SL’S first ever tourism ...
Sri Lanka’s first tourism small and medium enterprise training manual titled ‘Start Your Tourism Business’ was launched yesterday under the auspices of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse.
Sri Lanka’s first tourism small and medium enterprise training manual titled ‘Start Your Tourism Business’ was launched yesterday under the auspices of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapakse.
The manual is designed to assist tourism micro-entrepreneurs and small tourism business operators and it introduces steps to start a tourism business and explains how to develop a business plan.
Speaking at the launch of the manual, Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) Association of Sri Lanka President Kithsiri Dharmapriya stated that the booklet contains each and every single step in a tourism business, how one can get started and what sources are there to provide the support and other services.
Kithsiri added that this product is especially designed for the people who are going to start a tourism-based business and tells them how they can start a business which is related to tourism.
“We did not have a separate manual for the purpose of training the entrepreneurs in the tourism sector. We have other products of this nature that cater to other industries or trades,” he explained.
However, he said that this is the first time they are having this type of manual in Sri Lanka and they added that they have introduced it to Geneva also, where they are working on taking it forward.
“We tested it in the Trincomalee area and we had a train the trainer seminar as well,” the SIYB President noted.
An expert came to Sri Lanka and she studied all the relevant aspects and then she put a lot of inputs to pre pare this manual in English. Then we translated it to Sinhalese and Tamil.
He went o n t o ap p e a l t o t he Eco no mic Development Ministry to support the organisation in its work. “From our side, I think we are ready and we can transfer this knowledge to the people. We need some kind of support and that can definitely come from the Ministry,” Kithsiri said.
Meanwhile, S r i Lanka’s f i r s t ‘ To u r i s m Roadside Signage Guidelines’ manual was also launched alongside the tourism business manual.
It takes into consideration the national guidelines of the Road Development Authority (RDA) and the standards of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). The manual includes RDA signage specifications, planning considerations, and UNWTO tourism symbols supplemented with Sri Lanka-specific symbols.
Further more, transition to new signage is already taking place, with the Trincomalee Municipal Council and the Eastern Provincial Council allocating funds for new road signage.