Undue delay of SLTDA 2018 Annual Report irks tourism industry

By Charumini de Silva

The excessive delay in the release of the 2018 Annual Report of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), the apex body of the country’s tourism sector, has stirred frustration among many within the industry. These stakeholders pointed out that the annual report of the SLTDA was supposed to be released by the end of April following the collection of additional data from the Central Bank Annual Report, although according to the law it is to be presented at the end of each fiscal year. “We are close to November 2019, but the SLTDA has still not published the 2018 Annual Report. There is no point in outdated information if the Annual Report is overly delayed,” industry sources told the Daily FT.

The SLTDA is the official institution tasked with establishing, positioning, and developing Sri Lanka as a leading destination for international visitors. The SLTDA is responsible for tapping into Sri Lanka’s natural potential to expand and enhance its tourism offering, while benefitting investors and supporting communities in a sustainable manner.

Acknowledging that the industry understands a possible delay of one or two months due to the impact of the Easter Sunday attacks and officials being preoccupied with damage control measures in its aftermath, the sources nevertheless stressed that the SLTDA had a dedicated research team tasked with compiling this important document which is of great significance to all stakeholders within the tourism sector.

“This is information from last year and we don’t understand the rationale behind the delay in releasing it,” they complained.

The Daily FT learnt that the SLTDA had actually completed compiling the Annual Report for 2018 in English a few of months ago but there was a delay in translating it into Sinhala and Tamil.

However, sources said that Annual Report compilation is a yearly exercise and the SLTDA must be competent enough to conduct it efficiently.