The initiative will encourage businesses to provide services to tourists with sustainability principles in mind, with more responsibility as far as the environment, local culture, heritage and society are concerned.
Back in 2016, a new hotel star grading system was launched in Sri Lanka and while it mostly focused on the quality of services and the property itself, some of the sustainability aspects were also considered. Yet the grading system has not managed to resolve many issues; e.g. many properties offering accommodation to tourists are built without consideration of environmental issues and waste and sewage is a great problem in many hotels.
Another problem the tourist industry in Sri Lanka faces is the overpopularity of certain attractions including Sigiriya and the national park Yala. The next year, the government will make a thorough study of the tourism capacity of the country's tourism regions and if necessary, daily/monthly limits will be implied what is already the case with many other places of interest throughout Asia, the famous Borobudur Temple in Java, Indonesia, or Boracay island in the Philippines to name just a couple of them.
Sri Lanka Gears Towards Sustainable Tourism
News in Asia
Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority with the support of the United Nations Development Programme will launch a sustainable tourism certificate scheme for the country's tourism industry in 2019.