“Revamping railway must for tourism growth” | Daily News

“Revamping railway must for tourism growth”

The development of railway transport infrastructure is a must and an essential factor in tourism industry growth, Sanjiv Anthony Executive Director Jetwing hotel Limited said.

The tourism industry mainly depends on the road network. The railway transportation could be a valuable solution to the tourism sector, Anthony told a webinar organised by the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (CMA) of Sri Lanka.

Noting that the government’s target of welcoming 2.5 million tourists as an achievable target going forward , Anthony explained, “Tourism is a USD 5 billion industry and from a cash flow point of view, we are talking about a USD 60 billion industry going forward. This figure exceeds more than Sri Lanka’s total debt.”

Speaking further, he however stated that interim budget proposals have not touched the tourism industry up to the level that the industry has expected to develop. He said that from the tourism point of view, the industry has started picking up and with the removal of travel restrictions placed on Sri Lanka, hotels have experienced a lot of inquiries coming forward.

“We expect some very good recovery in the industry. Nevertheless the government has to concentrate much more on the tourism industry going forward.” Moreover, he highlighted that tourism industry stakeholders were continuing to lobby to position the country and to conduct promotional and marketing activities through the Tourism Development Authority to promote Sri Lanka as a preferred tourist destination in the world.

“However, I have not seen any allocation of funding from the budgetary point of view to this end.” Anthony however welcomed the budget proposal to allocate Rs.300 million for tourism development projects.


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