SLTD, UNDP launch e-survey to gain industry stakeholder inputs for tourism policy formulation

• Aims to identify major points of agreement and disagreement and facilitate the process of reconciliation and validation 
• The national tourism policy to include a set of rules, regulations, guidelines, directives and promotional strategies

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) together with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched an e-survey to gain inputs from industry stakeholders for the formulation of the National Tourism Policy.

The five-page questionnaire includes questions relating to policy objectives, structures, roles and responsibilities of the various stakeholders in the tourism value chain in Sri Lanka. To capture information across all levels of the tourism industry, the survey is rolled out in Sinhala, Tamil, and English languages.

According to the SLTDA, the questionnaire is addressed to the private and public stakeholders as well as the civil society with the objective of identifying major points of agreement and disagreement in order to facilitate the process of reconciliation and validation of the major orientations of the future public tourism policy.

Furthermore, Sri Lanka Tourism shared that the National Tourism Policy will encompass a set of rules, regulations, guidelines, directives, objectives and development / promotion strategies.

The policy will provide a framework for collective and individual decisions directly affecting long-term tourism development and daily activities within a destination, said SLTDA.

The overall objective of the initiative is on: ‘Putting People First: Building a More Resilient Tourism Sector in Sri Lanka.’

The efforts to gain insights from the industry is to support the national roadmap that is being conceptualised by the UNDP, SLTDA, International Labour Organisation (ILO), World Tourism Organisation (WTO), alongside development partners such as the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Union (EU), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Australia and other key stakeholders.