Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2017-05-16

Providing lands for the Promotion of Tourism Industry

- The aim of the Government is to achieve the target of 4.5 million tourist arrivals in Sri Lanka by the year 2020. In this respect, developing a regional level tourism destination and improving the infrastructure facilities related to it, is of great importance. Kalpitiya area which is endowed with a unique eco-system and a striking sea frontage with diversity marine resources with multiple tourists attractions has become popular among domestic as well as foreign tourists and the area has a vast potential for tourism development. However, the hotels and other tourism facilities available in the area is inadequate to fulfill the desires of high end tourists. As such, the proposal made by Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister in his capacity as the Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs, to vest 05 plots of lands with a land capacity of 56.35 hectares situated in the Divisional Secretariat Division of Kalpitiya with the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority for the development of activities and facilities related to tourism, was approved by the Cabinet.