The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) has taken steps to introduce an online career development course to enhance the knowledge and skills of tourist guides.  The main objective of this course is to provide accurate information about Sri Lanka to the foreign tourists visiting the country.  Tourism Minister, Hon. Prasanna Ranatunga says that it has been launched in line with the President, H.E. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa's Vistas of Prosperity, the national policy statement.

—There have been various complaints that some tourist guides are misleading in providing information on archaeological and historical sites in Sri Lanka.  Taking into consideration this situation, training courses for tourist guides have been started˜, the Minister said.  Hon.Prasanna Ranatunga said that the government hopes that the tourism industry in the country will recover by next September after the Covid pandemic and that this program was launched to fully prepare for that.

This training course for registered tourist guides of the Tourism Development Authority will be conducted with the participation of experts from various fields.  Experts with specialized knowledge of science, culture, sustainable tourism, destinations and natural beauty of Sri Lanka will provide their service as lecturers.

At present there are 3,943 tourist guides registered with the Tourism Development Authority.  Among those, 1,580 have been registered with the Tourism Development Authority as National Tourist Guides, 1,336 as Tourist Chauffer Guide, 934 as Provincial Tourist Guides and 93 as Local Tourist Guides.  The Minister further stated that a program has been launched to register the tourist guides expeditiously who have not been registered so far with the SLTDA.

Further details on this online course can be obtained through the website of the Tourism Development Authority of Sri Lanka.