Major restructure of tourism institutes on the cards

There will be major restructuring of tourism institutes in the government to facilitate the tourism industry to boom to new levels, Buddhika Hewawasam, Chairman Sri Lanka Tourism told the Sri Lanka Tourism Awards 2024 event held in Colombo .

“Tourism in the world has been reaching far ahead with new initiatives and the dimension needs to be changed, this story of 2 million, USD3-4 billion revenue needs to be changed. We need to achieve new milestones and that can only be achieved with the creativity and dedication of the industry as well as the new comers, investors, entrepreneurs and the individuals who have a vision for the particular industry.”

He said the Tourist Board expects 2.1million tourist arrivals by the end of the year with forex earnings of USD3 billion and next year the target is 3 million tourist arrivals with forex earnings of USD5 billion. He said Sri Lanka tourism has received many accolades from all over the world this year and occupancy levels are reaching 80% levels with more flights arriving and the season has become one of the biggest seasons after 2018. He said therefore they were reaching the milestone and it was a matter of leaping forward to the next level.

“This next level is significant for all of us and probably in 2029 we will be reaching unreachable targets because we will be able to break the barrier in our mindset and reach greater heights. New products will come into place and Colombo city will boom.”

He said they also plan to increase the 11% occupation in tourism to 15-16 %. 76 awards were presented under 13 different categories with over 300 participants at the award ceremony.

Meanwhile, tourist arrivals for December passed the 100,000 mark while the total number of arrivals surpassed the 1.90 Mn mark.

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