President skips state Tourism Awards night
The much-awaited chief guest at the Tourism Awards night, held at the Shangri-La Hotel on Thursday, President Maithripala Sirisena did not turn up for the event with his representative saying it was due to other functions he had to attend.
Speculation was rife days prior to the event that the tourism industry was likely to boycott the event; however, heads of the key associations of the industry were present on Thursday night.
President’s Chief of Staff H.M.P. Hitisekara told the Business Times on Thursday evening that the President had some other prior engagement due to which reason he was unable to attend this awards presentation.
He also said that he had no idea of any other reason but (he) had been asked to attend this said function, as a result of which he had arrived there.
In fact organisers of the event were left baffled as to the President’s absence at the awards night and were informed later in the evening that his Chief of Staff would be arriving to participate at the event.
All invitees were present at the event and there was no question of a boycott by any of the industry. Industry heads had assured the Business Times that there would be no boycott of the kind that was being speculated about and said that they would consider this on the contrary business as usual.
Meanwhile, sources, also said that in organizing the event they had initially wanted to skip inviting any politicians to the event but on the insistence of the Ministry Secretary they had invited the President.
Mr. Hitisekara was also invited to present some of the key awards that night towards the end of function. The initial awards were given out by the former Tourism Minister John Amaratunga who had arrived there on invitation. An invitation had also been extended to the former Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Chairman Kavan Ratnayaka.
Meanwhile, sources at the event told the Business Times that from 10am that day the police sniffer dogs and the President’s Security Division had sent persons to check on the place and had the venue sealed as well following the necessary security checks. In fact a more relaxed security check was in force at the entrance to the hall and just prior to the start of the event, these officers left.
Tourism industry personalities were present to obtain the accolades given out at the awards presentation for being the best in the respective categories in the hotel, travel and other related sectors.
Chairman of the Panel of Judges Kishu Gomes addressing the gathering noted that there was a noticeable absence of entries to the awards and in fact in certain categories there was only one nominee.
He pointed out that lack of participation in some of the categories was indicative of the fact that there were gaps in the criteria set out for the awards.
The Tourism Ministry should realign the criteria to reward the best in the industry, he said noting that there were certain measures adopted by the judges in order to give out the awards to the deserving candidate.
He noted that they had adopted the option of obtaining a presentation made by the nominees and these were followed by site visits in order to get a better picture of the place. “Physical site visits should be made to all short-listed candidates,” Mr. Gomes explained.
Tourism Ministry Secretary S. Hettiarachchi observed that the event was well organised and highlighted some of the key objectives of the future of the sector.
He explained that they intend on promoting tourism to ensure it would become the third largest foreign exchange earner in the country.
In addition, the industry should also focus on increasing the number of women in the travel and tourism industry workforce that is currently low, he said.
Another of the key targets of the sector is to increase the per day spend thereby increasing the revenue generated from the sector, he said.
As the Secretary for the Ministries of Wildlife and Tourism, he pointed out that he intends on working together with both despite the challenges faced in the country.
Some of the key winners at the event were Cinnamon Red for the Best Three Star Category hotel in the city; Cinnamon Lakeside for the Best Five Star Category hotel in the city; the Best Adventure Tour Operator was LankaSportreizen; Best Hotel in Ayurveda was Baberyn Ayurvedic Beach Resort, Weligama; and Best Inbound Travel Operator in the Large category was Aitken Spence Travels.