E-commerce and tourism
In the Business Pages of the Daily Mirror dated September 5 it was stated that the Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake is seriously contemplating bringing in new legislation to regulate e-commerce in order to prevent the flow of foreign exchange out of the country. It is indeed a wise decision, albeit rather late in the game.
Sri Lanka today is witnessing the sudden proliferation of condominiums with real estate developers marketing in glossy magazines five star apartment complexes that are sprouting up across the city of Colombo and the suburbs.
However much it may help ease the housing problems for the general public, the lack of proper laws governing the housing industry as far as condominiums are concerned and the lack of a cohesive Condominium Act is presently causing a great deal of problems to condo owners to the point that some prospective buyers are hesitant to buy new apart- ment units due to the concerns and views expressed by those condo owners who have been at the receiving end of unexpected and undesirable problems unfolding within their premises. The operative words here should be ‘BUYER BEWARE’.
Clearly defined laws must be enforced when designating real estate that is sold for investment purposes as opposed to condominiums that are designed “for residential purposes only”. Until and unless the Condominium Act is amended accordingly, the damage to the housing industry could be irreparable. It is therefore incumbent upon the Housing Ministry to take urgent steps to solve such anomalies with no further delay.
At the outset, a majority of real estate owners purchased condominiums on the belief that their living conditions would be made easier and safer given the current climate of insecurity in the larger cities. That ‘dream’ has been shattered because of a segment of owners who are renting their apartments to unsuspecting tourists in an unsupervised, unauthorised and haphazard manner. By their actions, the damage to the tourist industry could be devastating, not to mention the remittances that are deposited abroad by marketers via on line booking engines like bookings.com. In apartment complexes located in close proximity to 5 star hotels, the level of exploitation by unauthorised individuals is far greater and it is incumbent upon the tourism authorities to control and prevent the continuation of the above mentioned activity especially with regard to the practice of overcrowding of apartments by tourists for a fraction of the rates charged by the better hotels in the neighbourhood.
Allowed to continue, the millions of rupees spent on tourism promotion in popularising Sri Lanka as a tourist destination “like no other” will end up a mere pipe dream. All the connected authorities including the UDA should make every effort to prevent the informal sector from conducting unauthorised and unregulated ‘lodgings’ by examining with close scrutiny the true character of misleading advertisement that appear in hotel booking web sites so as to prevent the abuse of the hospitality trade.
A more participatory Condominium Management Authority (CMA) and a better informed Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau are the needs of the day. Condo owner Colombo 3