Big boost for environmentally-friendly tourism

Saturday, 8 December 2012 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Economic Develop-ment Minister Basil Rajapaksa yesterday launched a program to provide Pradeshiya Sabhas with infrastructure facilities for garbage disposal in areas marked for tourism development. The objective is to create environmentally-friendly tourism regions in the country.

At present Sri Lanka consists of six tourism regions: Bentota, Kalpitiya and Pasikudah in Batticaloa, Kuchchaveli in Trincomalee, Vakarai, and Yala.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has modernised tourism regions in the north and east to make them attractive to visitors, under the guidance of Minister Basil Rajapaksa after the end of a three-decade war.

Minister Basil Rajapaksa presented tractors and trailers to the Bentota and Pasikudah Pradeshiya Sabhas.

Sri Lanka’s first environmental tourism region was begun in a 700 acre area in Bentota in 1970. It comprised of seven hotels with 630 rooms. The second tourism region was started in Kalpitiya comprising 14 islets with an extent of 4,000 acres.

The Pasikudah tourism region, Batticaloa, began in 2009 and comprises 14 hotels with 930 rooms built on a 156 acre area. The Kuchchaveli tourism region, Trincomalee, covers a 590 acre area. The extent of the Vakarai tourism region is 73 acres. It is the SLTAD that undertook the well-planned development of these areas under the guidance of Minister Basil Rajapaksa.

Tourist arrivals in the island are rapidly increasing and a number of programs catering to their needs have been launched under infrastructure development. Accordingly, the SLTDA has decided to provide tourism regions with beach cleaning equipment, diving equipment, and life saving equipment next year too as well as give training in life saving.

In addition the SLDTA has taken steps to build tourism shopping centres in Bentota, Beruwala, Hikkaduwa, Kalutara, Negombo, and Pasikudah under the Minister’s guidance, according to SLTDA Domestic Tourism Resorts Director Mihira Liyanarachchi.

Child Development and Women’s Affairs Deputy Minister M.L.A.M. Hizbullah, Resettlement Deputy Minister Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan, SLFP organiser Bentara-Elpitiya Geetha Kumarasinghe, SLTDA Chairman Bhashwara Gunawardena, and Director Mihira Liyanarachi participated in the launching of the infrastructure development program.