Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Chairperson, Kimarli Fernando said that baseless allegations are being levelled at her by a single association of 35 travel- related bodies and few individuals since she is trying to change the old fashioned mentality and system of the tourism fabric.
“For the past 30 years there have been approximately 2,400 registered tourism institutions but within seven months I was able to register 300 new entities with the Tourism Development Authority. There was a tremendous amount of red tape that drove away some of the small time travel companies and there was also opposition when I tried to remove them” she said.
Fernando said that she was handpicked to drive the President’s vision of prosperity and under her, the SLTDA have taken several meaningful steps towards the development of tourism.
Sri Lanka recently received a grant of USD 3.7 million from USAID to promote tourism and provide welfare measure to stake holders and there were top Sri Lankan travel companies who were forcing me to remit a portion of the grant to some of the foreign travel companies/agents from this grant which I think is absurd. I flatly refused this and some are angry about this,” she said.
She also stressed that she does not have any conflict of interest and has been fair when it comes to decision making. Fernando said that another accusation is that she only calls ‘selected’ Associations and ‘stake holders’ for meetings and this too is a huge fabrication.
“I am sad to note that some of the leading travel companies want to keep the business among them not allowing small players to be a part of the tourism development drive and this is the reason I am being targeted,” she said in conclusion.
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