Under the new policy introduced by the Ministry of Tourism, Chief Minister and the Minister of Tourism for the Eastern Province, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan Kumarasamy will be joining the delegation headed by the Deputy Minister of Tourism Faiszer Mustapha, to participate at the Japan Association of Travel Agents - Travel Mart, one of the largest international travel fairs in Asia, to be held at the Tokyo Big Sight from September 18 to 21.
Kumarasamy’s participation at the JATA is in keeping with the policy of the Ministry of Tourism, that is; to share the resources and expertise with all provinces for the better exposure of the country's tourism industry.
According to the Ministry, the policy to involve Provincial Councils in the development of the tourism industry previously gave the opportunity for the Chief Ministers of the Southern and Central Province to attend travel fairs abroad.
This latest development was further to a decision taken by Minister of Tourism Milinda Moragoda in leveraging resources in its true sense from the centre to the provinces which would enable the Provincial Tourism Authorities to gain foreign exposure as central agencies do. During the Minister’s first year in office in 2007 he decided to request the Southern Provincial Chief Minister and Tourism Minister Shan Wijelal de Silva to attend the 2007 ITB in his place. In 2008 the Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake participated at the ITB in Berlin and pointed out to the media that although in the earlier days Sri Lanka only had the beach, the country now has so many aspects and purposes for the tourists to come. |
