Lands and Tourism Minister John Amaratunge lashing out at the Education Ministry said they are responsible to provide facilities for tourists visiting the Sigiriya rock fortress.
He said that due to Sigiriya washrooms not functioning there were reports to say that tourists were forced to use the jungle to answer calls of nature. “The blame for this is now diverted to the Tourism Ministry and I want to categorically state that we are not responsible since we have no say there.”
Speaking at the official launch of Sri Lanka’s first ever crowd sourced destination campaign, Cinnamon Sri Lanka Photo Contest 2017, at the Cinnamon Grand yesterday he said that cultural sites including Sigiriya comes under the management of the Education Ministry.
“The Education Ministry also takes all the money generated from entry fees,” he said.
He also said that tourism is now moving in an upward trend and they are targeting 3.5 million arrivals this year. “This will bring in revenue in excess of US$ 3.5 billion. The revenue in 2016 was US$ 3.2 billion.”
He said that this year they are also launching more international promotions.Amaratunge said they hope to attract around 4 million tourists by 2020 and revenue of around US$ 5 billion.
Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman, Paddy Withana said that several new international hotels chains will open in Sri Lanka this year and many more have requested for investment opportunities.
He also disclosed that UNESCO has also identified as the traditional route of Adams Peak as an area heritage and the Tourism hopes to provide market this in future as well.
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