Think tank highlights importance of tourism research
The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), an autonomous government-affiliated think tank recently called on greater attention to be placed on research into the country’s burgeoning tourism sector in order to maximize the benefits and minimize the harm from tourism. During a recent Twitter chat on the State of the Economy 2017, IPS Research Assistant Yolanthika Ellepola said that “Insufficient and unreliable tourism-related data and an absence of tourism-related research,” were among the main issues in the industry.
Recently, the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, which is currently tasked with conducting research in tourism, came under heavy fire for improperly sampling departure surveys, which are currently used to measure the country’s tourism earnings.
Thirty seven tourism operators, who account for almost all of the star-class hotels in Sri Lanka and some of the largest travel agencies, in an overwhelming majority said that they had no confidence in the research conducted by the SLTDA.
SLTDA Director General Malraj Kiriella provided the defence that the SLTDA weighs its results in accordance with the total tourist population figures released by the Immigration and Emigration Department, and that the number of tourism operators who criticized SLTDA amounted to only a few.
He had also said that Tourism Satellite Account to be set up by the end of 2018 would enable more comprehensive data on tourism’s contribution to the national economy to be determined.
Kiriella, who earlier this year pledged to uphold the proactive disclosure of information under the Right to Information Act—including frequent publishing of data obtained by each state institution—has failed to stick to his promise of quarterly publishing numerous supply-side data which he said takes some time to collect and process.
Only the monthly arrival data obtained from the Immigration and Emigration Department is currently published, as usual.