Tourism industry is one of the leading foreign exchange earners in Sri Lanka’s Economy. The Tourism Industry especially provides direct and indirect employment opportunities to almost three million people in the country. The Government’s vision is to make the Tourism Sector to be the highest valued segment of Sri Lanka’s Economy by 2030.

Sri Lanka did not have a National Tourism Policy for several decades. The Ministry of Tourism has now taken steps to formulate a National Tourism Policy for Sri Lanka. It is expected that this tourism policy framework will help promotion and development of the tourism industry with a view to ensuring a sustainable tourism industry. For this task technical support and the assistance have been provided under the United Nations Development Programme.

The National Tourism Policy formulating process commenced in January, 2021 and the Ministry has conducted several meetings with the collaboration of UNDP and all relevant stakeholders seeking their contribution for the draft National Tourism Policy. It was published again in the Ministry website and circulated among the stakeholders to obtain their comments in last December.

The validation workshop for finalizing the National Tourism Policy was held on 21 January, 2022 at the Galle Face Hotel. All stakeholders participated at the workshop including the relevant Ministries, Departments, Provincial Councils, Tourism Institutions, Advisory Council, Academic staff of Universities, Tourism Associations, Private Sector Participants and Non-Government Organizations.

In the workshop, Mr.S.Hettiarachchi, Secretary to the Ministry, Dr. Anil Jasinghe, Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Mr.Robert Juhkam, The Residence Representative, UNDP, and            Ms. Jenny Correira Nunes, the Head of Cooperation of the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka and the Maldives addressed the workshop.