Much awaited promulgation of the new Tourism Act has finally taken place giving a say to all stakeholders of the tourism industry – hoteliers, travel agents and the tour operators.

It was an unfortunate thing that such a valuable piece of legislation prepared after much deliberations and years of discussion took a long time for promulgation after being passed by the parliament.

It speaks volumes about the political culture of our country where implementation of a valuable piece of legislation could be blocked for the benefit of a few people with vested interests.

Finally the credit should go to the present Minister of Tourism Milinda Moragoda for implementing it at the right time.  He has also taken many vital steps for the improvement of the industry within relatively a short period of time.

The new steps taken include initiatives for promoting Buddhist tourism, involvement of clergy and other sections of the society as well as the industry stake holders in monthly discussions leading to formation of policy.

New initiatives have also been taken to do joint promotion with Maldives and to seek Israeli help for introducing modern methods of tourism promotion.

Active participation of the private sector is vital if we are to promote tourism aggressively, the way it is done in more sophisticated markets.

The private sector has already invested heavily in building the tourism infrastructure in the country and therefore they will genuinely be interested in promoting the industry than anyone else.

If we look back at the history of the Ceylon Tourist Board from its inception its real contribution for tourism promotion is insufficient compared to the colossal amounts of money wasted in the name of promoting tourism.

This was because of political interference in recruitment of personnel as well as mismanagement of the institution.  Often with change of government continuity of the work undertaken by the previous administration was in question.

A lot of money used to be spent on tamashas and so called tourism promotion seminars and campaigns abroad which did not produce much result.  On the contrary within the country adequate facilities were not provided to local or foreign tourists even with regard to basic information about places of interest.

Compared  to more developed markets the availability of tourist information, properly designed leaflets and other literature on places of interest are not often available in public places.  Ideally they should be available in all public places such as railway stations and main bus stands of the respective areas.

These are some of the many things which need to be systematically looked at under a new set up, if we are to successfully promote tourism.  A country like Sri Lanka that is saddled with an ethnic strife and other infrastructure issues needs to pay special attention on effective ways of promoting its tourism to realize the full potential of this industry.