (DailyFT)