New Sri Lanka Tourism Act opposed by THASL and SLAITO

During the presentation of the 2021 budget in parliament in November last year, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa said the government planned to bring four existing institutions relating to tourism under the proposed Tourism Promotion Authority. “The existence of separate institutions to fulfill various but interconnected roles has become a major impediment in implementing collective development activities and has led to the incurring of additional expenditure,” he explained, without providing further details. In a nutshell, Tourism Act No.38 of 2005 was to be repealed with the drafting of a new Tourism Act.

Last week, the new tourism Act, approved by the country’s cabinet to amalgamate the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Board (SLTPB) and the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau (SLCB) into a single apex body (whilst keeping the SLITHM as a separate entity as it is related to education),ran into flak from two leading hospitality-related associations, namely, the Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) and the Sri Lanka Association of Inbound Tour Operators (SLAITO).

THASL and SLAITO, whilst stating that the  key focus should now be to resurrect the ailing tourism industry rather than change the act, are opposed to it, claiming;-

• The current Act (of 2005) was drafted to enable the private and public sector to cooperate and work together for the industry, which is private sector – driven, and where the SLTDA plays a regulator cum facilitator role.
• The Act has served its purpose even during challenging times.
• There is nothing wrong with the Act itself; it is, its inefficient implementation and the reluctance to execute it the way it was set up by the government, that is the obstacle towards the industry moving forward to achieve the objectives and goals.
• The only change they would accept is the merger of the back office functions including Finance, Information Technology, Human Resources and Legal departments – as a costs saving measure.

Another fear is that should these state institutions be combined into a single body, some stakeholders including tourism organisations would not have representation in the envisaged single entity – thus becoming marginalized in the process.

In defense of the new Act, Chairperson of SLITD – Kimarli Fernando, said:-

• THASL & SLAITO do not reflect the view of 3 million people dependent on tourism.
• The current structure cannot be deemed a success, with a majority board from the private sector no integrated global promotion was done since 2007. The only time a global promotion was successful was after the board seats were reduced.
• Previous governments too attempted to merge the institutes, but due to having 5 Chairmen in the past 5 years, projects like this were stalled.
• The current structure is not successful, supporting around 2,500 operators who are registered, whist over 20,000 remain unregistered and unsupported.
• Having chaired all 4 institutions during the past 14 months, she has seen how counterproductive the current structure is with wastage of resources in the financial, human capital and others.
• It is in line with best practices such as Tourism Singapore and Tourism Australia.
• Staff (488) is in favour of the decision to amalgamate.

In late November 2020, SLAITO highlighted that the Tourism Task Force (TTF) appointed in 2015, was not successful in tourism development, promotion or branding of the destination and failed to take the tourism industry forward as the TTF did not represent any member from the apex bodies in the industry that have the practical in depth knowledge on tourism.

The opposing views risks making the tourism industry in Sri Lanka look somewhat ‘fragmented’.

Hospitality Sri Lanka

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