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The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority is committed to ensuring tourist destinations make optimal use of their environmental and cultural resources, while respecting the socio-cultural traditions of local communities and providing economic benefits to communities, businesses, and national economies through responsible tourism planning and development.
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The SLTDA is committed to providing assistance with regards to
- Tourism development assessments
- Tourism planning – nationally, regionally, and locally
- Tourism policy development and reform
- Tourism product and service development
- Tourism industry competitiveness
- Small and medium enterprise development and improved market access
- Institutional capacity-building
- Workforce development
- Tourism investment promotion and investor mobilization
- Economic and financial analysis of tourism projects
- Tourism infrastructure assessments, economic analysis, and interventions
- Destination marketing and promotion
- Monitoring and evaluation
With the able assistance of Nathan Associates, the SLTDA is working with the tourism industry to implement a competitiveness strategy that aims to reposition Sri Lanka as a destination for distinct, high-value products and services. This program would involve
- Improving the mix of tourism products;
- Upgrading tourism offerings;
- Modernizing the industry's organization and key institutions; and
- Reforming select tourism and investment policies.
Example of Ongoing Projects
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Development of a best-practice Eco Lodge in the Sinharaja
[Wiki]Rainforest
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Providing assistance and supported to the Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management, in terms of management, curriculum development, and strategic planning. This would ensure the skill level of the industry reach international standards and would ensure the school’s programs reflect the tourism industry’s workforce development needs.
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Development and promotion of Sigiriya
[Wiki], Sri Lanka’s cultural heritage icon, as a world-class destination.
Criteria for sustainability in Tourism
Criteria for sustainability in Tourism
When assessing the sustainability of a product, it is important to measure it in terms of its value environmentally, socially, culturally and economically. Moreover, it also must value its educational, local participatory and carrying capacities such as physical carrying capacities, real carrying capacities and effective or permissible carrying capacities.
Under the Environmental Sustainability and Conservation, the product would be assessed according to ecological sustainability, social sustainability and cultural and natural sites’ sustainability.
Tools of sustainability include;
- Area Protection
Ensuring Sri Lanka’s National Parks, wildlife refuges/reserves, biosphere reserves, country parks, biological reserves, areas of outstanding natural beauty and sites of special scientific interest are conserved.
- Industry Regulations
Monitoring and enforcing varied Government Legislations, Professional Association regulations, International Regulations and Voluntary self regulations, effectively and without any prejudice.
- Visitor Management Techniques
Safeguarding Sri Lanka’s attractions by placing good management techniques such as zoning, honey spots, visitor dispersion, channelled visitor flow, restricted entry, vehicle restrictions and differential pricing structures.
- Environmental impact assessment (EIA)
[Wiki]
Periodically, EIAs are carried out by way of overlays, matrices, mathematical models, GIS and environmental audits. Cost benefit analysis, material balance model, planning balance sheet and rapid rural appraisals are also used to asses the impact on the environment.
- Carrying Capacity Calculation
The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the population size of the species that the environment can sustain in the long term, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment. In order to safeguard Sri Lanka’s natural resources, the SLTDA regularly monitors the physical carrying capacity, ecological carrying capacity, social carrying capacity, environmental carrying capacity and real carrying capacity. The effective/ permissible carrying capacity and limits of acceptable changes are also measured.
- Consultation Participation Techniques
In order that the Industry is aware of the need to sustain the environment, regularly meetings and public attitude surveys are conducted. Stated Preference surveys are also used. Data collected is assessed using the Contingent Valuation Method and the Delphi Techniques.
- Code of Conduct for the Tourist
In order to ensure that the tourist does not exploit the environment and its resources, the SLTDA periodically carries out informational activities for the Industry, the hosts, host government and its communities.
- Sustainability Indicator
Key areas measured to ascertain the country’s natural resources’ sustainability are
- Resource Use
- Waste
- Pollution
- Local Production
- Access to basic human needs
- Access to facilities
- Freedom from decision making process
- Diversity of Natural and Cultural life
Critical objectives of sustainable tourism should target the environmental, social and economic aspects and would include economic validity, local prosperity, employment quality, social equity, visitor fulfilment/utility, local control, community well-being, cultural richness, physical integrity, biological diversity, resource efficiency and environmental purity.
According to the UN WTO 2004, sustainable tourism should optimise environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, while maintaining essential progress and helping to conserve natural heritage and bio-diversity. It should also respect the Socio Cultural authenticity of host communities and conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, while contributing to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance. Sustainable tourism should ensure viable long term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income earning opportunities and social services to host communities and contributing to poverty alleviation.
Development of Sustainable Tourism will be carried out through the following initiatives;
- Planning for development and land – use at sub national level.
To conserve the environment, maintain the quality of the Visitor
Experience, and provide benefits for local communities
- Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
To anticipate environmental impacts by undertaking comprehensive EIAs for all tourism development programmes
- Planning measures
Ensures that tourism development remains within national and local plans for all types of activity and implementing effective carrying capacity programmes planning controls and management
- Legislative framework
Establishing standards for land use in tourism development, facilities management and investment
- Environmental standards
Improving the environmental quality and setting targets for reducing pollutions from all sectors and preventing development in inappropriate areas
Progress made by Sri Lanka Tourism, to date
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