Tourism industry cries foul over new draft Act

Sri Lanka’s tourism industry on Friday voiced their opposition over the sudden move by the authorities to change the Tourism Act of 2005 and highlighted that the new draft is likely to remove the private sector from the boards.

At a joint media briefing held at the Ramada Hotel in Colombo the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) and the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour

Operators ( SLAITO) called on authorities to focus on the present burning issues and not a change of the existing Tourism Act that is unlikely to generate any more tourists than the numbers that are already trickling in.

As an industry that is funding the operations of the separate bodies the private sector is required to be engaged.

The unofficial draft of the new Tourism Act received by the Business Times states that the new

Act will vest powers for the Authority to facilitate, plan, promote and implement policy relating to the tourism industry; provide regulation and monitoring and provide protocols for the tourism and travel industry; establish the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management and to also repeal the Tourism Act No. 38 of 2005, the Tourist Development Act, No. 14 of 1968 and Part II of the Finance Act No. 25 of 2003.