UNDP, EU assistance to equip tourism industry for sustainable future

Sri Lanka’s tourism sector has been subject to a series of challenges since 2019, followed by the protracted impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and now, the economic crisis. The impacts of these crises have brought to light a host of challenges that continue to compound the hardships of the most vulnerable populations that engage in the tourism industry.

Placing people first, the Ministry of Tourism and the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sri Lanka with financial assistance from the European Union (EU) in Sri Lanka has been supporting the tourism sector through the ‘Transforming Tourism in Sri Lanka: Emerging from crisis as a strong, resurgent and rebranded industry’ project which has been ongoing for the past year. The project’s central focus is on building a transformed, competitive, and resilient tourism sector, with requisite policies and institutional capacities to deliver unique and sustainable tourism experiences.