• Historic Nallur Festival Celebrated on a Grand Scale
• Development of the East Coast Tourist Resort Region
• Hikkaduwa Tourist Taxi Drivers’ Training Programme
• National Holiday Resorts
• Forum for Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism
• Tourism Mobile Service - One Stop Shop of Standards and Quality Assurance Division

Historic Nallur Festival Celebrated on a Grand Scale

Thousands of Hindu devotees congregated at the historic Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil for the annual Nallur Festival. The festival, held from 27th July to 19th August, was celebrated with much enthusiasm and on a grand scale. For the first time in years, devotees were able to celebrate the festival in a peaceful setting.

Sri Lanka Tourism spearheaded the promotion of the historic Nallur Festival and many overseas visitors, particularly from the Tamil Diaspora, were in attendance.

Sri Lanka Tourism in collaboration with Heli Tours, the commercial branch of the Sri Lanka Air Force, introduced direct charters flights to transport devotees to Jaffna.

The Nallur Festival is one of the highlights of the social, cultural and spiritual milieu of Jaffna society. In Sri Lanka and globally, Nallur Kumaran is popularly known as Alankara Kanthan (Lord of Exquisite Adornment). The annual festival commences with the flag hoisting ceremony followed by Mancham, Kailaya Vahanam, Oru Muga Tiruvizha, Saparam, Ther and Teertham. The festival ends with the Tiru Kalyanam.

In the Trincomalee District, an area of approximately 500 acres has been identified for tourism development purposes. The land borders the beach and is situated in the village of Kuchchaveli, north of the popular Nilaveli beach.

A Conceptual Zoning Plan is currently being prepared for the area by the SLTDA with the assistance of the Urban Development Authority (UDA). The resort will be developed according to the SLTDA guidelines. Apart from the hotels, the resort will include other facilities to supplement the accommodation units and make it a self contained tourist resort. This resort will provide a wide range of land and water based activities.

The private sector has expressed keen interest and enthusiasm in developing Kuchchaveli. According to the applications received to date, 3000 to 5000 rooms would be in operation by 2016.

On the 29th and 30th of June 2009, approximately 85 taxi drivers convened in Hikkaduwa for a special training programme organised by the Domestic Tourism and Reservation Management Division of SLTDA. The 2 day workshop focused on educating and training each taxi driver about their unique function and responsibility in the success of Sri Lanka’s tourism industry.

Many industry specialists participated. Key addresses were delivered by Mr. P.U Ratnayake-Director / Domestic Tourism and Reservation Management SLTDA, Mr. W. P. Dayaratne-Deputy Inspector General, Mr. Nayanpriya Edirisinghe-OIC/Chief Inspector Tourist Police Division, Mr. Rahula Perera-Environmentalist Colombo University and Mr. D.K. Hettiarachchi from SLTDA

Participants were educated about the progress of Sri Lanka Tourism, initiatives taken by the SLTDA to develop tourism in the area and action points enforced to protect Hikkaduwa from various adverse environmental and social effects and the role of tourist police and environmental conservation. Moreover, the participants were challenged to identify their role as a service provider and their distinct contribution to the development of Sri Lanka Tourism and the national economy.

National Holiday Resorts

The SLTDA has five national holiday resorts located in Anuradhapura, Kataragama, Bandarawela, Nuwara Eliya and Bentota. The resorts cater mainly to the domestic tourists and are offered at affordable rates. The resorts are situated in scenic locations and are easily accessible.

The Anuradhapura and Kataragama resorts provide vegetarian food since they are patronised mainly by pilgrims. The Nuwara Eliya and Bandarawela resorts are designed for holiday makers, who wish to enjoy the cooler climate of Sri Lanka.

The Nuwara Eliya Resort is sited alongside Lake Gregory and offers guests a spectacular view. Using paddle boats is a popular recreational activity offered to guests by private operators. The tea plantations and other scenic spots such as World’s End including dairy farms located in the vicinity offer guests enjoyable experience.

The Anuradhapura Resort is situated close to the centre of the sacred city. The sacred Bo Tree and the Ruwanweli seya are sited nearby. Guests can easily access numerous temples, stupas and other attractions conveniently. The cities of Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya and Dambulla are located approximately 2 ½ hours from the resort.

The Kataragama Resort has 44 rooms. Situated close to the temple, visitors can travel to Yala wildlife park, which has varied animals such as elephants, leopards, bears and deer. The Kirinda Temple and Kirivehera are also situated nearby.

The Bentota Resort is a luxury air conditioned bungalow, ideal for holiday makers, who wish to relax and enjoy a pleasant holiday. Surrounded by the sea and river, the resort is placed in a scenic location, which spans over an acre of land. Guests can enjoy water sports in the sea and river.

Forum for Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourism

Due to the pivotal role Corporate Social Responsibility plays today, being the National Tourism Organisation(NTO) SLTDA formed a forum that will identify varied adverse impacts resulting from the industry.

The inaugural meeting was held on the 26th August 2009 in Colombo and was attended by industry specialists (non government organizations engaged in tourism) from the Sri Lanka Eco-Tourism Foundation, EMACE Sri Lanka, Foundation for Goodness, Centre for Eco-Cultural Studies and the Sewa Lanka Foundation.

The main goal of the CSR forum would be to carry out the following:

1. Prevention approach: Negative impacts would be arise in the community due to the Tourism industry,
2. Mitigate practices that have arisen due to the Tourism industry, and
3. Integrate CSR policies to the formal sector so that the responsibility to prevent and mitigate adverse effects arising from the Tourism industry will be shared by all stakeholders.

The CSR forum will consist of a wide spectrum of industry stakeholders. The forum would thus, bring in the expertise and resources needed to effectively and efficiently roll out plans that were hitherto difficult to implement due to lack of resources.

CSR in tourism would integrate corporate self-regulation into all tourist stakeholders’ business models. The tourism CSR policy will be created to function as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism through which each stakeholder can monitor and ensure its performance with the country’s and Sri Lanka Tourism’s law, ethical standards and international regulations. Each stakeholder would have to identify their responsibility and the impact of their activities on the environment, guests, employees, communities, stakeholders and the general public. All negative impacts would be addressed with adequate precautions and action enforced.

Tourism Mobile Service was launched in Kandy in December 2005 by the Standards and Quality Assurance Division of the SLTDA bring about a radical change for the first time to provide a service at the door step of tourist establishments.

Concept

The Tourism Mobile Service was created to provide a new corporate culture that offers support services to tourist establishments in an easy and convenient manner.

Objective

The service strives to achieve the following:

1. Facilitate and expedite the registration process and obtaining of required licenses for new establishments and renewing, renewal of license.
2. Inspect tourist establishments and provide necessary support.
3. Monitor projects, approved by the Planning and Resort Management Division and inspect proposed sites to ascertain suitability.
4. Create awareness about the tourism industry and its contribution to the national economy amongst the general public and school children.

The Tourist Mobile Service holds programmes in various parts of Sri Lanka, throughout the year. Since its inception, a programme is held in Kandy annually. Separate programmes have been held in Hikkaduwa, Habarana, Anuradhapura, Nuwara Eliya, Kataragama and Unawatuna as well. The most recent programme was held in Hambantota on 19th and 20th of August 2009.