Chairman Tourism Promotions Board has become a lame duck

Nov 20, 2016

The Tourism Board that was set up to promote Sri Lanka is doing next to nothing other than going oversees at taxpayers’ expense. Because the Chairman Paddy Vithana has no knowledge in promoting Sri Lanka.

He is dependent on a female employee called Madhumi who was Rohantha Athukorala’s the former Chairman appointed by Basil Rajapakse’s right hand. According industry sources she knows nothing about marketing and she is a total stumbling block for the progress of the institution.

According to tourism industry people the employees on a regular basis consults Rohantha Athukorala for advice because Mr Vithana’s lack of knowledge. Vithana calls him self Sri Lanka’s Tourism Chief, his only experience is being the General Manager of a mid size hotel in Wattala run by the Selvanthans. Who were staunch supporters of the Rajapakse’s have now befriended the Prime Minister and benefited by getting a duty waver to import beer. The JVP has filed a case in court against that action. Therefore, we refrain from sharing more information on that one sided decision of the government.

The Additional Secretary of the Ministry Shirani Weerakon does not consult the Chairman instead consults the former Chairman about the affairs of the Board. She is openly canvassing to bring back Rohantha Athukorala because he knows the subject and Vithana has no clue according to her. Vithana’s only line of defense is he claims the Prime Minister is his friend and was briefed.

Industry sources say in addition to the Promotions Board the Tourism Authority Vithana heads is also very badly run, the registrations have not been done properly, approvals are delayed and overall administration is a mess. Industry sources say even the minimum rate in the city is not been properly regulated and the Minister must take action because the huge increase of arrival of 20% in 2016 cannot be sustained in 2017 without proper enforcement, regulation and promotion

Note: Although we have already sent this article to Mr Paddy Withana last week,  we haven't  received any response yet. If he responses, we would like to publish it.