Two Lankan entities win ‘Sustainable Development in Tourism’ awards at 73rd Skål World Congress

Skål International, founded in 1934, is the largest organisation of travel and tourism professionals in the world. To encourage the conservation of the environment and help to promote the development of responsible and sustainable tourism, Skål International initiated an awards program in 2002, during ‘The Year of Ecotourism and the Mountains,’ as declared by United Nations.

As is practiced each year, Skål International selected a panel of three independent judges from important institutions/organisations dealing with eco and sustainable tourism to make the evaluation of all the projects.

The primary criteria for the evaluation are based on such points like contribution to the conservation of nature and cultural heritage, community involvement, educational features, business viability and innovation.

This year, the judges were Luigi Cabrini, Director of Sustainable Development in Tourism, UNWTO, Ed Roberts, Regional Sustainability Director, Europe for Sealed Air and Mandip Singh Soin, Founder and Managing Director, IBEX Expeditions India.

Since the launch of the awards in 2002, SKAL has received strong ongoing support and attracted a high level of participation, with a total of 456 entrants. This year, a total of 39 projects entered the eight different categories and the awards were presented during the opening veremony of the 73rd Skål World Congress, which took place in the South Korean city of Incheon, on 3 October 2012.

The two Sri Lankan entities who won were EU-Switch Asia Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project in the category of ‘Educational Programs and Media’ and Heritance Tea Factory, Kandapola in the category of ‘General Countryside.’

The trophies and certificates were accepted by Srilal Miththapala, Project Director/Consultant of EU-Switch Asia and Keethi Jayaweera, President, SKAL International Colombo on behalf of Heritance Tea Factory respectively from the President of Skål International, Enrique Quesada and the Senior Vice-President Karine Coulanges.