Sri Lanka to upgrade standards for Adventure Tourism

Sri Lanka will strengthen the standards of its Adventure Tourism in accordance with international standards and the assistance of the tri forces will be sought for this purpose, a statement released by the Prime Minister's Office said here Thursday.

"Adventure Tourism and Adventure Training is fast becoming a popular industry," the statement said.

"There are international standards for all adventure activities, the need was for Sri Lankan standards, equal to the international standards to be developed."

The government has agreed to involve all stake holders in this process. The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Bureau will have a website on which all locations at which adventure activities are provided by service providers will be listed.

The Sri Lanka Navy will convene a meeting of all water based adventure service providers to assess the present status.

The Sri Lanka Air Force will coordinate air based adventure activities through a meeting of stake holders. In the same way, the Special Forces of the Army will focus on land based adventure.

On the emergency communication and search and rescue, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka will coordinate with telecommunication service providers and health and emergency first responders to have a common number to call in case of a crisis.

The Public Division Office of the Prime Minister's Office will work with the Prime Minister's Committee of Vocational Training to develop a National Standard Qualification for Adventure Trainers.

The Sri Lanka Insurance Board will look into the insurance cover aspect of adventure providers and participants.

"In the future, the consensus view of the meeting was that Adventure Tourism and Training will be increasing in popularity exponentially, and that the industry service providers should prepare for this and have best practice safety standards available," the statement said. Endit