Tourism Information Centre established at Nuwara Eliya Public Library

Saturday, 4 January 2025 00:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Foreign visitors at the Nuwara Eliya Library based information centre

From left: Sandamali Hewage, Y.P. Wijewardene, and K.M.H.W. Bandara

The Public Library of Nuwara Eliya is the new Tourism Information Centre

The progressively run Nuwara Eliya Public Library was chosen to be the location as the new Tourism Information Centre for the district and a renovated area was launched on 24 December with the participation of several officials including Central Province Department of Trade, Commerce and Tourism Director Sandamali Hewage, Assistant Commissioner of Local Government Y.D. Wijewardena, Nuwara Eliya Public Library Chief Librarian Shirani Mangalika, and the heads of the Municipal Council.

Sandamali Hewage explained as follows on the importance of the new information centre: “Tourism is a humanistic activity and Nuwara Eliya is one of the most popular destinations in the country for foreign visitors which has to be protected and promoted so that all the communities living in this district can equally benefit financially from the tourism industry. Providing all the relevant details concerning tourism and related entrepreneurship is now the responsibility of this centre. This can encompass Nuwara Eliya but also the rest of the country as well, as our objective is to keep all foreigners who come to our beloved country as long as possible. For this we need comprehensive information on tourism related activities across the country as well. This I believe should be done in as detailed a manner as possible, consciously believing that poverty alleviation can be achieved through tourism.”

Y.D. Wijewardena explained that the Nuwara Eliya Public Library was chosen as the new information centre location because it was noted that many tourists visit the library asking for required information, on account of it being in a central location.

“Nuwara Eliya is a unique location in Sri Lanka on account of its climate and colonial history where it was among the most favoured locations of the British colonial administration. Although Nuwara Eliya was important for Sri Lanka in terms of its rich biodiversity prior to imperialism, it is after the British administration coining the term ‘Little England’ that Nuwara Eliya became a central attraction for the Western world. The number of Europeans visiting Nuwara Eliya is very high in Sri Lanka and it is our responsibility to provide all visitors to this district with precise and correct information on how they could enjoy the country in general and Nuwara Eliya in particular, better,” Wijewardena said.

“We hope to make the information centre that is now housed at the Nuwara Eliya Public Library a vibrant place where we intermix our standard role as a library and our various other activities such as sustainability promotion through entrepreneurship, into a global tourism model,” Shirani Mangalika stated.

Sri Lanka is currently on a new drive to promote tourism in innovative and integrated ways in the backdrop of the revolutionary mark of democracy as showcased in the Presidential and Parliamentary election last year.