SLAITO new Chairman pledges support to Govt’s tourism target of USD 9 Bn by 2030

New President of the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO), Nalin Jayasundera of Aitken Spence Travels (Pvt.) Ltd, welcomed the government’s decision to recognize the private sector driven tourism industry as a priority industry.

He pledged the support of SLAITO to achieve the Government’s target of 4 million tourist arrivals with a revenue of USD 9 billion by year 2030. Jayasundara, representing SLITO the apex body, representing the Destination Management Companies (DMC) industry in Sri Lanka insisted on the immediate launch of the global tourism marketing campaign and the completion of important infrastructure development projects such as the airport expansion and the Colombo-Kandy highway.

He stated that the country has to get the country’s marketing strategy right, if not Sri Lanka will be the best kept secret in world tourism. “To create the demand, it is important to work together with the foreign tour operators, the national carrier and other airlines, our diplomatic missions too have a major role to play.”

He highlighted the importance of creating a level playing field for all tourism stakeholders by regulating and facilitating the activities of all enterprises involved in tourism, all the line ministries working together with cohesion and better understating, introducing sustainable best practices and formulating strategies to address the human resource issue related to tourism to ensure benefits from tourism for the national economy.

Jayasundera also stated that SLAITO members are responsible for generating more than 70% of tourist arrivals in the formal tourism sector and spend over Rs. 2 billion per annum for global destination promotions in addition to the TDL contribution.

SLAITO is confident of working together with all stakeholders to achieve the arrival and revenue targets prior to 2030 and make tourism the Number One foreign exchange earner for the country. Nishad Wijetunga of Wayfarers Ltd is the Immediate Past President while Nalaka Amaratunga of Walkers Tours Ltd is the Secretary.

 Source:Daily News